Book review: Creation as Sacrament: Reflections on Ecology and Spirituality by John Chryssavgis. New York, T&T Clark. 2019
Religion, too, has been drawn into
this debate. Within Christianity, more evangelical representatives have held a
decidedly anthropocentric view of creation, that creation is meant for the
support and sustenance of human beings and that it is merely the backdrop on
which is worked out the salvation of the human soul. Human beings are
“stewards” of creation who have been given the right of dominion over it by God
for the sake of their needs. However, there has also been a perspective within
Christianity that emphasizes humanity’s link with all creation and sees its
interrelatedness as necessitating a fresh understanding of our collective
responsibility for caring for the earth. While it is true that humanity must
make use of non-human life and inanimate objects for our needs, that in no way
gives us license to abuse and selfishly exploit our world without concern for
all life and for the future. A proper understanding of stewardship leads us to
true care for our world and the determination to use our minds and hearts for
that purpose.
In his book, Creation as Sacrament: Reflections on Ecology and Spirituality,
Orthodox theologian John Chryssavgis comes at this subject out of the richness
of Orthodox tradition and reveals how global warming and the exploitation of
the cosmos is not simply a political issue, but a spiritual issue as well, one
that challenges us to see our connectedness to creation in a way that fosters a
true metanoia, a change of mind and heart. Divided into two sections, one on
theory and theology and the other on Practice, Chryssavgis roots the first part
of his study in a sacramental view of creation, where the material universe in
all its breadth and grandeur points beyond itself to its final destiny of
transformation into the body of Christ. Orthodox Christians (and no doubt
Christians of other denominations) experience this tangibly in our sharing in
the Eucharist. What this allows us to taste is the transcending of a crass
dualistic view of life in which the sacred stands against the profane; instead,
all of life is interrelated in a communion that reveals the God-filledness of
all creation without falling into an erroneous pantheism. By presenting a
thoughtful array of patristic quotations, Chyrssavgis explains how there is a
tension between the transcendent and the immanent that Orthodoxy resolves in
the distinction between God’s unknowable essence and God’s energies. While God
is unknowable in essence, were we to affirm this alone God would be severed
from creation entirely and creation itself would have no ability to mediate the
Divine. Similarly, if we overemphasize God’s immanence in creation then creation
itself becomes divine and loses its reality as created. This is the trap of
pantheism. It is only the paradoxical truth of the essence-energies distinction
that preserves God’s mystery and unknowability at the same time that it takes
serious our experience of God through God’s energies. In subsequent chapters in
the first section Chryssavgis examines how the spirituality of the desert is a
practical expression of this tension, and how an understanding of Divine Sophia
(Wisdom) ties in with a living experience of God’s beauty and grandeur.
The second section of the book
focuses on responding to the theological understanding presented in the first
half with a clarion call to action, one that utilizes the spiritual
technologies of liturgy and asceticism to respond to today’s climate crisis.
They do this by fostering a deeper communion with creation that naturally
evokes change in our behavior that is more conscious of how we impact creation
when we mistreat it. From an Orthodox perspective, a liturgical spirituality
takes the eucharist beyond the weekly (or daily) celebration by making us
eucharistic beings in the world, utilizing ascetical practices as a way to
share in the transformation of an increasingly abused earth. We are the ones
who are called to be responsible, and Chryssavgis convincingly demonstrates how
practical care for creation is a natural outgrowth of our faith. He also shows
that from an Orthodox perspective, science and faith are meant to work in
concert, buttressing his argument with relevant patristic texts that rule out
any sort of fundamentalist interpretation of scripture that would put faith at
odds with science.
It is appropriate that Chryssavgis
ends with a chapter on Patriarch Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch, who for
the past 30 years and beyond has been a vocal advocate mobilizing Christian
energies to understand and confront this problem. Being a principal theological
advisor to his Holiness, Chryssavgis recounts the Patriarch’s continuous and
prophetic work on this issue throughout his episcopacy. From an ecumenical
perspective, more recently the Patriarch has joined with Pope Francis to speak
with a united voice on the importance of facing all aspects of climate change
and ecology as an issue of faith. Christians who dismiss climate change as
simply political correctness do so disregarding two of the most authoritative
voices in Christianity.
This is a timely and inspiring
book, one that I warmly recommend. Written in a manner that should be
accessible to a wide audience, it elegantly illustrates how sound Orthodox
theology and spirituality is deeply relevant to the serious issues of our day.
Brother Christopher
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