Excerpt from Metropolitan John’s Address delivered at the reception of the Metropolitan of Pergamon as a “Fellow” of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies Volos, October 29, 2011.
Source and Further Information: http://www.acadimia.gr/content/view/382/1/lang,en/
So, looking out onto the future, I see what Professor Stamoulis called here the “post-Zizioulas” era. What will happen with the seed I sowed, only God knows. He Who directs history can erase everything I left or, as I hope, He can find something in it that will be useful in His plan. The only thing I can say is what I would like to see in this “post-Zizioulas” era. And that, briefly put, would include the following:
1) Students who move beyond what I have said, building on them in a constructive and creative way.
2) An extension of eucharistic theology into areas that I personally would have liked to cover, if I had had time. One such area is art, about which eucharistic theology has much to say. Orthodox theology is, by nature, closely connected with art. Orthodoxy used to theologize with art, before it submitted to the captivity of academic intellectualism. There can be no Orthodox theology without a fruitful dialogue with art in all its forms (literature, music, painting, theater, etc.). The Divine Eucharist quickly found expression in art. It is time to rediscover this.
3) Eucharistic theology also needs to dialogue with science, because the Eucharist includes a cosmology that has a lot to contribute to the natural sciences, in terms of both content and methodology.
4) Finally, as regards ethics (or rather ethos), the subject matter here is and will remain inexhaustible. What does eucharistic theology have to say to us about bioethics, sexual ethics, mission, confronting violence, etc.?
My humble contribution was to try to connect the Eucharist with the ecclesiastical institutions and anthropology. But eucharistic theology has unlimited potential. It falls upon my young colleagues to progress in areas such as the ones I just mentioned. The Church needs it.
That concludes my thoughts on the occasion of this retrospective on what little I may have contributed to theology, by the grace and mercy of God. I thank you because you have allowed me to feel “that I did not run in vain or labor in vain” (Phil 2:16 RSV). That is the greatest gift there is, because you gave me the opportunity to share with you some of my thoughts and concerns. I humbly pray that the All-Holy Spirit guides Orthodox theology to fulfill its mission to a world that is in such desperate need of Orthodoxy’s salvific word.
Thank you.
Metropolitan John Zizioulas
Translated by Fr Gregory Edwards
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