The response of Eastern Orthodox religious leaders and theologians to the environmental crisis is deeply theological.   It is shaped by the Orthodox understanding that humanity and nature have both their origin and their destiny in God. The teaching and practice of the early centuries of the Christian church constitutes the foundation of Eastern Orthodox theology. Creation and redemption, Christ and the cosmos, humanity and the natural world are intimately related, and these relationships are the frame within which the contemporary environmental crisis is seen. Forms of worship and spiritual practices also profoundly inform the Orthodox understanding of humanity's role in healing the disrupted integrity of the earth.

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. )