God created man and placed him over the natural world, which includes the earth, the fruit of the earth, and the animal kingdom (Genesis 1:26, 2:1-18). This vision clearly places man over nature and signifies that he is more important than the natural world, as well as allowing him to enjoy and profit from its bounty, to wit capitalism and ownership of private property.
Many secularists and environmentalists reject this understanding as too anthropocentric or “speciesist” and promote a “biocentric” vision, which makes man merely a part of the natural world, possibly even a detriment, but clearly not over it. This is simply biological egalitarianism.
Of course, the “biocentric” view is actually nothing more than romanticism. Humans are the only ones who have the rational and moral ability to be stewards of the environment. In a purely “biocentric” world where everything is equal, there is no real stewardship. In other words, if we are not making decisions about the environment, there will be no decisions regarding stewardship of the environment, i.e. do not look for an environmental symposium led by monkeys and attended by dolphins.
The Acton Institute offers a third alternative–which is the biblical vision–and that is a “theocentric” view. This God-centered approach is the Christian approach, which recognizes the role of man and private and free enterprise as well as government involvement.
In this view, man is essentially more valuable and higher than nature and has been charged by God to govern and benefit from it (Matt 20:13-15). However, the fall of man into sin made man most capable of turning liberty in license and stewardship into abuse. Consequently government is to play a role in holding man accountable for such (Romans 13:1-7).
However, since government is also composed of sinful humans, governmental power may also be abused (Ps. 94:20; 1 Samuel 8). Therefore, government must be limited as in our Constitution and as taught in the Scripture, in both power (Deuteronomy 17:14-20) and division of power – judicial, legislative, and executive reflected in God as the Judge, Lawgiver, and King (Isa. 33:22).
Consequently, in a Christian or “theocentric” approach, capitalism, profit, private ownership, limited government, and personal responsibility and accountability are the ingredients for solving the environmental questions of our day.
