Elias Economou
An Orthodox View of the Ecological Crisis
5. The Original Ecological Crisis as Destruction οf the Integrity of the Three-dimensional Environment.
The hunιan drama is combined with man's original relationship to nature, as absolute depedence upοn it. This original attitute marked man's history through the responding reaction of nature to his whole existence. Μan's relationship to God his Creator was expressed as the correct or incorrect relationship to God-created nature. The Ecology, was the field of expression of man's attitude towards God, as self-determination, combined with obedience to God's will. Mankind failed in this and provoked a capital disorder upοn himself; and upοn the natural world, also: "For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected (the same) in hope... For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travalieth in pain together until nοw" (Romans 8,20,22).
Church Fathers such as Basil of Caesarea underline that Adam and Eve's fall was due to their free will and the misuse of their self-determination; the beginning and root of the original sin was man's self-determination. Consequences of it were: a) their expulsion from Paradise, and deprivation of all its blessings b) the vileness and corruption of the image of God. Μan's intellect, will, emotions and physical constitution suffered a deterioration, etc. Thus the consequences were anthropological, social and ecological.
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