Chenoza lui Hristos şi chenozele zeilor păgâni: fond comun, forme şi finalităţi diferite
The Chenosis of Christ and the Chenosis of the Pagan Gods: Common Background, Different Forms and Purposes

Summary/Abstract: The kenosis of the Christ and the kenosis of the pagan gods: common fund, different forms and purposes. Speaking about the different parallels between our Savior Jesus Christ and the gods of the pagan religions, the emphasis most often falls on the themes of conception, birth, baptism, miracles, sufferings, resurrections from the dead and ascension to heaven, all of which have in common the doctrinal and mythological concepts of ʺmessianismʺ and ʺsoteriologyʺ. However, although it does not appear in the foreground either in the field of comparative theology, but, unfortunately, in the field of postmodernist denigration of the Divine-Human Person of Christ by associating It to its identification and even to ʺplagiarismʺ with various pagan deities or with the founders of religions, the theme of kenosis, emptiness, desertion, humility of the deity until receiving a human form, is not, on a closer look, an exclusive factor of Christian origin. Even in the ancient pagan mythologies we find reflections of the concept of kenosis: Certain gods, for various reasons, either voluntarily change their initial state of divine splendor and omnipotence, or change it in a way that is often unintentionally harmful. The present research aims to analyze some of the most well-known such kenotic pagan examples, highlighting their common background with Christian kenosis, but at the same time emphasizing the different forms and purposes of the firsts versus the latters.

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