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121 The subject of environmental issues and Orthodox Christianity does not, typically, bring to mind the names of Fr. Sophrony (Sakharov) or his mentor in the spiritual life, St. Silouan the Athonite. Indeed, even those who knew Elder Sophrony personally or who are familiar with his writing would likely not identify “the environment” as a subject on which he had something unique or especially significant to offer. Monasticism, the “person ,” repentance, prayer, or the spiritual life more broadly, yes—but environmental ethics, no. Having said this, however, we should note, first, that St. Silouan’s teachings have been cited within such landmark documents as the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s 1990 statement Orthodoxy and the Ecological Crisis , and, second, that thinkers including Jean-Claude Larchet, Metropolitans Kallistos Ware, and John Zizioulas have included some analysis of St. Silouan’s views on the animal and plant world within the context of more general works on the saint’s teachings. In what follows, I will argue that Fr. Sophrony’s theological-ethical vision includes teachings that contribute in important ways to Orthodoxy’s engagement with environmental issues. More specifically, by drawing from both Fr. Sophrony’s published writings and from material collected through interviews with members of the monastic community at Essex, I will defend the claim that it is his understanding of the meaning of the human person that holds together Fr. Sophrony’s normative teachings about the nonhuman sphere of creation. I will discuss four areas where Fr. Sophrony’s most significant teachings seem to lie: (1) his account (inspired by St. Silouan) of the status of nonhuman and human life, (2) his postlapsarian anthropology, (3) his conservation mindset, and (4) his The Theological-Ethical Contributions of Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) to Environmental Issues Perry T. Hamalis 122 P E R RY T. H A M A L I S teachings on hypostatic prayer. But first, I will begin with a brief biographical note. Fr. Sophrony: Biography and the Influence of St. Silouan Fr. Sophrony was born Sergei Symeonivich Sakharov in 1896 to Russian Orthodox parents living in Moscow. From the time of his childhood, Fr. Sophrony was inclined to contemplate metaphysical questions of death, meaning, and eternity. His unquenchable pursuit of the eternal manifested itself in multiple ways. He studied painting at Moscow’s Academy of Arts and at the National School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, seeking meaning through artistic expression. He also dedicated between seven and eight intense years to Far Eastern transcendental meditation—something he lamented later in his life. Fr. Sophrony left Russia in 1921 and, after brief stays in Italy and Germany, settled in Paris. Here he enjoyed some success as an artist, exhibiting his paintings in two prestigious Parisian salons. Having returned to the Orthodox faith in 1924 and still on a quest for God, he enrolled at St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute, where he met and was influenced by Sergei Bulgakov and Nicholas Berdyaev. The academic study of theology, however, did not satisfy Fr. Sophrony’s thirst for the divine, and in 1925 he departed from France for the peninsula of Mt. Athos, where he was to spend the next twenty-two years of his life as a member of the Russian Orthodox Monastery of St. Panteleimon. It was there in 1930 that he met Staretz Silouan, the man who would shape his spiritual life and teachings most profoundly and whose holiness was officially recognized through canonization by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1987. For eight years, the monk Sophrony pursued God under the direct counsel of Staretz Silouan, and Silouan , in turn, revealed to Sophrony the details and the wisdom of his spiritual experience. After Silouan’s death in 1938, Fr. Sophrony left the communal monastic life for the Athonite wilderness. He was ordained a priest and served as confessor to several Athonite communities. In 1947, Fr. Sophrony returned to France, in part so that he could edit and publish the writings and teachings of his beloved elder. While there, he became a trusted friend of Vladimir Lossky and coedited the periodical Messager de l’Exarchat du Patriarche Russe en Europe Occidentale. Prohibited by his deteriorating health from returning to Athos, and at the request of several spiritual children who had gathered around him in Paris, Fr. Sophrony established the community of St. John the Baptist in Essex, England, where today over forty monks and nuns coexist in prayer, realizing concretely the theological-ethical vision he articulated. It...

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