Narrowly defined, kenotic Christology is dogmatic exegesis of the statement in Phil 2:7 concerning the self-emptying (Gk κένωσις/kénōsis) of Christ; more generally, it attempts to reconcile the deity of Christ with the limitations of his humanity by arguing that the act of incarnation involves the non-exercise, suspension or abandonment of divine attributes considered irreconcilable with integral human existence.
The naive, non-speculative understanding of kenotic Christology found in early Christian writers such as Ignatius (Ign. Pol 3.2; Ignatian Epistl…