Stewards of Creation: Environmentalism in the light of Biblical Teaching

Environmental concern is nothing new. However, the 20th Century has seen a dramatic increase in such concern. Four major issues, in particular, have become focal points for public anxiety about our impact on the environment. The first to attract public attention was the realisation that, through hunting and the destruction of natural habitats, the human race has been responsible for the extinction of many plant and animal species. Towards the end of the 1950s attention began to be focussed on less obvious forms of human impact on the environment. In particular, people began to be concerned about the effect of industrial and agricultural pollution on the environment. A decade later concern had shifted to the closely related issues of population pressure and resource depletion. More recently still, concern has focussed once more on pollution with fresh evidence of the extent of our impact on the environment, in particular our capacity to modify the climate through the Greenhouse Effect.
 
This study looks at the Religious Challenge of the environmental crisis and goes on to investigate Environmentalism and Spirituality. A section on Nature in the Bible is followed by one on the Environment and Christian Theology, with an appendix of some practical implications of environmental stewardship