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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 selfabasement, 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. + 306 + Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 306 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:25
