The incarnation of the Word of God (i.e., Logos, Son of God or Christ) was very consistently considered by Byzantine theologians as truly having a cosmic significance. The cosmic dimension of the Christ-event is expressed particularly well in Byzantine hymnology: Every creature made by You offers You thanks: the Angels offer You a hymn; the heavens, a star; the Magi, gifts; the shepherds, their wonder; the earth, its cave; the wilderness, the manger, and we offer You a Virgin Mother.” The connection between creation and the Incarnation is constantly emphasized in the hymns: Man fell from the divine and better life; though made in the image of God, through transgression he became wholly subject to corruption and decay. But now the wise Creator fashions him anew; for He has been glorified. Similarly, the hymnology of Great and Good Friday stresses the involvement of creation as a whole in the death of Christ: The sun beholding You upon the Cross covered itself with gloom; the earth trembled for fear.

Thus, poetic images reflect the parallelism between Genesis 1:2 and John 1. The coming of Christ is the Incarnation of the Logos thorough whom all things were made: it is a new creation, but the creator is the same. Against the Gnostics, who professed a dualism distinguishing the God of the Old Testament from the Father of Jesus, patristic tradition affirmed their absolute identity and, therefore, the essential goodness of the original creation.

The Christ-event is a cosmic event both because Christ is the Logos – and, therefore, in God the agent of creation – and because He is man, since man is a microcosm. Man’s sin plunges creation into death and decay, but man’s restoration in Christ is a restoration of the cosmos to its original beauty. Here again, Byzantine hymnology is the best witness:

David foreseeing in spirit the sojourn with men of the Only-begotten Son in the flesh, called the creation to rejoice with him, and prophetically lifted up his voice to cry: “Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in Your name”. For having gone up, O Christ, with Your disciples into Mount Tabor, You were transfigured, and made the nature that had grown dark in Adam to shine again as lightning.

The glorification of man, which is also the glorification of the whole of creation, should be understood eschatologically. In the person of Christ, in the sacramental reality of His Body, and in the life of the saints, the transfiguration of the entire cosmos is anticipated’ but its advent in strength is still to come. This glorification, however, is indeed already a living experience available to all Christians, especially in the Liturgy. This experience alone can give a goal and a meaning to human history.