Τhe Beginning of the Day. The Orthodox approach to Creation

  1. Lemma
  2. Ἀρχή Ἡμέρας. Ἡ ὀρθόδοξη προσέγγιση τῆς Δημιουργίας
  3. Greek, Modern (1453-)
  4. Delli, Eudoxie
  5. Key thinkers - Orthodox Anthropology - Ecology and the environment
  6. 28-1-2017
  7. Ware, (Metropolitan) Kallistos [Author]. Ἀρχή Ἡμέρας. Ἡ ὀρθόδοξη προσέγγιση τῆς Δημιουργίας [Τhe Beginning of the Day. The Orthodox approach to Creation]
  8. : Ἀρχή Ἡμέρας. Ἡ ὀρθόδοξη προσέγγιση τῆς Δημιουργίας [Τhe Beginning of the Day. The Orthodox approach to Creation] - Ἰωάννινα [Ιοannina]: Ἱερόν Προσκύνημα Ἁγίου Γεωργίου τοῦ ἐν Ἰωαννίνοις [Shrine of Neomartyr George of Ioannina], 2007.
  9. Maximus the Confessor - St Dionysius the Areopagite - Saint Ephrem the Syrian
    1. <p>Ware, (Metropolitan) K. (2007). <em>Ἀρχή Ἡμέρας. Ἡ ὀρθόδοξη προσέγγιση τῆς Δημιουργίας</em> [<em>Τhe Beginning of the Day. The Orthodox approach to Creation</em>]. Ἰωάννινα : Ἱερόν Προσκύνημα Ἁγίου Γεωργίου τοῦ ἐν Ἰωαννίνοις [Ιοannina: Shrine of Neomartyr George of Ioannina].</p>

    1. Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia begins his book (a bilingual edition) with the liturgical concept of time and the idea of man, created in God’s image and likeness, as animal endowed with the vocation of offering the world back to God in a continuing act of joyful doxology. Then he investigates why God created the world, inspired by the Bible and the patristic tradition (Maximos the Confessor and St Dionysius the Areopagite). He interprets Creation, not as once-for-all event in the past, but as a continuing relationship in the present. The Fall of Creation is not total; the created order is still a sacrament of the divine presence.

      In this perspective, he discusses the ecological crisis emphasizing on the fact that the basic problem is not technological or economic but spiritual. For this reason, it necessitates a ‘change of mind’, a kind of deep and meaningful conversion. In order to bring to light the ideal relationship of human beings to the Creation, the author mentions and analyzes three commonly used words in the Christian tradition: King, steward and priest. Man has to assume this threefold mission in his daily life. The ecological crisis can be resolved only through willingness to practice self-limitation in the consumption of all natural resources with an ‘ascetic spirit’, understood in its broadest and fundamental sense, of great simplicity, responsibility, sacrifice and love.

      With the aim to underline that Man is not saved from but with the world, the author concludes by recalling several passages of the Bible in which is indicated how every part of the created natural world (heavens, stars, earth, water, vegetal and animal world) played a part in the story of Christ’s life and death.