Let's conclude this series of excerpts from John Stackhouse's valuable book with this gentle and hopeful rebuke to the idea that human beings are necessarily a damaging force on the earth. I am struck by his idea that our charge is to make the earth "even more . . . sustainable." Is that possible? What would it mean?

re: environment, gardens and cities, john stackhouse, nature, stewardship

Andy:

God did not want us to leave as few footprints as possible, leaving the earth alone as much as we can. He commanded us instead to spread out, over the whole globe, and bring it all under our influence, to subdue it for its own good, to make it even more fruitful, beautiful, and sustainable, under God’s guidance and by the power he invested in it. We dare not be cowed into relinquishing this role out of shame that we have performed it badly heretofore. We must take it up afresh, do the best we can, and look forward to the shalom that our administration will bring, in concert with Christ’s rule, in the world to come.