Page 105 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E M E A N I N G O F D E AT H
The Meaning of Death
Christian faith, in affirming that the world came into being
from absolute non-being, must also affirm that creatureli-
ness bears within itself the mark of mortality. Death, therefore,
is not an accidental intrusion into existence, but the ever-
present possibility inscribed within creation itself. To be cre-
ated means, from the very beginning, to stand on the thresh-
old of non-being—to be capable of returning to the nothing-
ness from which one was called.
In this sense, death is nothing other than the threat of a
return to non-being. It is not merely a biological event, but an
ontological condition. No sooner is something created than it
is mortal.
At this point, the witness of St. Athanasius is decisive. He
expresses with clarity that death belongs to the nature of the
created and leads back to non-being:
For the transgression of the commandment turned them
back to the state in accordance with their nature; so that just
as they had come into being out of non-being, so were they
now deservedly on the way to returning, through corruption,
to non-being again … Man is mortal by nature, since he is
made out of nothing. (De Incarnatione 4.4–6)
Here, death is not simply punishment; it is the unfolding of
created nature when deprived of communion with God. What
is created, having come from nothing, cannot sustain itself in
being by its own power.
This leads us to the deeper question: what is life?
In the biblical and patristic tradition, life is never under-
105