463
A brief sketch of dominant thematic obsessions at such institutions as the British
Museum, the National Galleries, the Hermitage, the Louvre, the Vatican Museums,
the Groeninge Museum in Bruges, and the Prado easily emblemizes the Western
world’s undying fascination with the very conceptual ecosystem that is the life of
Christ, and the orisons, genealogies, Biblical geography that have made luminous
and clear a call to action, just as Pope Francis issued his encyclical, “Laudato Si” of
May 24, 2015, on climate change;
13
and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew promulgated his talks, “On Earth As In Heaven: Ecological Visions and Initiatives”,
14
following upon his extraordinary “Address” at the “Environmental Symposium,
Saint Barbara Greek Orthodox Church, Santa Barbara, California,” in 1997, during
which Bartholomew declared: “It follows that, to commit a crime against the natural
world, is a sin. For humans to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the
biological diversity of God’s creation; for humans to degrade the integrity of Earth
by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the Earth of its natural forests, or
destroying its wetlands; for humans to injure other humans with disease; for humans
to contaminate the Earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life, with poisonous substances; these are sins”.
15
In one recent exhibition from the British Museum, “Christ: Life, Death &
Resurrection –Italian Renaissance Drawings & Prints from the British Museum”,
16
the environmental liberation of one soul on behalf of all others—our reading of
it—mirrors similar sagas throughout Asian spiritual traditions, encompassing not
merely the ravaged body on the cross, as in Giulio Clovio’s “The Crucifixion,” c.
1568
17
or Andrea Boscoli’s “The Crucifixion,” c. 1599,
18
but landscapes as moving
as those in Hieronymus Bosch or John Martin or Sebástio Salgado at their most
dramatic, as in the case of Giovanni Benedetto (or Salvatore) Castiglione’s “The
13 http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_
enciclica-laudato-si.html, Accessed May 7, 2020.
14 Edited and with an Introduction John Chryssavgis, Fordham University Press, Bronx, New York,
2012.
15 Ecumenical Patriarchate, “Remarks As Prepared For Delivery Address Of His All Holiness
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew At The Environmental Symposium Saint Barbara Breek
Orthodox Church Santa Barbara, California, 8 November 1997,” https://www.patriarchate.org/-/
remarks-as-prepared-for-delivery-address-of-his-all-holiness-ecumenical-patriarch-b-a-r-t-h-o-lo-m-e-w-at-the-environmental-symposium-saint-barbara-g, November 8, 1997; see also, https://
of-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-at-the-environmental-symposium-saint-barbara-greekorthodox-church-santa-barbara-california/32008?inheritRedirect=false, Accessed May 7, 2020.
This, in turn, derived in part from the symposium on “Revelation and the Environment, AD 95 to
1995” to commemorate “the 1900
th anniversary of the recording of the Apocalypse.”
16 September 8, 2019 – April 19, 2020, Catalogue Published by The British Museum, Foreword by
Hartwig Fischer, “The Life of Christ” essay by Hugo Chapman, University of San Diego, San
Diego, CA 2019.
17 ibid., p. 50.
18 ibid., p. 62.
49.2 Nuances of a Spiritual Rallying Cry
A brief sketch of dominant thematic obsessions at such institutions as the British
Museum, the National Galleries, the Hermitage, the Louvre, the Vatican Museums,
the Groeninge Museum in Bruges, and the Prado easily emblemizes the Western
world’s undying fascination with the very conceptual ecosystem that is the life of
Christ, and the orisons, genealogies, Biblical geography that have made luminous
and clear a call to action, just as Pope Francis issued his encyclical, “Laudato Si” of
May 24, 2015, on climate change;
13
and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew promulgated his talks, “On Earth As In Heaven: Ecological Visions and Initiatives”,
14
following upon his extraordinary “Address” at the “Environmental Symposium,
Saint Barbara Greek Orthodox Church, Santa Barbara, California,” in 1997, during
which Bartholomew declared: “It follows that, to commit a crime against the natural
world, is a sin. For humans to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the
biological diversity of God’s creation; for humans to degrade the integrity of Earth
by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the Earth of its natural forests, or
destroying its wetlands; for humans to injure other humans with disease; for humans
to contaminate the Earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life, with poisonous substances; these are sins”.
15
In one recent exhibition from the British Museum, “Christ: Life, Death &
Resurrection –Italian Renaissance Drawings & Prints from the British Museum”,
16
the environmental liberation of one soul on behalf of all others—our reading of
it—mirrors similar sagas throughout Asian spiritual traditions, encompassing not
merely the ravaged body on the cross, as in Giulio Clovio’s “The Crucifixion,” c.
1568
17
or Andrea Boscoli’s “The Crucifixion,” c. 1599,
18
but landscapes as moving
as those in Hieronymus Bosch or John Martin or Sebástio Salgado at their most
dramatic, as in the case of Giovanni Benedetto (or Salvatore) Castiglione’s “The
13 http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_
enciclica-laudato-si.html, Accessed May 7, 2020.
14 Edited and with an Introduction John Chryssavgis, Fordham University Press, Bronx, New York,
2012.
15 Ecumenical Patriarchate, “Remarks As Prepared For Delivery Address Of His All Holiness
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew At The Environmental Symposium Saint Barbara Breek
Orthodox Church Santa Barbara, California, 8 November 1997,” https://www.patriarchate.org/-/
remarks-as-prepared-for-delivery-address-of-his-all-holiness-ecumenical-patriarch-b-a-r-t-h-o-lo-m-e-w-at-the-environmental-symposium-saint-barbara-g, November 8, 1997; see also, https://
of-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-at-the-environmental-symposium-saint-barbara-greekorthodox-church-santa-barbara-california/32008?inheritRedirect=false, Accessed May 7, 2020.
This, in turn, derived in part from the symposium on “Revelation and the Environment, AD 95 to
1995” to commemorate “the 1900
th anniversary of the recording of the Apocalypse.”
16 September 8, 2019 – April 19, 2020, Catalogue Published by The British Museum, Foreword by
Hartwig Fischer, “The Life of Christ” essay by Hugo Chapman, University of San Diego, San
Diego, CA 2019.
17 ibid., p. 50.
18 ibid., p. 62.
49.2 Nuances of a Spiritual Rallying Cry