Page 216 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
Mission: The Church in the World
As we follow the historical path of the Church, we encoun-
ter her not as a closed reality, but as a living presence
within the world. From the beginning, her life unfolds in rela-
tion—relation to history, to culture, to creation, and to every
human being. It is within this horizon that the question of
mission must be understood.
Mission in the Church is relational. For quite a long time,
Christian mission was regarded as a kind of sermon addressed
to the world. It is true that the Church is not of this world and
that the world hates Christ and his Church. But the relation of
the Church to the world is not just negative: it is also positive.
This is implied in the Incarnation and in the recapitulation of
all things in Christ, as witnessed in Scripture and in the Fa-
thers. The Gospel, with its respect for history and its eschato-
logical orientation toward the ultimate fulfillment of history,
entered into cultures that were often suspicious of history and
more concerned with origins than with the end.
The Incarnational aspect of Christology leads to an eccle-
siology that respects cultural and historical diversity. Our
Lord assumed not simply human nature but a particular his-
torical people with its cultural characteristics. When these
people claimed exclusiveness, the first Christian communities,
led by the Holy Spirit, did not hesitate to bring into the Body
of Christ other cultures such as the Greeks and Romans, with-
out imposing cultural uniformity on them. The same attitude
was repeated later in Byzantium with regard to the Slavs. Dif-
ferent cultures mean different ways of approaching the faith
216