Kenosis
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Kenosis,from the Greek word for emptiness κένωσις (kénōsis), is the "self-emptying "of one's personalwillto become entirely receptive todivinewill, often referred to as the will ofGod.Concepts involving it are prominent inChristian theology.The word ἐκένωσεν (ekénōsen) is used inPhilippians2:7, "Jesusmade himself nothing "(NIV) or "he emptied himself" (NRSV), using the verb form κενόω (kenóō) "to empty". See alsoStrong's G2758.
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- We are, thegreatspiritualwriters insist, most fully ourselves when we give ourselves away, and it isegotismthat holds us back from thattranscendent experiencethat has been calledGod,Nirvana,Brahman,or theTao.
What I now realize, from my study of the differentreligioustraditions, is that a disciplined attempt to go beyond the ego brings about a state of ecstasy. Indeed, it is in itselfekstasis.Theologiansinall the great faithshave devised all kinds ofmythsto show that this type ofkenosis,or self-emptying, is found in thelifeof God itself.They do not do this because it sounds edifying, but because this is the way thathuman natureseems to work.We are most creative and sense other possibilities that transcend our ordinary experience when we leave ourselves behind.- Karen Armstrong,inThe Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness(2004)
- Given that only thereligionof pervasivekenosiscan be truly universal, no single historicalindividualcan exhaust its fullness byvirtueof his redemptiveacts,and no religious institution can grasp and articulate its meaning by means of dogmatic or doctrinal teachings.In the last resort, it is in the name of religiousuniversalismthatSimone Weilcalls for a reversion of historicalChristianityto its origins as a religion ofkenosis.
- J. Edgar Bauer, in "Simone Weil: Kenotic Thought and" Sainteté Nouvelle "inThe 2002 CESNUR International Conference: Minority Religions, Social Change, and Freedom of Conscience(June 2002)
- Saintsare not made byaccident.Still less is aChristianmartyrdomthe effect of aman'swillto become a Saint, as a man by willing and contriving may become arulerof men.Ambitionfortifies the will of man to become ruler over other men: it operates withdeception,cajolery, andviolence,it is theactionof impurity upon impurity. Not so inHeaven.A martyr, a saint, is always made by the design ofGod,for Hisloveof men, to warn them and to lead them, to bring them back to His ways.A martyrdom is never the design of man; for the true martyr is he who has become theinstrument of God,who has lost his will in the will of God, not lost it but found it, for he has foundfreedominsubmission to God.The martyr no longerdesiresanything forhimself,not even thegloryof martyrdom. So thus as on earth the Church mourns and rejoices at once, in a fashion that the world cannot understand;so in Heaven the Saints.
- T.S. Elliot,Murder in the Cathedral(1935), A verse drama which portrays the assassination of ArchbishopThomas BecketinCanterbury Cathedralin 1170.
- How different thepeaceofGodfrom that of theworld!It calms the passions, preserves thepurityof theconscience,is inseparable fromrighteousness,unitesus to God andstrengthensus against temptations.The peace of thesoulconsists in an absolute resignation to the will of God.
- François Fénelon,as quoted inDictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers(1895), p. 446
- History,is a conscious, self-meditating process — Spirit emptied out intoTime;but this externalization, this kenosis, is equally an externalization of itself; the negative is the negative of itself.This Becoming presents a slow-moving succession of Spirits, a gallery of images, each of which, endowed with all the riches of Spirit, moves thus slowly just because the Self has to penetrate and digest this entire wealth of its substance. As its fulfilment consists in perfectly knowing what it is, in knowing its substance, this knowing is that withdrawal into itself in which it abandons its outer existence and gives its existential shape over to recollection.Thus absorbed in itself, it is sunk in the night of its self-consciousness; but in that night its vanished outer existence is perserved, and this transformed existence — the former one, but now reborn of the Spirit's knowledge — is the new existence, a newworldand a new shape of Spirit.In the immediacy of this new existence the Spirit has to start afresh to bring itself to maturity as if, for it, all that preceded were lost and it had learned nothing from the experience of the earlier Spirits. But recollection, the inwardizing, of that experience, has perserved it and is the inner-being, and in fact the higher form of the substance. So although to bring itself to maturity, it is none the less on a higher level that it starts. The realm of Spirits which is formed in this way in the outer world constitutes a succession in Time in which one Spirit relieved another of its charge and each took over the empire of the world from its predecessor.
