Tuesday
Tuesday
Caring for Creation
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image … and let them rule [“have dominion” (REB)] over … all the earth….” God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”
Genesis 1:26, 28
In March 2005 the results of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment were published. It was a scientifically rigorous analysis of the conditions for human well-being on planet Earth. “We are living beyond our means,” it declared, rapidly consuming, depleting, polluting, and destroying the “natural capital” on which our own livelihood depends.
Christians should be in the vanguard of the conservation movement, because we believe that God has called us to care for his creation. To be sure, some people blame us not only for not solving the ecological crisis but for actually causing it. In particular, one critic has seized on what he has called “three horrifying lines” in Genesis 1 and “this ghastly, calamitous text.”1 He was referring to the statements that God had given humankind the commission to “rule” and “subdue” the earth.
It is quite true that the first of these two verbs in Hebrew can mean to “trample on” and that the second was used for bringing people into subjection. Was Ian McHarg right, then, in his accusation? No, he was not. It is an elementary principle of biblical interpretation that the context must be allowed to determine the meaning of the text. We must note, therefore, that the “dominion” God has given us is a delegated and responsible stewardship. It would be ludicrous to suppose that, having first created the earth, God then handed it over to us to destroy it. It is the care of creation, not its exploitation, to which we have been called.
For further reading: Genesis 1:26–31