Page 396 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
exercise in communion.
In this way, the Church becomes an image of the Kingdom
of God—a Kingdom not identical with history, yet already
present within it as its meaning and fulfillment. As Nicholas
Cabasilas reminds us, the Church “is signified in the myster-
ies,” above all in the Divine Eucharist, in every time and in
every cultural context.
Such an understanding of the Church inevitably raises a
further question: how does she stand in relation to the world
of our time?
What late Greek philosophy was for the world of the Fa-
thers of the Church—a world, that is, with which they had to
enter into dialogue and which they were called to transform—
such is for contemporary Orthodoxy the rapidly advancing
technological civilization of our age. The present-day oik-
oumene is dominated by the achievements of Western civili-
zation, which extend from the conquests of technology to the
depths of loneliness and the depersonalization of human be-
ings—something that modern art expresses so tragically in all
its forms.
It is toward this world that contemporary Orthodoxy must
bend with intellectual vigor and sensitivity, in order to trans-
form modern philosophies and ideologies and to preserve the
human person and its freedom from the whirlwind of eudae-
monism.
Orthodoxy possesses many forces for such an undertaking.
Hidden within its liturgical and ascetical experience, these
forces can be released and enter into a creative dialogue with
contemporary culture so as to transform it. Orthodoxy con-
stitutes the hope of the world in this critical age. It would be a
tragedy if it were to withdraw into itself and fail to respond to
this historical calling—which is none other than the calling of
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