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When discussing theology, I've come to realize that not only is personal study of doctrine a necessary component to faith, but it is something that shouldn't be kept to oneself. I want to share my journey, both past and ongoing, into the realm of theology. Through this, I hope that you will gain insight into the Christian faith as a whole. Before reading anything else, I suggest you read the introduction and definitions (found in the pages tabs above) so you may better understand where I am coming from in everything I write. Because many of my posts are on heresies, there is also a page above with a family tree of heresies and links to all the posts I have so far on the topic.

19 February, 2013

Heresy of the Week: Kenosism

This week's heresy is yet another example, as is often the case with heresies, of attempting to over-explain or understand a foundational doctrine of the Church as a way to make some of the more "incomprehensible" bits make sense to our human minds.  Rather than leaving these issues to faith, some feel it necessary to explain them into oblivion and ignore clear doctrine to "understand" some of the mysteries of our faith.

Kenosism comes from the Greek word “kenoo”, which means “to empty”, and is a 19th century Arianism heresy promoted by an errant German Lutheran theologian, Gottfried Thomasius. This heresy teaches that Christ voluntarily gave up some of His Divine attributes (specifically, omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence) in order to function as a man and better fulfill His redemptive mission. While this would make sense to humans, without Christ being fully God and fully man, His redemptive death loses its power and meaning for us.

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