Trinitarian pneumatological personhood and the theology of John Zizioulas

This thesis critically engages John Zizioulas’s historical and theological paradigm of personhood to present a trinitarian pneumatologically constituted personhood of communion, becoming a complete person as a specific Christian anthropology. Zizioulas defines personhood as persons-in-communion rather than individuals in isolation. More specifically, this personhood occurs as people participate in the Eucharist. This thesis engages Zizioulas’s theology of personhood and suggests that personhood, specifically as persons-in-communion, is established through the Holy Spirit, who constitutes the Christian person.
The method has a two-fold approach. First, we evaluate Zizioulas’s central tenets and interpretation of Patristic sources concerning personhood. These central tenets include trinitarian theology, an ontology of person, and the writings of the Early Church Fathers. In turn, the thesis critically evaluates the historical and the theological development of Zizioulas’s thought. The conclusion finds a deficiency in pneumatology and personal identity. The Holy Spirit relates not only to the Father and the Son but also to believers of Christ in a personal way bringing about complete Christian personhood as beings-in-relation with each other and with God, establishing trinitarian pneumatological personhood in humans. The trinitarian person becomes a prototype for human personhood with the caveat that the creature cannot equal the Creator.
The second approach further develops trinitarian pneumatological personhood by taking three keywords from Zizioulas’s theological vocabulary and presenting them as significant in Wesleyan theology: particularity, presence, and participation. The persons of the Holy Trinity are a community in relationship that is mutual self-giving love and serve as an example for the human community. The trinitarian community reveals an equality-with-headship model. Human persons discover their identity and fulfillment not within themselves but rather in relationship with another. The person of the Holy Spirit constitutes Christian anthropology drawing the human person into a relationship with God and with others making the human being a complete person.