Briefs: Stewardship

- Dr Roger E Hedlund

Serampore College, Serampore, West Begal, 712 201, INDIA


Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 5 (1995), 70.

I am writing to respond to Jayapaul Azariah's article on "The Book of Genetics and Environmental Ethics, Biodiversity and the Food Deficit". A recent article by J. Mark Lawson* of Syracuse, New York, provides an interpretation of "dominion over the earth" which precludes exploitation.

Contrary to White and the skeptics, the Genesis passage is "an invitation to live in and work the earth responsibly, thereby maintaining the essential harmony of God's creation." The Biblical axiom is stewardship, i.e. responsible earth-keeping, not exploitation. Our problem is that humans (Western self-proclaimed Christians) during the industrial age have been so rapaciously greedy and abusive of nature "as to obscure the viability of the biblical vision. Dominion has been confused with domination." [*J. Mark Lawson, "Romans 8:18-25--The Hope of Creation." Review and Expositor, 91,4 (Fall 1994): 559-565.]

I endorse Lawson's comments. A biblical outlook invites an ecological approach to life. All citizens of earth are called to careful earth-keeping.


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