By Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis
Scripture and the Fathers
When we think of the term stewardship, we frequently consider only matters of financial support. The prevalent rendering of the term oikonomia as “stewardship” or “economy” is not very illuminating as it provides both a linguistic as well as conceptual reduction of this critical and originally Biblical word. In so doing, however, we have narrowed the scope of the Bible’s teaching and neglected the depth of our Church’s tradition about our place and role in the world, indeed at a time when these are more vital and critical than ever before.
If we turn to the Church Fathers, we see that they attribute the highest importance to oikonomia (stewardship or economy), which in their eyes implied a broader and more inclusive concept of revelation and salvation, identified with God’s vision and desire to save the world. For our great theological teachers and spiritual masters, economy in fact refers to our very salvation by the all-embracing love of God for all humankind and to the universal compassion of the Creator for all creation. Somewhere along the line, we unfortunately shrunk the theme of “stewardship” to purely monetary terms that primarily include making contributions to philanthropic organizations — probably as a result of a narrow interpretation of scripture, and possibly as a result of the rigid focus of modern society.
All of this invariably affects not just our understanding of the moral obligation that we have toward one another as human beings, but also inevitably distorts the worldview that shapes our moral responsibility toward creation. By limiting our attention to divine commandments for human compassion, we have invariably excised from scripture the clear mandate to creation care. Yet, these two dimensions of Christian life are integrally interrelated; one cannot have human progress without ecological preservation. The way we treat God’s creation in nature essentially reflects the way we respect human beings created “in the image and likeness of God.” The reality is that we should respond to nature with the same tenderness that we respond to people. All of our spiritual activities are ultimately measured by their impact on the natural creation; just as all of our ecological choices are finally evaluated by their effect on the poor.
The Sin of Neglect; the Arrogance of Domination
It is no wonder, then, that our Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew surprised the theological and secular worlds alike when he identified carelessness or indifference to the natural environment as tantamount to sin. It is plainly wrong to regard sin as the negative impact of our behavior on other people, whether individually or collectively, while disregarding the ecological and cosmological consequences of our actions (or inaction). As His All-Holiness remarked at Santa Barbara in 1997:
For humans to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation, for humans to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, stripping the earth of its natural forests, or destroying its wetlands . . . for humans to contaminate the earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life with poisonous substances — all these are sins.
The vocation and covenant to cherish and care for the creation is the principal reason for which God placed Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (Genesis 2.15), namely “to till and keep it” — a phrase I like to translate (based more closely and literally on the Greek translation of the Septuagint) as “to serve and preserve it.” It has not, of course, helped in the least that we have also misconstrued the Biblical term “dominion” (in Genesis 1.28 and Psalm 8.5-8) as “domination” in an unashamedly self-centered and self-serving manner; after all, “dominion belongs only to the Lord.” (Psalm 22.28) Any dominion over the creation implies ruling in accordance with the love, peace, and justice of the Creator. Whether for fear of pagan idolatry or out of a sense of arrogant selfishness, there is no doubt that — over the centuries and in our own lives — we have overemphasized the unique role of humanity. Anthropocentrism is an entrancing temptation to which we are all guilty of submitting at one time or another, and which has detrimentally burdened our perspective and practice. “The whole of creation has been groaning together in pain until now, inwardly awaiting its liberation by the children of God.” (Rom. 8.22-23)
~Reverend Dr. John Chryssavgis, stewardship@GOARCH.ORG. The Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis is an author and theologian, who serves as advisor to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on environmental issues.
Further Reading
For further information on this subject, consult the Orthodox Fellowship of the Transfiguration, a ministry officially endorsed by the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops: http://www.orth-transfiguration.org/
For details on how to achieve greater awareness and environmental action in your community, see F. Krueger (ed.), Greening the Orthodox Parish: A Handbook for Christian Ecological Practice, CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2012 (www.CreateSpace.com, book number 3776415). Also available from http://www.amazon.com; and The Orthodox Fellowship of the Transfiguration, c/o 887 Sebastopol Road, Suite A, Santa Rosa, CA 95407-6828.
For a comprehensive list of (over 2000) scriptural passages highlighting creation care and ecological stewardship, see The Green Bible, HarperOne, 2008.
