The Triune God and Creation
. . . The created world itself is a 'mystery' originating in the sovereign will of God accomplished by the action of the Holy Trinity. . . ."In the beginning" the Holy Trinity created the world (heaven and earth) "out of nothing" and not out of preexistent matter. The world is a production of God's free will, goodness, wisdom, love and omnipotence. God did not create the world in order to satisfy some need of His. Rather he created it without compulsion and without force in order that it might enjoy His blessings and share in His goodness. God then brought all things into being out of nothing, creating both the visible and the invisible. ("Orthodox Perspectives on Creation," Report of the World Council of Churches Inter-Orthodox Consultation, Sofia, Bulgaria, 1987, I.1, 4.)
The Goodness and Integrity of Creation
The world as cosmos, i.e. a created order with its own integrity, is a positive reality. It is the good work of the good God (Gen. 1), made by God for the blessed existence of humanity. . . . The genesis of the cosmos, being in becoming, is a mystery (mysterion) for the human mind, a genesis produced by the Word of God. As such, the world is a revelation of God (Rom. 1:19-20). Thus, when its intelligent inhabitants see it as cosmos, they come to learn about the Divine wisdom and the Divine energies. The cosmos is a coherent whole, a created synthesis, because all its elements are united and interrelated in time and space. A serious study of the mystery of creation, through faith, prayer, meditation and science, will make a positive contribution to the recognition of the integrity of creation. ("Orthodox Perspectives on Creation," I.6.)
The Destiny of Creation
The value of the creation is seen not only in the fact that it is intrinsically good, but also in the fact that it is appointed by God to be the home for living beings. The value of the natural creation is revealed in the fact that it was made for God (something which is beautifully expressed in Orthodox iconography), i.e. to be the context for God's Incarnation and humankind's deification, and as such, the beginning of the actualization of the Kingdom of God. We may say that the cosmos provides the stage upon which humankind moves from creation to deification. Ultimately, however, the whole of the creation is destined to become a transfigured world, since the salvation of humankind necessarily involves the salvation of its natural home, the cosmos. ("Orthodox Perspectives on Creation," I.7. )
The Human Place in Creation
In the created world only the human being combines material and spiritual elements. Human existence is thus differentiated from non-human creation in a qualitative way. In light of this fact, the Church Fathers often speak of the human being as a "little world," a "microcosm" of the whole of the creation. . . . This means that the natural world is fully integrated with the human being and the whole of the creation. At the same time humanity, created in God's image and likeness, transcends the material world because it participates in God spiritually and consciously, unlike the rest of the creation. Humankind then stands on the boundary between the material and the spiritual worlds as a connecting link. . . . We are called to exercise dominion over all creatures on earth (cf. Gen. 1:28), i.e. to be stewards of God's material world, caring for it, maintaining it in its integrity and perfecting it by opening it up to God. . . . ("Orthodox Perspectives on Creation," I.9.-11.)
Human Sin and the Environmental Crisis
The human fall . . . which was essentially a sinful exercising of human freedom, introduced forces of disintegration into the body of creation. Humanity experienced a two-fold alienation. On the one hand, it was estranged from the Creator, since Adam and Eve tended to hide themselves away from the sight of God (cf. Gen. 3:8) as their communion with the source of life and light was broken. On the other hand, humanity lost its capacity to enter into a proper relation with nature and with the body of the creation. Enmity between the natural world and human beings replaced the relationship of harmony and care. Domination and exploitation of the creation for selfish ends by greedy human beings became the order of history. Thus, manifold forms of disintegration set in which converged in the fact of death and corruption. Fear of death instilled anxiety, acquisitiveness, greed, hatred and despair in human beings. Modern forms of economic exploitation, racial oppression, social inequalities, war, genocide, etc. are all consequences of the fear of death and collective signs of death. ("Orthodox Perspectives on Creation," II.13.)
Human Redemption and the Redemption of Creation in Christ
God's will, wisdom and love for the creation in general and for humankind in particular are revealed in the Incarnation in an inexpressible way. . . . One of the Trinity . . . became Incarnate, became man, revealing his Lordship over the whole of the creation, and showing humanity a Lordship in stewardship and service. . . . Through the Incarnation of the Word of God human beings can enter again into a relation with their Creator which restores them in the divine image and enables them both to secure their being and to regain the lost condition of their well-being. It is in this context of the salvation which is offered by God in Christ not only for human beings but also for the whole of the creation that human beings have a special responsibility to exercise their freedom in a way which serves God's gracious activity for the reintegration and transfiguration of all reality. ("Orthodox Perspectives on Creation," I.12, II.15.)
Eucharistic Response
. . . The created world is not simply our possession but it is a gift — a gift from God the Creator, a healing gift, a gift of wonder and beauty — and that our proper response, on receiving such a gift, is to accept it with gratitude and thanksgiving. This is surely the distinctive characteristic of ourselves as human beings: humankind is not merely a logical or a political animal, but above all a "eucharistic animal" [Greek eucharistos, grateful], capable of gratitude and endowed with the power to bless God for the gift of creation. Other animals express their gratefulness simply by being themselves, by living in the world in their own instinctive manner; but we human beings possess self-awareness, and so consciously and by deliberate choice we can thank God with eucharistic joy. Without such thanksgiving we are not truly human. (Patriarch Bartholomew I, "Sacrifice: The Missing Dimension"(PDF).)
Ecological Asceticism
When we speak of asceticism, we think of such things as fasting, vigils and rigorous practices. That is indeed part of what is involved; but askesis signifies much more than this. It means that, in relation to the environment, we are to display what the Philokalia and other spiritual texts of the Orthodox Church call enkrateia, "self-restraint." That is to say, we are to practice a voluntary self-limitation in our consumption of food and natural resources. Each of us is called to make the crucial distinction between what we want and what we need. Only through such self-denial, through our willingness sometimes to forgo and to say "no" or "enough" will we rediscover our true human place in the universe. (Patriarch Bartholomew I, "Sacrifice: The Missing Dimension"(PDF).)
