Christianity and the Environment
Despite the popular view that many Christians believe environmental issues to be unimportant and indeed incompatible with their core beliefs, there are many more who believe quite the opposite. Many Christians today take environmental issues to heart (McDermott 2011), believing that it is not only the right of the faithful to inhabit and "rule over" the earth, but also their duty to protect this environment. In fact, the majority of Christians have embraced the idea of environmental protection and action to curb climate change without feeling that such action is incompatible with their basic faith. Hence, despite the historic tendency to exploit the earth and its resources under license of their "special" place in creation, Christians today believe that the biblical idea of "mastery" also means protection. Even prominent institutions such as the Vatican believe in the importance of protecting the earth, while the faithful on both the liberal and conservative sides believe that ecologically sound practices are essential from both a practical and religious point-of-view.
In the past, many Christians have interpreted the Old Testament idea of "mastery" over creation as a license to exploit the resources of the earth (McDermott 2011). Indeed, God does provide human beings with a "special" place on earth, declaring them to be higher than the rest of creation. In the past, this has been viewed as a command to rule over the earth, which has further been interpreted as a license to exploit. While there are those who still hold this belief today, the majority of Christians now interpret the idea of mastery to be synonymous with care. God, according to this view, is the master of all, but remains separate from earth. It is therefore the duty of believers, as representatives of God on earth, to protect the environment as part of the "mastery" directive.
Taking this idea further, Silvius (2012) points that Adam was never required to "rule" the earth by exploiting it. His rulership directive was also one of "keeping" it, or caring for nature. Indeed, early in Genesis God commands Adam to study the animals and plants and give them names. In other words, his care of the environment was also a scientific...
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