- The focus ofprayeris not theself.…It is the momentary disregard of our personal concerns, the absence of self-centered thoughts, which constitute the art of prayer.Feelingbecomes prayer in themomentin which we forget ourselves and becomeawareofGod..... Thus, in beseeching Him for bread, there isoneinstant, at least, in which our mind is directed neither to our hunger nor to food, but to His mercy. This instant is prayer. We start with a personal concern and live to feel the utmost.
- Abraham Joshua Heschel,as quoted inJudaism(1998) by Arthur Hertzberg, p. 300
- Inallgreatpoetrythere is a kind of “kenosis” of theunderstanding,a self-emptying of the tongue. Herelanguagepoints away from itself to something greater than itself.
- Boththoughtandfeelingare determinants of conduct, and the same conduct may be determined either by feeling or by thought.When we survey the whole field ofreligion,we find a great variety in the thoughts that have prevailed there; but the feelings on the one hand and the conduct on the other are almost always the same, forStoic,Christian,andBuddhistsaintsare practically indistinguishable in their lives. The theories which Religion generates, being thus variable, are secondary; and if you wish to grasp her essence, you must look to the feelings and the conduct as being the more constant elements.It is between these two elements that the short circuit exists on which she carries on her principal business, while theideasandsymbolsand other institutions form loop-lines which may be perfections and improvements, and may even some day all be united into one harmonious system, but which are not to be regarded as organs with an indispensable function, necessary at all times for religious life to go on.This seems to me the first conclusion which we are entitled to draw from the phenomena we have passed in review.
- William James,inThe Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature(1902), Lecture XX, "Conclusions"
- Lord, Thou knowest what I would, — if it be Thy will that I have it — and if it be not Thy will, good Lord, be not displeased: forI will nought but as Thou wilt.
- Julian of Norwich,inRevelations of Divine Love(c.1393), Ch. 2
- That same noughting that was shewed inHis Passion,it was shewed again here in thisCompassion.Wherein were two manner ofunderstandingsin our Lord’smeaning.The one was the bliss that we are brought to, wherein He willeth that we rejoice. The other is for comfort in our pain: for He willeth that we perceive that it shall all be turned to worship and profit by virtue of His passion, thatwe perceive that we suffer not alone but with Him, and see Him to be our Ground,and that we see His pains and His noughting passeth so far all that we may suffer, that it may not be fully thought.
The beholding of this will save us from murmuring and despair in the feeling of our pains. And if we see soothly that our sin deserveth it, yet His love excuseth us, and of His great courtesy He doeth away all our blame, and beholdeth us with ruth and pity as children innocent and unloathful.- Julian of Norwich,inRevelations of Divine Love(c.1393), Ch. 28
- We areallone inGod’s seeing.
- Julian of Norwich,inRevelations of Divine Love(c.1393), Ch. 30
- The concentration of a smallchildatplayisanalogousto the concentration of theartistof anydiscipline.Inrealplay, which isrealconcentration, the child is not only outsidetime,he is outsidehimself.He has thrown himself completely into whatever it is he is doing. A child playing a game, building a sand castle, painting a picture, is completelyinwhat he is doing.Hisself-consciousness is gone; his consciousness is wholly focused outside himself.
- Madeleine L'Engle,inA Circle of Quiet(1972), Section 1.3
- Kenosis
A term derived from the discussion as to the real meaning of Phil. 2:6: "Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But emptied [ekenosen] himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as man."
- Strangeas it may seem to our Westernegoism,the prospect of sharing in the general, impersonal immortality of the humansoulkindles in the Sufi anenthusiasmas deep and triumphant as that of the most ardent believer in a personallifecontinuing beyond the grave.Jalaluddin,after describing theevolutionof man in the materialworldand anticipating his further growth in the spiritualuniverse,utters a heartfeltprayer— for what? —for self-annihilation in theoceanof theGodhead.
- Reynold Alleyne Nicholson,inThe Mystics of Islam(1914) edited by Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, p. 124
- Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel ofChrist:that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,Fulfil ye myjoy,that ye be likeminded, having the samelove,being of one accord, of onemind.Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.Let thismindbe in you, which was also in ChristJesus:Who, being in the form ofGod,thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of noreputation,and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as aman,he humbled himself, and became obedient untodeath,even the death of the cross.- Paul of Tarsus,in theEpistle to the Philippians1:27 - 30 and 2:1 - 8 (KJV)
- Variant translations:
- Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; in no way alarmed by your opponents — which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united inspirit,intent on onepurpose.Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
- Thekeyto self-generatedhappiness(the only reliable kind) is the refusal to takeoneselftoo seriously.
