Noah’s Ark as Theologic and Moral Archetype of Human Struggle with Nature and Climate Changes

Abstract

Among the many proposals for preventing crises of the modern world, the biblical story of Noah and his Ark is often underestimated in the current ecological problem. This story may be the archetype of the current struggle between man and nature and climate change.

Examples of these struggles are attempts to create the ark of our time: the World Seed Bank, which was built in 2007 on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, which aims to save many species of plants from destruction, concrete and steel structure over the reactor of block IV of Chernobyl, that crashed in 1986 (Chernobyl Ark) and the world's first self-contained city, Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates. These actions, despite similarities to the struggles of Noah during the Biblical flood, can not provide a permanent, effective and universal way to rescue contemporary man, his civilization and the surrounding nature in the face of threats to ecological and climatic conditions. These projects stress only rescue function for people and nature, they involve only the material aspect, the immediate one. They lack, however the character of the true house, moral values, spiritual dimensions of human life and deeper relationships God - man - nature.

The importance of Noah's Ark archetype lies not in the material, technical and literal details of the rescue ship but in cultural and spiritual functions of biblical story to the idea of modern ark saving humanity and the natural world. The real ark is a house (oikos-ethos) in the triple anthropological sense: the place where man lives, the network of interpersonal relationships and identity of being human and in the theological sense as sacrum, holy place and the House of the Lord. The man in the modern ark should implement the plan of the Creator, and only then he will really save creation, he will cooperate with God in the work of creation, will be safe from natural disasters.

Archetypical significance of Noah's ark should rely on theological and moral ecological conversion, clearing desires and intentions, care for creation, responsibility for nature and return to God's covenant with man. As once Noah struggled with the flood, so now efforts in saving the world and men we need to build structures, works and values of such a global home-ark, so that it can be a place of spiritual renewal of the world, the affirmation of the human person and the dwelling place of God.