Page 322 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
Church and Society
From this vision of the modern world and its impasses, we
may now turn to the question of society itself in the light
of the Gospel. The question of society cannot be understood
rightly unless we begin from the heart of the Gospel. Chris-
tianity is not, in its essence, a system of ethics meant to im-
prove the course of history. It is the proclamation of the
Kingdom of God—a reality that does not arise gradually
from within the world, but comes to it as gift, often unex-
pectedly, “like a thief in the night.”
From the beginning, the Church lived from this expecta-
tion. The first Christians did not see themselves as builders of
a better social order in the ordinary sense, but as a people
awaiting and already tasting a new creation. Over time, how-
ever, as the expected coming of the Lord seemed delayed, the
Church became increasingly preoccupied with history—its
structures, its ethics, its possibilities. In some traditions, his-
tory acquired value in itself, and the Christian life came to be
measured primarily by moral achievement. In others, the
Kingdom was spiritualized, lifted out of time and reduced to
an inner or symbolic reality. In both cases, the decisive orien-
tation toward the future—the living expectation of the King-
dom—was weakened.
Yet this expectation never disappeared. It remained, qui-
etly but decisively, at the heart of the Church’s life, especially
in the Eucharist. From the earliest times, the Eucharist was
celebrated as an event of the last days, as the gathering of the
people of God in anticipation of the Kingdom. The cry “Ma-
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