John Zizioulas Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
""Since the latest XIX century one of the main interests of the Russian philosophy became theological questions. Even though such a questioning was violently suppressed in Russia, due to the well known historical reasons, the... more
""Since the latest XIX century one of the main interests of the Russian philosophy became theological questions. Even though such a questioning was violently suppressed in Russia, due to the well known historical reasons, the philosophical legacy of the Russian religious thought, flourishing at the beginning of the XX century, nowadays is still bearing fruit in Europe, after the famous scholars expulsion of 1922.
John Zizioulas (1931), metropolitan of Pergamon, is one of the most remarkable successors of the so called “neopatristic synthesis” announced by G. Florovsky. It was under the supervision of this illustrious Russian theologian that Zizioulas did his doctoral research at the Harvard University. The fundamental characteristic of Florovsky’s theology consists in its relation with the thought of the Fathers of the Eastern Church, belonging to the early ecumenical councils period, before the Church split. Zizioulas considers this great Russian theologian as his teacher, dedicating him some of his works. Indeed, many of his reflections, as those concerning Trinitarian questions, Eucharist, Church and many others, do really indicate this strong influence. In any case it would be better to get concentrated on the most important and specific point of the Zizioulas’ theological theory.
The Florovsky’s ideas of the division between the essence of God and the God’s will, of the creation of the manhood, composed by free and active persons, as a consequence of kenosis of the divine will, a result of an infinite love that God has for its creatures are all present in the Zizioulas’ own theology.
We are going to analyze one of the pivotal themes that can be found amongst the Zizioulas’ works: the ontology of the Person, strictly connected with the concept of Otherness – ideas inherited from the Russian neopatristics.
Our intention is to discuss the influence by Florovsky on the theory of Person by Zizioulas. It will be interesting to understand the birth of the same Florovsky’s theory, rooted in the diatribe against S. Bulgakov, P. Florensky and the sophiology in general as well as the controversy between Zizioulas and V. Lossky. The point of the discussion is going to be the idea of Otherness with its importance for the mankind and for the ecumenical dialogue.
""
Since the publication of Zizioulas' seminal text, Being as Communion (1985), succesive theologians have turned to his work to postulate a social-trinity. The past decade has witnessed a significant repudiation of social-trinitarianism,... more
Since the publication of Zizioulas' seminal text, Being as Communion (1985), succesive theologians have turned to his work to postulate a social-trinity. The past decade has witnessed a significant repudiation of social-trinitarianism, but such criticism has an implicit tendency to identify Zizioulas as a social-trintiarian. My paper shall consider Zizioulas' ecclesiology in relation to its reception by social-trinitarianism, and ask whether both his social-trinitarian advocates, and their critics, do justice to the problems considered by Zizioulas. Whilst acknowledging that there are significant similarities in their initial engagement, and recognising the limitations of Zizioulas' project, this paper shall maintain that Zizioulas is not ultimately a social-trinitarian because his social-trinitarian advocates are posing different questions to the relationship between the Trinity and the Church than posed by Zizioulas. Although the social-trinitarians draw from Zizioulas' work they do so to answer their own questions, which they resolve by projecting a revised trinitarian schesis, rooted in perichoresis, onto ecclesial and social structures. By attending to the nature of Zizioulas' ecclesiological questions, I shall make the case that Zizioulas exhibits a logic of question and answer that belongs to the neopatristic synthesis which emerged in Orthodox theology in the twentieth century. Zizioulas relates the Trinity to the Church on the basis of theosis as Christification. Consequently, Zizioulas and the social-trinitarians operate within different logical complexes.
A book review about the relation between Orthodox theology and liberal democracy
STUDIA TRADITIONIS THEOLOGIAE, Explorations in Early and Medieval Theology, 28
This article examines ideas about human personhood, the Church, and ecumenicism in the thought of the Romanian theologian Dumitru Stăniloae (1903-1993). It argues that Stăniloae developed his thinking on these issues during two different... more
This article examines ideas about human personhood, the Church, and ecumenicism in the thought of the Romanian theologian Dumitru Stăniloae (1903-1993). It argues that Stăniloae developed his thinking on these issues during two different periods of his life. His interwar writings discuss the debates in nationalist terms, while those works written in the 1970s and 1980s describe Christian unity through a Trinitarian framework. Despite the extremely different logic behind them, Stăniloae’s two ecclesial models are remarkably similar. In order to emphasize how profoundly historical context has shaped Orthodox thinking about the Church, the article briefly compares Stăniloae’s work to that of Nikolai Afanasiev, Vladimir Lossky, and John Zizioulas, three Orthodox theologians who wrote extensively about ecclesiology and ecumenicism.
