“PERSON” VERSUS “INDIVIDUAL”, AND OTHER MODERN MISREADINGS OF GREGORY OF NYSSA LUCIAN TURCESCU Introduction During the past three decades, Greek Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas (Metropolitan of Pergamon) has been preoccupied with defining a Christian notion of person which would allow for a better integration of an ontology of personhood with ecclesiology. A person, he tells us, should not be under- stood as an individual, because in our times individualism has acquired some negative connotations: first, individualism leads to isolation of humans from other humans and, second, it leads to isolation of humans from the rest of the creation, and thus to ecological disasters. Instead, a person should be generous, friendly, and open to others. A person should be communitarian and relational. In opposition to this, the “western” view of person, represented according to Zizioulas by such twentieth century writers as Webb, Walgrave, and Strawson, 1 emphasizes too much that a person is an individual and a center of consciousness. Yet Zizioulas proposes an alternative to what he calls the “western” under- standing of person. If one were to use the views of the Cappadocian Fathers —Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus—and of other Greek Orthodox theologians, one would get the relational, communitarian concept of person which is so much more meaningful today. The relational view of person makes more sense in today’s secular world, as we seem to be more concerned with staying in touch, with respect for each other, in general with better relating to each other, as well as with globalization and Modern Theology 18:4 October 2002 ISSN 0266-7177 Lucian Turcescu Religious Studies Department and Catholic Studies Program, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, B2G 2W5, Canada © Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2002. Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.