76 Chapter 1 or ek-stasis with God and ‘what is outside creation’; otherwise, nature will not be united and instead sink deeper into ‘fragmentation of nature and hence (…) an individualization of beings: each being acquires its identity not through the hypostatic differentiation which emerges from communion, but through its affirmation in contrast and opposition to the other beings’ (Zizioulas, 2021, p. 29). In this case, everywhere in the world, ‘difference becomes division and person becomes individual, that is, an entity affirmed by way of contrast to rather than of communion with other entities’ (p. 29). This is why Zizioulas (2021) reached the same qualification of modern Western culture as MacIntyre (2007), albeit tracing the problem back to the fall as its central reason: ‘Fragmentation and individualization is the price that nature pays for man’s introversion. It is also the very basis of death’ (p. 29). Once again, Zizioulas (2021) made the connection with personhood: ‘Man, by his fall, chooses to sacrifice his personhood by individualizing his existence in the manner of the division and fragmentation of thinghood’ (p. 32). Man is restored through faith in Christ, stated Zizioulas (2021), but without losing his connection to the rest of creation. ‘Juxtaposing a priori the world to God goes against the very heart of Christology, since Christ realizes the unity of God and the world, through man, in communion’ (Zizioulas, 2021, p. 50) (10). As indicated above, this sub-section does not intend to provide a full description of Zizioulas’ (2021, 2023) theological anthropology. The related conclusion for this study, however, can be that fragmentation is immediately connected to both the interpersonal (disrupted ex-stasis or communion) and the intrapersonal (a disoriented hypostasis or confused personhood). This implies that fragmentation on the level of the person needs to be addressed, from a Biblical perspective, with an approach that does justice to the fundamental intersubjectivity of the human person and that is, at the same time, extremely cautious with individualising tendencies. Zizioulas’ (2021) description of the 10 In 2022, the International Network for Christian Higher Education finally held its repeatedly postponed (due to COVID-19) conference on ‘Building Communities in Fractured Societies’. Fractured, as a predicate, is almost synonymous with fragmented, although the consequences of fracturing are less destructive than those of fragmentation. At this conference, Govert Buijs, who represented the Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam), argued for a ‘weak, transforming Christian presence’ in society, motivated by ‘agapeic love’ as a ‘concrete commitment to the flourishing of others’. Moreover, Claudia DeVries-Beversluis called for Christian schools to think of healing as a core mission of Christian education. To consider the present world as fragmented paves the way to think through this healing, agapeic presence.
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