This review article proposes to introduce the reader into the more recent personalist school of Orthodox theology. It centres its argument on the theological thinking of John Zizioulas, with particular regard to his ontology of personhood, which is shown to represent a relevant and creative reinterpretation of the Christological and anthropological theology of Maximus the Confessor. This ‘personalist’ school of thought is shown to be distinctive to the other two prominent schools of Orthodox thinking, i.e. the Sophiological and Neo-Palamite schools. However, the personalist school is also interpreted to be, like the previous two, an attempt to bridge the gap between Orthodox thought and the contemporary world. Hence the life and relevance of newer Orthodox theoretical contributions to the contemporary debate are carefully highlighted, particularly as concerns the relation of ‘self ’ and ‘personhood’, andor modernity and postmodernity. It is shown that the specific contribution of Zizioulas, as one of the more outstanding Orthodox figures, is in addressing the more postmodern themes of identity and otherness.