Thomistic Personalism in Dialogue with Modern Depictions of Kenosis

Abstract

If one looks at Wojtyla’s Love and Responsibility, they can see a number of different ways that he applies Thomistic Personalism. According to him, true personal love must include both an objective and a subjective dimension. Wojtyla refers to the law of ekstasis, according to which the lover goes outside the self to find a fuller existence in another. Moreover, the defining characteristic of betrothed love is self-donation. Picking up on Wojtyla’s characterization of betrothed love as self-donation, I argue that the bible gives good grounds for illustrating the Spirit as the active agent of God in the world, particularly regarding the Spirit as life-giver and animator of all creation through selfdonation (or self-giving). The kenosis of the Spirit into creation amounts to betrothed love through self-donation. Thomas Jay Oord’s depiction of “essential kenosis” makes numerous asseverations that are constructive for depicting love as self-donation. Several years ago, a collection of essays by theologians and scientists explored creation as The Work of Love, pointing to divine action as kenosis in which it is asserted that the Spirit has chosen to invite creation into a cooperative relationship, which also coalesces with Wojtyla’s conception of love as self-donation. Ultimately, I contend, the essence of personal love is transcended by self-giving. In the final analysis, we are given the capacity of self-possession in order to be able to give ourselves away. The essence of the self, therefore, is to transcend the self through betrothed self-donated love.