Human Dominion over Nature in the Hebrew Bible

Abstract

What should be our society's relationship with nature? What are the intellectual causes of the current environmental crisis? These “great questions”of environmental studies are essentially humanistic inquiries into ethics and values. Humanists have often debated these questions in terms of Christian and Jewish traditions. One school of thought in particular holds the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) responsible for fostering despotic ideas towards nature. This paper demonstrates that the Bible's most persistent environmental message is that God confers human dominion over nature to righteous or faithful people, whereas God punishes transgressors with natural disasters. Recent advances in studies of the Bible as literature reveal ways to interpret the theme of human dominion over nature, with the resulting evolution of that concept throughout the books of the Bible. The biblical notions of natural justice and righteous individuals in harmony with animals find current expression in the modern environmentalist movement. A comparison of contemporary American personal beliefs with modern geography suggests further research on the disparity of a secular discipline addressing a largely religious American public.

On “Human Dominion over Nature in the Hebrew Bible,'’by Kay

“…Thus, in contradistinction to Kay (1989), it must be recognized that the Old Testament's most persistent environmental message most definitely does not relate to human domination over nature, but is in covenant between a people and its God. Here in covenant land, real land, the land of Israel, is conditionally given by God to His people, Israel.…”

Evolutionary and socio-cultural influences on feelings and attitudes towards nature: a cross-cultural study

“…'Tian Ren He Yi' is a similar view in Taoism; Chuang Tzu (as cited in Wen & Ximing, 2008, p. 574) referred to 'The Way of Heaven'; 'the universe and I came into being together; I and everything therein are one'. This equality of humans and nature differs from the Judeo-Christian tradition of dominion over nature which persists in Britain, being the Bible's most persistent message (Kay, 1989). There are also differences between western and eastern aesthetics (Xu et al, 2013).…”

I'd rather watch the movie than read the book

“…This introduction leads quite nicely into a discussion of some current geography literature on how society represents and interacts with nature (cf. Kay, 1989;Burgess, 1990;Katz & Kirby, 1991).…”