‘하나님의 케노시스’(divine kenōsis)의 신학적 문제점과 대안으로서의 ‘하나님의 맞추심’(divine accommodation)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to point out the theological problems of ‘divine kenōsis’ which expands kenōsis into an intrinsic attribute of God, and then to suggest Calvin’s ‘divine accommodation’ as an alternative notion to overcome it. The concept of ‘divine kenōsis’ that appeared in the violent and barbarous age of the twentieth century began to deconstruct the traditional and classical notion of God who is absolute, unchangeable, and impassible, and to create new divine image in which God is emptying Himself.BR This study analyzes the theological problems of ‘divine kenōsis’ into three points. First, ‘divine kenōsis’ can be misused as a dominant ideology to justify and legitimize the marginalized people’s suffering, by creating the image of the suffering God. A divine image better suited for people suffering is the omnipotent God who nurtures, sustains, and empowers all creatures, rather than the self-emptying God who suffers with them. Second, the concept of ‘divine kenōsis’ is raised on an assumption that God and creatures are in an incompatible or competitive relations. So, this concept shears God down to human size and makes God intrinsically powerless and vulnerable, by assuming that God operates in relation to creatures along the same line. Third, ‘divine kenōsis’ is the result of ‘double projections’; in other words, it is humanly constructed by both ‘primary projection’ that projects worldly attributes onto God and ‘reverse projection’ that re-projects the projected God’s attributes back onto the world. Therefore, it is just a product of an ‘idolatrous project.’BR ‘Divine accommodation’ suggested by John Calvin is an alternative notion to overcome the limitations of ‘divine kenōsis.’ This notion explains how God can accommodate to human, without declining His omnipotent divinity. In brief, ‘divine accommodation’ effectively remove tension between God’s omnipotence and His love, rejecting an image of the vulnerable God, a competing picture in which God and creature strive against each other in the same plane, and idolatrous anthropomorphic projections.