This week in Christian history: Charles Stanley elected SBC president, HR Mackintosh dies, Benjamin Bosworth Smith born

H.R. Mackintosh dies – June 8, 1936

This week marks the anniversary of when Hugh Ross Mackintosh, a Scottish theologian and professor who was moderator of the Church of Scotland General Assembly in 1932, died at the age of 65.

Born in Paisley, Scotland, Mackintosh served as professor of systematic theology at New College in Edinburgh from 1904 until his death. He authored multiple books, including The Doctrine of the Person of Jesus Christ (1912) and The Christian Experience of Forgiveness (1927).

Mackintosh was a proponent of Kenotic theology, which states that, when He became fully human, Jesus Christ emptied or willingly restricted at least some of His divine nature to do so.

Kenoticism is a controversial theological view, and has been critiqued by many, including the apologetics website GotQuestions.org, which labeled it “an unbiblical view of Christ’s nature.”

“First, emptying Himself of any part of His divinity would render Jesus less than fully divine. If He had temporarily laid aside His omniscience, omnipotence, etc., He would have ceased being the divine Son of God,” stated the apologetics website.

Roger E. Olson of Patheos defended the theology, comparing it to sleep: “When a person goes to sleep, he or she remains the same person and has the same abilities (as when awake) but he or she undergoes an alteration of consciousness and power.”