Page 114 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
man being.
If this is so, then we must go further: the human being does
not have a body—he is a body. The body is not an accessory,
but constitutive of human existence. It belongs to the very
truth of our being.
And if the body is constitutive of who we are, then the hu-
man being is inseparably bound to the material world. For
how can one conceive of a human body apart from the rest of
creation? Those who imagine a resurrection of the human
body without the survival of the material world inevitably fall
into abstraction, envisioning a body that is no longer truly
human.
Already Methodius of Olympus argued against such views,
insisting that the resurrection of the body presupposes the
preservation of the whole material creation. The destiny of
humanity and the destiny of the world are one. This insight
carries profound implications, not least for our understanding
of the ecological crisis: to diminish the role of the body is not
merely an ethical error, but an ontological one.
Because of this inseparable bond between the human being
and the body—and through the body, with the entire cos-
mos—the Fathers describe the human person as a microcosm:
a being who gathers within himself the whole creation, unit-
ing the material and the spiritual.
This is why the Incarnation is so decisive. The Son and
Logos of God did not assume merely a soul, but became flesh.
By taking on the human body, He revealed that the human
being is inconceivable without it, and that salvation extends
not only to humanity but to the whole creation. In Christ, the
material world itself is affirmed, assumed, and destined for
transfiguration.
The dignity of the body is thus inseparable from the dig-
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