"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." (Gen. 1:
26) It has become a commonplace
that Biblical religion bears a heavy share of responsibility for
our destruction of the environment, and this passage from the King
James version of the Bible exemplifies what is generally believed
to be the Biblical attitude toward the earth.
In this provocative book, however, Norman Wirzba argues that the
doctrine of creation, when understood as a statement about the
moral and spiritual meaning of the world, actually holds the key to
a true understanding of our place in the environment and our
responsibility toward it. Wirzba contends
that an adequate response to environmental destruction depends on a
new formulation of ourselves as part of a created whole, rather
than as autonomous, unencumbered individuals. Drawing on the work
of biblical scholars, ecologists, agrarians, philosophers,
theologians, and cultural critics, Wirzba
develops a comprehensive worldview that grows out of the idea that
the world is God's creation. While the text of Genesis has
historically encouraged a vision of persons as masters of creation,
a more theologically and ecologically sensitive rendering, he says,
would be to say that we are servants
of creation. Our present culture, Wirzba believes, results from a
denial of creation that has caused modern problems as diverse as
rootlessness, individualism, careerism, boredom, and consumerism.
The recovery of the meaning of creation can lead to a renewed
senseof human identity and vocation, and
happier, more peaceful lives. He concludes by offering practical
advice for individuals who wish to begin the work of transformation
and renewal.
Moving beyond the usual political debates, The Paradise of God
presents a compelling vision of a new religious environmentalism.
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