Part of a Peace and Justice class I took in bible college had us rethinking our views of nature and how our theology affected those views. This article emphasizes on humanity's dominion over nature, which is often cited as reason to use/abuse our natural resources and such. What adds to this, however, is the effects of the mainstream views on eschatology. At least in Evangelical America, some sort of world ending, fire and brimstone scenario is common, with a new Heaven and Earth being brought forth from the ashes. So when your world-view says that every thing's going to burn anyway and be risen anew, why plan for a future you don't expect? The union of these two world-views of dominion and inevitable ruination is, in my view, toxic.

There has of course been some progression in modern theology since this article was written. The idea that was suggested in my class was this: The garden (of eden) represented humans being in a perfect relationship with God, his fellow human, and creation (nature) and the coming of Christ was the restoration of the relationship with God but we must work to restore the relationship with our fellow humans and with creation. Even among conservative pastors who don't want to rock the boat, sermons about respecting nature are not that uncommon. Unfortunately Christianity as an institution is a slow boat to turn, especially with some of its passengers yelling, "Drill, Baby, Drill!"