Adapted from a talk given at the "Conference on Orthodoxy and the Natural Environment," on October 27th, 2007, and again at the International Nativity Education Readings of the Moscow Patriarchate, in the section "The Orthodox Interpretation of the Creation of the World," held at the Moscow State University of Railway Engineering, January 20, 2008.
"Through sin, this cosmos became a place of death and corruption." - St. Maximus the Confessor
