John Zizioulas on Eschatology and Persons

The Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas is most often associated with the Christian doctrine of the person. The concept of the person holds together the two issues of communion and freedom. Zizioulas argues that if there is one person there must be many persons: the concept is intrinsically plural, relational and yet safeguards our particularity. Zizioula's central concern is human freedom. His first insight is that communion and freedom are not opposed, for freedom is enabled, not restricted, by the relationships with other persons. The Augustinian theological tradition assumed that death came to creation to punish the disobedience of man. Against this tradition Zizioulas insists that, since all created things have beginnings and are demarked by boundaries. Enabled by the Holy Spirit, it is the proper action of man to say that he is not God. He has no knowledge of God until God gives him that knowledge. God is known within his own communion.