Page 53 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E B I B L E A N D AU T H O R I T Y
simply freedom from constraint. It is the freedom for com-
munion—the capacity to participate in the life of God. In this
freedom, authority is no longer opposed to freedom, because
it is no longer external. It is the very form that communion
takes.
Such freedom offers no external guarantees or securities. It
belongs to the life of the Kingdom. And yet, through Christ
and in the Holy Spirit, it is already given to us as a foretaste—
as the “freedom of the children of God.”
Historically, the problem of authority has been especially
pronounced in Western Christianity, where authority has of-
ten been understood in objective terms. The Orthodox East,
though not immune to similar temptations, has preserved—at
least in its deeper vision—the understanding of authority as
communion.
Anthropologically, freedom has been understood in terms
of theosis, participation in the life of God, which resists any
objectification of divine authority. Ecclesiologically, the Eu-
charistic vision has ensured that authority—whether of the
bishop, doctrine, or Scripture—is always situated within the
life of the community.
This difference remains significant, particularly in ecumen-
ical dialogue, where the question of authority continues to be
central.
If authority in the Church is not external but arises from
communion, then we must now ask how this communion was
first lived and expressed in history. For the Church did not
begin as a system of authority, but as a community gathered
in faith, in worship, and in the breaking of bread.
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