religions Article Eco-Theology and Environmental Leadership in Orthodox and Evangelical Perspectives in Russia and Ukraine Alexander Negrov 1, * and Alexander Malov 2   Citation: Negrov, Alexander, and Alexander Malov. 2021. Eco-Theology and Environmental Leadership in Orthodox and Evangelical Perspectives in Russia and Ukraine. Religions 12: 305. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12050305 Academic Editors: Bradley Nassif and Tim Grass Received: 18 March 2021 Accepted: 25 April 2021 Published: 27 April 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Center for Leadership Research, Hodos Institute, Mukilteo, WA 98275, USA 2 Theology and Leadership Research Unit, Hodos Institute, 08200 Irpin, Ukraine; amalov@hodosinstitute.org * Correspondence: anegrov@hodosinstitute.com Abstract: Environmental leadership and eco-theology have not been a priority for Evangelical and Orthodox Christians in the countries of the former Soviet Union (particularly, Ukraine and Russia) due to various historical, political, social, and theological reasons. However, contemporary environmental global challenges suggest that both Orthodox and Evangelical Christians should revisit their perspectives and efforts related to responsible stewardship by humankind of the earth and its life forms. This article presents the analysis of multiple forms of data (relevant Orthodox and Evangelical documents, specialized literature, and individual interviews/focus groups). We conducted individual interviews and focus groups with 101 Evangelical and 50 Orthodox Christians from Russia and Ukraine. Although the majority of interviewees agreed that the ecological crisis exists and should be addressed, only some of them admitted that they actively care for creation. While Orthodox Christians are more active in practical care for creation, Evangelicals have a stronger grasp of the biblical teaching concerning nature and humans’ responsibility for it. We argue that Evangelical and Orthodox Churches in Ukraine and Russia can learn from each other and impact their communities: engage minds, touch hearts, feed souls, and respond to environmental challenges as an expression of their faith and leadership. Keywords: Orthodox; Evangelicals; ecology; creation care; leadership; Russia; Ukraine 1. Introduction Religion is connected with ecology. This is widely accepted by scholars of religious studies (Gottlieb 2006). Grim and Tucker (2014), the editors of the Harvard book series “Religions of the World and Ecology”, argued that religions provide for people the basic interpretive stories of who humans are and what their nature is, where humans have come from, and where they are going. Religions suggest to humans how they should treat other humans and how they should relate to nature. Eco-theology, creation care, and environmental leadership are noteworthy themes for the world’s three major Christian traditions—Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, and Protestantism (Blanchard 2014; Chryssavgis 2013; Hessel and Ruether 2007; Jenkins 2008; Schaefer 2011). O’Brien (2010) stressed that the well-being of people and a balanced biodiversity on the earth is a point of intersection between Christian faith and ethics, social justice and environmentalism, science and politics, and global problems and local solutions. In recent decades, many leaders and theologians of various Christian traditions have met to address the growing ecological challenges on the earth. While they might disagree on various Christian dogmas, they concurred in saying that “the Christian community has a special obligation to provide moral leadership and an example of caring service to people and to all God’s creation” (Oxford Declaration on Global Warming 2002). The international participants of the Lausanne Global Consultation on Creation Care lately agreed that ecology is “a gospel issue within the lordship of Christ”. The consultation’s declaration—A Jamaica Call for Actions (Creation Care and the Gospel: Jamaica Call to Religions 2021, 12, 305. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12050305 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions