---
title: A Strong Claim from Zizioulas
tags: [Quote, Plato and Personalism]
summary: Metropolitan John Zizioulas puts in a particularly striking way the historical claim that I am working on in my current book project.
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> The person both as a concept and as a living reality is purely
> the product of patristic thought.
> [@zizioulas97 27]

The first half of this claim is the main concern of my current book project, but the second half is more interesting, although it requires a little explaining.  I take Zizioulas to mean that, although we are individual humans automatically, being a fully fledged *person* is something we must grow into as we come into deeper and deeper communion with God, so the "living reality" of being a person must come from Christianity.  But can we really say that this living reality is "purely the product of patristic thought"?  As much as I like the Fathers, this doesn't seem quite right.  Perhaps better to say, "purely the product of the Faith expressed in patristic thought"?