Here is a modest reflection on the Church in the thought of Joseph Ratzinger (1927–). My aim is to examine Ratzinger’s claim that a proper understanding of the Church is obtained from the standpoint of her liturgy. While Ratzinger... more
Here is a modest reflection on the Church in the thought of Joseph Ratzinger (1927–). My aim is to examine Ratzinger’s claim that a proper understanding of the Church is obtained from the standpoint of her liturgy. While Ratzinger presents a eucharistic ecclesiology, not only must one pay attention to complement a sociological interpretation of the Church with Revelation as a dogmatic truth, but also to identify and distinguish among the various levels that are at play in speaking of a eucharistic ecclesiology. What is examined here is the relation of the Eucharist to the Church in the light of Christ, the sacraments and the Christian life. The primary level, then, is Christological. This means that in Christ, particularly shedding his life on the cross, the Church has its foundation and life in the world. The second level is a sacramental one, where the believing Christian community gathers around one altar to celebrate the breaking of the bread and to live in communion with each other. The third level is the existential one where belonging to the Church implies bearing witness, leading a Christian life, and being of service to others in the community and in the world. Our aim here is to elucidate the importance and complementarity of each dimension of Ratzinger’s eucharistic ecclesiology after having presented his understanding that ecclesial communion has its centre in the Eucharist.
The paper analyses view by leading thinkers from the miaphysite opposition to the Council of Chalcedon against the backdrop of recent debates about Patristic contributions to the concept of the person. It is argued that Zizioulas' claim... more
The paper analyses view by leading thinkers from the miaphysite opposition to the Council of Chalcedon against the backdrop of recent debates about Patristic contributions to the concept of the person. It is argued that Zizioulas' claim of an 'ontological revolution' in Patristic thought can more appropriately be applied to the miaphysites than to the Cappadocians. Generally, the view is developed that Christology rather than Trinitarian theology prompted the emergence of novel philosophical positions in early Christian thought.
Апстракт: Грчки теолог Јована Зизјуласа (1931) заступа тезу да слобода није ствар слободне воље или слободног извора, већ да је реч о онтолошком питању: бити слободан значи поседовади апсолутну онтолошку другост. Следствено, да би људска... more
Апстракт: Грчки теолог Јована Зизјуласа (1931) заступа тезу да слобода није ствар слободне воље или слободног извора, већ да је реч о онтолошком питању: бити слободан значи поседовади апсолутну онтолошку другост. Следствено, да би људска личност била слободна мора бити кадра да превазиђе сваки облик онтолошке нужности, што укључује створени свет и Бога. По Зизјуласу, међутим, свет је завршена творевина и човек може да бира или да га ”слободно” прихвати као нужност, или да покуша да га уништи. Наша анализа показује да Зизјуласова теологија не успева да превазиђе нужност и трагичност старогрчке онтологије.
In the revival of Trinitarian theology in the 20th century, several tropes were used: the distinction between Eastern and Western Trinitarianism, Rahner's Rule, and the West's "substance" ontology. Yet our paper argues that not only were... more
In the revival of Trinitarian theology in the 20th century, several tropes were used: the distinction between Eastern and Western Trinitarianism, Rahner's Rule, and the West's "substance" ontology. Yet our paper argues that not only were these categories wrong when used to map the tradition, they themselves have a particularly history that can be traced back to certain strands of neo-Thomism that in a variety of ways affected thinkers as diverse as John Zizioulas, Karl Rahner, Catherine LaCugna, Jurgen Moltmann, Vladimir Lossky, and many others. As such a variety of historiographical tenets of the Trinitarian revival are undermined, not only opening the way back to a charitable engagement with the tradition. But many of the constructive moves made in Trinitarian theology must be called in to question insofar as they are solutions to fake histories.
This book brings together a world-renowned collection of philosophers and theologians to explore the ways in which the resurgence of eschatological thought in contemporary theology and the continued relevance of phenomenology in... more
This book brings together a world-renowned collection of philosophers and theologians to explore the ways in which the resurgence of eschatological thought in contemporary theology and the continued relevance of phenomenology in philosophy can illuminate each other. Through a series of phenomenological analyses of key eschatological concepts and detailed readings in some of the key figures of both disciplines, this text reveals that phenomenology and eschatology cannot be fully understood without each other: without eschatology, phenomenology would not have developed the ethical and futural aspects that characterize it today; without phenomenology, eschatology would remain relegated to the sidelines of serious theological discourse. Along the way, such diverse themes as time, death, parousia, and the call are re-examined and redefined.
