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Kenosis, omniscience, and the Anselmian concept of divinity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2017

JOEL ARCHER
JOEL ARCHER*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Saint Louis University, 3800 Lindell Blvd, Saint Louis, MO, USA
*
e-mail: jarcher4@slu.edu
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Abstract

The canonical gospels often portray Christ as limited in various ways, for example, with respect to knowledge. But how could Christ be divine yet fail to know certain true propositions? One prominent answer is known as kenoticism, the view that upon becoming incarnate Christ ‘emptied’ himself of certain divine properties, including omniscience. A powerful objection to kenoticism, however, is that it conflicts with Anselmian intuitions about divinity. Specifically, kenoticism implies that Christ was not the greatest conceivable being. I articulate a modified version of kenoticism that avoids this powerful objection while remaining faithful to the depiction of Christ found in the gospels.

Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , June 2018 , pp. 201 - 213
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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