trees Archives - Saint Sophia

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part V)

09/05/2014

There are five instances in the New Testament in which “tree” is used for the cross on which Jesus was crucified: three in Acts (5:30, 10:39, 13:29), one in Galatians (3:13) and one in First Peter (2:24). Remarkably, each of these texts is a kerygmatic paradigm—that is to say, each is a unique divine moment filled by the Holy Spirit in which the Spirit-directed and empowered preaching of the Good News revealed the form and

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part IV)

09/04/2014

Restoring this Christian unitive vision of creation as a cosmic sacrament points us to the Iconic Tree. The Iconic Tree The mystery of life is that even the life of fallen nature partakes somehow of the Life beyond life, even though without redemption access to the Tree of Life remains blocked by separation, sin and death. As a great saint of the early Church, Dionysios the Areopagite wrote in his enormously influential work, The Divine

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part III)

09/03/2014

The Symbolic Tree What we are calling “the natural tree” represents the Scriptural expression of Biblical culture’s awareness of the intrinsic value of trees and of the central role played by trees in ecological balance, as well as the human use of trees for food, shelter, trade and commerce to satisfy the needs of the body. The “metaphoric tree” represents the figurative use of trees for the purpose of education, moral instruction, and the inculcation

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part II)

09/02/2014

Characteristically, Scripture uses the image of trees and forests in three basic ways, plus a subsuming fourth, which represent respectively three kinds of the Scriptural tree, corresponding roughly to the Pauline trichotomy of body, soul and spirit, plus a transcending fourth, representing the presence of the Holy Spirit that is “everywhere present and fillest all things.” We may call these three types of tree usages the Natural Tree, the Metaphoric Tree and the Symbolic Tree.

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part I)

09/01/2014

By Vincent Rossi “Whoever does not love trees, does not love God.” This was the teaching of the renowned Greek Orthodox monk, Elder Amphilochios of Patmos (1888-1970). According to Orthodox scholar Bishop Kallistos Ware, Fr. Amphilochios was an ecologist long before environmental concern became fashionable. “Do you know,” the elder said, “that God gave us one more commandment, which is not recorded in Scripture? It is the commandment, “Love the trees.” When you plant a

Archive

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part V)

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part IV)

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part III)

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part II)

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part I)

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