* By Martin Hoegger
The ecological crisis cannot be resolved by green technologies or international treaties alone. It requires a conversion of the heart and a rediscovery of the spiritual meaning of the world. This was the prophetic message of Metropolitan John of Pergamon (Zizioulas, †2023), whose thought profoundly renewed Orthodox theology and inspired the ecumenical movement for the protection of creation.
At a conference at the Patriarchal Academy of Crete (9 October 2025), Greek theologian and sociologist Dr Konstantinos Zormpas, Director General of the Orthodox Academy of Crete, paid tribute to him in a dense and illuminating lecture. Drawing on his work, he and other speakers showed how Zizioulas was a pioneer of ecological thinking rooted in faith and liturgy.
A theology born of liturgy
As early as 1967, Zizioulas laid the foundations for a deeply spiritual ecological theology.[1] Creation is not a resource to be exploited, but the place where God and man meet. In the Divine Liturgy, the priest raises the chalice and says: “Your own we offer to You, in all and for all.” This gesture sums up his entire theology: humanity offers to God the fruits of the earth that she has received from Him, to see them transfigured. In this movement of giving and receiving, the world is sanctified. The human being becomes a ’priest of creation,” steward and servant of the cosmos.
In the Eucharist, matter becomes a place of communion: bread and wine, sanctified by the Spirit, become the Body and Blood of Christ. This transfiguration announces the ultimate vocation of creation: to participate in divine life.
In the Eucharist, matter becomes the place of communion: bread and wine, sanctified by the Spirit, become the Body and Blood of Christ. This transfiguration reveals the ultimate vocation of creation — to share in divine life.
The Ecological Crisis: A Spiritual Crisis
For Zizioulas, the destruction of nature is the symptom of a spiritual crisis: humanity has lost the Eucharistic sense of the world. When people cease to see themselves as mediators and servants, they become dominators and consumers. The world, created for communion, becomes an object of exploitation. “If we do not take this seriously,” he warned, “we will be guilty before God for our indifference.” The true solution is not technical but spiritual: a *metanoia*, a conversion of heart and vision.
Humanity, Priest of the Cosmos
Zizioulas’ expression — “man as the priest of creation” — has become classic. It means that the human being is called to offer the world to God in gratitude and to sanctify matter through love. The liturgy thus becomes the ecological act “par excellence”: it restores to the world its vocation of communion.
An Ecumenical Ecology
Zizioulas played a major role in interchurch dialogue on ecological questions. Active in the World Council of Churches and collaborator of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, he contributed to the establishment of September 1st as the Day of Prayer for Creation. In 2015, he welcomed Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si’ with these words: “The ecological threat transcends our differences; we must face it together.” Through his influence, orthodox theology has found a common language with other traditions: gratitude, sobriety, and sanctification of the world.
A Spiritual Pedagogy
According to Professor Polykarpos Karamouzis, Zizioulas’ thought calls for ecological education grounded in faith. In the Orthodox tradition, water, earth, and air are bearers of blessing. To waste them is to profane sacred gifts. The ecological disaster is therefore also a spiritual fault — a lack of gratitude toward the Creator. Teaching gratitude, he says, is already to begin ecological conversion.
Ecological Sin and Repentance
Professor Christoforos Arvanitis emphasizes the pastoral dimension of Zizioulas’ thought: to destroy creation is to sin. This “ecological sin,” now recognized in the texts of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, requires repentance and confession. The Christian community must learn to assume responsibility for the faults of its members. Ecology is not merely an ethical issue but a matter of salvation: those who deliberately pollute must change their hearts to be restored to divine communion.
A Theology of the Cosmos
Professor Stylianos Tsophanidis sees in Zizioulas the true “theological arm” of Patriarch Bartholomew. He gave Orthodox theology a cosmic scope: salvation concerns not only humanity but the whole creation. The Holy Spirit animates the world and prepares its transfiguration. Zizioulas’ theology is thus “cosmotheandric” — God, humanity, and the cosmos united in one vocation to life.
Inner Conversion and Hope
The Archbishop of Crete, Evgenios, reminded that overconsumption and mass tourism disfigure his island. The response, said Zizioulas, must be spiritual: “The ecological crisis is first a crisis of the heart.” To rediscover the beauty of simplicity, the joy of thanksgiving, and the holiness of daily life is already to heal the relationship with creation. To respect nature is to honour the face of God in the world.
Conclusion
The legacy of John Zizioulas remains a powerful inspiration for the theology of creation. By reminding us that every authentic act of faith is an act of thanksgiving, he introduced ecology into the dimension of communion between God, humanity, and the cosmos. In an age when the planet suffers from human excess, his thought calls for an ecology of gratitude and sobriety, where prayer becomes an act of resistance and hope.
Reading Zizioulas is to discover that ecological conversion begins with thanksgiving and continues in everyday life, where humanity learns to offer creation as a gift, not to possess it as a commodity.
A website is dedicated to the life and work of John Zizioulas, where his portrait can be found: https://zizioulas.org
* Martin Hoegger is a reformed theologian and author living in Switzerland. He participated to this Congress of Crete. https://www.hoegger.org
[1] In the article ‘La Vision eucharistique du monde et l’homme contemporain’ (The Eucharistic Vision of the World and Contemporary Man), Contacts 19 (1967), 83-92.
