On Subduing the Earth

I think it is very difficult to argue that modern western technology derives in some linear causative way from the biblical injunction to "subdue the earth". The biblical imagery is at every point the imagery of gardening, that is, of utilizing the earth by limited means for very specific humane goals. It is the worst kind of denial syndrome that a culture that by other lights had the means and the knowledge to do better with its technology and in its treatment of the environment has not done so. That it hasn't is not because we have somehow been blighted in our understanding or our capacity by a kind of implicit curse in the biblical command but because of our own inability to see the specific causative factors of waste, degradation, ruin and pollution in the principles and dynamics of western culture itself. We have not ruined the land, the rivers, the air because we were fulfilling the dark side of Judaeo-Christian creation theology: we have ruined the world because of simple greed and selfishness which we have managed to monumentalize in deed and thing, in precept and law, across the modern world. We have built this greed--in the form of sanctioned external diseconomies, in the form of abject apathy about the social consequences of our actions--into the structure of our technological culture and it is in this dark covenant between technology and economics, between culture and morality, that is to be found the origin of our ecologic crisis. It is a very dangerous thing to selectively use the bible as the source of causative analyses of the human condition or of culture: for scripture in the end always points us to itself--to the whole truth of scripture and scripture's God. And in the full light of scripture there is no precedent, no sanction, no permission, no cause for what we have done; in fact, quite the other way around--there is to be found in a full reading of the historical, prophetic, and gospel texts only condemnation of what we have done for our failure to live out the full meaning of creation theology--the redemption of the people and the earth in a new creation unmarked by greed and selfishness. Subdue the earth does not mean destroy the earth; it does not mean dump waste into the rivers, it does not mean pile up consumer goods without end, it does not mean place newspapers in the hands of every person--it means none of these things. It does not mean ignore all consequences of toxic waste and dump them on one's neighbors or the poor. If there is any flaw attributable to the Judaeo-Christian tradition in the matter of the environmental crisis, it is not that the tradition caused it, but that it failed to condemn it. There is more than adequate biblical basis--in creation theology, in prophetic judgment, in Christian morality--to say: "These things are wrong. It is wrong to abuse and waste the land. It is wrong to dump waste on the poor. It is wrong to use the law to cover our sins. It is wrong to exploit people. It is wrong because God condemns it. It is wrong because Christ condemns it. It is wrong because it violates each of the two summary commandments: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and might and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself'." Pollution, waste, and ruin; exploitation and greed are neither divine nor neighborly. God doesn't approve of pollution. Don't blame God. Don't blame the Bible. Don't blame Christianity.