Greek Orthodoxy

The far-off country where the prodigal wandered is the figure of a world in which the activities of human beings, even their duties, are disconnected or antagonistic to each other ... a world of incoherent pursuits, of illusory strivings, of craving for foods that satisfy not and drinks which quench not our thirst, a world where nothing ultimately makes sense, engulfed as it is in untruth, deceit and sin.

...There is no cure for the evils of our age unless we return to God, since the world in which we live is not a normal world, but a waste land ... St. Ambrose comments: He who separates himself from Christ is in exile from the fatherland and becomes a subject of the world. But we are not aliens and foreigners; we are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God: we were some time afar off, but we were made near by the blood of Christ.

George Barrois, Scripture Readings
in Orthodox Worship, p. 25