Page 89 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E M E A N I N G O F B E I N G H U M A N
relationship. The human being discovers and manifests the
unity of the world by relating its parts to one another, reveal-
ing their inner coherence. This capacity—to gather, to unite,
to reveal truth as communion—is unique to the human being
and marks a decisive step beyond the rest of the animal world.
The second aspect of human identity is freedom—what the
Fathers call autexousion (αὐτεξούσιον). It is striking that the
Fathers interpret the biblical teaching that the human being is
created “in the image of God” precisely in terms of freedom.
To be in the image of God is to be free.
Moreover, for the Greek Fathers, freedom and logos are
inseparable. The human being is logikos because it is free, and
the rest of creation is described as alogos—not because it lacks
intelligence in a modern sense, but because it lacks this free-
dom.
Thus, the human being stands at the intersection of cre-
ation, endowed with the capacity to unite the world and to do
so freely. It is not merely a part of the cosmos, but the one
through whom the cosmos can become communion.
If the human being is created as the point where the world
is gathered into unity, and if this calling is rooted in freedom,
then we must now ask how this freedom is exercised—how it
can lead either to life or to fragmentation, either to commu-
nion or to division.
89