Recreation and Environmental Restoration: Ecological Readings of St. Maximus the Confessor

Abstract

The Christian tradition is rich with resources for addressing environmental degradation and its ethical implications. This paper seeks to demonstrate the utility of St. Maximus the Confessor’s writings on creation, redemption, and future hope for contemporary Christian approaches to environmental care. Specifically, Maximus both equalizes humanity with the created order and elevates humanity above the created order, identifies sinful passions as operative in environmental destruction, illustrates a deified future in which a unified creation participates in communion with its Creator, and describes the Christian methods of living towards that future in a way that enables Christians to evaluate and encourage approaches to environmental destruction and care.