The Eucharistic Communion and the World

by John Zizioulas; Luke Ben Tallon

Publisher:

T&T Clark

, 2011

Overview

The theology of John Zizioulas presents a beautiful vision of the church as Eucharistic communion, in which human persons both are gathered into Jesus Christ and are sent back into the world. In his previous books, Zizioulas focused on the way this communion is related to the communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which calls us to understand being as communion and provides the only foundation for otherness and identity.

With its sustained attention directly to the Eucharistic communion, The Eucharistic Communion and the World provides the context for those discussions. Zizioulas explores the biblical dimensions and eschatological foundation of the Eucharist, the celebration of the Eucharist by the church, and the ethos of the Eucharistic community. These essays are provocatively concrete and practical, showing once again that Zizioulas’ teaching on persons, communion, and otherness has radical implications for the life of the church and its relationship to the world.

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Key Features

• Deals with the Eucharist and its relation to the world
• Considers the Eucharist as seen in the New Testament
• Discusses personhood as an ontological category

Contents

• Biblical Aspects of the Eucharist
• The Eucharist and The Kingdom of God
• Symbolism and Realism in Orthodox Worship
• The Ecclesiological Presuppositions of the Holy Eucharist
• Reflections on Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist
• The Eucharistic Vision of the World
• Proprietors or Priests of Creation?
• Preserving God’s Creation

Top Highlights

“Inasmuch as the Last Supper is not an event of familial life but an event for ‘the friends of the Lamb’, the Supper marks an eschatological ‘inbreaking’ in the natural course of historical life.” (Page 4)

“All these elements are obviously part of the ritual Passover meal, which means that we cannot understand the original structure of the Eucharist if we do not recognize its essential role in salvation history—its role in the history of God’s chosen people, Israel.” (Page 3)

“This lack of information is surprising. Indeed, it is difficult to explain the paucity of sources unless we attribute it to the Church’s desire to protect the secret discipline from non-Christian eyes,¹ or to the natural tendency not to define or discuss that which constitutes the core of our life.” (Page 1)

“This is seen most clearly in the character of the Eucharist as a communion of the baptized: those who have accepted the judgement rendered when they were confronted with the Word of God and turned towards God (metanoia) in the death, burial and resurrection of baptism.” (Page xiv)

“On the other hand this means that there are no private gifts, no work of the Spirit that does not have as its ultimate end the Church’s eucharistic participation in Jesus Christ, the eschatological and catholic Adam.” (Page xii)

Praise for the Print Edition

. . . Luke Ben Tallon, who has translated two of the eight chapters and written a helpful introduction, should be congratulated for editing such an engaging volume.

—Theological Book Review

The writings of Orthodox Metropolitan John Zizioulas on the Eucharist belong with the work of a number of theologians from various traditions who, over the past half-century, have been moving towards a convergent doctrine of the sacrament. Particularly gratifying is our author’s emphasis on the ecclesiological, eschatological, and cosmic dimensions of the celebration. It is to be hoped that the cumulative effect will be to bring the divided churches from what Zizioulas calls their mutual post-baptismal excommunication towards a ‘gathering in one place’ when they may enact their ecclesial reunion in a common Eucharist.

—Geoffrey Wainwright, Robert Earl Cushman Professor Emeritus of Christian Theology, Duke Divinity School

John Zizioulas is one of the most important ecumenical figures of contemporary Orthodox theology . . . While his writings have met with some criticism, he remains a very important theological voice in the ecumenical world and many still consider him one of the best interpreters of patristic theology of the Eucharist. So, it is a great delight to have this collection of essays edited by Luke Ben Tallon in The Eucharistic Communion and the World.

—The Anglican Theological Review

Product Details

• Title: The Eucharistic Communion and the World
• Author: John D. Zizioulas
• Editor: Luke Ben Tallon
• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Publication Date: 2011
• Pages: 208

About John D. Zizioulas

John D. Zizioulas, Metropolitan of Pergamon, was previously a professor of systematic theology at the University of Glasgow and visiting professor at King’s College in London. He is the author of Communion and Otherness, and has been a major Orthodox contributor to modern ecumenical discussion.