Subduing the Earth
Genesis 1, Early Modern Science, and the Exploitation of Nature
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5143358 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter Harrison (0000-0002-4048-2409, The University of Queensland, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1999 |
| Volume | 79 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 86-109 |
| Publication date | 1999-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-4189 • E-ISSN: 1549-6538 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/490346 |
| OpenAlex | W1978552652 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 33 |
[Extract] : In a short paper which appeared thirty years ago in the journal Science, historian Lynn White, Jr., suggested that in "the orthodox Christian arrogance toward nature" may be found the ideological source of our contemporary environmental woes. The Christian doctrine of the creation sets the human being apart from nature, advocates human control of nature, and implies that the natural world was created solely for our use. The biblical text that best exemplifies this view is Gen. 1:28: "And God said to them 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.'" In the Christian Middle Ages, according to White, we already encounter evidence of attempts at the technological mastery of nature, and of those incipient exploitative tendencies that come to full flower in scientific and technological revolutions of later eras. All of this is attributed to the influence of Judeo-Christian conceptions of creation. Christianity, White concludes, "bears a huge burden of guilt for environmental deterioration."
Dialog box · Download · Environmental ethics · Library science · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics
Historical Roots of Anthropological and Spiritual Dualisms
Acquisitiveness, Asceticism, Affluence, and the Anthropocene
Elemental Powers
Lording It over the Goddess
Are Muslims in Turkey Really ‘Green’
Religion and environmental politics in the US House of Representatives
The liberal origins of the modern view of nature
Relaciones infraestructurales
William Smellie and Enlightenment Anti-Anthropocentrism
The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science
Eco Trends, Counseling and Applied Ecology in Community Using Sophia
Examining the Values Allocated to the Natural Environment
Niche Construction and the Functional Model of the Image of God
Cross-Cultural Applications of the New Ecological Paradigm in Protected Area Contexts
Christianity, settler colonialism, and resource extraction
Lynn White Jr.'s ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis’ After 50 Years
Manifesting Destiny
Adam Smith’s economic and ethical consideration of animals
Augustine of Hippo on Nonhuman Animals
The Paradise of God
Spectres among the Shoals
The weapon which wounds the rationalist kills the truth of revelation”
After Lynn White
Thick Description as Pedagogical Tool
That future age of which we can only dream
A Vocational Reading of Gen 2
The materiality of hell
Science, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism
Relief of Man's Estate
The Grounding of the Intrinsic Value of Nature
An Ecolinguistic Reading of the Creation Story in the Bible
Representing Water
Dichotomies
| Unique citing works | 33 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,43 |
| Citation span | 2003 - 2026 (24) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 24 |