Description
John Zizioulas is renowned for his controversial reflection on the ontological freedom as the cause and cipher of God’s being, which also has important implications for anthropology, ecclesiology and ecumenical dialogue. This view is bound up with a personalist conception of the Trinity, recognised in the teaching of the Greek Church Fathers, in which the person represents the primary ontological category. In particular, Zizioulas shows how, by virtue of the Father, personhood coincides with absolute freedom.
In The Father’s Eternal Freedom, Dario Chiapetti explores this ontology. Taking into account Zizioulas’ epistemological principles, his patristic reading and his theological development, the author systematically presents Zizioulas’ thesis, verifying its conformity to dogma and its internal coherence. Chiapetti analyses how Zizioulas’ proposal brings back to the centre of systematic theology the teaching of the Greek Fathers, especially the Cappadocians, and the apophatic horizon of dogmatic reflection. Such reflection pushes the discourse on God to its maximum degree, identifying and bringing out, rather than resolving or attenuating, the aporetic terms that structure it.
About the Author
Dr Dario Chiapetti is a presbyter in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence. His research interests include Trinitarian Theology, especially in its ontological foundations and in the Eastern perspective, as well as anthropology and Franciscan theology. A former architect, he is also interested in the relationship between liturgy and architecture.
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Note on Citations
Abbreviations
Introduction: General Aspects of the Figure and Thought of Zizioulas
Part 1: Zizioulas’ Reading of the Fathers: The Notion of Person and the Doctrine of the Monarchy of the Father
1. The Emergence of the Attribution of Primary Ontological Content to the Notion of Person in Trinitarian Reflection
2. The Father, the Ontological Principle of the Triune and One Being of God
Part 2: Zizioulas’ Theological Development: The Father, Free Cause of Being as Personhood-Freedom
3. The Father: ‘The Ultimate Reality of God’s Personal Existence’
4. The Freedom that ‘Springs from the Very Way the Hypostases are Constituted’: From the Freedom of the Father, the Freedom of God
Concluding Remarks: Zizioulas’ Bold Exercise in Theological Reflection
Bibliography
Index
Endorsements and Reviews
Dr Chiapetti has produced a comprehensive, profound and fair discussion of Patristic theology, as presented in my work, particularly with regard to its ontological significance. A most successful attempt to bring to the surface the immense significance of Patristic theology for human existence.
John D. Zizioulas, Metropolitan of Pergamon
Despite being the most influential living Greek theologian, John Zizioulas’ publications are largely occasional. Chiapetti knows the thickets of Zizioulas’ œuvre like no one else. His defence of his theology – against all comers – tests its theological roots and explores its philosophical implications for notions of personhood and freedom. Impressive!
Andrew Louth, Professor Emeritus of Patristic and Byzantine Studies, Durham University
In addition to providing a lucid and insightful systematic presentation of Zizioulas’ theological vision, Chiapetti breaks new ground by offering a constructive defense of ‘the father’s eternal freedom’. A must read for those interested in Zizioulas and in contemporary trinitarian theology.
Aristotle Papanikolaou, Professor of Theology, Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture, and co-founding director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center, Fordham University
Chiapetti studies here for the first time in depth Zizioulas’ Trinitarian theology, the keystone of his synthesis. Led by a rigorous historical and theological method, this study sheds new light on Zizioulas’ thought. Chiapetti’s work is important for the ecumenical movement, but also for contemporary reflection on man and on the authentic basis of his freedom.
Carmelo Giuseppe Conticello, Professor of Byzantine Theology at the Pontifical Oriental Institute and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
In opposition to such a “monarchical” conception of the Trinity as Zizioulas posits, the critical question always arises as to whether it is ultimately a form of subordinationism. . . . Dario Chiapetti consistently comes to the mediating conclusion that Zizioulas’ suggestions are coherent in themselves and, as an interpretation, are also compatible with the patristic textual findings, without being able to impose themselves as the only possible interpretation. In particular, he emphasises as positive and influential for further study the aim of not wanting to overcome the exaggerated individualism of the present by repristination of pre-modern categories of substance and nature, but rather to devise with the Church Fathers a relational ontology of the person with a mystical-ecclesial, even erotic trajectory. Anyone interested in this philosophical enterprise is very well served with Chiapetti’s book. Theologische Literaturzeitung 148 (2023), Tobias Graßmann, p. 498-500.
It is with great pleasure that I recommend this book to all those interested in Zizioulas’ theology, Greek patristic Trinitarian developments, and Christian personalism. Chiapetti deserves congratulations for this scholarly achievement, as well as for the insightful systematization of a theological topic that is not always easy to engage and convincingly defend. Viorel Coman In St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, pp 223 – 226, 2024
