voices-2013-2&3 - EATWOT's International Theological Commission

Ecological Vision in a Groaning World · 65responsibility at the hands of humans entrusting them with the duty ofmanaging and caring for other creatures. If God saw that everything Hehad created was good then why should human beings disfigure it? In theCompendium of the Social doctrine of the Church, it is said that, “If manintervenes in nature without abusing it or damaging it, then he intervenesnot in order to modify nature but to foster its development in its own life,that of creation that God intended it.” 3 In this way humans are fulfillingtheir duty of managing and caring for the earth. In Psalm 8, the Psalmistsay that “What are humans that you are mindful of them. You have madethem little less than a god… You have given them to rule over the worksof your hands, put all things at their feet.” 4 In fact, it was God’s will thatman becomes the king of creation, hence cooperating with the creatorby using their intelligence in furthering God’s work of creation. Throughscience and technology humans have used their God given talents to discoverand develop the earth to its present status. Man has come a longway from being a hunter and a gatherer to one who can go to the moon!What has gone wrong why is our mother earth groaning then? Let us startwith the situation in Uganda as a micro example.Environmental Issues in UgandaUganda is known as the peal of Africa because of its natural beauty,the beautiful rolling hills, big mountains, the tropical forests, the savannas,the fresh water lake, and other lakes. Indeed God has endowed thiscountry! How can Ugandans best sustain the environment? If we want tosustain our environment we must find means of passing on to the futuregeneration the resources and knowledge we have today so as to helpthem in turn to develop themselves. Afuna Adula looks at the environmentas having four dimensions: the ecological-biological, social-economic,the social-cultural and the time dimension. 5 The Ecological-Biologicalis the relationship between the living and the non-living physical form ofthe environment, which forms one quarter of it. The non-living includesthe rocks, soils, hills and mountains, water bodies, ect.; and the livingthings are the forests and all plants of every kind plus animals. The seconddimension is the socio-economic, this includes the social way of life,social institutions such as church and traditional institutions, and modernones such as world bank which is involved in money and business, IMF,Cooperate Organizations, the socio-cultural which is involved with spiritualitiesof the local people their attitudes, names, medicines, social lifestyles, besides these there is the eco-spirituality and spiritual ecology, andlastly the time dimension, from time immemorial humans have alwaysshared the environment with other creatures. With time humans begantaking more than other creatures in name of development.