Redacted Dominionism: A Biblical Approach to Grounding Environmental Responsibility

Critiques of the environmental ramifications of the early Genesis narrative by environmental thinkers such as Aldo Leopold, Ian McHarg, and Lynn White underscore a long-standing tension between the environmental movement and Western Christianity. The evangelical community, especially, has been at odds with the environmental movement, in grounding its theology of human relations to nature on the Genesis narrative–a narrative the environmental community views generally as contributing negatively to environmental matters. Redacted Dominionism is a literal interpretation of the early Genesis narrative that recognizes human relations to nature are based on theocentric themes. Redacted Dominionism understands humanity as initially given dominion over nature, by virtue of the image of God in humanity, but that human disobedience to God tarnished that image, and human qualification for dominion was lost. Post-fall, the dominion mandate is never repeated in Genesis and seems even to be replaced. Redacted Dominionism offers an important biblical approach to understanding human responsibility to God for how we interact with His creation.