The theological anthropology of John Zizioulas

This article by Constantin Agoras offers a synthetic presentation of the theological anthropology of Metropolitan John Zizioulas, a major figure in contemporary Orthodox theology. In the form of reading notes, the author outlines the broad contours of a thought that articulates ontology, Christology and ecclesiology around the central notion of "person." The main idea is that the Greek Fathers brought about a radical transformation of Greek philosophy by substituting a relational ontology founded on freedom and communion for the ontology of substance: being is not substance but person, and truth is identified with communion. The theological contribution of the article lies in its illumination of the anthropological implications of this personalist ontology — notably the distinction between biological hypostasis and ecclesial hypostasis — as well as in its presentation of the critical debates it provokes within contemporary Orthodox and Catholic theology.