A friend, who is involved with our little “church and culture” discussion group, mentioned he had just read an interesting article for another group he’s involved with — THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF OUR ECOLOGICAL CRISIS by Lynn White, Jr. This piece, written in 1967, places much of the blame for the ever-growing abuse of the environment on Christians. I’m not really going to comment much on the statements in the article, primarily because I think it needs several readings, and I don’t have the time for it. But I say I don’t entirely disagree with the premise. I’m not necessarily willing to blame all our environmental ills on Medevial Christians, but I will place some blame on contemporary Christians who read “dominion” in Genesis as “do whatever you please.” Forming an entire theology of environmentalism (or lack thereof) from that single verse is problematic, simply because there so much evidence in the Bible that we are STEWARDS of Creation, and that all of Creation is a reflection of God, not just humanity. This site (mind the horrid design) has a laundry of passages talking about Creation and its relationship with God. I’m not lauding this as the be-all-end-all theology of Creation, but you can at least some Scriptural references and decide for yourself.

Posted on 1 November 2004