Page 52 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
Within this context, we may now ask: what is the authority
of the Bible?
The authority of Scripture cannot be understood apart
from the Spirit and the community. Without the descent of the
Holy Spirit and the life of the Church that arose at Pentecost,
the words and acts of God could be recorded—but they would
not be existentially authoritative. Like all authority in the
Church, biblical authority is not objective, but relational.
The Bible is, at its origin, the witness of the community—of
persons who encountered Christ not as isolated individuals,
but within the communion created by the Spirit. Their author-
ity does not stem from individual possession of truth, but
from their participation in the life of Christ within the Church.
For this reason, the Bible’s authority is realized only within
the Church. It is not imposed from without, but recognized
from within the life of communion. Outside this context, it
may be treated as an object—studied, analyzed, or even re-
jected—but it cannot function as living authority.
Biblical authority is, therefore, anamnetic: it makes present
again the reality of God’s involvement in our existence. In this
sense, it is analogous to the Eucharist. Just as the Eucharist
re-presents and realizes the life of Christ in the community, so
the Scriptures bear witness to this life and make it present
within the Church.
This also means that neither non-Christians nor even
members of the Church are bound to accept the authority of
the Bible as an external imposition. If Scripture is treated as
an objective authority demanding submission, it can—and
rightly will—be rejected in the name of freedom. Its authority
is meaningful only as an expression of life in the Spirit.
This leads us to a deeper understanding of freedom. True
freedom is not the ability to choose between alternatives, nor
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