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 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.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.