Summary: Changing the Climate: Utopia, Dystopia and Catastrophe | Tamara ProsicIn 1997, the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, Bartholomew I, hosted an environmental symposium in California, where he called the destruction of the environment a sin. It was the first time any religious leader openly connected ecological negligence with a concept that exclusively refers to human relationship with god. Bartholomew I was nicknamed the ‘green patriarch’ and many have since praised his involvement in raising awareness about the human role in destroying nature, but few have asked about the theological premises on which the ‘green patriarch’ based his qualification of destroying nature as a sin. This paper explores some of the distinctly Orthodox utopian teachings and the unity of body and soul and the ways they feed into and enforce the idea that destroying nature is a sin. Tamara Prosic is a lecturer at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology, Monash University. Her research interests involve biblical studies and, more broadly, religious studies, cultural anthropology and critical theory. Recently, she has begun researching the utopian elements of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
