On the word “dominion” Hugh Nibley, the great Mormon scholar, has had this to say:

Hugh Nibley, in his book Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless (1978), has said,

lordship and dominium are the same thing; the responsibility of the master for the comfort and well- being of his dependents and guests. . . . [H]e is not a predator, a manipulator or an exploiter of other creatures, but one who cooperates with nature as a diligent husbandman.

The ancients taught that Adam’s dominion was nothing less than the priesthood. . . with the understanding that ‘from this time forth, man must work to improve the earth and preserve and take care of all that is in it, exactly as God had done before.’ (88)

Man’s call to dominion then is a “call to service,” not a call to “exterminate” (Nibley 96).

The full quotes can also be found in this book on googlebooks.

I have come to believe that creation is an ongoing process and that we are co-creators with God. My fundamental Baptist upbringing taught me that God created “man” to have “dominion” over the earth (a literal translation from the King James Version of the Bible). But I’ve come to a much more progressive worldview. Our relationship with the environment is reciprocal. Creation is an ongoing process and evolution of which humans are co-creators with all nature and with God (who is not merely transcendent but also immanent). Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki explains it very well using a metaphor of water and making a case for prayer:

“Think of water as a different metaphor for God. Water rushes to fill all the nooks and crannies available to it; water swirls around every stone, sweeps into every crevice, touches all things in its path – and changes all things in its path. The changes are subtle, often slow, and happen through a continuous interaction with the water that affects both the water and that which the water touches. Particles of sand and sediment change the color of the water, and the water’s action changes the stone, and the land, and the life that can be supported. The water doesn’t exert its power by being “single-minded” over and above these things, but simply by being pervasively present to and with all things. It does not evoke the “command” of power over its creation; it is more like a “persuasive” power with and around its creation. Its power is a power of presence.

“What if God is like that? Could we not imagine a God pervasively present throughout all the universe, filling all its vast and small spaces, its greatest galaxies and its tiniest motes of stardust? If God’s power works through presence, and if God’s presence is an “omnipresence,” then one could say both that there is no center to the universe and that everything in the universe is center to all else. There is no center, for all things are “equidistant” from God, and the centeredness of God is unbounded. But, paradoxically, we can say that all things are center, for if all things are in the presence of God, then it is God who centers them. The Earth, then, is indeed privileged, and we do have a privileged history – but so is every space and every history privileged, for all are presenced and centered by God. One could as easily say that some small planet in the Andromeda Galaxy is a focus of God’s gracious work as to say that Earth is a focus of God’s gracious work. For if God is omnipresent, centering all things, then God is like the rushing water of the universe, filling all spaces, honoring all spaces, centering all spaces through the specialness of divine presence. Prayer in such a universe makes eminent sense – for God is always present. And perhaps this divine presence invites us into communion.”

As community, our congregation (http://www.gladeucc.org) is observing “green Lent” this year. Every Sunday worship service during the Lenten Season focuses on a specific aspect of being “green.” So for Lent, rather than giving up something per se, I am engaging in more environmental-friendly practices. And by doing so, I am engaging beneficially in the reciprocal relationship with nature and with God.