THEOLOGICAL LEGACY AND ECUMENICAL VISION - YouTube - A conference in memory of Metropolitan John D. Zizioulas of Pergamon - Grand Hyatt Hotel Istanbul 5-7 NOV 2024

The video is mostly in Greek.There's some English at 3:12:57.Biography:John D. Zizioulas,Metropolitan John of Pergamon (Ecumenical Patriarchate),was born in Katafygio,Velventos,Greece on 10 JAN 1931.He studied at the Universities of Athens and Thessaloniki,with further study at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey,Switzerland (World Council of Churches).He is considered to be one of the world's most influential Orthodox theologians of the 20th and 21st centuries.Between 1960 and 1964,he did doctoral research under the Russian Orthodox theologian Father Georges Florovsky and was a Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Center of Byzantine Studies in Washington,DC.He received his doctorate from the University of Athens.*He began his teaching career as assistant professor of Church History at the University of Athens,then was professor of Patristics at New College,Edinburgh.He moved to the University of Glasgow where he held the chair in systematic theology for 14 years.In 1986,he was elected titular Metropolitan of Pergamon.The same year he began a full-time teaching position as professor of dogmatic theology at Thessaloniki University School of Theology.In 1993,he was elected to the Academy of Athens,serving as chairman in 2002.*Metropolitan John's theological work centered on the twin themes of ecclesiology and theological ontology (personhood).His work reflects the infuence of Russian emigre theologians such as Nikolai Affanassieff,Vladimir Lossky and his teacher,Father Georges Florovsky.His work was also influenced by St.Archimandrite Sophrony of Essex,founder of the Stavropegial Monastery of St.John the Baptist in Essex,England.Metropolitan John's ecclesiology was first developed in his doctoral thesis,publishe in English as "Bishop,Eucharist,Church."In it,he emphasised the role of the bishop as president of the Divine Liturgy and eucharistic community.He also worked on the theology of personhood based on the work of Sts.Irenaeus of Lyon and Maximos the Confessor.He argues that full humanity is achieved only so the person may participate in the Trinitarian life of God.He claims that Baptism constitutes a change in the human,making him or her an eccesial hypostatsis (person).Such an eccesiology is eschatological,meaning it is paradoxically new,but not yet.The completion of this rebirth from above is the Day of Resurrection,when the body transcends death.This work was published in English as "Being as Communion."He published several other books in English,culminating in "Remembering the Future:an Eschatological Ontology"(2012).*Metropolitan John died of COVID-19 at the age of 92 on 2 FEB 2023 in Athens,Greece.