The Church, the Environment and Ecotheology
The ecological crisis has passed the stage of being merely a theory to a reality that has become a growing menace on a daily basis. Most often, these crises are referred to as natural disasters. Recent philosophical investigation, however, has shown that human activities have greatly contributed to these crises and so, time has come for the human race to ponder on how they have misused the divine command God gave them at creation. The absolute subjectivism in modern anthropology has immensely contributed to this abuse of God's gift of the natural resources. This is because the emphasis on reason and the consequent knowledge that comes from it as defining the person has led to humanity becoming slaves of science and technology. This undoubtedly has led to to the sorry state of our environment and is also threatening the very existence of human beings. Unfortunately, humanity thinks that the solution to the crisis lies in more scientific discovery. There is need to look to religion to see how Christianity can contribute to the search for a solution to our ecological problems. This is because the best solution lies in attitudinal change and we believe that the Church, through ecotheology, can help educate people on the ethical implication of the divine command to subdue the earth and conquer it.
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