Page 369 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E P E R S O N I N T H E A G E O F T H E I N T E R N E T
allows messages to be transmitted quickly and universally. But
the message of Orthodoxy cannot be reduced to information.
It is not simply a set of ideas conveyed by words. Orthodoxy
is a way of relationship and a way of existence. Both are un-
dermined by the very nature of the internet, which abstracts
communication from embodied presence. If the Church at-
tempts to transmit its message through a medium that negates
the very conditions of personal communion, it risks under-
mining its own witness. The same applies to the broader struc-
tures of information technology and mass media. The Church,
by surrendering itself uncritically to these forms of commu-
nication, risks surrendering itself into the hands of modern
civilization and losing its identity precisely in the act of trying
to project it.
This danger reveals something fundamental: the Church
does not save through what it says, or even through what it
does, but through what it is. The witness of Orthodoxy cannot
rest primarily on the multiplication of words, articles, web-
sites, or digital platforms. It rests above all in the mode of
existence of the ecclesial community itself. If the parish lives
rightly as Eucharistic communion within an individualistic
culture, its witness is more powerful than all sermons and
articles combined. A properly ordered parish, Eucharistic
community, and monastic life offer not arguments against
modern civilization, but an alternative way of life—a concrete
antidote to the dead ends of individualism.
For this reason Orthodoxy cannot exercise a creative cri-
tique of modern civilization without deep awareness of its
own theological tradition. A systematic return to the Fathers
is indispensable. Without theology, pastors become mere ad-
ministrators, and administrators are easily swallowed by the
culture surrounding them. The Church must not confront
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