John Zizioulas in Dialogue with Yves Congar and Henri de Lubac

This article examines John Zizioulas’s ecclesiology in dialogue with Yves Congar and Henri de Lubac. Emerging in the 1960s within the context of Eucharistic ecclesiology and the neo-patristic synthesis, Zizioulas’s thought developed through a sustained engagement with the relationship between Christology and Pneumatology. His dialogue with Congar during the 1970s and 1980s demonstrates the ecumenical significance of the encounter between the neo-patristic synthesis and ressourcement. For Zizioulas, the synthesis of Christology and Pneumatology opens an eschatological horizon that shapes his understanding of the Eucharist, ecclesial institutions and ministries, personhood, communion, and truth. His Eucharistic ecclesiology also converges with de Lubac’s recovery of the inseparable relationship between the Eucharist and the Church. Drawing on their shared biblical and patristic heritage, the article explores these convergences while identifying differences in their treatment of history, eschatology, and the work of the Holy Spirit. It argues that Zizioulas’s distinctive contribution lies in the pneumatological and eschatological grounding of ecclesial communion.