The marginalization of divine being, who is the source of energies, makes Ioannis Zizioulas to actually ignore the divine energies in his Eucharistic and personalist theological vision. On the other hand, Christos Yannaras gives a certain... more
The marginalization of divine being, who is the source of energies, makes Ioannis Zizioulas to actually ignore the divine energies in his Eucharistic and personalist theological vision. On the other hand, Christos Yannaras gives a certain importance to the distinction between essence and energies, but he comes to bound energies to person. While, one of the gains of patristic theology was to clearly link the energies to nature, both in Trinitarian theology field as well as in Christology and that of anthropology, while many heresies tied it of person. Therefore there is necessary to distinguish between hypostasis and energy: one energy in three hypostases. While the relationship of Palamite categories to the discourse of 'person' in contemporary Orthodox theology is still unclear, in our study we intend to show that the re-engaging with Palamite theology could help to balance the normative existentialism's of Yannaras and Zizioulas.
The topic of primacy is one of the key issues in ecclesiology. For many centuries it caused debates in the Church. The article is an attempt of analysis of a theological conception on primacy in the Church, created by one of the most... more
The topic of primacy is one of the key issues in ecclesiology. For many centuries it caused debates in the Church. The article is an attempt of analysis of a theological conception on primacy in the Church, created by one of the most influenced Orthodox theologians of last decades - metropolitan John Zizioulas of Pergamon. Zizioulas' conception is based on the ground of his original Eucharistic ecclesiology and ecclesiology of communion. The article examines the relationship between Zizioulas' approach to ecclesiology, Christology and Trinitarian theology in the light of his famous thesis about "being as communion". The key principle of Zizioulas’ ecclesiology – "the one and the many" – is described in details. In the discussion are presented a few cases with critique of logical inconsistency of metropolitan John’s primacy conception.
While it is quite common for systematicians to claim that the East begins its trinitarian theology with the Persons and moves to the Being, while the West begins with the Being, and to criticize the West for never fully differentiating... more
While it is quite common for systematicians to claim that the East begins its trinitarian theology with the Persons and moves to the Being, while the West begins with the Being, and to criticize the West for never fully differentiating the persons for that reason, recent patristic scholarship has thoroughly rejected this hypothesis, which originates with Theodore de Regnon. This paper explores the limited historical basis of the de Regnon paradigm in the medieval period centering on the Photian/Carolingian disputes, then claims that the paradigm should be abandoned in systematic theology. Rather than offering fruit for systematic consideration, it tends to reify a real distinction between person and being, with significant problems arising as a result.
This paper provides a preliminary assessment of the stages of development in modern Greek academic theology and the role of the Areopagitic writings in the construction of an orthodox "philosophical theology" within the modern Greek... more
This paper provides a preliminary assessment of the stages of development in modern Greek academic theology and the role of the Areopagitic writings in the construction of an orthodox "philosophical theology" within the modern Greek context. It considers the central role of the Greek 1960s and identifies specific points of originality and extensions of the intellectual progress inherited from Russian émigré religious thought in the 1960s, with the aim of complementing the recent approach by Paul Gavrilyuk (Modern Theology, 24:4, 2008). Unlike Gavrilyuk's important contribution, which focuses exclusively on Christos Yannaras and his well-known ‘anti-western’ stance, the current paper argues firstly that there exists a broader modern Greek hermeneutics within which Yannaras’ work can be understood and secondly, that there is an entire generation of Greek theologians in the 1960s, whose work and contribution to this fermentation of ideas needs to be taken into account. This study appraises the role of other philosophers and theologians, such as Spyridon Kyriazopoulos, Nikolaos Nissiotis, Evangelos Papanoutsos, Nikolaos Matsoukas, Panagiotis Christou and Fr. John Romanidis among others. It also analyzes the reasons for the 'silent absence' of John Zizioulas from these debates, as well as the clearly negative attitude of the scholars Panagiotis Trembelas, Megas Farantos and Stylianos Papadopoulos, who had a 'neo-protestant' polemical reception of the Areopagite and expressed reservations about apophaticim in their published work. Lastly, this paper highlights the relevance of the aforementioned 'national tradition' to the emergence of a generation of Dionysian scholars and 'neo-patristic' thinkers in both the 1980s and the 1990s.
Paper given at the "Ontogy and History" Conference in Delphi, May 2015.
Guest Lecture, Patriarchal Toronto Orthodox Theological Academy, 18 November 2019.
The 1995 Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) Constitution recognizes the ethno-linguistic and religious diversity in the country. It does so, inter alia; by giving recognition to the settlement of disputes by customary and... more
The 1995 Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) Constitution recognizes the ethno-linguistic and religious diversity in the country. It does so, inter alia; by giving recognition to the settlement of disputes by customary and religious systems on matters affecting the personal status of individuals.it is the first Ethiopian constitution to give such recognition to religious and customary laws in dispute settlement.
The structural and Organization sharia courts have existed de facto since Islam was embraced in the country. They acquired official state recognition after the proclamation for the establishment of khadis courts was enacted in 1942. The proclamation defined the jurisdiction of sharia courts which are essentially the same with the present jurisdiction of the courts. It provided that government would appoint judges serving in these courts. This proclamation was repealed in 1944 by the kadis and naiba council proclamation. This established a three tier courts structure.
