Scholarship on Faith and the Environment in the Mainline Protestant Denominations

Eastern Orthodox theology, firmly grounded in the theology and philosophy of the first Christian centuries, markedly contrasts with Western Christian traditions, the Eastern and Western streams of Christianity having flowed separately since the 6th Century. Many of the distinctive features of Orthodox theology — such as its thoroughly cosmic understanding of the person and work of Jesus Christ and its view of humanity and nature as bound together in a common story of creation and redemption — have made it particularly receptive to a holistic ecological perspective. In November 1995, an “Orthodox Summit on the Environment” was held in Baltimore, Maryland, which included presentations by Orthodox scholars Stanley Harakas and Vigen Guroian.