The Spiritual Roots of the Ecological Crisis

Description

Man is to accomplish in knowledge and love
that to which all creatures strive unconsciously, instinctively and without
unity.

It is sometimes the case that Christians will dismiss concerns over the
environment and the catastrophic effects of climate change, as so many of the
prominent voices who most vociferously warn about this tend to also advocate a
wider worldview frequently antithetical to Christian teachings. Noted Orthodox
philosopher and scholar Jean-Claude Larchet addresses this tendency by rooting
concern for the environment within a historic Christian understanding of the
role of and relationship between man and the natural world. He sets ecology in a
spiritual context based on an Orthodox Christian cosmology and ascetical
theology: the crisis at its source stems from a loss of the spiritual values and
behaviors that have traditionally underpinned the relationship between man and
nature. By elaborating on how we have come to the present crisis point, he is
able to propose principles and actions deeply rooted in an Orthodox Christian
ethos to remedy it.