Humiliation and glorification · Lexicon

From the book

Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

Heinrich Khunrath · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordThe Stone's “state of humiliation or emptying-out” is Khunrath's own Latin description of the uncompleted but truly recognized subject at p. 168.
In KhunrathThe most direct explanation occurs in the Simeon comparison.
In this edition“Emptying-out” preserves the force of exinanitio better than “emptiness”: the latter could suggest simple lack of substance.
A reading distinctionNo marginal biblical reference accompanies in statu humiliationis aut exinanitionis on p. 168.

Meaning

The Stone's “state of humiliation or emptying-out” is Khunrath's own Latin description of the uncompleted but truly recognized subject at p. 168. Its counterpart is the language of glorification attached to the Son of the great World and to the universal Stone. These terms give a theological form to the distinction between the matter as first possessed and the finished work.

Use in the book

The most direct explanation occurs in the Simeon comparison. The patriarch knows whom he holds before the child has performed a miracle. Likewise, says Khunrath, a true chymical philosopher can recognize Magnesia without yet attaining or witnessing transmutation from it. The recognition is supported by divine inspiration, Scripture, Nature's book and reason. At the page turn into p. 168 that same subject is called the medicinal Saviour still in humiliation or emptying-out. The word “still” preserves a sequence: present lowliness does not exhaust the subject's possible perfected condition.

Earlier, p. 93 glosses the Son of the greater World as to be exalted physico-chymically to glorification. On pp. 98–992 regeneration and more-than-perfection issue, in Khunrath's account, in the glorified universal Stone. The theological language therefore belongs to a transformation that he insists requires preparation. It does not authorize skipping from bare possession to the perfected agent's effects.

There is also an ethical correspondence. The matter is externally mean and contemptible to the undiscerning at p. 45, while the margin tells its observer to put aside haughtiness. The reader who demands splendid appearances or immediate gold-making may misjudge what is before him. Still, the connection between low appearance and humiliation should be stated as a reading across these passages, not as a separate operation named by Khunrath. The source distinguishes recognizing the worthy subject under an unimpressive form from successfully completing its work.

Places to read

1599 p. 45The universally known subject is contemptible in the eyes of the undiscerning
1599 p. 93The Son of the greater World is to be elevated to the state of glorification
1599 p. 99The result of the universal path is expressly the glorified universal Stone
1599 p. 167Recognition before transmutation is defended through Simeon
1599 p. 168The recognized medicinal Saviour remains in humiliation or emptying-out

Translation in this edition

“Emptying-out” preserves the force of exinanitio better than “emptiness”: the latter could suggest simple lack of substance. “Kenosis” is a useful theological lookup alias, but it is not the word printed here. The connection to Christ's self-emptying is an interpretive identification, made through the book's express Christological comparison, rather than a separately supplied biblical citation on p. 168.

Source note

No marginal biblical reference accompanies in statu humiliationis aut exinanitionis on p. 168. The modern introduction links the formulation to Philippians 2; that identification belongs to the editorial layer.