To what extent does the religion you have studied adequately insist on human beings taking responsibility for the environment?

The chosen religion is Christianity. There are two conflicting Christian approaches to environmental responsibility. Namely, the concepts of stewardship and dominion.
Stewardship is the theological belief that humans must take care of the rest of the world. Throughout the bible we see evidence that Christianity insists on humans taking environmental responsibility. The notion of stewardship is expressed in Genesis 2/3. When God is described to have "(taken) the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it". This can be read as symbolic of mankind's responsibility to the rest of creation.
However, this conflicts with the notion of dominion which is the theological belief that humans are the most important element of creation and are in control of it. A central aspect of the Christian religion is the importance of the human species and its dominion over the rest of creation. Genesis 1 describes how Adam and Eve are the last thing to be created and hence the most important element of the creation.
Biblical contradictions towards environmental responsibility have lead to contradicting practices in terms of environmentalism today. Hence humanist approaches to environmental responsibility may be favoured. Libertarian and ecological extension, approaches favoured by philosophers such as Peter Singer, are less contradictory in their arguments.


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Answered by Harriet W. Religious Studies tutor

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