“White fellows, you are the unhappy race. You alone have left nature and made civilized laws.”
We need to re-claim our right relationship with the world – recognize that nature is not evil, dangerous, or in need of domination and control. For too long we have been blinded by a myopic, materialistic reading of the universe and often hypnotized by a stilted religious view of ourselves in the world and our role in it.
We need a new story, or a retelling of the old story of creation with emphasis on dominion rather than domination so that nature can once again be our teacher – and every bush a burning bush. Not only can we learn from it but we need to relearn that we are part of it and intimately connected to it – we are hard wired to it.
This change of attitude will require a conversion of Pauline dimensions because the real issue is not a moral one or an economic issue but a spiritual problem about how we experience ourselves in the world. It is a problem of identity.
The old heroic manner of pitting ourselves against nature will have to give way to a redefinition of human identity – an identity which fosters receptivity, care and openness to the mystery of place. This will require humility on our part and a readiness to accept mystery and revelation from the land. The environmental crisis will never be solved as long as we go on treating the world as external or as a merely physical object.
More and more people are coming to realize this – that the problem of the environment is not so much about industry and technology but is about people’s outlook and their sense of identity in the world. It is about the purpose of human beings in this world and an understanding of ourselves in relation to God’s creation.
We must attempt to return to a proper relationship with the creator and the creation. This may well mean, that just as a shepherd will in times of greatest hazard, lay down his life for his flock so human beings may need to forego part of their wants and needs in order that the survival of the natural world can be assured. This is a new situation, a new challenge. It calls for humanity to bear some of the pain of creation as well as enjoy and celebrate it. It calls first and foremost for repentance – but of an order not previously understood by many.
From Orthodoxy and the Ecological Crisis 1990…p,10-11