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Stewardship |
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The biblical vision of man’s place in creation puts him between animals and purely spiritual beings: the angels and God. Man has responsibilities over the creatures below him, but not, as some radical environmentalists have charged, because the Bible gives him the right to exploit nature. All things are God’s, and man must watch over and care for all created things in honor of him. In the Old Testament, God commands Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it” (Gn 1:28). In the New Testament, Jesus warns the disciples in a parable to be just and care for the Lord’s household, because when he comes again, they will be judged for their stewardship (Lk 12:41-48). In its fullest sense, stewardship means that all things and all actions should be directed toward glorifying God. Our labor and its fruits, our lives in our families, and our conduct toward the natural world and human society all fall under different forms of stewardship. When we choose what work to do or when to rest, how to spend money, and who will be our leaders, we should be guided not only by immediate aims but by God’s Revelation about his creation and his ultimate aims for the whole world. In recent years, the image of stewardship has been especially applied to concerns about the natural environment. This is a proper development, now that the human race has grown to the point of having a global impact on nature, with serious implications for its duties to future generations. Stewardship, however, does not and cannot mean so great a reverence for nature that human beings do not shape and use the world around them. In fact, stewardship obliges us to make the natural world productive for the common good of all. The notion of stewardship operates within the framework of universal moral laws and can never be used to justify limits on population through contraception, abortion, and other morally illicit means. Properly understood, stewardship should lead the Christian to recognize the full meaning of Christ’s words: “Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required” (Lk 12:48).
See: Animals; Creation; Environment; Population; Universal Destination of Goods.
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