Page 301 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

C O N C LU S I O N S
C onclusions
This brief—and inevitably incomplete—presentation of Or-
thodoxy in history reveals a double movement. On the
one hand, there is a clear departure from the post-Byzantine
forms that shaped Orthodox life for centuries; on the other,
there is a persistent effort to recover the deeper sources of the
Church’s being—her eucharistic, patristic, and eschatological
identity.
This movement is not confined to academic theology. It
touches the very structure of the Church, her canonical order,
her understanding of ministry and communion, her relation
to culture, and her witness in the world. The rediscovery of the
Eucharist as the center of ecclesial life, the renewed attention
to the person and to communion, the return to the Fathers,
and the revival of hesychast and ascetical tradition—all these
indicate a search for a more integral vision of the Church.
At the same time, this renewal unfolds within tensions that
remain unresolved. The relation between local and universal,
between primacy and synodality, between unity and diversity,
between ethos and ethics, and between tradition and moder-
nity continues to challenge Orthodox consciousness. The
question of the Church’s relationship with other Christians, as
well as the problem of autocephaly and ecclesial identity,
shows that Orthodoxy cannot live in isolation without endan-
gering its own catholicity.
Of course, it is still too early to determine whether the
much-needed “neopatristic synthesis” will reach its full matu-
rity. Yet there are clear signs that such a synthesis is not only
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