Page 87 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E M E A N I N G O F B E I N G H U M A N
The Meaning of Being Human
Christian tradition also offers an understanding of the hu-
man being that differs significantly from that found in
Origen, Boethius, Augustine, and the later developments of
medieval and Enlightenment anthropology. This alternative
vision, articulated by the Greek Fathers—and especially by the
Cappadocians and St. Maximus the Confessor—may be out-
lined in several key points.
The human being cannot be conceived in isolation, but
only in relation to the whole of creation. This perspective is
rooted, in part, in the ancient philosophical notion—espe-
cially within Stoic thought—that the human being is a micro-
cosm, reflecting within itself the structure of the entire uni-
verse. Already Democritus spoke of the human being as “a
world in miniature,” containing within itself the various levels
of reality.
The Greek Fathers adopt this idea, but transform it. For
them, to be human does not mean primarily to be rational or
spiritual, but to be the point at which the entire creation can
be brought into unity. The human being is the place where the
divided elements of the cosmos are gathered and held togeth-
er. If the human being is severed from the rest of creation, it
loses its very meaning.
From this follows the decisive importance of the body. The
Greek Fathers insist that the body is not something external
to the human being, but constitutive of it. Already St. Irenaeus
affirmed that a soul without a body is not a human being. St.
Maximus the Confessor goes even further, insisting that even
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