### Quotations and Explanations
– “Substance has no ontological content, no true being, apart from communion. In this way, communion becomes an ontological concept. Nothing in existence is conceivable in itself, as an individual.”
– **Explanation:** Zizioulas insists that true being is found only in relationship; existence apart from communion is not genuine personhood or reality.[1]
– “The person is otherness in communion and communion in otherness. The person is an identity that emerges through relationship; it is an ‘I’ that can exist only as long as it relates to a ‘thou’…”
– **Explanation:** Personhood, for Zizioulas, is defined by freedom and particularity realized through active participation in relationships—not isolated individuality.[2][1]
– “A human being left to himself cannot be a person.”
– **Explanation:** Human identity is relational at its core; cut off from others, one loses the very quality of being a person.[5]
– “Freedom thus becomes identical with love. We can love only if we are persons, that is, if we allow the other to be truly other, and yet to be in communion with us.”
– **Explanation:** Zizioulas connects freedom to the capacity for love; true freedom is not autonomy, but the ability to enter into loving relationships with others without negating their otherness.[2]
– “In the Eucharist we can find all the dimensions of communion: God communicates himself to us, …creation as a whole enters through man into communion with God. All this takes place in Christ and the Spirit, who brings the last days into history and offers to the world a foretaste of the Kingdom.”
– **Explanation:** The Eucharist epitomizes Zizioulas’s vision of communion, uniting God, humanity, and creation in anticipation of ultimate fulfillment in the Kingdom.[2]
– “Love as eros hypostasizes beings, that is, makes them exist as particular, by incorporating them into a unique … hypostasis. Not only does uniqueness not exclude other particular beings, it establishes their otherness in and through communion.”
– **Explanation:** Love is the creative principle that respects and secures individual otherness within the unity of communion; differences are affirmed and not erased by true relational existence.[4]
These quotations together illustrate Zizioulas’s central thesis: being and personhood are realized only through communion, and this theological insight calls the Church to live out the relational image of God in every aspect of life.[4][1][2]
Sources
[1] Being as Communion Quotes by John D. Zizioulas – Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/
[2] Quotes by John D. Zizioulas (Author of Being as Communion) https://www.goodreads.com/
[3] And Now for a Little Meat! Met. John Zizioulas and the Church https://glory2godforallthings.
[4] [PDF] A Construction Based on the Eucharistic Theology of John D. Zizioulas https://www.orthodox-theology.
[5] Being as Communion | John D. Zizioulas – Stephen Barkley https://stephenbarkley.com/
[6] Zizioulas on Truth and Communion II – A vow of conversation https://avowofconversation.
[7] Christology – John Zizioulas Foundation Official Website https://zizioulas.org/
[8] Nazianzen and Zizioulas on the Divine Processions https://afkimel.wordpress.com/
[9] [PDF] Communion and otherness in John Zizioulas’ theology of … https://www.domuni.eu/media/
[10] Book | Communion and Otherness by John D. Zizioulas https://www.stevethomason.net/
[11] Receive One Another – John Zizioulas Foundation https://zizioulas.org/library/
[12] John Zizioulas – Being as Communion: The Eucharist … – YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?
[13] Anyone read ‘Being as Communion’ by Met. Zizioulas? – Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/
[14] Excurses: The Zizioulas-Torrance Debate in the Light of de Regnón http://agreatercourage.
[15] The Eschatological dimension of anamnesis in Zizioulas’ Ecclesiology https://twruston.wordpress.
