Page 69 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

H O LY T R I N I T Y: P E R S O N S O R I N D I V I D UA L S
move beyond individuality, one must enter into communion
with others. Yet not every form of relationship heals. Even
conflict or emotional release may break isolation, but they do
not necessarily lead to true personhood. They remain, in a
deeper sense, bound to individualism.
The Church offers something more. She leads the human
being beyond individuality into personhood.
A person is not defined by separation, but by relationship.
A person exists freely, in communion with others, without
losing their uniqueness. Personhood is not the loss of identity,
but its fulfillment.
This is precisely what is revealed in the Holy Trinity: the
one who is many, and the many who are one. And it is this
same mode of existence that is given to us in the Church.
If God Himself exists as communion, and if the human
person is called to share in this way of being, then we must
now ask what it means to be human. For humanity is created
in the image of this God—not as an individual, but as a person
called to freedom, communion, and life.
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