Christian Perspectives on the Environment

by Doru Costache

On Thursday, 12 May 2016, I participated in a seminar, Christian Perspectives on the Environment, organised at St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College (a member institution of the Sydney College of Divinity). The other speakers have been Professor Jonathan Wooding (The University of Sydney), who offered the paper ‘Saints and Nature in the Celtic Tradition,’ and Dr Philip Kariatlis (St Andrew’s), who introduced the audience to the relevant contributions of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. I contributed a paper titled ‘Insights from the Eastern Monastic Tradition,’ where I dealt with Egyptian and Palestinian illustrations. Partly, my paper made use of information borrowed from an article which I published in the same year, ‘John Moschus on Asceticism and the Environment,’ which focuses on the cosmic mentality and the environmental awareness of the Palestinian monks in the sixth century. Below are the video recording of the three talks talk. My own is followed by the accompanying slides. The three talks point out the fact that, traditionally, Christians have not been insensitive to nature, as they allegedly have been. On the contrary, the early and medieval Christians, and to some extent Orthodox Christianity to date, have shown a deep appreciation for God’s creation.

Philip Kariatlis’ talk.

Johnathan Wooding’s talk.

My talk.

 

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