Father's Eternal Freedom

Annotation

John Zizioulas is renowned for his controversial reflection on theontological freedom as the cause and cipher of God's being, which also hasimportant implications for anthropology, ecclesiology and ecumenical dialogue. This view is bound up with a personalist conception of the Trinity, recognisedin the teaching of the Greek Church Fathers, in which the person representsthe primary ontological category. In particular, Zizioulas shows how, by virtueof the Father, personhood coincides with absolute freedom.In The Father's Eternal Freedom, Dario Chiapetti explores thisontology. Taking into account Zizioulas' epistemological principles, hispatristic reading and his theological development, the author systematicallypresents Zizioulas' thesis, verifying its conformity to dogma and its internalcoherence. Chiapetti analyses how Zizioulas' proposal brings back to the centreof systematic theology the teaching of the Greek Fathers, especially theCappadocians, and the apophatic horizon of dogmatic reflection. Such reflectionpushes the discourse on God to its maximum degree, identifying and bringingout, rather than resolving or attenuating, the aporetic terms that structureit.