The Religious Aspect of the Global Ecological Crisis

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleРелигиозный аспект глобального экологического кризиса
3. Language term Russian
4. lemma author Asliturk, Miriam
5. lemma category Ecology and the environment - Ecumenism and dialogue > Westernism and anti-westernism
6. Publication date 07-08-2018
7. lemma work Клименко, О. И. [Author]. Религиозный аспект глобального экологического кризиса
8. lemma manifestations Вестник Московского государственного лингвистического университета
9. Keywords Anthropocentrism - ecological crisis - spiritual crisis - Russian Orthodoxy - paganism - globalisation - environmental protection - consumerism - protestantism - ethics - morality
10. Url Click Here
11. Citations
    1. <p>Клименко, О. И. (2015). Религиозный аспект глобального экологического кризиса. <em>Вестник Московского государственного лингвистического университета</em>, (5 (716)).</p>
12. Lemma body

    1. The article analyzes the global ecological crisis using an Orthodox perspective. It views it as a consequence of a spiritual crisis, which also manifests itself in the field of linguistics, specifically in the process of simplification of the language system. The author points out that the process of globalization leads to the formation of an international language and international slang. Simplification and destruction of language then leads to the destruction of the personality of an individual and of civilization as a whole. Attempts to solve these problems have been unsuccessful as they have ignored the spiritual aspect.

       The author argues that environmental crises at all times were the consequences of spiritual crises, and human history in this sense represents a "great textbook of ecology." The liberal-democratic philosophers (Arnold Toynbee, Leslie White, Theodore Roszak) have mistakenly accused Christianity and Judaism of proclaiming the primacy of man over nature and thus of being responsible for the environmental crisis. This approach also created fertile ground for the development of neo-paganism and neo-luddism, promoting a return to pagan beliefs and unity with nature. This neo-paganism, known under the name of ecologism, proclaims the "cult of nature" and its primacy over the human life. This is reflected in the idea of regulating population growth, in other words - the reduction of the population because of the "limited resources" put forward by the Club of Rome. This position, according to the author, is in fact aimed at the survival of the world elite (the so-called golden billion) at the expense of poor countries (where abortion and chemical contraception are promoted). This ideology is thus intrinsically fascist.

       The author brings attention to the inconsistency of criticism of Christianity and its alleged anthropocentrism which stems from the ignorance of the history of this religion. He stresses the original deep ecological character of the Christian faith. Christianity sees the world as its home. This essentially ecological vision can be found in the evangelical parable of the faithful householder, where man is represented as the master of a large house (metaphor for the world) for which he is responsible.

       In the Orthodox view, all environmental problems have as their deep-seated reason the distortion of the moral basis of man's primacy over nature, which took place during the Renaissance and was further reinforced during the Enlightenment era. Reformation and the emergence of Protestantism also played a particularly negative role: they destroyed the moral and legal limitations of the Catholic world, promoted private enterprise and a consumerist attitude to nature. The author concludes by stating that Orthodoxy has always preached self-restraint and a respectful attitude to nature. In this way even today Orthodoxy can indicate to humanity a real way out of the ecological crisis.