This dissertation engages the christological concept of kenosis , or self-emptying, with particular attention to feminist analysis. It proposes the possibility of kenotic power as a constructive force, especially for the continual formation of identity, both for human subjects and for contemporary incarnations of Christic presence.

The dissertation first presents feminist criticism of Christianity's kenotic discourse, which often includes the rhetoric of sacrifice, self-giving, or redemptive suffering. Feminist theologians have rightly repudiated the use of kenosis as a doctrinal tool for perpetuating the subjection of oppressed persons. This project does not reject this feminist analysis of the dangers of kenosis. Rather, it seeks to push forward constructively within the complexities of this concept in order to honor the possibility of a feminist desire to engage kenotic power.

This christological study draws upon a diverse collection of interdisciplinary sources, including exegetical readings of the kenosis hymn from the second chapter of Philippians, feminist theologies of erotic power, and psychoanalytic research on the resistance strategies of abuse survivors. Particular attention is given to Lutheran theology, most notably to the importance of the interpersonal encounter in the christology of Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, to the formulations of Lutheran kenoticists in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, and to Dietrich Bonhoeffer's vision of Christ as the "person for others." Further expressions of kenotic power are found in the exceptionally passionate trinitarian theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar, Jurgen Moltmann, and Michael Welker. Next, shifting from the passions of trinitarian love, the dissertation moves to feminist controversy over that which constitutes a powerful expression of passion. In contrast to feminist criticisms of masochism, Virginia Burrus' and Karmen MacKendrick's readings of productive masochism in Christian hagiography and martyrology demonstrate still more constructive potential in kenotic strategies and pleasures. Finally, gleaning from the creative appropriations of kenosis in the feminist theological work of Sarah Coakley, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Marta Frascati-Lochhead, and Marcella Althaus-Reid, the dissertation concludes with discussion of kenosis as a kinetic force for divine and human revelation and for the continued anointing of Christic presence in a postmodern context.