Does Christian Environmental Thought Rest on a Mistake?
Talk to Christians interested in relating their faith to environmental concerns, and at some point the phrase “Dominion Theology” will arise. This comes from Genesis 1:26, which is conventionally translated as And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. The above translation (with my emphasis) is taken from the King James Version, but it is very close to just about every other English translation. The word “dominion” looms large, both for those Christians who are environmentalists and those who are skeptical of environmentalism. The latter see the notion as meaning “dominate” or more pointedly, “use for human purposes.” They thus reject the notion that preservation of nature is good in and of itself. The former see it as expressing the notion of stewardship, and thus embracing the
