Community Life
Some more thoughts on the nature of community from Zizioulas...
'Ecclesial being is bound to the very being of God. From the fact that a human being is a member of the Church, he becomes an "image of God", he exists as God Himself as exists, he takes on God's way of 'being'. This way of being is not moral attainment, something that man accomplishes. It is a way of relationship with the world, with other people and with God, an event of communion, and that is why it cannot be realized as the achievement of an individual, but only as an ecclesial fact.'
His basic argument goes.
1) Ancient greek ontology was monistic - that is the being of the world and the being of God were inseperable, an unbreakable unity. So the world becomes an emanation from God.
2) Biblical faith proclaimed that God was absolutely free in relation to the world, that is there was a time when the world was not. Therefore there was no ready made ontology which could accomadate biblical faith - neither gnostic nor classical greek. He argues that the creation of such an ontology was a genuinely novel and crucial contribution of patristic thought.
3) Through the pastoral, rather than academic, experience, the Fathers came to see God as a relational being. God is God is a tautology. It is meaningless to talk about God before speaking of God as communion.
4) However, just as substance does not exist by itself, neither does communion exist. IT IS THE PRODUCT OF A PERSON. So the personhood of the Father is responsible for the creative event of communion which gives life to the trinity.
Communion is an ontological category that arises from the free choice of the person.
5) The real horror of human existence is that we are ultimately not free. Even if we could free ourselves from every external constraint, we will never be able to overcome the basic biological fact of existence that we ourselves did not initiate. therefore camus was right - the only philosophical question is suicide.
more later....
'Ecclesial being is bound to the very being of God. From the fact that a human being is a member of the Church, he becomes an "image of God", he exists as God Himself as exists, he takes on God's way of 'being'. This way of being is not moral attainment, something that man accomplishes. It is a way of relationship with the world, with other people and with God, an event of communion, and that is why it cannot be realized as the achievement of an individual, but only as an ecclesial fact.'
His basic argument goes.
1) Ancient greek ontology was monistic - that is the being of the world and the being of God were inseperable, an unbreakable unity. So the world becomes an emanation from God.
2) Biblical faith proclaimed that God was absolutely free in relation to the world, that is there was a time when the world was not. Therefore there was no ready made ontology which could accomadate biblical faith - neither gnostic nor classical greek. He argues that the creation of such an ontology was a genuinely novel and crucial contribution of patristic thought.
3) Through the pastoral, rather than academic, experience, the Fathers came to see God as a relational being. God is God is a tautology. It is meaningless to talk about God before speaking of God as communion.
4) However, just as substance does not exist by itself, neither does communion exist. IT IS THE PRODUCT OF A PERSON. So the personhood of the Father is responsible for the creative event of communion which gives life to the trinity.
Communion is an ontological category that arises from the free choice of the person.
5) The real horror of human existence is that we are ultimately not free. Even if we could free ourselves from every external constraint, we will never be able to overcome the basic biological fact of existence that we ourselves did not initiate. therefore camus was right - the only philosophical question is suicide.
more later....
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posted by chris at 10:40 PM
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