The Original Fall of the Human Creature and Its Consequences in the Theology of Ioannis Zizioulas
Rev. Dr. Petr Soukal, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome
The Zizioulas Foundation is pleased to announce the successful public defense of a major doctoral dissertation dedicated to the theological thought of Metropolitan of Pergamon John Zizioulas, held at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, one of the world’s most distinguished centers of theological scholarship.
The dissertation, authored by Rev. Dr. Petr Soukal of the Diocese of Hradec Králové (Czech Republic), bears the title The Original Fall of the Human Creature and Its Consequences in the Theology of Ioannis Zizioulas.
The defense took place on Friday, 24 October 2025, at 4:00 p.m., in Lecture Hall L210, as part of the requirements for the Doctorate in Theology within the Faculty of Theology, Department of Dogmatic Theology, under the direction of Professor Giuseppe Bonfrate. The dissertation was officially deposited and examined during the 2024–2025 Academic Year
Dr. Soukal’s research offers a systematic and penetrating analysis of the doctrine of the Fall as interpreted through the ontological and ecclesial vision of Zizioulas. The study engages central theological themes, including creation, freedom, personhood, mortality, communion, and eschatological hope, making a substantial contribution to contemporary theological dialogue and to the international academic reception of Zizioulas’s work.
- Soukal concludes that the theology of Ioannis Zizioulas offers a decisive and timely contribution to contemporary reflection on the Fall and the doctrine of original sin, by relocating the problem from a merely moral or psychological level to a deeply ontological and personalist one.
- At the heart of this vision stand five interrelated categories — person, communion, Kingdom of God, future, and ecology — through which the Fall is understood not as the loss of a protological perfection, but as the tragic loss of humanity’s eschatological future and vocation.
- The Fall is therefore not primarily a corruption of nature, but a distortion of personhood and communion, marked by impatience, self-divinization, and the abandonment of the promised future of God.
- Zizioulas’s approach integrates creation, Christology, pneumatology, ecclesiology, and eschatology into a unified theological vision that affirms the goodness of the body, the cosmic scope of salvation, and the inseparable link between human destiny and the destiny of creation.
- This framework, Soukal argues, opens new horizons for Orthodox and Western theology alike, offering a renewed interpretation of original sin that is scientifically responsible, pastorally fruitful, and oriented toward the healing, transformation, and final communion of all creation in Christ.
The John Zizioulas Foundation extends its warmest congratulations to Dr. Soukal on this significant scholarly achievement and looks forward with great interest to the dissemination and future publication of this important study.
