Environment and the Church
While not at the top of the list of concerns for voters in the US, climate change (CC) and the related impacts to the environment do hold significant importance. (2022 Gallup poll indicates CC ranks as number 7).
While most would agree that, as the photo to the left indicates, the impact of CC manifests itself in a number of ways and thus most discussion centers around the root cause of CC. Is it man-made, part of a natural environmental process, or a combination of both?
This discussion leads to many suggestions about the solution to the issue of CC. Most of these solutions center around technological solutions such as greater energy efficiency, increased use of renewable energy, sustainable transportation and agriculture, and improved conservation methods. While these solutions are certainly viable in the short-term they lack the critical, and long-term, spiritual (some say theological) aspect of the solution.
These technological solutions reflect that the “rationality of Man” is necessary to not only realize the devastating truth of CC but also that this rationality is only the path to uncover the solution. This is clearly demonstrated in the numerous Climate Symposiums and Conferences over the last 20 years, many of which our Pa-triarch Bartholomew has participated in. However our modern age, which is steeped in the separation of Church and State, when asked for solutions outside the technological realm the answer is; What do religion and theology have to do with such a problem in the first place?
To those who provide this answer Bishop John Zizioulas, of blessed memory, and one of Orthodoxy’s most gifted modern-day theologians, in his book Priest of Creation, offers a surprising answer saying that…