John D. Zizioulas, Communion & Otherness: Further Studies in Personhod and Church (London: T & T Clark, 2006), 315pp (thanks to T & T Clark for review copy)
In 1985 John Zizioulas gave us Being As Communion, now twenty years later, Zizioulas offers us Communion and Otherness, which is in many ways a companion and sequel to his earlier work. The book is in part a difficult read and in others Zizioulas at his most accessible. Chapters 2 ('On being a person') and 4 ('The Trinity and personhood') are fantastic introductions to Zizioulas' reading of the Cappadocians and his ontological understanding of personhood. This is where to begin with Zizioulas and in my opinion a great place to start if trying to understand the doctrine of Trinity. (Both these papers were originally published in the Research Institute for Systematic Theology books Persons, Divine and Human and Trinitarian Theology Today).
The first chapter 'On Being Other' is a long and difficult read, which I guess is first because it discusses the book's title of communion and otherness - How are they reconciled? What are implications of a theology of otherness for the doctrine of God, creation, Christ, church and the human being?
I found the most interesting chapter was chapter 3, 'The Father as Cause' where Zizioulas attempts to defend and rebut criticisms that his assertion that the Father is the cause of Trinity is problematic. In particular he is responding to the objections raised by Alan Torrance in his monograph Persons in Communion (T & T Clark, 1996), where, although appreciative of some aspects of Zizioulas' theology, Torrance is unconvinced by Zizioulas' description. Zizioulas responds by first saying that 'Father' is a relational term and so it is 'impossible to make the Father ontologically ultimate without, at the same time, making communion primordial' (p.126), that is, we cannot speak about the Father without also speaking of the Son and the Spirit. Zizioulas thinks the problem with Torrance and others is we still tend to understand 'person' in a individualistic way rather than a relational way (p.127). Second, he says 'causal language ... refers to the how, not to the what of God' (p.128), that is, the Father does not give ousia ('being') to the Son or the Spirit, but the personal origin of the Son and the Spirit is from the Father. Third, Zizioulas says there is a taxis or ordering in the Trinity and so we find that 'Every movement in God, ad extra as well as ad intra, begins with the Father and ends with him' (p.138). It is perhaps helpful to understand Zizioulas here with a longer quote:
It is only when divine nature is somehow confused with the person of the Father, and personal causation with a process of imparting of divine nature by the Father to the other two persons, that the equality of the Trinitarian persons as fully divine is put at risk ... Divine nature does not exist prior to the divine persons, as a sort of possession of the Father who grants it to the other persons ... Divine nature exists only when and as the Trinity emerges, and it is for this reason that it is not 'possessed' by any person in advance (p.140).
This reader finds Zizioulas' argument a convincing case, although interestingly Colin Gunton joins the
conversation in his chapter in The Theology of John Zizioulas (Ashgate, 2007) where he is in agreement with Zizioulas, but suggests that while recognising the Father as the cause, we also acknowledge that it is 'the Spirit is the one who, to use Basil's words, "completes the divine and blessed Trinity"' (Gunton, 2007, 103).
John Zizioulas is always a challenging, but rewarding read. His theology of personhood and the implications it has for the doctrine of the Trinity, the church, the human being are difficult to match and his theology will continue to be one that others find helpful. He has done us a great service in drawing Western theology back to the Cappadocian Fathers. Communion and Otherness will surely join Being as Communion as a much read and much quoted book.
Hi Andy,
many thanks for this! Have set a link to your review on my own blog, if you don't mind. It's mainly in German anyway...
Posted by: Kanzelschwalbe | September 04, 2007 at 05:39 PM