Scripture & Creation
Genesis 2:19
Naming the Creatures
The power to name the creatures requires a deep penetration into the qualities of life and a discernment of the indwelling “logos” which animates all things. In biblical scholarship, “name” involves an individualized aspect of the Word, or Logos, which assumes a uniquely differentiated character as it exists in a particular living being. This character is what we identify by “name.”
The discernment and articulation of “name” for English speaking people is a far more difficult task than it was for the Hebrew people. The ancient demand to name was informed by the fact that each Hebrew letter had a specific meaning, based upon the implications of each sound in the word of G-d. Not only is our English language built upon a different linguistic basis, the ancient Hebrew religion included a mystical cosmology called “Kabbalah” which saw the cosmos as a “cube of space” (or materiality) in a divine milieu. All the aspects of the Creator were identified through sounds which permeated creation and which were identified by the letters in alphabet. Each manifested attribute of Gd took the form of consonants; the vowels were aspects of the energies of divinity and never written because that would profane the representation of the Creator. “Naming,” therefore, involved an identification of those primordial aspects of God manifested in the natures of the living creatures.
Saint Maximos the Confessor provides insightful guidance about discerning those primordial energetic aspects of created things which he calls “their inner essences.”
If, instead of stopping short at the outward appearance which visible things present to the senses, you seek with your intellect to contemplate their inner essences, seeing them as images of spiritual realities or as the inward principles of sensible objects, you will be taught that nothing belonging to the visible world is unclean. For by nature all things were created good.
Entry into an experiential knowledge of these inner essences requires prayer and contemplation in order to open up and learn about this interior dimension to creation. Without prayer there is no means to open the deeper realms of appreciation for what God has created. This is not casual prayer; this is a steadfast prayer which stays focused on God and grows in spiritual sensitivity. This is the transforming wellspring which allows discernment and identification of “inner essences.” Then contemplation of living creatures becomes possible which brings inspiration and Godly perspective to human understanding of the world.
In this regard the Book of Wisdom provides pertinent guidance as it speaks of the ability to discern the properties of minerals, the medicinal qualities in plants and the nature and instincts of animals (cf. Wisdom 7:17-21). Before this capability comes alive, says the author of this book (which incidentally was removed from the Western canon by the Protestant Reformers during the Reformation because it dealt too much with the creation), there must be prayer. This is not an ordinary prayer. This is prayer that invokes Wisdom which is explicitly referred to as a feminine aspect to the Creator.
Dr. Philip Sherrard observes that this is an area where even our Orthodox theology remains incomplete. We do not yet have a well articulated commentary on the relationship and connection between the Theotokos, as Mother of God and God-bearer, and the concept of earth as Mother Earth. Nevertheless in this ancient book of Scripture, the author refers to this aspect of wisdom as “the mother of all good things” (Wisdom 7:12).
For Orthodox ecologists, what is significant is the recognition of the potential to discern the inner qualities of animals and plants. We may all discern the energetic presence of tree energy in an old growth forest as an undefinable yet still palpable presence. From this understanding of the felt presence of energies within creation we can derive a richer experience of nature and the knowledge that each part of creation has qualities which reflect something of the Divine Nature.
The ability to name the features and creatures of creation reflects a human ability to discern these inner qualities and therefore the potential to enter into an interior discernment of the energies and forms of creation. For the most part this capability to discern the finer dimensions of creation has been primarily the province of monastics who intentionally develop spiritual sight and sensitivities. For all of us however it is valuable to recognize that these capabilities exist and that through a more vigorous prayer life coupled with spiritual guidance, a non-linear system of knowledge emerges upon which a mystical experiential perception of creation might be founded.
