Creation and the Heart of Man: An Orthodox Christian Perspective on Environmentalism

by Michael Butler, Andrew P. Morriss

Rooted in the Tradition of the Orthodox Church and its teaching on the relationship between God, humanity, and all creation, Fr. Michael Butler and Prof. Andrew Morriss offer a new contribution to Orthodox environmental theology. Too often policy recommendations from theologians and Church authorities have taken the form of pontifications, obscuring many important economic and public policy realities. The authors establish a framework for responsible engagement with environmental issues undergirded not only by Church teaching but also by sound economic analysis. Creation and the Heart of Man uniquely takes the discussion of Orthodox environmental ethics from abstract principles to thoughtful interaction with the concrete, sensitive to the inviolability of human dignity, the plight of the poor, and our common destiny of communion with God.

102 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2013

Reviews

[Saint Katherine BookstoreVA]

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I has become a leading figure in the international environmental movement and his engagement on creation care has elevated the issue among the Orthodox. Creation and the Heart of Man is a noteworthy addition toward deepening this conversation among ourselves and all Christians, as well how we address secularists.

Butler and Morriss open the book claiming that most pertinent Orthodox thinking, including that coming from the Patriarchate, is too closely aligned with secular environmentalism’s left-of-center theories. The authors believe that these mainstream ideas that fail to include “sound economic analysis” on the balance between environmentalism and the economic growth needed to lift up the impoverished. In the authors’ opinion, free-market considerations are largely marginalized and in their place, ill-considered solutions are offered for issues such as coalfired electric plants.

However, the authors’ critiques and assumptions can’t be fairly evaluated given their limited treatment with the book and in fact, pale when compared to the main thrust of this slim volume: the absolute centrality of man within God’s created order as discussed within Eastern Christian
theology and how that should inform the Christian’s relation to the natural world and the modernist movements to protect it.

Man’s role, then, as a microcosm is in service to his role as mediator of the salvation of the whole creation. That is, the idea of man as microcosm is linked to a task of mediation, of unifying through himself, the disparate elements of creation. Man is not simply to be a microcosm, as an image or icon of the world; rather, he is to function as one, as well: to gather up into himself all the varied elements of the created order, mortal and immortal, rational and irrational beings, and so forth, as well as to offer them up to God. (p.35)

This is where the book shines, as a succinct and (hopefully) compelling argument affirmed by the teachings of Church Fathers and theologians across the ages, most notably St. Maximos the Confessor and St. Gregory Palamas. Footnotes cite the works referenced so the reader can access the source material.

An analogy might best describe the truest vision emerging from the book: one can view photographs of the earth taken from space, think “wow” and be left unchanged. Seeing the same thing from the porthole of a space ship, however, is typically described as transformational. If
Christians can go beyond just reading the words and become truly transfigured through the Church’s long-held understanding of our place in the Cosmos, we could go a
long way towards healing the divisive rhetoric and transforming the interrelated issues of creation care, good governance, wealth and poverty.

[David Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done

A nice summary of ideas. As a Christian (though not Orthodox myself) I appreciate the notion that we are called on to steward and use the resources of the earth wisely and for the benefit of our fellow man. So using fossil fuels is not immoral, but we have a duty to create cleaner methods of using it. Lots of interesting ideas that I will explore further.

[Sylvia Jeronimo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this little book. Succinct, deep and inspirational. A christian response to ecology based not on good intentions or misdirected efforts captured by a godless society; but an anthropological study of the relationship that man has with his environment in relation to the worship of God.