On The Idea Of An Environmental Crisis

by St. Basil the Great

We know that today philosophical naturalism interprets the scientific data, and this causes the world to interpret certain scientific data to foretell a present and future environmental crisis. However, St. Basil dispels this pessimistic doomsday attitude by showing that the crisis is not in the environment, but within ourselves. God’s providential care for His creation still exists, and whatever befalls us is meant for our repentance and our own transformation. Without such an attitude, we may as well be atheists and alarmists allowing such opportunities of self-refinement to pass us by. The following is taken from St Basil the Great’s sermon “In Time of Famine and Drought,” which is included in the recently published St Basil the Great: On Social Justice (SVS 2009).

This was taken from John Sanidopoulos’ excellent blog – Mystagogy.

“And I also withheld the rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would be rained upon, and the field on which it did not rain withered; so two or three towns wandered to one town to drink water, and were not satisfied, because you did not return to Me, says the Lord.” – Amos 4:7-8

We should learn, then, that it is because we have turned away from the Lord and discarded His ways that God has inflicted these wounds upon us. He does not seek to destroy us, but rather endeavors to turn us back to the right way, just as good parents who care for their children are stern and rebuke them when they do wrong, not because they wish them harm, but rather desiring to lead them from childish negligence and the sins of youth to mature attentiveness. Read more