Wolfgang Friedrich Gess (also spelled Geß) (* 27 July 1819 in

Kirchheim unter Teck Kirchheim unter Teck ( Swabian: ''Kircha'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, in the district of Esslingen. It is located on the small river Lauter, a tributary of the Neckar. It is 10 km (6 miles) near the Teck castle, approximately ...

; † 1 June 1891 in

Wernigerode Wernigerode () is a town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode. Its population was 35,041 in 2012. Wernigerode is located southwest of Halberstadt, and is picturesquely s ...

) was a German

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

theologian.

Life

Gess was a teacher of theology in Basel from 1850 to 1864. After that, he became Professor of

Systematic Theology Systematic theology, or systematics, is a discipline of Christian theology that formulates an orderly, rational, and coherent account of the doctrines of the Christian faith. It addresses issues such as what the Bible teaches about certain topi ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

, and frpom 1871 in Breslau. In 1879 he succeeded the deceased General Superintendent in Posen, Friedrich Cranz (1809–1878). Gess entered upon his duties in April 1880 and as general superintendent of the

Old Prussian Old Prussian was a Western Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European languages, which was once spoken by the Old Prussians, the Baltic peoples of the Prussian region. The language is called Old Prussian to avoid con ...

, he headed the Church province of Posen until 1884. He was succeeded by Johannes Hesekiel, and settled down in Wernigerode. The historian Felician Gess (1861–1938) was his son.

Theology

Gess is known as the main representative of

Kenosis In Christian theology, ''kenosis'' () is the 'self-emptying' of Jesus. The word () is used in Philippians 2:7: " made himself nothing" (NIV), or " eemptied himself" (NRSV), using the verb form (), meaning "to empty". The exact meaning varies ...

. His main work was ''The Scripture Doctrine of the Person of Christ.'' (1878–1887). Rejecting the

Chalcedonian Definition The Chalcedonian Definition (also called the Chalcedonian Creed or the Definition of Chalcedon) is a declaration of Christ's nature (that it is dyophysite), adopted at the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451. Chalcedon was an early centre of Christi ...

, he sees Christ's incarnation as a transition from the state of being "self-positing" to the state of "being posited". At conception,

Logos ''Logos'' (, ; grc, wikt:λόγος, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive ...

was united with the body of Jesus, instead of God creating a human soul, as he does with other men. The Logos reduced himself to what was compatible with existence as a human soul. Controversially, Gess thinks that the humanity of Jesus required him to allow his self-consciousness to be extinguished at birth, only to begin to flash through at a certain stage of his physical maturity, and then developing with the goal of

sanctification Sanctification (or in its verb form, sanctify) literally means "to set apart for special use or purpose", that is, to make holy or sacred (compare la, sanctus). Therefore, sanctification refers to the state or process of being set apart, i.e. " ...

, which is achieved step by step in the choices he freely makes. Furthermore, Gess argues that a change took place in the

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

for the duration of the incarnate Logos' earthly life. The Son no longer proceeds from the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father alone, rather than from the Father and the Son.David Fergusson (Ed.)
W.F. Gess, Kenosis as the Reduction of the Logos to a Human Soul
in ''The Blackwell Companion to Nineteenth-Century Theology''. 2010.

Works

* ''Die Lehre von der Person Christi'' (The Doctrine of the Person of Christ, 1856) * ''Christi Person und Werk I-III'' (Christ's Person and Work, 1870–77)

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gess, Wolfgang Friedrich German Lutheran theologians 19th-century Protestant theologians 1819 births 1891 deaths 19th-century Lutherans