• An Eastern Orthodox Response

In the created world only the human being combines material and spiritual elements. 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.” )