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==The Place of Material Creation in the Created Order==
Christianity is often blamed for the environmental problems that the world is facing today. The accusation hinges on a particular understanding of [[Genesis ]] 1:26 and 1:28:
:''Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. [...] God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
In one interpretation, the two verses above are understood to say that man has been given power over the earth to modify it according to his will. Some support for this world view can be gathered from writings of some [[Church Fathers]]. [[Origen ]] in the East and St. [[Augustine of Hippo]] in the West each held the view that the material world would not be a part of the Kingdom of God. For St. Augustine, this meant that in the Kingdom, only human souls would be present. In contrast to the eternal soul, a temporary material creation is diminished in importance, resulting in an anthropocentric relationship between man and nature. This approach has also, at times, been predominant in Orthodox countries. Today, as we shall shortly see, Orthodox theologians are recovering the fullness of their theology, recognizing the presence of God in the whole of creation, and outlining the responsibilities we have towards that creation.
The understanding of material creation as illustrated above is, at the very least, incomplete. Several Fathers, including Methodios of Olympus and St. Maximos [[Maximus the Confessor]], affirmed the value of creation and the cosmological dimension of the Kingdom of God. Anestes Keselopoulos, in his study on St. [[Symeon the New Theologian]], makes a powerful statement about the participation of nature in the Kingdom: "Belief in the ultimate transfiguration and renewal of the world offers a real possibility for extending the theology of holy relics to the rest of creation. At the Second Coming, [...] the whole of material creation will be renewed as well. Material objects that surround the saints participate in sanctification. (Keselopoulos, "Man and the Environment: a study of St. Symeon the New Theologian").
[[Psalm ]] 104, read at every [[Vespers ]] service, speaks of God's continued work in creation:
:''"You are clothed with honour and majesty, wrapped in light as with a garment. You stretch out the heavens like a tent, you set the beams of your chambers on the waters, you make the clouds your chariot, you ride on the wings of the wind, you make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers. You set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be shaken. You cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they flee; at the sound of your thunder they take to flight. They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys to the place that you appointed for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth. You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills, giving drink to every wild animal; the wild asses quench their thirst. By the streams the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches. From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart. The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. In them the birds build their nests; the stork has its home in the fir trees. The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the coneys. You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting."
===Man as a microcosm===
The idea of man as a microcosm is most commonly associated with St. Maximos Maximus the Confessor. In his Mystagogia he speaks of an indissoluble relationship and unity between man and world: "[St. Paul] put forward another suggestion, along the lines of the same imagery, that the whole world of visible and invisible things can be thought of as a man; and man, made up of body and soul, as a world" (Chapter 7). Lars Thunberg, in his "Man and the Cosmos" relates St. MaximosMaximus' understanding of man as a microcosm by constitution and for the purpose of mediation. Being both material and spiritual, all things in the world are reflected in man, who then has the vocation to bring together mortal and immortal creatures, rational and non-rational beings. However, St. Maximos Maximus does not view this vocation of man in separation from God. Rather, he states that it is Christ who achieved this unity. Again Thunberg, analyzing the Ambigua, says that man needs to leave the sphere of creation behind and be united with God beyond his own nature. Thus, man's mission in relation to creation can only be fulfilled in and through Christ: "Man created in the image of God is thus, according to Maximus, a key to understanding creation not only in order that he may understand it as it is, but also that by actively understanding it in his process of divinization he may elevate it to the supreme level of its full soteriological comprehension (Ambigua 10)." (Thunberg, "Man and the Cosmos, p.76).
St. [[Gregory of Nyssa ]] also uses the image of man and microcosm, though his use of the expression is rather less uniform than for St. MaximosMaximus. In his conception, the parallelism seems to be limited to a common praise of God": as the cosmos continuously lifts up a hymn of praise to God, so it is the duty of man to engage in continual psalmody and hymnody." Metr. Paulos Gregorios postulates that St. Gregory's reservation regarding a more in-depth parallelism stemmed from a concern that man's high standing within creation not be attributed to his similarity to the universe (Gregorios, "Cosmic Man"). However, St. Gregory also views man as a mediator, between creation and God, whose mediation is made possible by the incarnation: "in Christ, Man, and through Man, the whole creation, directly and without intermediaries, participates in the creative energies of God Himself" (Gregorios, "Cosmic Man, p.103).
Fr. Stanley Harakas summarizes the Orthodox position thus far: "[t]he creation exists for the use of humanity; but humanity exists as a microcosm to sanctify creation and to draw it into the fullness of the life of the kingdom of God, to bring it into communion with its maker." (''The Integrity of Creation: Ethical Issues'', in "Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation," p.73)
While both St. Maximos Maximus and St. Gregory note that the mediation of man is directly related to Christ's incarnation. the details of that mediation are filled in by modern day theologians.
===Man as Priest of Creation===
The Genesis passage which started this article is open to other interpretations. One such interpretation, which gives man a certain responsibility towards the environment, presents the commission which was given to man as a stewardship. K.M. George in his essay "Towards a Eucharistic Ecology" points out that good stewardship, in the sense of the Greek 'oikonomos:'—manager or administrator of a house,—requires trustworthiness, dependability, and wisdom. He goes on to add: "[w]e offer the creation as a thank-offering to God in liturgy" (George, ''Towards a Eucharistic Theology'', in "Justice, Peace and the Integrily of Creation", p.46). This statement contains within it the seed for the idea of that several contemporary theologians, among them [[Vigen Guroian]], Metr. Paulos Gregorios, and Metr. John Zizioulas[[John_%28Zizioulas%29_of_Pergamon]], consider as the most important in defining man's relationship to creation: man as 'priest of creation.'
