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Dear Parish Faithful,
On Saturday evening, we are going to hear the distinguished Orthodox theologian, Fr. John Chyrassvgis, offer some "ecological reflections on the beatitudes." (For info on this event, please visit our website.) This will hopefully help us to discern the "justice and beauty of the earth."
What I have learned, is that the very words "ecology/ecological" and "environment(al)" are heavily politicized terms in our contemporary culture. I am sure that you agree with me, but to make the point, all I have to say is: Al Gore! Many people swear by Al Gore. They believe that there may have been something "providential" in his loss to George Bush in the 2000 presidential election. That bitter loss then allowed him to discover his true vocation and to shift his focus in life. That was to become the great secular prophet of warning us in apocalyptic language of the present dangers to the environment - especially caused by global warming. All of this was supposedly validated when his film "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Oscar award; and Gore himself won a Nobel peace prize in 2007 together with the IPCC of the U.N. Many other people, however, swear at Al Gore as a charlatan who has no scientific credentials; who is thus way in over his head in this whole debate; and who is being manipulated by political interest groups bent upon promoting a particular environmental agenda based on fear tactics meant to alarm the government into massive spending that is all quite unnecessary. I am not so sure that there are many people somewhere in between those two extremes. Hence, the politicization of the terms "ecology" and "environment" alluded to above.
None of this has much to do with an Orthodox Christian theology of the natural world around us. In fact, what is so sorely missing in today's debate is precisely a theological approach, one that sees the cosmos and hence the "environment" and the "ecological system" in theocentric terms. The world is not divine, but it is sacred, in that it is created and sustained by God and filled with His energies. Usually, however, a genuinely Christian perspective on the environment is treated with indifference or scorn. And actually, many "green" groups blame Christian attitudes for the pollution and exploitation of the environment. But in recent decades, some Orthodox theologians, beginning with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholemew, have endeavored to articulate an Orthodox Christian ecological vision of the world and our place in the world as stewards of the environment. This is, again, a theological vision based upon the text of Genesis that reveals God as the Creator and source of the entire cosmos and our world.
Orthodox Christians may take divergent views on these contemporary debates, and support one or another position, but there exists an underlying unified vision that we are responsible for our stewardship of the world, based precisely upon the text of Genesis. The Lord has entrusted the world to our care and respect for all forms of life, because we are the "crowning" achievement of God's creation, made in His "image and likeness." As a body, we share a "priesthood" of offering the world back to God in thanksgiving and love. We "mediate" between the Uncreated and the created. Human persons are the "voice" of the world as it sings hymns of praise to God for its very existence - and which is "very good." The world itself is a "sacrament" of God's presence. But again, this means that we will "cultivate" the world with loving care. Any pollution or loss of the initial purity of the world is one more grim reminder of human sin and of the world's fallen state. No wonder the world "groans and is in travail" until its eschatological transfiguration. I could be mistaken, but I believe that Fr. John will address such important truths with clarity and eloquence.
Our contribution to a Christian vision of ecological issues is pretty modest, but here are a few
titles that have appeared in recent years (links to resellers provided):• Beyond the Shattered Image: Insights Into an Orthodox Ecological Worldview - John Chyrssavgis
• Animals and Man: A State of Blessedness - Dr. Joanne Stefanatos, D.V.M.
• Man and the Environment: A Study of St. Symeon the New Theologian - Anestis Keselopoulos
• Living in God's Creation - The Ecological Vision of Orthodox Christianity - Elizabeth Theokritoff (forthcoming in June)
- Fr. Steven
