The Nicene Creed and the Ecological Vision of Salvation in the Theology of John Zizioulas

Abstract

This article explores how the incarnational Christology of the Nicene Creed can be reinterpreted to address ecological concerns, particularly through the theological anthropology and Eucharistic vision of John Zizioulas. While the Creed proclaims Christ’s incarnation ‘for us humans and for our salvation’, it does not explicitly extend this salvation to non-human creation. Drawing on Zizioulas’s concepts of the human being as microcosm and mediator, the article argues that humanity’s material and spiritual unity with creation grounds the cosmic scope of Christ’s redemptive work. The Eucharist, as a liturgical enactment of this vocation, becomes a space in which human beings participate in Christ’s redemptive act of assumption, offering, and healing of creation. This vision presents a form of radical, inclusive anthropocentrism in which the human vocation serves the redemption of the entire cosmos, thus situating the Nicene Creed as a foundational resource for contemporary ecological theology.