The FDRE constitution of 1995 set up a parallel (dual) court structure at federal and regional state levels. Federal courts are competent to handle federal matters and state courts entertain state matters. Details of the jurisdiction of the federal courts, their specific structure and relationships and administration are set forth in the federal courts establishment proclamation of 1999. Sharia courts pursue the same structure and they have a three-tiered structure. Details of the jurisdiction of the State courts, their specific structure and relationships and administration are set forth in the Regional courts establishment proclamations. The same structure is adopted by regional states in establishing regional sharia courts in their respective units.
The notion of the λόγοι is of primary importance in understanding Maximus the Confessor’s thought and his ontology in particular and, quite naturally, there is ample bibliography on the subject. However, it is quite often the case that... more
The notion of the λόγοι is of primary importance in understanding Maximus the Confessor’s thought and his ontology in particular and, quite naturally, there is ample bibliography on the subject. However, it is quite often the case that the relevant secondary literature can be misleading in some points.
In this article, I will attempt to provide the reader with a brief introduction to understanding Maximus’ λόγοι doctrine from a philosophical and at times contemporary (i.e. deliberately anachronistic) perspective, within my limited means of doing so. My aim will be to address (or rather merely hint at) the numerous aspects that together comprise Maximus’ vision of the λόγοι: (a) the uncreated λόγοι as links between creation and the uncreated, (b) the relationship between the λόγοι and the Λόγος as well as the recapitulation of the many in the one Λόγος, (c) the importance of the λόγος of nature for the “according to nature”-“contrary to nature” distinction, (d) the λόγοι as the basis for a dialogical reciprocity between Creator and creatures/humanity, (e) the accomplishment of the contemplation of the λόγοι within asceticism, of the ability to clearly see God’s uncreated wills, utterances and intentions behind and within created beings, (f) the λόγοι as signifying a divine creative act of freedom, not of necessity or predetermination.
The present article is a discussion of the philosophical-theological mode in which Christian orthodoxy could critically engage with non-Christian modes of thought in a manner intentionally consistent with native metaphysical and... more
The present article is a discussion of the philosophical-theological mode in which Christian orthodoxy could critically engage with non-Christian modes of thought in a manner intentionally consistent with native metaphysical and epistemological presuppositions and commitments. Hermeneutics will be more or less the platform on which the notion of “Tradition,” informed by Gadamer and Florovsky, is raised so as to articulate how Christian tradition - for the present study largely derived from the philosophical work of John of Damascus - informs a hermeneutic mode of discourse, analysis, and worldview, what elsewhere has been called a hermeneutic of tradition. In short, this hermeneutic of tradition relative to historic orthodoxy refers in the first place to the intentional act of understanding according to the Scriptural, Apostolic, Patristic, and Conciliar norms as embodied and expressed by the particular Fathers and Ecumenical Councils of the historic, undivided Church, and the application of these norms, the regula fidei, or, perhaps yet more boldly, the “hermeneutic canons,” to contemporary problematics. The argument, then, seeks to show in light of Ricoeur’s interpretation theory how John of Damascus' Dialectica fittingly provides a foundation for Christian discourse, which is to say a foundational conceptual apparatus integrating Christian epistemology and metaphysics into a coherent system of thought which provides tools for engaging contemporary philosophical discourse from within a consistently orthodox perspective.
This thesis begins by exploring three different philosophical approaches to the idea of freedom. It investigates how John Zizioulas uses the Eastern Patristic tradition, and particularly Maximus, to argue for both the ultimate freedom of... more
This thesis begins by exploring three different philosophical approaches to the idea of freedom. It investigates how John Zizioulas uses the Eastern Patristic tradition, and particularly Maximus, to argue for both the ultimate freedom of God and of the human person. The thesis offers a critique of Zizioulas' argument that relationships are the only things that define our ultimate being and, drawing on Maximus, proposes a modified model. It concludes by drawing out some of the implications of this modified model for human freedom.
The essay deals with the development of personalist thought in the greek orthodox theology of the last century
The research studies the original and controversial reflection of the Metropolitan of Pergamon Ioannis Zizioulas (1931) on the ontological freedom of God, as the cause and cipher of His being, related to a personalist conception of the... more
The research studies the original and controversial reflection of the Metropolitan of Pergamon Ioannis Zizioulas (1931) on the ontological freedom of God, as the cause and cipher of His being, related to a personalist conception of the Trinity, recognized in the teaching of the Greek Church Fathers, in which the person represents the primary ontological category and coincides with absolute freedom, by virtue of the Father, as Trinity and One God, uncaused freely cause of the Trinitarian being, beyond the necessity of nature and the contingency of choice. The study intends to present the proposal of the greek theologian systematically and to verify its conformity to dogma and internal coherence. At first, is presented his patristic reading, after which are identified and examined the aspects of his theological development.