A Creature Among Creatures Or Lord of Creation? the Vocation of Dominion in Christian Theology (Symposium‪)‬

The apologetic context of the doctrine of creation in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century is the supposed ecological crisis of modern civilization. (1) Lynn White Jr. articulated the classic critique of Christianity as the driving force behind the modern ecological crisis, saying that Christianity bears "a huge burden of guilt." (2) White linked the rise of ecologically destructive science and technology to the values of Christianity. The basic argument linking tyranny over and exploitation of nature with Christianity may be identified as the "mastery hypothesis." (3) The argument is generally made along three major lines: (1) Christianity is said to have killed off humanity's wonder and awe of nature by desacralizing nature; (2) it promotes an anthropocentrism that legitimates human rule and dominion over nature; and (3) it relegates the physical world to a lower status and value than that which is spirit. (4) Our concern shall be with the second of these charges--the "dominion mandate."