Ecclesial vision and ecclesiology

This article by Constantin Agoras offers a critical reading of G. Baillargeon's work devoted to the ecclesiological thought of Metropolitan John Zizioulas. In the form of a methodological and hermeneutical reflection, the author argues that Baillargeon reduces Zizioulas's "ecclesial vision" to a simple eucharistic ecclesiology, thereby missing the ontological and systematic scope of his work. The central idea is that the notion of communion in Zizioulas is not limited to ecclesiology, but constitutes a rereading of Being as communion, articulated from the hypostasis of Christ and the freedom of the Father. The article sheds light on the hermeneutical presuppositions of Zizioulasian theology, on its distinction from neo-Palamite and pneumatocentric currents, and on its singular place in contemporary Greek Orthodox theology.