John Zizioulas - Misplaced Pages

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John Zizioulas (born 10 January 1931) is the Eastern Orthodox metropolitan of Pergamon. He is the Chairman of the Academy of Athens and a noted theologian.

Bibliography

His major works are Being as Communion (1985, DLT) and the more recent Communion and Otherness (2006, T & T Clark). Also recently published was The Theology of John Zizioulas edited by Douglas Knight (2007, Ashgate).

Academic Education and Career

Metropolitan John's education included a period of study under the Eastern Orthodox theologian Georges Florovsky. He received his doctorate in 1965 from the University of Athens. Somewhat later, Zizioulas taught theology at the University of Edinburgh for a period. Following this, he moved to the University of Glasgow, where he held a personal chair in systematic theology for some fourteen years. In addition, Zizioulas has been a Visiting Professor at the Research Institute in Systematic Theology of King's College London.

Theology

The theological work of Metropolitan John has focused upon the twin themes of ecclesiology and theological ontology. The theology of Metropolitan John reflects the influence of Russian émigré theologians such as Nikolai Afanassief, Vladimir Lossky and his teacher Georges Florovsky. Zizioulas has also been significantly influenced by the ascetical theology of Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), founder of the Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist in Essex, England.

Ecclesiology

Zizioulas' ecclesiology was first developed in his doctoral dissertation, subsequently published in English as 'Eucharist, Bishop, Church'. Here Metropolitan John develops critically the eucharistic ecclesiology of Nikolai Afanassief. He accepts Afanassief's principal contention that the Church is to be understood in terms of the Eucharist. However, he criticises Afanassief's understanding as overly congregational and insufficiently episcopal in its emphasis. Finally, Zizioulas advocates an episcopocentric understanding of Church structure, understanding the Bishop primarily as the president of the Divine Liturgy and the Eucharistic community.

Theological Ontology

Zizioulas worked on the theology of the person, appealing to the work of St Irenaeus and St. Maximus the Confessor. The primary focus of his work was to develop his own ontology of personhood derived from an extensive investigation of Greek philosphy, patristic era writings and modern rationalist philosophy. He argues that full humanity is achieved only as person so that they may participate (koinonia) in the Trinitarian life of God. However, an essential component of the ontology of personhood is the freedom to self-affirm the participation in relationship. He continues that man initially exists as a biological hypostasis, constrained as to the types of relationships one can have (biological) and to the eventual end of this type of being - death. He makes use of existentialist philosophers and novelists to show that the only type of ontological freedom in the biological hypostasis is the choice to commit suicide. He claims that Baptism constitutes an ontological change in the human, making them an ecclesial hypostasis, or a person. This rebirth 'from above' gives new ontological freedom as it is not constrained by the limits of biological existence. Such ecclesial being is eschatological, meaning it is a paradoxical 'now,' but 'not yet.' The completion of this rebirth from above is the day of resurrection when the body will no longer be subject to death.

Assessments of Zizioulas' Thought

"Traditionalist" Orthodox Criticisms of Zizioulas

Certain Orthodox, who style themselves as "traditionalist", have claimed Zizioulas' view of personhood, the Holy Trinity and the Church is not traditional, and different from the view of the Early Church Fathers. More specifically, they have claimed that it differs from the views of the Cappadocian Fathers, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nazianzus.

Positive Assessments in Greece and Serbia

Zizioulas' theology had gained some acceptance amongst several Serbian individuals, such as retired bishop Atanasije Jevtic and bishop Ignjatije Midic. Zizioulas' views, in regard to the human person, have been promoted by Dr. Davor Dzalto, and implemented in his own work.

Academic Theological Criticism and Defence

In his article titled Person versus Individual and Other Modern Misreadings of Gregory of Nyssa, Lucian Turcescu contests the legitimacy of Zizioulas' use of material taken from the Cappadocian Fathers.

Peter J. Leithart in his article Divine Energies and Orthodox Soteriology touches the work of Aristotle Papanikolaou, who points to differences between Vladimir Lossky and John Zizioulas on the issue of divine energies.

Alan Brown, "On the Criticism of 'Being as Communion' in Anglophone Orthodox Theology", in Douglas Knight (ed.) 'The Theology of John Zizioulas: Personhood and the Church' (Ashgate, 2006) defends Zizioulas against several of the polemical rejections of his theological ontology.

Citations

Cf. e.g. Rowan Williams, 'Eastern Orthodox Theology, in David F. Ford (ed.) The Modern Theologians, 3rd edn. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005, pp. 572-88.
Cf. Rowan Williams, 'Eastern Orthodox Theology, in Ford (ed.) The Modern Theologians, pp. 572-88.

External links

Category:

Theologians