An Ecotheological Examination of Genesis 1: 26-30 on Earth Stewardship in the Nigerian Context

Abstract

The paper examined the dominion section of the creation account, in the light of the ongoing Earth stewardship situated within the theological framework and response to the reoccurring ecological issues. It has been observed that extreme human activities on the surface of Earth have brought adverse effect on Man and his environment. The consensus on the environment today in terms of the hazardous resultant effect, is anthropogenic in nature and there is the need to checkmate man’s attitude towards nature. Thus, there is the need to advance a Christian position on the preservation of non-human resources as found in the text. We employed expository and descriptive methods to re-read Genesis 1:26-30 from an Eco-feministic perception in order to establish the managerial ground between the interaction of man and environment. We discovered that the dominion text has been used as centre force for exploiting the Earth. A critical study of the text also shows that man was created as manager. We concluded that willingness to respect the environment in the shape of the dominion is equally the sensitivity to preserve man’s existence from obliteration.