Harmonious Cosmos and the World of the Fall: Natural and Counternatural in the Orthodox Christian Tradition

Abstract

I cannot begin without expressing my gratitude for the honor of this invitation and my joy at being here. It is rather daunting, trying to offer a contribution that could merit a week in such surroundings. Another, more serious reason for feeling somewhat daunted is that I feel I am swimming against the tide, in trying to make sense of some notions that seem to be regarded as unfashionable. One such is that of harmony in creation: how do we see this as being on some level a reality, not mere romanticism or wishful thinking? Or, on the other hand, the idea that the world we are living in is marked by a fall; that much of what we think of as “natural” is unimaginably different from the way the world was created to be and will ultimately become. Or again, the sort of linkage between the world and its Creator reflected in natural theology. In the Orthodox tradition, there is a theological understanding of nature rather different from natural theology as developed in the West. But it nonetheless prompts the question: How can we still believe today that the universe, the givenness of the universe, can be a source of guidance for the way we conduct ourselves within it?