Eucharistic Democracy: The Political Theology of John Zizioulas

by Dionysios Skliris

Metropolitan of Pergamon John (Zizioulas) was reluctant to formulate a full-blown political theology. The main reason was that he viewed politics as a domain of coercion and violence, thus distinguishing it from the Church as the place of freedom and non-violent love. His ecclesiological vision that the Eucharist constitutes an anticipation of the future state of the whole of humanity in the eschaton does, however, have political consequences, since the Church can be considered an “eschatological city” that could inspire the secular political society.

Dionysios Skliris

Dionysios Skliris holds a PhD from the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne, a Master in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies from the University of London, a Master II on Byzantine Literature from the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne, and a BA in Classics and a BA in Theology from the University of Athens. He is currently a Teaching Fellow at the Theological Department of the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens. His works include On the Road to Being: Saint Maximus the Confessor’s Synodical Ontology, and Logos—Mode—Telos: A study in the thought of Saint Maximus the Confessor. He is also the editor of the volume Slavoj Žižek and Christianity.

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