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ENIKŐ SEPSI
and in which the Christian theological term kenosis is relevant in the context of
rituals taking place on stage. Ihese rituals, to use the vocabulary of figuralistic
typology, are the antitypes of Christ’s kenotic act, which is the type. Figuring,
which can also mean recreating, in this case means “imitatio Christi.”
Having translated some texts by Novarina and secondary literature written
on his work in French and in Hungarian, I would like to add to my research on
Novarina’s work and essays by presenting and defining phenomena of “kenotic”
theatre in which open-ended “saintly” (instead of “sacred”) and profane
elements overlap. I have presented my research in Hungarian in my book
Kép, jelenlét, kenózis a kortárs francia költészetben és Novarina színházában
and also in French at the symposium Valére Novarina: les guatre sens de
Vécriture, which was organized in Cerisy-la-Salle in 2018 (the proceedings of
which will be published as a book).
KENOSIS
According to Christian theologies (Christology), ekendsen (xévwatc, literally
emptiness) is a primary action of self-revelation of the Trinitarian God. It also
denotes the self-emptying of one’s own will and the process of becoming
entirely receptive to God’s divine will. The word éxévwoev (ekéndsen) is used
in Philippians 2:7: “[Jesus] made himself nothing” in the New International
Translation, but translated as “but [he] did empty himself” in Robert Young’s
1862 Literal Translation. The Greek text uses the verb form kevöow (kenöö),
“to empty.” The New International Version continues: “rather, he made
himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human
likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by
becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted
him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name[.]”!
In his commentaries written to this letter (2, 7-8), John Calvin highlights
that following Christ also means self-abasement in connection with kenosis.
Compared to other authors (Martin Chemnitz, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and
Xavier Tilliette), Calvin has a different understanding of kenosis, which in
his view is not self-diminution or the abandonment by Christ of his divine
nature, but rather the act of keeping this divine nature hidden (crypsis).
In his Church Dogmatics, the Protestant theologian Karl Barth refers to
the Latin text of Calvin’s Institutio when he contends that the incarnation of
Christ does not constitute any kind of confinement, because even in his self¬
abasement, Christ did not cease to be Gods Son:?
1 New International Version (NIV), 2011.
2 Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, Volume IV/1: The Doctrine of Reconciliation (translated by
G. W. Bromiley), Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1956, 179-180.
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