2/21/2012
"Man is best defined not as a 'logical' but as a 'eucharistic' animal. He does not merely live in the world, think about it and use it, but he is capable of seeing the world as God's gift, as a sacrament of God's presence and a means of communion with him. So he is able to offer the world back to God in thanksgiving. 'Thine own from thine own we offer to thee, in all and for all' (The Liturgy of St John Chrysostom).
"Secondly, besides blessing and praising God for the world, man is also able to reshape and alter the world, and so to endue it with fresh meaning. In the worlds of Fr Dumitru Staniloae, 'Man puts the seal of his understanding and of his intelligent work onto creation...The world is not only a gift, but a task for man.' It is our calling to co-operate with God; we are, in St Paul's phrase, 'fellow-workers with God' (1 Cor. 3:9). Man is not just a logical and eucharistic animal, but he is also a creative animal: the fact that man is in God's image means that man is a creator after the image of God the Creator. This creative role he fulfills, not by brute force, but through the clarity of his spiritual vision; his vocation is not to dominate and exploit nature, but to transfigure and hallow it.
"In a variety of ways–through the cultivation of the earth, through craftsmanship, through the writing of books and the painting of ikons–man gives material things a voice and renders the creation articulate in praise of God. It is significant that the first task of the newly-created Adam was to give names to the animals (Gen. 2:19-20). The giving of names is in itself a creative act: until we have find a name for some object or experience, an 'inevitable word' to indicate its true character, we cannot begin to understand it and to make use of it. It is likewise significant that, when at the Eucharist we offer back to God the firstfruits of the earth, we offer them not in their original form but reshaped by the hand of man: we bring to the altar not sheaves of wheat but loaves of bread, not grapes but wine."
The Orthodox Way by Bishop Kallistos Ware (pages 53-54)
"Secondly, besides blessing and praising God for the world, man is also able to reshape and alter the world, and so to endue it with fresh meaning. In the worlds of Fr Dumitru Staniloae, 'Man puts the seal of his understanding and of his intelligent work onto creation...The world is not only a gift, but a task for man.' It is our calling to co-operate with God; we are, in St Paul's phrase, 'fellow-workers with God' (1 Cor. 3:9). Man is not just a logical and eucharistic animal, but he is also a creative animal: the fact that man is in God's image means that man is a creator after the image of God the Creator. This creative role he fulfills, not by brute force, but through the clarity of his spiritual vision; his vocation is not to dominate and exploit nature, but to transfigure and hallow it.
"In a variety of ways–through the cultivation of the earth, through craftsmanship, through the writing of books and the painting of ikons–man gives material things a voice and renders the creation articulate in praise of God. It is significant that the first task of the newly-created Adam was to give names to the animals (Gen. 2:19-20). The giving of names is in itself a creative act: until we have find a name for some object or experience, an 'inevitable word' to indicate its true character, we cannot begin to understand it and to make use of it. It is likewise significant that, when at the Eucharist we offer back to God the firstfruits of the earth, we offer them not in their original form but reshaped by the hand of man: we bring to the altar not sheaves of wheat but loaves of bread, not grapes but wine."
The Orthodox Way by Bishop Kallistos Ware (pages 53-54)
2/20/2012
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