Orthodox View of the Problems of Ecology (Moral and Religious Problems of Ecological Culture)

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleПравославный взгляд на проблемы экологии (нравственные и религиозные проблемы экологической культуры)
3. Language term Russian
4. lemma author Asliturk, Miriam
5. lemma category Ecology and the environment
6. Publication date 12-07-2018
7. lemma work Кудрина, О. И. [Author]. Православный взгляд на проблемы экологии (нравственные и религиозные проблемы экологической культуры)
8. lemma manifestations Вестник славянских культур
9. Keywords Russian Orthodoxy - ecological consciousness - ecological crisis - sustainable development - morality - materialism - Orthodox spirituality - technology and spirituality - ascetism - monasticism
10. Url Click Here
11. Citations
    1. <p>Кудрина, О. И., & Евдокимов, А. Ю. (2008). Православный взгляд на проблемы экологии (нравственные и религиозные проблемы экологической культуры).<em> Вестник славянских культур</em>, X (3-4), 206-213.</p>
12. Lemma body

    1.  in solvi

       The article argues that the measures taken to resolve the current ecological crisis, in particular the concept of "sustainable development" (as developed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992) are inconsistent. The authors calls attention to the fact that the world community seeks a solution to the crisis in socioeconomic transformations, whereas historical experience demonstrates that the way out of the ecological crisis is possible only through a transformation in the spiritual sphere. They maintain that environmental degradation is directly related to the moral disintegration of society.

       The article shows that two resolutions to the crisis exist: the ecological views of the “liberal-evolutionary tradition” and the Orthodox position. Among the representatives of the liberal-evolutionary worldview, two approaches to the problem of overcoming the crisis can be singled out: technological (changes in technology and economics) and humanitarian (changes in the spiritual sphere).

       The first approach is represented by “engineering ecology” aimed at finding technical solutions to eliminate the negative consequences of economic development - the development of environmental legislation and education, the construction of purification facilities, the introduction of standards for maximum permissible concentrations of contaminants. This way seeks to preserve the ability of the environment to self-recover; regulate population growth; introduce fair and equal resource consumption. The second approach emphasizes the anthropogenic foundation of the environmental crisis. The authors argue that most representatives of this approach prone fictinal or unrealizable solutions (such as the New Age idea of human immigration to other planets). As to the propositions of the Club of Rome, these are depicted as elitist and aimed at saving the so-called “golden billion” at the expense of poor populations.

       The authors believe that only Christianity, and Orthodoxy in particular, is able to propose a feasible solution to the world’s ecological problems. For the Christian consciousness, the miserable state of nature is connected with the scientific and economic activities of man and has at its deepest reason the distortion of the moral basis of man's primacy over nature. The authors point out that the Orthodox tradition, in particular the monastic one, has always been characterized by ascetic tendencies. For Russia, a return to this Orthodox tradition is seen by the authors as the major solution towards the environmental problems.