and
may recognize that an Athanasius and his orthodox allies were contending
for a vital element in Christian experience, their formulations do not
satisfy our minds.

In the last century some divines advanced a modification of this ancient
theory, naming it the Kenotic or Self-emptying Theory, from the Greek
word used by St. Paul in the phrase, "He _emptied_ Himself." The eternal
Son of God is represented as laying aside whatever attributes of
Deity--omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, etc.--could not be
manifested in an entirely human life. The Jesus of history _reveals_ so
much of God as man can contain, but _is_ Himself more. But we know of no
personality which can lay aside memory, knowledge, etc. The theory
begins with a conception of Deity apart from Jesus, and then proceeds to
treat Him as partially disclosing this Deity in His human life; but the
Christian has his experience of the Divine through Jesus, and his
reflection must start with Deity as revealed in Him.

Still later in the century, Albrecht Ritschl gave another interpretation
of Christ's Person. He began with the completely human Figure of
history, and pointed out that it is through Him we experience communion
with God, so that to His followers Jesus is divine; His humanity is the
medium through which God reveals Himself to us. This affirmation of His
Deity is an estimate, made by believers, of Jesus' worth to them; they
cannot prove it to any who are without a sense of Christ's value as
their Saviour. Any further explanation of how the human and the Divine
are joined in Jesus, he deemed beyond the sphere of religious knowledge.

Our modern thought of God as immanent in His world and in men enables
us, perhaps more easily than some of our predecessors, to fit the figure
of Christ into our minds. The discovery of the Divine in the human does
not surprise us. We think of God as everywhere manifesting Himself, but
His presence is limited by the medium in which it is recognized. He
reveals as much of Himself through nature as nature can disclose; as
much through any man as he can contain; as much through the complete Man
as He is capable of manifesting. Nor does this Self-revelation of God in
Jesus do away for us with Jesus' own attainment of His character.
Immanent Deity does not submerge the human personality. Jesus was no
merely passive medium through which God worked, but an active Will who
by constant cooeperation with the Father "was perfected