Lectures in Christian Dogmatics

191 Pages·2009·19.753 MB·English

by  John D. Zizioulas, Douglas H. Knight, Katerina Nikolopulu

I John D.
! Zizioulas
DOUGLAS H. KNIGHT
M EDITED BY
I
LECTURES IN
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I C H R IS T IA N
D O G M A T IC S
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16.1 dark
LECTURES IN
CHRISTIAN DOGMATICS
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LECTURES IN
CHRISTIAN DOGMATICS
JOHN D. ZIZIOULAS
EDITED BY
DOUGLAS KNIGHT
Λ
( &l dark
Published by T&T Clark
Λ Continuum imprint
The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane
11 York Road Suite 704, New York
London SKI 7NX NY 10038
www.continuunibooks.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Copyright ©John D. Zizioulas, 2008
John D. Zizioulas has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN-13: I IB: 978-0-567-03314-7
PB: 978-0-567-03315-4
ISBN-10: IIB: 0-567-03314-7
PB: 0-567-03315-5
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham,
Wiltshire
To my students
in the Universities
of Edinburgh,
Glasgow,
King's College London
and Thessalonica.
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
Introduction xi
Chapter 1
DOCTRINE AS THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH
I. The Church and the Formation of Doctrine 1
1. Theology and hermeneutics 3
2. The purpose of doctrine 5
3. Scripture and doctrine 7
II. Knowledge of God 9
1. Knowledge in general 16
2. Knowledge through the Son 22
3. Knowledge through Personhood 25
4. Knowledge through Faith 33
Chapter 2
THE DOCTRINE OF GOD
I. Beginnings 40
II. The Being of God 47
1. One and Many 50
2. That, what and how God is 54
3. Augustine 65
III. Theology and Economy 69
IV. Filioque 75
Chapter 3
CREATION AND SALVATION
I. The Doctrine of Creation 83
II. Creation ex nihilo 88
Vlll Contents
III. The Significance of the Doctrine of Creation 91
IV. The Fall 98
V. Christology 101
VI. Salvation 105
VII. Communion 115
Chapter 4
THE CHURCH
I. Identity of the Church 120
II. Gathered Church 126
III. The Church of God 132
IV. The Church as Image of the Future 135
V. The Church and the Churches 139
VI. The Church around the Bishop 145
VII. Son and Spirit 148
VIII. Eschatology and History 153
IX. Reception 161
Index 165
PREFACE
The present volume contains material from my lectures on Christian
Dogmatics which were given to students of theology in the Universities
of Edinburgh (1970-1973), Glasgow (1973-1987), London (King’s
College 1984,1989-1998) and, finally,Thessalonica (1984-1998).These
lectures were tape-recorded by my students in Thessalonica and widely
circulated. From this text a group of young scholars in Greece took
the initiative to produce an English translation, which Douglas Knight
has edited to produce the present volume. I am grateful to Katerina
Nikolopoulou, Anna Nevrozidou, Thomas Dritsas and their colleagues
at the Outlet for Dogmatic Enquires (OODE) who produced the first
text, and also to Liviu Barbu in London. As to Douglas Knight, I find no
words to express my appreciation for the hard labour and, above all, the
enthusiasm with which he has edited these lectures. The Introduction
he has provided for the book will certainly be of help to the reader.
This book does not claim to be a systematic theology, and unlike my
previous books, does not contain references to other authors, except to
Biblical and Patristic sources. It is written primarily for undergraduate
students, although I hope that other theologians may find it useful too.
Orthodox theology in our time must operate in an ecumenical context
and so in dialogue with other Christian traditions. And it cannot take
place in a cultural vacuum that ignores current philosophical trends,
and it cannot simply repeat the traditions of the past. It is unfortunate
that much of today’s Orthodox theology is in fact nothing but history-
a theologically uncommitted scholar could have done this kind of
‘theology’ just as well or even better. Although this kind of ‘theology’
claims to be faithful to the Fathers and tradition, it is in fact contrary to
the method followed by the Fathers themselves. For the Fathers worked
in constant dialogue with the intellectual trends of their time to inter­
pret the Christian faith to the world around them. This is precisely the
task of Orthodox theology in our time too.