Page 99 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E R E A L P R O B L E M O F E X I S T E N C E
thing profoundly true. To be created is to be mortal. It is to
stand under the constant threat of non-being—not a relative
or partial dissolution, but the possibility of absolute annihila-
tion, a return to the nothingness from which creation came.
This threat is not occasional; it is continuous. From the
moment of birth, we move toward death. Biologically, we be-
gin to die as soon as we begin to live. The entire created order
exists in this condition: it lives in decay and decays as it lives.
What we call life, therefore, is not yet true life.
Creation is, in this sense, tragic by its very nature. Its exis-
tence is marked by a paradox: it holds together two realities
that are mutually exclusive—being and non-being, life and
death. This paradox arises from the fact that creation has a
beginning.
Everything that exists within the created order is marked
by origin. And this origin introduces distance—between be-
ings, within beings, and ultimately between being and itself.
This distance manifests itself as space and time.
Space and time are both the condition of life and the condi-
tion of death. Through them, beings are able to relate, to com-
municate, to form a network of existence. And yet, through
the same space and time, they are separated, fragmented, and
ultimately dissolved. The very conditions that make life pos-
sible also make death inevitable.
How, then, can creation transcend this tragic condition?
How can it overcome death? The answer cannot be found
within creation itself.
Death is not an accident; it is inherent in createdness. No
effort, no moral improvement, no development of natural
capacities can abolish it. Ethics may refine life, but it cannot
save it from death.
Even the idea of the immortality of the soul, as developed
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