Metr. Paulos Gregorios of the Orthodox Syrian Church of the East and one of the most ardent advocates of Christian ecology wrote, "Nature, man, and God are not three disjunct realities on the stage with a space-interval between their respective boundaries. [...] Christ has become part of creation, and in his created body he lifted up the creation to God, and humankind must participate in this eternal priesthood of Christ" (Gregorios, "The Human Presence"). Metr. John Zizioulas adds: "The priest is the one who takes in his hands the world to refer it to God and who, in return brings God's blessing to what he refers to God. Through this act creation is brought into communion with God himself. [...] This role of the human being as the priest of creation, is absolutely necessary for creation itself, because without this reference of creation to God the whole created universe will die." He goes on to argue that ethics, as commonly understood, cannot provide a solution for the environmental problem; this is the place of the Church. Specifically, the metropolitan mentions fasting, respect for the material world and acknowledgement (within the Liturgy) that creation belongs to God as specific means by which the Church can effect change (Zizioulas, ''Man the Priest of Creation: A Response to the Ecological Problem,'' in "Living Orthodoxy in the Modern World").
==Man and Material Creation: Practical Aspects==
Within the liturgical context, the Church provides prayers for the blessing of material goods: homes, crops, vehicles. There are prayers asking for rain and for deliverance from earthquakes and other calamities. We see the presence of God everywhere in creation and we ask for His help in every endeavour. Partially in acknowledgment of that fact and partially in response to the ecological crisis, Monk Gerasimos of the Skete of Saint Anne has composed a Vespers for the preservation of creation. Even earlier, in 1934, Metropolitan Tryphon Turkestanov had composed an [[Akathist ]] in Praise of God's Creation.
Additionally, the prayers of the Lesser Blessing of the Waters include the following petitions:
In the prayer of sanctification of the same service, the priest asks: "do You, the same Lord and King Who loves mankind, Who has granted to us to clothe ourselves in the garment of snowy whiteness, by water and by Spirit: send down on us Your blessing, and through the partaking of this water, through sprinkling with it, wash away the defilement of passions."
These services and prayers illustrate one necessary aspect of our relationship with creation: prayer for the well-being and sanctification of the world. It is our role as mediators between creation and God to ask for God's action in behalf of the world which "not of its own will" has been subjected to corruption. (Archimandrite Vasileios, "Monasticism and Ecology", cf. Rom Romans 8:20).
God's action in creation and creation's role in our journey towards God culminate in the gifts of bread and wine which are brought forth to be consecrated to become the Holy Body and Blood of Christ. In the [[Eucharist]], man, as the priest of creation, offers creation back to the Creator and then receives it back sanctified and transformed into the very God to Whom it was offered. As Orthodox we believe that the Eucharist sanctifies the whole creation. As Fr. Emmanuel Clapsis has said, in the Eucharist we embrace in prayer the whole creation and no longer seek our salvation apart from the world.
In practical terms, we need to remember that the environmental problem is directly related to other ethical issues. While there are several actions which have a direct effect on the environmental problem (e.g., recycling, re-use of materials such as plastic bags), the greater issue of the environment encompasses many facets of life.
The report "Orthodox Perspectives on Creation" states that "the contemporary world must repent for the abuses which we have imposed upon the natural world. In this context, we need to remember the Orthodox concept of repentance (metanoia), which implies a complete change of heart. We need, therefore, not only to acknowledge our past mistakes, but to take action first to stop further abuses, and then, wherever possible, to revert the damage already done. As Fr. Stanley Harakas states in "The Integrity of Creation: Ethical Issues:" "[h]umanity must come to see itself as intimately related to the non-human creation, to see itself as one with it in deep and profound community with it." (Harakas, ''The Integrity of Creation: Ethical Issues'', "In Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation," p.79)
We started this look at an Orthodox perspective on environmental ethics by looking at the accusation that Christianity bears a great share of the responsibility for the current environmental problem. However, we have seen that the sanctification of creation is part and parcel of the mission of Christianity. Our attitude towards creation is well summarized by St. [[John of Damascus ]] "I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who willed to take His abode in matter, who worked out my salvation through matter. Never will I cease honoring the matter which wrought my salvation! I honor it, but not as God... [but] because God has filled it with His grace and power." (On the Divine Images 1.16)
==Articles on Environmental Issues==
==Books==
*''The churchChurch, the liturgyLiturgy, and the soul Soul of man Man : the Mystagogia of St. Maximus the Confessor'', by St. Maximos Maximus the Confessor, (St. Bede's Publications 1982)*''Cosmic Man: The Divine Presence : An Analysis of the Place and Role of the Human Race in the Cosmos, in Relation to God and the Historical World, in the Thought of St. Gregory of Nyssa (ca. 330 to ca. 395 A.D.)'', by Paulos Gregorios (Paragon House, 1988) (ISBN 0913757918)
*''Ecology and monasticism'' by Archimadrite Vasileios of Stavronikita (Alexander Press 1996) (ISBN 1896800025)
*''The Human Presence : An Orthodox View of Nature'', by Paulos Gregorios (WCC, 1978) (ISBN 2825405752)
*''Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation: Insights from Orthodox'', Gennadios Limouris, Ed.(WCC Publications, 1990) (ISBN 2825409790)
*''Man and the cosmos Cosmos : the vision Vision of St. Maximus the Confessor'', by Lars Thunberg (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press 1985) (ISBN 0881410195)
*''Man and the Environment: a Study of St. Symeon the New Theologian'', by Anestes Keselopoulos (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2001) (ISBN 088141221X)
*''On the Divine Images'', by St. John of Damascus (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1980) (ISBN 0913836621)
