Christian Doctrine Of Creation As Presented In The Creation Narratives Of Genesis

1. Introduction

Environmentalists argue that the 21st century crisis in global environmentalism has deepened more today than in any other time in human history. In light of this concern for environmental crisis threatening humanity today, I shall engage the Christian doctrine of creation in relation to the claim that the creation narratives of Genesis, especially Genesis 1:28, are at the root of our environmental crisis. Biblical imperatives such as “subdue” and “have dominion over” underline the contention and what is perceived as the drivers of the human ‘domination’ of nature. In this essay, I shall argue that the Christian doctrine of creation as presented in the creation narratives of Genesis promote an ecologically sensitive theology.

Through this awareness, that God is present in, with and through the world, all the natural processes therefore qualify as God’s creative actions in the world. Immanence of God in the world provides grounds for a reverence for nature in which God reigns. The future of humanity amidst the apparent threat of ecological crisis depends on whether human being will come to a conscious level of understanding the consequences of the grave ‘sin’ of plundering the environment. In fact, the religious language which urges that ‘the world is to be conceived as a sanctuary’ can only be understood through the principle of reverence. Real centrality of human beings and human life means valuing nature in a way that maintains its equilibrium. Man as symbiont – an organism that lives in symbiosis with one another – does not and should not aim to injure his partner in living. To revere nature requires man to transcend what biology per se can support and consider other aspects of ‘the higher good’, which equally enhance a reasonable

I have stressed the value of understanding the wisdom and meaning of the doctrine’s imperatives “have dominion over” and “subdue” within the context of royal theology. If the imperatives are read through the lense of royal theology, ‘dominion’ becomes a caring ‘dominion’ only exercisable under the ‘divine authority’ of the Creator who is love. Furthermore, I have also demonstrated how misconceptions of the Christian doctrine of creation may lead to conscious efforts to develop ideologies disconnecting the intrinsic relationship between nature, man and God. One product of such wrong interpretations of the Biblical doctrine of creation gave way to anthropocentric conceptions of nature. Though the approach has a positive dimension, its aim seeks to advance man’s selfish interests at the expense of the intrinsic value of nature. This is what has come to be seen as aims to promote centrality of human beings. I challenged this line of thought that understands centrality of human beings as masters, dominators and above nature and thus superior to all other created things. I argued that true and realistic centrality of human beings seeks to sustain and expand the freedoms and capabilities of people. Egoistic human beings only serve to compromise capabilities of the present and future generations to have similar or