There is little doubt that the ongoing polycrisis and the emerging post-human era call for a renewed reflection on the place of the humanity in the world. It is becoming increasingly unclear what the oikos of humanity truly is, what the full horizon of its living space and the community of life within it might be. It is therefore not surprising that critiques of anthropocentrism have become a common part of contemporary thought, including the increasingly popular wave of eco-theology. Yet such critique often remains merely an appeal to care for creation, without abandoning the privileged human perspective. At the same time, for the Christian tradition, however, the position of the human being is entirely unique (Genesis 1:26-28). Yet if we read patristic theology, shaped by the experience of the desert, such as that of Basil of Caesarea and Maximus the Confessor, in dialogue with contemporary philosophy of mind (e.g., variants of dual-aspect theory), the biblical language of human "dominion" and "reason" as the primary instrument of rule over creation may appear in a different, ascetic and kenotic perspective. Such a perspective not only reinterprets these concepts but may also offer insight and even a form of empathy into the relational character of creation. In this way it may be possible to avoid forms of anthropocentrism that place the human being in opposition to the non-human creation. Such views are often rooted in the fundamental error of mind-matter dualism, which continues to underlie much of modern anthropocentrism and has influenced a large part of theological thinking.