Keselopoulos Anestis, Man and Natural Environment, Domos Publications, Athens 1992, 245 pages.

With his study An. Kaselopoulos aims to present an unknown dimension of the ecological problem. This is no other than its theological dimension and, moreover, in the way it is offered in the texts and teaching of Symeon the New Theologian, which he attempts to present and include in the context not only of the Holy Scripture and the rest of the patristic tradition, but also in the liturgical and, generally, the devotional terrain of the life of the Church. The aim of this study is, thus, to present, on the one hand, the theological dimension of the problem in the relationship between man and creation and, on the other, to project the Eucharistic utility of the world, as the Orthodox Church experienced it.

The theme is negotiated in five chapters. The first refers to the relationship of God with the world, which is the relationship of the creator to his creation. He underlines the creation of the world “ex nihilo” and the common participation of the three Faces of the Triadic God in it. The second chapter examines man as a factor, which intervenes between God and the soulless creation, since he is the recipient of the commandment to “work” and “guard” the world. Through humans’ physiology and their creation in God’s image, the author moves on to the examination of man’s position in the world. In the third chapter, there is talk about the abuse and unnatural use of the creation. He highlights and defines fall as autonomy of the matter and the world, as worship of the creation “instead of the creator” and refers to types of abuses in the world.

The fourth chapter presents the Eucharistic use of the world, the way it is projected in the texts of Symeon the New Theologian and experienced by the Church as a countering to abuse and consumption ethos and an ascetic – Eucharistic way of being and living. Finally, the fifth and final chapter refers to the metamorphosis and in Christ rehabilitation and renewal of the world. The author analyses how the divine incarnation and presence of Christ in the world offers the possibility of benediction to the created nature and the world through the church-going of the world and the emergence of matter as part of life in the sacrament of the Divine Eucharist.