Nonhumans—animals, artificial life, artificial intelligence, and other forms of sentient and non-sentient beings—occupy a significant place in the tapestry of human existence and spirituality. This special issue examines the multifaceted relationship between nonhumans and Orthodox Christianity, as well as their representation and impact on contemporary cultural discourse.
The essays consider our relationship with animals, the world of fantasy literature, and the recent advances in science that present challenges to our identity and our place in the world. Engaging with these issues prompts us to ponder the tools that Orthodox tradition offers us in the face of new knowledge and new questions.
Above all, reflecting on the nonhuman world invokes a sense of wonder. And, as St. Gregory of Nyssa reminds us, “Concepts create idols; only wonder grasps anything.”

Saint John of Damascus expresses himself in remarkably scientific terms when addressing decidedly unscientific popular legends found in the two short treatises/ fragments below, translated here from the original Greek. The modern reader may still find fault with his easy deference to written authority, but Saint John’s dispassionate application of Scripture, theological principles, and objective scientific observation while debunking contemporary superstition deserve our admiration. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first appearance of these fragments in English…

This study aims to shed light on the emergence of a recurrent medieval iconographic motif: the representation of the four “Holy Animals” or “Living Creatures”, also known as the Tetramorph. Biblical and literary texts are brought together with images to determine the reasons and circumstances surrounding the birth of this imagery. This article will retrace the aesthetic and symbolic sources of the motif, which seems to reach full maturity and “stabilize” in the Byzantine art of the fifth and the sixth centuries… 

When he was young
my little dog
would cower in fear
at the sound of my weeping
unsure what had brought me so low…

There is little doubt that our self-esteem as a species has benefited greatly from the fact that we are from an extended family that is quickly dying off. We are the last surviving members of our genus Homo and one of only eight surviving species of the family Hominidae (colloquially known as the “Great Apes”) and the most widely successful one at that. Our lack of close contact with these relatives has made us think of ourselves as quite special and unique for far too long…

The idea that there are going to be animals in heaven is widely accepted, following the prophet Isaiah’s vision that involves animals, as well as an altered relationship between prey and predator species, “The wolf also shall dwell wit the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them,” (Isaiah 11:6)…

Early Christian writers have left us no detailed treatment of the relationship of human beings to nonhuman animal beings. There is no Christian equivalent to the pagan Porphyry’s “On Abstinence From Animal Foods” (third century CE). So is it possible to create a compassionate Christian guide to our treatment of animals from a combination of biblical and ecclesial texts, and teachings from Orthodox theologians and ethicists?

The environmental crisis has presented a new opportunity, not simply for mutual understanding but for a shared effort at cosmic reconciliation and healing that leads ultimately to cosmic transfiguration. This can only happen by recognizing creation’s interconnectedness, specifically our ties to the natural world in all its breadth and complexity, and the moral choices flowing from this that face us at this hour…

I wish someone had given Jesus a dog.
As loyal and loving as mine.
To sleep by His manger and gaze in His eyes
And adore Him for being divine...

Anime is an art form born out of the modern, postwar meeting between East and West in Japanese society. It drinks liberally from classical religious, mythological, and philosophical wellsprings, both indigenous to Asia–Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Daoism, and Shinto—and imported, particularly the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. As a result, anime provides a unique lens for comparative theology between these two broader religious families…

One of the greatest challenges to Orthodox theology arises from modern science, particularly from the various fields of neuroscience. Seminal work by computational neuroscientists has led to development of artificial deep neural networks capable of learning. More recently, these neural networks have shown the ability to acquire knowledge, express the truth (albeit with less than perfect accuracy), demonstrate creativity, and even exhibit virtues that compare to those of human beings...

Among the various applications of AI, chatbots have emerged as a ubiquitous tool, providing immediate and accessible support across diverse domains. ChatGPT, a sophisticated AI language model developed by OpenAI, exemplifies this trend, offering widespread use, ease of access, and mobile-friendly interfaces. Recent studies have unveiled the remarkable capabilities of ChatGPT in surpassing human performance in emotional awareness evaluations...

I dream of the billions blindly at business,
their universe my bulging elastic
peristaltic food tubes: densely-populated
country, from uplands to lowlands,
each region with its own tribe...

According to J. R. R. Tolkien, one of the main wishes of the human heart is to be able to converse with other living things: “On this desire, as ancient as the Fall, is largely founded the talking of beasts and creatures in fairy tales, and especially the magical understanding of their proper speech.” Indeed, already in the earliest known stories we can see the communication between humans and non-humans, be it spirits, animals, natural phenomena, or other embodied beings...

According to the creation narrative in Genesis, God intended that Man be king of creation; humankind was to reign over other creatures (Gn. 1:28) and name them (Gn. 2:19). This central role accorded to mankind was developed by the early Church fathers, especially St. Maximus the Confessor. Through deification, humans should unify and raise all creation, the visible and invisible cosmos, to God...

Written by an Orthodox convert Marly Youmans and published in 2020, Charis and the World of Wonders tells a story of America’s Puritan past hrough the eyes of Charis, a heroine who begins her narrative in the year 1690. Youman’s Orthodoxy is evident in the story; it is a story in tension with and threading through the Puritan New England tapestry, showing how Orthodoxy can grasp a wounded American feminine experience and lead it on journeys through Hades to wholeness and healing...