The Humility of the Eternal Son: Reformed Kenoticism and the Repair of Chalcedon (Current Issues in Theology, Series Number 18)

The Chalcedonian Definition of 451 never completely resolved one of the critical issues at the heart of Christianity: the unity of the 'person' of Christ. In this eagerly-awaited volume - the result of deep and sustained reflection - distinguished theologian Bruce Lindley McCormack examines the reasons for this philosophical and theological failure. His book serves as a critical history that traces modern attempts at resolution of this problem, from the nineteenth-century Lutheran emphasis on Kenoticism (or the 'self-emptying' of the Son in order to be receptive to the will of the Father) to post-Barthian efforts that evade the issue by collapsing the second person of the Trinity into the human Jesus - thereby rejecting altogether the logic of the classical 'two-natures' Christology. McCormack shows how New Testament Christologies both limit and authorize ontological reflection, and in so doing offers a distinctively Reformed version of Kenoticism. Proposing a new and bold divine ontology, with a convincing basis in Christology, he persuasively argues that the unity of the 'person' is in fact guaranteed by the Son's act of taking into his 'being' the lived existence of Jesus. The Humility of the Eternal Son 1 Dedication 5 Dedication 6 Contents 7 Acknowledgments 9 Prologue to a Trilogy of Works 13 Introduction 21 part i a critical history of kenotic christologies and their antecedents: an overview 37 1 Chalcedon and Its Legacy 39 2 Divine Kenosis as Either Depotentiation or Divestment 78 3 Divine Kenosis as Proper to the Eternal Son 112 4 The Post-Barthian Temptation 171 part ii returning to scripture 209 5 The Self-Humiliating God in Paul’s Theology 211 6 The Christological Subject in the Synoptics and in John 233 part iii repairing chalcedon 259 7 Towards a Reformed Version of Kenotic Christology 261 Epilogue: Looking Forward 307 Select Bibliography 309 Names Index 319 Concepts Index 323