Pneumatologiczny wymiar Kościoła i teologii według Johna D. Zizioulasa

Abstract

John D. Zizioulas’ publications do not include a special study of his Pneumatology, but his lectures on dogmatic theology contain a lot of material on the pneumatological vision of the Church. The foundation of the Church’s faith is the revealed and communicated truth of God, the preservation of which is a special task of the Holy Spirit. He is always active in community and creates communion, and all His gifts are for unity. The truth is revealed and secured only in the communion of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Zizioulas writes that it is the Holy Spirit who constitutes the true “essence of the Church”. Hence, Orthodox theologians often conceive of the Church as “an everlasting Pentecost event”. Thanks to the Son, we can get to know God, while the Holy Spirit reveals that God is communion. The great mistake of generations of dogmatists was to separate Christology from the science of God – and therefore from pneumatology. Salvation is realized in the Church, which is after all God’s people united in Christ and in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of communion, and it is no exaggeration to identify the Kingdom of God with Himself. The Eucharist is communion and participation in the Blood of Christ, which is “full of the Holy Spirit” and shares in Christ – and at the same time “in the communion of the Holy Spirit”. In the face of christomonistic or charismatic constraints, Zizioulas reminds us that Christ does not build the Church without the Holy Spirit, and He does not come to the Church only when he is completely formed. The institution of the Church was established at a specifi c point in history, but is constantly constituted and renewed by the Holy Spirit. The Church receives everything from God through Christ in the Holy Spirit, but it is necessary to receive His gifts in the event of communion – and it is in the Holy Spirit that everything what happens is an event of communion.