Page 264 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
Having uttered these words, she was led into the fire to be
martyred. St. Basil ends his sermon with the following com-
mentary directed to women: “There is no deficiency in nature
that hinders us from doing good” (On Martyr Julita 1–2).
The absolute equality of women and men is evident
throughout the ecclesiology of the Orthodox Church and
needs no further elaboration. We are all well acquainted with
the rank and position of the Most Holy Theotokos, who is
especially mentioned in the Holy Eucharist as higher than all
the saints. Greater honor than that cannot be bestowed upon
a woman in the Church, which lives in and through the Eu-
charist. Equal honor, without distinction between men and
women, is also accorded to women who have consecrated
their lives to martyrdom and to those who have lived vener-
able and holy lives. Therefore, there is no reason why the Or-
thodox Church should be placed in the same category as
Western Christianity with regard to the subject of women’s
equality.
Turning now to the question of testimony, we may speak
first of ethos, approach to life, and mentality. Especially in
view of the critical period through which Western civilization
is passing, the West has a specific need for an ethos that can
balance the antagonism of individual claims and give priority
to personal relationships. Western civilization has inherited
individualism, and this illness may soon become fatal: the rise
of crime, drug addiction, and related social disorders resounds
like the death rattle of society. Unless this civilization adopts
a person-centered mentality, which Orthodoxy fosters, it will
perish. Woman, perhaps more than anyone else, teaches us to
live as persons rather than as individuals—that is, as beings of
relationship rather than isolated and “independent” selves.
In the same perspective, Western civilization must revise
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