Keeping This Place: Contemplative Vision and Ecological Living as Christian Witness: An Orthodox View

Abstract At a time when the ecological crisis is increasingly seen as a spiritual crisis, the Orthodox Christian tradition has resources for a powerful witness, especially to ‘post-Christian’ spiritual seekers. This witness depends on the example of monastic communities especially; on the grounding of their way of life in a theology of the Incarnation and the logoi of God in creation. Their contemplative vision of the world enables us to accept a “sacredness” of the earth without pantheism. Many have discovered that vision through the Philokalia and the Jesus Prayer, and the teaching of some prominent spokesmen for Orthodoxy especially of the Russian emigre tradition. Some of the best-loved modern saints also witness to a transformed relationship between holy people and their natural environment. More recently, we have many examples of specifically environmental practice, notable for its balance of love and care for the human and natural worlds.