God is Love

I’ve been reading this book by John D. Zizioulas called, Being as Communion, and I’m finding it very helpful in pushing my thinking about God, personhood, and the church in new and broader ways. For one, the author approaches these issues from an Orthodox perspective, drawing deeply from Easter Patristic theologians—particularly the Cappadocian’s. One of the topics addressed early on is that of God’s being, especially as related to God’s ontological freedom. This becomes important when we think of the two ideas of (1) God is love, and (2) God loves. The first is an ontological statement—God’s being is love. The second is a statement concerning God’s actions, what God does—God loves. The problem I wrestle with is the notion that God loves, not out of choice, but out of necessity. If this is the case, then is God free?

Interestingly, Zizioulas indicates that “the only exercise of freedom in an ontological manner is love.” But he also indicates that love is not something that comes from or is a property of God’s substance, but is God’s substance. Substance, though, must be understood in terms of communion. It is not an object or a thing, but should be understood as having a relational character. For this reason love is not so much a qualifying or descriptive property of God but is “the supreme ontological predicate” that constitutes God’s substance. Love is God’s mode of existence. This mode of existence came about not out of necessity, but out of a choice. That God exists as Trinity means God exists in communion, a communion freely willed by the Father—God as Father chose to “beget” the Son and “bring forth” the Spirit. In this God exercises God’s ontological freedom. God’s freedom, then, comes from God’s being. Because God’s ontological freedom is based on God’s existence as love—the free choice of the Father’s begetting and bringing forth—love does not mediate against God’s freedom, but is the condition and exercise of that freedom.

*John D. Zizioulas, Being As Communion (New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1985)