Hierarchy and Love in St. Dionysius the Areopagite

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Prefatory Letter xi
4. Foreword xiii
5. Introduction. “The Sweetness of Heaven Overflows onto the Earth”: Orthodox Christianity and Environmental Thought 1
6. PART I. “Knowledge United to God”: Environment, Nature, and Creation In Patristic Thought
7. The Logoi of Beings in Greek Patristic Thought 9
8. Hierarchy and Love in St. Dionysius the Areopagite 23
9. The Beauty of the World and Its Significance in St. Gregory the Theologian 34
10. Natural Contemplation in St. Maximus the Confessor and St. Isaac the Syrian 46
11. Man and Cosmos in St. Maximus the Confessor 59
12. PART II. “The Heart That Receives”: Environment, Nature, and Creation in Twentieth- Century Orthodox Thought
13. Ecology, Theology, and the World 75
14. Through Creation to the Creator 86
15. Creation as Communion in Contemporary Orthodox Theology 106
16. The Theological-Ethical Contributions of Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) to Environmental Issues 121
17. The Cosmology of the Eucharist 131
18. “A ‘Tradition’ That Never Existed”: Orthodox Christianity and the Failures of Environmental History 136
19. A New Heaven and a New Earth: Orthodox Christian Insights from Theology, Spirituality, and the Sacraments 152
20. Proprietors or Priests of Creation? 163
21. PART III. “Love Comes from Meeting God”: Historical, Theological, and Philosophical Dimensions
22. Sedimentation of Meaning in the Concepts of Nature and the Environment 175
23. Existential versus Regulative Approaches: The Environmental Issue as an Existential and Not a Canonical Problem 186
24. Nature and Creation: A Comment on the Environmental Problem from a Philosophical and Theological Standpoint 193
25. Physis and Ktisis: Two Different Ways of Thinking of the World 204
26. Human Image, World Image: The Renewal of Sacred Cosmology 210
27. Environment and Security: Toward a Systemic Crisis of Humanity? 226
28. Church Walls and Wilderness Boundaries: Defining the Spaces of Sanctuary 235
29. Orthodoxy and Ecopoetics: The Green World in the Desert Sea 243
30. Perspectives on Orthodoxy, Evolution, and Ecology 263
31. Ecology, Morality, and the Challenges of the Twenty- First Century: The Earth in the Hands of the Sons of Noah 276
32. PART IV. “Sweetness Overflowing onto the Earth”: Insights from Orthodox Spirituality
33. The Fragile Surround 293
34. Liturgy, Cosmic Worship, and Christian Cosmology 295
35. “All Creation Rejoices in You”: Creation in the Liturgies for the Feasts of the Theotokos 307
36. Traces of Divine Fragrance, Droplets of Divine Love: On the Beauty of Visible Creation 324
37. Natural and Supernatural Revelation in Early Irish and Greek Monastic Thought: A Comparative Approach 337
38. Ecology and Monasticism 348
39. The Prophetic Charisma in Pastoral Theology: Asceticism, Fasting, and the Ecological Crisis 356
40. The Spirit of God Moved upon the Face of the Waters: Orthodox Holiness and the Natural World 365
41. APPENDIX A. Vespers for the Environment: September 1 (or the first Sunday in September) 379
42. APPENDIX B. Environment, Nature, and Creation in Orthodox Thought: A Bibliography of Texts in English 398
43. APPENDIX C. Glossary 410
44. Notes 415
45. Contributors 469
46. Index of Names (Classical) 475
47. Index of Names (Contemporary) 477
48. General Index 480