Christian Ethics and Environmental Stewardship

The key precept of a Christian ethic is for the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever.\" (Psalm 100:5) What are adherents called to do? Love God, one another, and His creation. Genesis 1:27 \'God created \[human\]kind in his own image\" Christian interdisciplinary E Beisner suggests th...

The key precept of a Christian ethic is for the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever.\" (Psalm 100:5) What are adherents called to do? Love God, one another, and His creation. Genesis 1:27 \'God created \[human\]kind in his own image\" Christian interdisciplinary E Beisner suggests that humans are uniquely granted the capacity for both knowledge and righteousness, and a responsibility to use, consume and cultivate the natural world. American historian Lynn White Jr criticises this as anthropocentric Ecotheologist Aldo Leopold \"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.\" Despite this, many Christians believe this natural order gives humans moral accountability to protect and care for God\'s creation as stewards. Humans and animals were both created on Day 6 Leviticus 25:23 The land is mine and you are only tenants. Practice for Stewardship \'Evangelical Climate Stewards\' Care for God\'s creation by combatting environmental issues, such as carbon emissions with their 360 Carbon program, providing carbon footprint calculators for individuals and church groups. Humans are both distinctive as image bearing stewards and dependant through their brotherhood with the animal kingdom. \'The Fall\' Encapsulates a breakdown in the sanctity of relationship between God, mankind and Creation. Exile from Garden of Eden Genesis 3:25-24 As fundamentally imperfect beings humans continue to kill one another on Earth. Genesis 9:2 \"fear and dread of you will fall on \[\...\] every creature of the ground.\" Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew \"there is no way of endlessly manipulating our environment and its resources that comes without cost or consequence, material and human.\" Pope Francis encyclical Ladato Si\' (139) \"We are not faced with two seperate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather one complex crisis, which is both social and environmental. Leviticus 19:10 relays not to pick all the grapes in one\'s vineyard and leave those that fall to the ground, for they must be left for \"the poor or the stranger.\" Servant Leaders- Catholic Organisation \'St Columbans Mission Society\' Concern for \"issues of peace, ecology and justice\" derive from commitment to \"solidarity with the poor and care and respect for all of Creation.\" Redemptive eschatology The idea that, despite this breakdown in relationship, God promises to restore the broken world in the eschaton (Revelation 21:1) Isaiah 11:6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid. Catholic Benedictine abbess, Saint Hildegard Von Bingen \"the divine is present in the greening of the earth.\" Poatina Found at the edge of the Central Plateau, a disused hub for the Hydroelectric Commission of the 1960s. Offers refuge for Christian young people and centres on sustainability and ecotourism. Combination of nuance in interpretation and loss of theocentrism has resulted in\... Ambivalence regarding ecological practice. Evangelical Christian James Watt \"After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.\" Christian theologian N.T. Wright contends: \"you are not restoring a painting that\'s shortly going to be thrown in the fire\.... all of this will find its way\... into the new creation which God will one day make. From 2001 to 2023\... Rwanda experienced a 9.3% decrease in tree cover. Anglican Church of Rwanda- restore native forestry \"it is part of \[their\] mandate as the church to contribute to environmental protection according to what the Bible teaches.\" \"have dominion\" Genesis 1:28 Matthew 25:40 \"Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.\" Jesus\' propitiation Underscores that humans are not solely faced with the responsibility of reversing environmental instabilities. Climate scientist and evangelical Christian Katherine Hayhoe \"fear is a short-term spur to action, but to make changes over the longterm, we must have hope\" Anglican Author Donna Toulon ascertains \"though our attempts may be futile, this is no reason to abdicate responsibility.\" Corinthians 15:58 \'You\'re labor in the Lord is not in vain.\' Second Commandment for the Environment don\'t \"reduce nature to a mere instrument to be manipulated and exploited.\" nor put it \"above the dignity of the human person.\" Farming God\'s Way in Zimbabwe Low cost and small scale methods, such as educating farmers towards alternative methods, allowing them to yield eight times as much produce.