Orthodoxy & Creation
Orthodoxy, Ecology & the Bible
Orthodoxy by nature is supremely ecological. This is because the Bible is filled with guidance and admonitions about the care and keeping of God’s creation. We are told to take good care of the earth, but it is not ours; it remains the Lord’s earth.
Our liturgical writings reflect this too. When we sing, “As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ...”, it follows that as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on a concern for the redemption and transformation of Christ’s good creation, because that is the purpose of His Incarnation.
Similarly, every morning at Matins the Orthodox Church begins the new day by praying, “O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, come and abide in us and cleanse us from all impurity and save our souls, O Good One”. This prayer acknowledges that the Holy Spirit fills all things. As we go through our day, everything we do takes place “in Christ” and before the Holy Spirit. Like fish in the ocean, we live in a sea of the living presence of the Holy Spirit.
Even The Lord’s Prayer has ecological meaning. Don't we pray, “...Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven”? Saint John Chrysostom in his commentary on this phrase informs us that this means we look to the patterns of heaven in order to discern how we live in this world.
All of these concepts have supremely ecological meaning for us Orthodox. They declare that if one is Orthodox, then one is also an ecologist, i.e., concerned about God’s creation. If this sounds surprising or radical, it may be because care of creation has been overlooked as an essential theme in the Bible. But even a casual reading of the Bible will show that from the first chapter of Genesis through the last chapter of the Book of Revelation, there is a relentless ecological stream flowing through Scripture’s pages that mandates care and a right human relationship toward God’s creation.
In a survey of the Bible’s 16,500 verses, theologians have counted over 2,000 passages that deal with the land, food, mountains, desert, animals or some aspect of the earth. We must conclude therefore that if a person loves God, that person must also respect what God has created – the Earth. Doesn’t the Bible bluntly explain the reason for Christ’s Incarnation as “For God so loved the world” (John 3:16)? In our human arrogance we have too often restricted this passage to mean God’s love for us humans, and while this is true, a literal reading of the Greek text makes clear that God loves the entire cosmos, not only humanity.
If some Christians stumble over this statement, perhaps it is because the secular culture, with its emphasis on the manipulation and domination of nature, obscures the message of creation care. In earlier centuries when people lived close to the Earth, the connection between our Orthodox faith and the land was more readily grasped, because ecological sensitivity was woven into the fabric of traditional culture.
Our Lord Jesus Christ and the prophets before him were certainly connected to the Earth, as evidenced in Scripture. In our day, the patriarchs of the Orthodox Church are speaking with one voice as they respond to the needs of our time as well as the timeless message of Scripture, as they call us into a more vigorous response to the ecological issues of our day.
If some Orthodox Christians do not recognize the Bible’s message on creation care, perhaps it is also because in the West, for at least the past four or five centuries (roughly since the rise of science and technology), there has been a declining concern for the historic Christian doctrines of creation. Part of this is due to the Calvinist (Protestant) separation of Christ from the material creation and the degree to which this false vision has shaped industrial society. Another part may relate to the decline of Christian values within the secular culture.
Regardless of why these basic Church doctrines have faded from prominence, it is vital now to discern the signs of the times. In our day the world’s most respected scientific institutions are warning society about mounting dangers from climate change; toxic contamination of air, water and food; the loss of species diversity; the accumulation of toxic nuclear wastes; the destruction of the tropical rainforests – the “lungs” of the planet; the collapse of major fisheries; and the rise of new diseases, to mention only a few of the many conditions, caused or contributed to by human actions, which are spreading across our world.
As these tangible threats to the biological and ecological integrity of creation grow, so does the importance of the Biblical teaching about right human relationship to the Earth – which we have too much disregarded. Thankfully, some parishes are beginning to provide educational materials for their parishioners to begin to change how we live. This is a positive and praiseworthy development and these efforts are to be encouraged and supported.
However, we should be aware that it is not only the physical environment which is under intensifying assault. The same materialistic and godless view that degrades God’s creation is also coarsening culture, promoting a consumerist mentality, and corrupting the social and political processes upon which stable democracy depends.
Among those concerned for our environment, the realization is growing that neither legislation nor technology by themselves can heal the problems that we face. This is because these conditions, as the Scriptures declare, are first and foremost spiritual and ethical ones. If there is to be substantial healing of the Earth, it must emerge from the human heart. The Biblical message then, is that the sinful attitudes within people that have spawned the present plague of environmental abuses must be confronted. A comprehensive approach to healing the Earth must go deep into the psychological and spiritual roots of our predicament to heal the very heart and soul of our cancerous culture.
For people to translate their faith into right action, we need repentance. To support this, we also need an integrated Biblical and patristic teaching, comprehensively and rightly understood, shorn of individualistic and anti-cosmic biases, and coupled with careful and sound scientific analysis. It is to this purpose that the Orthodox Fellowship of the Transfiguration is dedicated. No more crucial task exists at this time than awakening Christ’s Church to the mandate to care for the Earth.
For Orthodox Christians, the mandate of creation care is not just an occasion to get to work. It is also a test of whether we will hear and obey what Jesus Christ teaches – through the Scriptures, the Fathers and our Church leaders. If we can hear this message, we will discern more than a call to environmental protection. We will hear a call to respect and transfigure the Earth. If we can rise up to fulfill this holy mandate, it will touch and transform every facet of our lives and communities. This includes how we look at food, how we use clothing, how we design our housing, what we do for recreation, in short it addresses every aspect of how we live our lives.
The Orthodox Church may be society’s last best hope for healing the Earth. Nevertheless, despite our deep and profound Orthodox teaching on creation, its care and keeping, too many Orthodox still slumber soundly in their lack of awareness of responsibility for God’s creation. In this regard Eastern Orthodox Christianity represents a “sleeping giant,” not only on human responsibility for creation care, but on responsibility for all of culture and society that we create from within All Creation. A first duty, therefore, for all of us is to work together to help awaken this giant of creation care, an awakening that begins in our own lives through our own prayer, thinking and behavior.
