Paul T. NIMMO and Keith L. JOHNSON, eds. KENOSIS: The Self-Emptying of Christ in Scripture and Tradition. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2022. Pp. 344. $65.00 pb. ISBN: 978-0-8028-7920-2. Reviewed by Daniel LLOYD, Saint Leo University, Charleston, SC 29406.

This wide-ranging volume, shaped around the topic of the Son’s kenosis, presents sixteen essays, in addition to an introduction by the editors as well as an epilogue functioning essentially as a seventeenth essay. Although not specified as a festschrift in honor of Bruce McCormack, the text is dedicated to him, the editors note his importance to every contributor’s work, and eight of the essays engage explicitly, to a lesser and greater extent, with his work. This is worth noting because it offers a window into the nature of the volume and the inherent scope of the term kenosis. Kenosis as a theological topic is studied from as wide a perspective as possible, in the same way topics such as God’s mercy and justice are studied. Although the term kenosis is always rooted in its biblical origin (specifically Philippians 2:7 and the context of the hymn), wider application is both inevitable and important. For this reason, essays in this collection range from biblical exegesis to theological works on Scripture, Patristics, the Reformation, as well as modern systematics, ethics, and also spirituality. That contact with McCormack’s work is encountered in essays about the Scriptures, patristic authors, and systematic theology evidences the fact that this essay collection can rightfully be described as highly diverse in methodology.

One way of describing the methodologies in the volume would be to emphasize the quality of the work as associated specifically with each essay’s respective field. The first three scriptural pieces, for example, engage with a tight focus on respective biblical books and authors, namely: Philippians, Romans, and Colossians in dialogue with Hebrews. Rinse H. Reeling Brouwer’s piece called “The Divine Name as a Form of Kenosis in Both Biblical Testaments” offers readers a more speculative approach, which is a wonderfully evocative application of canonical criticism on the theme of kenosis. The next set of essays are historical in nature, treating kenotic themes in Origen, Augustine, and Cyril of Alexandria. An essay by Thomas Joseph White follows, called “Divine Perfection and the Kenosis of the Son.” This latter piece looks more broadly at major historical developments and figures which White uses to understand kenosis, culminating in theological arguments about the nature of God as such. Another historical essay comes after, this one on kenosis in the work of Martin Luther. Then begins a set of essays more systematic in nature. There is much diversity in this group, with essays such as “The Revisioning of Kenosis after the Critique of Schleiermacher,” “Kenosis and the Humility of God,” and “Is There a Kenotic Ethics in the Work of Karl Barth?” Other essays in this last section provide even greater scope of research.

The volume is somewhat unique in that it is not specifically a response or development of the Continental and British forms of Kenotic Christology from the 19th century on. Essays of that sort can be found in C. Stephen Evans’s Exploring Kenotic Christology from 2006. That collection makes an excellent companion to this current volume, since it provides the language, framework, and development of the Kenotic Christology theological movement. Questions arising from that particular theological trajectory are not the focus of Nimmo and Johnson’s collection, but the essays in KENOSIS: The Self-Emptying of Christ in Scripture and Tradition will profit from some familiarity with the questions and responses given as a basis to these related ideas.

Two different sets of readers will approach this book for two significantly different reasons. First, there will be some who seek out a specific essay because of its direct applicability to work or interest. But the other group will be those already attracted to, or at least inquisitive about, the topic as such. This latter group will be happily gratified by this important volume. Its scope and its quality of essays will no doubt be the basis of other works in the future related to these topics. It seems most likely that this superb volume will be worked with and referenced for many years to come.