The View of the Ecological Problem from Orthodoxy and the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Initiatives

  1. Lemma
  2. Η θεώρηση του οικολογικού προβλήματος από την Ορθοδοξία και οι πρωτοβουλίες του Οικουμενικού Πατριαρχείου
  3. Katsiampoura, Gianna
  4. Ecology and the environment
  5. 18-01-2018
  6. Μητρούλης, Απόστολος [Author]. The View of the Ecological Problem from Orthodoxy and the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Initiatives
  7. The View of the Ecological Problem from Orthodoxy and the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Initiatives
  8. ecological crisis - environmental protection - religion and ecology - Orthodox Church
    1. <p>Mitroulis, Apostolos, Η θεώρηση του οικολογικού προβλήματος από την Ορθοδοξία και οι πρωτοβουλίες του Οικουμενικού Πατριαρχείου (The View of the Ecological Problem from Orthodoxy and the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Initiatives), Hellenic Open University, Patra 2008</p>

    1. This MA thesis has a basic principle: The man is closely connected with the natural environment, since he lives in it and his survival depends on it.

      But, as the writer, Apostolos Mitroulis, says, in recent years

      the thoughtless and irresponsible exploitation of the

      environment has created the ecological problem, which threatens

      not only the life of the man, but of the entire creation.

      According Mitroulis, for the orthodox theology, the material world is not eternal and

      self-existent, as the Greek philosophy supported, but it constitutes

      the creation made by an eternal and transcendental God, who

      through his absolute love and freedom created everything out

      from nothing. In this natural environment, called Paradise, the

      God created and placed the man, so long as he works and protects

      1. This divine command constitutes the first ecological term, since

      the man’s main concern is the protection of the environment. The

      right of work and exploitation of the environment is connected

      immediately with the duty of its protection.

      For Mitroulis, the crisis in the man‘s relation with the environment and the

      perturbation of harmony are results of the Fall and the sin of man,

      since he arrogantly became himself autonomous from the God and

      he began to see the creation utilitarianly. The ecological crisis

      constitutes the reflection of the man’s crisis with himself. The

      confused, from the passions, mind of modern egoistic person

      causes the bad use and management of the creation.

      So, in writer’s opinion, today, the ecological problem should not be considered only as

      a result of the technological culture, the economic development

      and the overconsumerism, but it should be considered mainly as a

      spiritual problem, that is owed to the man’s religious alienation

      and estrangement from the God. Moreover, Mitroulis asks how can the man love the

      creation, when he does not love the God-Creator. The modern

      man, acting as an individual and not as a person, has replaced the

      God with the profit and the genuine happiness with the material

      prosperity and for this he exploits the nature thoughtlessly,

      banishing its sanctity.

      Mitroulis continues explaining the thesis of Orthodox Church. For him, the Orthodox Church, with its functional life and Trandition,

      proves that it constitutes a factual ecology and it proposes the

      thanksgiving and the ascetic ethos for the confrontation of the

      problem. The asceticism constitutes a necessary movement for the

      ecological problem, because since by this the man is limited in

      necessary ones and he is released from the unnecessary ones.

      Finally, the writer presents the role of Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Ecumenical Patriarchate, as the primary Church and

      institution of Orthodoxy, with various actions and initiatives

      expresses its interest for the ecological problem and for the life on

      the planet and it faces positively the collaboration with the Science,

      for the protection of the environment as well. By its ecumenical

      reasoning, it calls the autonomous man of today to return to God,

      to remove his modern malicious mask and to become a person,

      who means love and society with the God, the fellowman and the

      natural environment.

      Mitroulis’ conclusion is that only with the ethos of person, the man will

      realize the value of nature, as divine creation, and he will learn to

      use it with respect and love.