Page 378 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
essarily exclusive to a majority that “tolerates” a minority. In
the realm of religion, it can just as easily apply to a minority
(a sect) that believes it alone possesses the truth.
The issue, therefore, lies in how a religion—or any group
claiming exclusive access to the truth—conceives of truth it-
self and its relationship to it. What is truth? The question
posed by Pontius Pilate during Jesus’ trial remained unan-
swered at that moment, leaving subsequent generations free
to provide their own interpretations. The three monotheistic
religions have generally either identified truth with a divine
revelation contained in sacred texts (such as the Bible or the
Quran) or located it in specific dogmas, usually as interpreta-
tions of those sacred writings. In doing so, they appear to have
imprisoned truth in the past, stripping it of its historical and
social dynamism, and giving rise to fundamentalism. A fun-
damental premise—or consequence—of this stance has been
the perception that truth is something possessed, either indi-
vidually or collectively, an “object” that the human mind
grasps, like any other cognitive entity.
In an earlier study, I sought to demonstrate that the theo-
logical tradition of the Orthodox Church holds a different
understanding of truth. Rooted in Christ’s declaration, “I am
the truth” (John 14:6), Orthodox tradition associates truth
with three fundamental principles: apophaticism—truth al-
ways transcends the way in which it is expressed; ecclesiolo-
gy—truth is an event and the result of communion, not im-
posed from above but emerging through its free circulation
within the body of the Church (for this reason, even the
Church’s dogmas acquire authority only after they have been
received by the entire body of the faithful); and eschatology—
truth will be fully revealed in the eschaton, when, as the Apos-
tle Paul states, we shall see God “face to face,” whereas now we
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