The Creation Story: Western vs Eastern Christianity versions

Tradd, I thought of you specifically when I read this great Substack article by Paul Kingsnorth.

https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/p/gods-gardeners

I, and I'm sure many people in the West, have been convinced, for better or worse, that the Bible states that in Genesis man is the "dominator" of nature. This belief has led to the highly industrialized and technological culture we have built over centuries. It also creates the belief that nature is there for our taking and exploiting. This has led many to feel that they have the right to do whatever they want with God's creation, and has led others to reject Christianity on the basis of what this anthropomorphic "God-ordained" behavior has led to from an ecological standpoint.

However, this article taught me that Eastern Christianity has a very different view of the God/Nature/Man relationship.

Interesting article, and I was wondering about your thoughts, Tradd. Even if you can't get to the article, how do you view the Creation story?

Meant to come back to this and finally made it. I didn't want to sign up for a free trial, so am responding just from your comments, catherine.

Having grown up strict Roman Catholic, I somehow ended up believing that the Bible said that humans were the "caretakers" of the rest of the world - i.e. animal, plant... essentially the entire planet. I've always tried to live with that thought in mind (although, yes, I have had my failures). For me, personally, I have since found that my switch to Buddhism embraces a "living side-by-side" with the rest of the world - people, nature, etc. I find I have more "respect for" versus "condescending" attitude towards it all. Hope that's not too confusing. LOL.

Nice topic, btw.

Catherine, I’m just now seeing this. I will dig into it this weekend. Thank you!