Ioannis Zizioulas

Ioannis Zizioulas 2014

Ioannis (John) Zizioulas (born January 10, 1931 ) is Metropolitan of Pergamon and one of the most important and influential Orthodox theologians of today.

Academic education and career

Zizioulas studied theology in Thessaloniki and Athens as well as in the USA with Georges Florovsky and received his doctorate in Athens in 1965. At first he taught in Thessaloniki, but soon he went to Scotland , where he taught systematic theology for 14 years, first in Edinburgh and then in Glasgow . In 1986 he was elected (titular) Metropolitan of Pergamon by the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate . Today he heads the office of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Athens, is a member (and was president) of the Athens Academy and heads the Orthodox delegation in the official commission for theological dialogue between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

theology

Zizioulas' theological work focuses on the topics of ecclesiology and anthropology . His theology reflects the influence of Russian theologians in exile such as Nikolai Afanassieff, Vladimir Lossky and his teacher Georges Florovsky. In addition, Zizioulas was significantly influenced by the ascetic theology of the archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov). Most of his books have been published in English and French , but so far he has hardly been received in the German-speaking world .

Ecclesiology

The translation of the title of his Greek-language dissertation into German reads “The unity of the church in the divine liturgy and in the bishop in the first three centuries”. To a certain extent this is where his theological program lies; He is one of the most important representatives of the “Eucharistic ecclesiology”, according to which the Church is not primarily viewed from the perspective of the universal Church, but from the perspective of the local Church: the community celebrating the Eucharist with and around the Bishop is the Church par excellence. Zizioulas and the other representatives of the Eucharistic ecclesiology take up the old church principle, which the church sees in the individual local church.

The Eucharistic ecclesiology has been widely received. In Orthodoxy, it is seen as a patristic-based alternative to so-called “school theology”, that is, the reshaping of orthodox theological thinking through Western categories and questions. This "pseudomorphosis" was most vehemently lamented by Zizioulas' teacher Florovsky. Through his approach, Zizioulas gives orthodox theology the opportunity to realize the return to the fathers called for by Florovsky and others and at the same time to present a creative new approach from paternal theology (and the practice of the old church) that has also influenced Catholic theology .

anthropology

In his writings on anthropology , too, Zizioulas' work moves in the field of tension between the one and the plurality. This applies to anthropology (“Being as communion”, “Communion and Otherness”), in which he repeatedly tries to find a balance between the two poles. The analogy to the question of the Trinity is obvious; the theology of the Cappadocians and Maximus the Confessor serve him as the most important sources.

reception

His approach is widespread in Orthodoxy today, if not undisputed. Many important theologians refer to him, especially in the Greek-speaking and Serbian churches . He enjoys great authority widely. The ecumenical consequences that Zizioulas draws from his theology are also criticized within-Orthodox, which, however, is to be seen above all in the context of the general criticism of ecumenism, which is widespread in Orthodoxy.

Ecumenical meaning

Through his theological thinking, Zizioulas opens up the possibility of a new beginning in ecumenical dialogue, which does not limit itself to dealing with concrete dissent in doctrinal questions, but rather takes a much more fundamental approach and thus indirectly implies questions of theological hermeneutics. The Eucharistic ecclesiology enables a new way of looking at the understanding of the church; it has brought the discussion between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches from concentrating on questions of church structure ( papacy , United Nations ) to a fundamental level on which an agreement is fundamentally much more promising. Zizioulas has been Orthodox co-chair of the official dialogue commission between the two churches since 2006.

Honors

• Honorary doctorates
  • Institut Catholique in Paris
  • Orthodox Theological Faculty in Belgrade
  • 2010: Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster
  • 2015: Ludwig Maximilians University Munich

Works

• Remembering the Future: An Eschatological Ontology, London 2009.
• Lectures in Christian Dogmatics. Ed. by Douglas Knight and Katerina Nikolopulu, London 2008.
• Communion & Otherness: Further Studies in Personhood and the Church. Ed. by Paul McPartlan, London 2006.
• Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church. Crestwood NY (SVS Press) 1993 (Contemporary Greek Theologians 4), London 2004.
• L'Être Ecclésial (Perspective orthodoxe 3), Genève 1981.
• L 'Eucharist (Eglises en dialogue 12), Tours 1971.
• Eucharist, Bishop, Church: The Unity of the Church in the Divine Eucharist and the Bishop during the first three Centuries, Greek Athens 1965. Brookline / MA 2001

Individual evidence

Commons : Ioannis (Zizioulas)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

1. ↑ “Honorary Doctorate for Zizioulas and Noko” , Vatican Radio , July 4, 2010
2. ↑ Metropolitan Ioannis Zizioulas receives an honorary doctorate from LMU. LMU, July 22, 2015, accessed November 4, 2015 .