Eucharist, Bishop, Church: The Unity of the Church in the Divine Eucharist and the Bishop During the First Three Centuries

by John Zizioulas

I found this book to be very informative regarding the nature of ecclesiastical communion and the self-understanding (if such a reflective process even existed I have my doubts) of the Church in the early centuries. While ecclesiology as such is not strictly speaking a subject of dogma, since The Father, Son and Spirit are the center, it is useful in an age when there is such misunderstanding and confusion about ecclesiology on the part of many Protestants, Roman Catholics and Orthodox.

Zizioulas, one of the world's leadingtheologians and ecclesiologists (someone who thinks about hwhat it means "to be Church"), demonstrates that the notion of Church centers around the interrelationship of Eucharist, Bishop, and Laity. Not positing authority in the power of the bishop, nor even in the people, but in the place of Christ's presence- the bread and wine as partaken of by the people of God. The total Christ, Head and Body, is manifested in the eucharistic celebration of the risen Lord, given catholicity a qualitative and not a quantitative meaning. That means that we are the Church catholic when we gather together- we are the fullness of the faith at that point.

This raises the question, "does the Eucharist make the Church or vice versa?" It seems that Zizioulas would say both, but with the particular emphasis upon the former. Church qua Church only dangles off the mouth of the Father. It is always done unto, to use the phrase of Fr. Tarazi (which is why it is not its own object of study). But the context for this dangling is, according to Zizioulas, most manifest in the liturgy. So ultimately the notions of bishop, laity, eucharist are all interdependent. None exist without the other and they are continually in reference to one another.

Eucharistic ecclesiology has weaknesses when the attempt is made to make it cover too many bases, but it does seem to be the primal orientation of the early centuries and has received a wide resurgence in both East and West under such notables as Zizioulas, Afanasief, Meyendorff, de Lubac.

Other books of interest would include Zizioulas' masterpiece, "Being as Communion", which is, in my view, one of the best books to be read about any sphere of theology, "The Eucharist Makes the Church" by McPartlan (a comparison of Zizioulas and Henri de Lubac), "For the Life of the World" by Schmemann, and Werner Elert's classic study "Eucharist and Church Fellowship in the First Four Centuries". Enjoy!