PANORTHODOX SYNOD AND THE THEOLOGY OF PERSONHOOD1 (ARISTOTLE PAPANIKOLAOU)

 FROM SOPHIA TO PERSONHOOD: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 20TH C. ORTHODOX THEOLOGY FROM S. BULGAKOV THROUGH V. LOSSKY AND D. STANILOAE TO METROPOLITAN JOHN D. ZIZIOULAS PATRISTIC SEMINAR ORGANIZED BY VOLOS ACADEMY WITH SUPPORT FROM
THE VIRGINIA FARAH FOUNDATION, ATHENS, GREECE
ARISTOTLE PAPANIKOLAOU, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY

In this essay, I wish to demonstrate the contextuality of contemporary Orthodox theologies of personhood. I will argue that these theologies of personhood are an example, first, of hermeneutical contextuality, by which I mean an attempt to interpret the tradition while simultaneously engaging the thought-forms and questions of a given time and space. Such hermeneutical contextuality is a given dimension of being human and, in this sense, all Orthodox theology, patristic and contemporary, is hermeneutically contextual.