In the dangers of the digital age, in dealing with environmental challenge and the dynamics of the Greek language, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in interview of published in the newspaper “The Vima on Sunday” (25.05.2025).
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew interviewed George I. Androutsopoulos, Associate Professor of the University of Athens, which was originally published in the University of Athens newspaper.
In his interview, the predecessor of Orthodoxy expresses his thoughts on social justice, the search for Omonia, the salvation that comes through offer and solidarity, but also expresses his ecological concerns.
Following is the interview of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew:
-Can you are,
Thank you very much, on the part of the University Community, for the honor and opportunity of our interference. Let’s start with young people. The one -positive side is that students and students of our University record excellent performance when they continue their studies abroad or participate in international competitions. The other, however, is that Children and our young people are now spending their time on Instagram and Tiktok, while the rise of violence in young people are impressive. Have the standards and the path of prudence and virtue have been lost in our days? How could the University and the Church contribute to a restart?
“Christ Risen! Thank you very much for the invitation. I know the University of Athens newspaper and congratulate you on the initiative to create this step of dialogue and reflection, but also on the effort to highlight the multi -dimensional work that is taking place in your historical educational institution for the benefit of not only the academic community but also the academic community.
It is encouraging that The new generation today manages to achieve high goals in various scientific fields. But it is obvious that ” formal ‘education is not enough. It is necessary a broader social education based on family principles, social values, interest and respect for fellow human beings, in solidarity culture. This requires to be part of the community as a whole, to participate, to be interested in the other person and not to live alone in a fictional self -sufficiency.
This feeling is cultivated by social networks as they greatly contribute to the development of a person’s plasitable image, to the enhancement of his “ego”, in a digital world of a virtual reality. Life is not there, not digital. Friends are not digitally edited faces waiting for us to make a like or send us a smiling emoticon to feel socially acceptable.
It’s not that reality.
And we all know that there are many risks in it. We are not in danger, of course, by the creations of human intellect, but by the way we use them. Today, we live in the era of communication, but We less and less communicate between us, face to face.
This is the problem and I am afraid to be largely one of the causes of violence phenomena.
We think we are communicating, But we live in the loneliness of our self -sufficiencymagnifying our selfishness many times. We forget what it means to share with each other, I respect the other. Therefore Please your students and students, our young and our young people, not to be trapped in digital gold cages by spending their precious time in a virtual, non -real universe. Go out into the world, breathe the oxygen of communication with fellow man.
God created us to live together, in real communities, with people with real needs, not in digital groups with virtual friends who are raised for some likes.
Go out into the real world, Talk, share ideas and reflections, dream. Utilize your study period. Activate within the academic community and prepare For society, for the arena of life, to make your dreams come true in the true world. “
-Do you think we are in danger of exaggerations of artificial intelligence; Our physical presence is already in some cases unnecessary, and the computer systems are now composing poetry or making tables. Can artificial intelligence replace the teacher and gain soul and eternal perspective? How do you see the scenario ruling us in future machinery?
“We live in a time when the digital world often seems to replace reality. Modern technological potential, achievements of human intellect, are an important aid to many disciplines of science, such as medicine, but If used in an incorrect way they may lead to a completely different direction. This is a challenge with which man has been countless times in his course in time.
Please your students and students, our young and our young people, not to be trapped in digital gold cages by spending their precious time in a virtual, non -real universe. Get out into the world, breathe the oxygen of communication with the fellow man.
God has given us logic and freedom but at the same time gave us the responsibility of our choices and actions. Therefore, in my view, we are not in danger of artificial intelligence, but by the way we will use it. It is our creation, our own and responsibility for its use, and we will certainly experience the results of its abuse. I hear and read carefully the reservations that some experts say. We need to be very careful as the widespread use of artificial intelligence hitherto, with its countless potential, can lead to malicious actions. This is mainly concerned with me.
As for the teacher’s education and role, I want to believe that artificial intelligence will not replace it. Not because that will not be possible. But why parent -child, teacher -student, teacher -student relationships are based on person to face communication, cooperation, interaction. Artificial intelligence, which is a human achievement, copies the way of human thought, perhaps very well, but it is not human, has no emotions, no soul. And we should never forget. Not to be excited. To trust human communication. As a university, you did very well that you have met collaborations for education and familiarizing the academic community with the basic principles, applications and capabilities of artificial intelligence. “
-About a climate crisis? The Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Primary Church, was the first Christian church to react to the ecological destruction of the planet. Does Orthodoxy have a reason and role in this issue? If so, where does it detect the causes of the phenomenon and what does it have to propose about it?
“In the awareness struggle for the need to protect the natural environment every voice, every participation is worth. The ecological issue is not just about activists, environmentalists or, if you will, experts who are involved in the matter due to scientific interest. It concerns all of us, because in reality we are temporary managers of the world in which we live and which we have to hand over if not better, at least as we received it to our children to future generations. Our social responsibility and our spiritual mission as Christians presupposes the respect and protection of the creation of God as a whole, part of which man is.
We have to coexist, to live in harmony with other living beings, to preserve the environment and to make the benefit of all natural resources, which we should not forget that they are not endless. These were the reasons that prompted our Ecumenical Patriarchate about 40 years ago to deal with the issue in order to motivate every man of good will to participate in the worldwide awareness struggle. Indeed, it was the first Christian Church, perhaps the first religious institution, systematically dealing with the ecological crisis, the consequences of climate change, the need for overall protection of the natural environment, our common house. Along the way, the Roman Catholic Church and Anglican society, other ecclesiastical organizations, religious leaders, as well as international bodies, were drawn up with us, which gives us satisfaction and hopes that together we can change behaviors and create better prospects for everyone. That is why we congratulate the University of Athens who participates in this effort, as education is very important to change perceptions and behaviors.
The ecological issue concerns us all, because in reality we are temporary managers of the world in which we live and which we have to deliver if not better, at least as we received it to our children to future generations.
As we have said again, we are convinced that any real hope of reversing climate change and treatment of environmental challenge requires a radical transformation of the way we perceive and face our planet. Therefore, the initiatives of your University, the participation of teachers and students in the joint effort, help in this direction: to change behavior and to protect our common house. “
-The Greek language has been described as “the mother tongue of the Spirit” What is its contribution to the conjunction of Christianity and Hellenism?
“The Greek language is the predominantly point of meeting Christianity and Hellenism. In order to exceed the boundaries of Judaism, primordial Christianity was forced to use the Greek language to express itself. But as we all know, ” through the language is passed throughout culture. ”Thus, the course of Christianity was sealed by the fact that the Greek language became the mother tongue of theology.
At this meeting, if the inevitable influence of the Greek spirit was not only in linguistic investment, but also extended to the content of faith, the Christian message was in danger of being altered. But thanks to the great fathers of the 4th century Church, Greek philosophy and language were used in favor of the Church and its theology. The Christian reflection was enriched, the new experience of salvation in Christ was exquisitely expressed with the use of philosophical terminology. Not only did Christianity not Hellenize, but, as our great theologians say Fr. George Florofsky and Metropolitan of Pergamon Ioannis Zizioulas, the “church” or “Christianity” of Hellenism cooperated.
It is certain that the paternal conjunction of philosophy and theology and the ” innovation of the names’ not only were a decisive event for the course of the Church and theology, but also influenced the course of spiritual culture.