Personhood as Particularity: John Zizioulas, Colin Gunton, and the Trinitarian Theology of Personhood

Author: Awad, Najeeb G.

Source: Journal of Reformed Theology, Volume 4, Number 1, 2010 , pp. 1-22(22)

Publisher: BRILL

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $35.00 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

One of the dimensions of this paper's twofold purpose is to examine the validity of John Zizioulas' definition of personhood as communion, and whether or not this produces a coherent understanding of the ontological relation of `being' and `communion.' The second dimension of this paper's purpose points to Colin Gunton's similar attempt at understanding personhood by emphasizing unity-in-particularity, rather than communion alone, in the Trinity. In Gunton's contribution to this issue, I find both a correction to Zizioulas' reduction of personhood into mere communion, as well as an invitation for understanding personhood from the angle of an understanding of the notion of `hypostasis' that takes personhood beyond `in-communion' into `freedom-in-trans-communion,' making this last as constitutive of personhood as the first.

Keywords: Colin Gunton; John Zizioulas; particularity; personhood; communion

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156973110X495603

Affiliations: 1: ELM, P.O. Box: 1109, 29314 Hermannsburg Germany, Email: najeebawad72@gmail.com

Publication date: 2010-05-01