The Limits of Dominion: Biblical Theology, Human Intervention, and Responsibility for the Future of Creation

This article develops a biblical theology of ecological responsibility for an age in which human beings possess unprecedented capacities to alter natural systems. It argues that the biblical language of dominion cannot be read as a warrant for unrestricted technological mastery. Genesis 1 must be interpreted within the wider canonical grammar of creatureliness: the earth belongs to God, human beings are formed from the ground they govern, the land is granted sabbath, non-human creatures possess value before and beyond human use, and creation participates in the scope of divine reconciliation. The article engages the modern debate generated by Lynn White Jr., together with ecological biblical theology associated with Richard Bauckham, David Horrell, Willis Jenkins, Norman Wirzba, and contemporary Christian environmental ethics. It then tests the argument against concrete cases in which interventions undertaken for human benefit produced serious unintended consequences, including biological control through the Australian cane toad, irrigation-led collapse in the Aral Sea basin, and the emerging governance problem of solar geoengineering. The central claim is that Christian faith cannot become an excuse for ecological negligence, nor prayer a substitute for responsibility after human intervention has produced foreseeable harm. Biblical dominion is accountable dominion: technologically capable humanity remains creaturely, morally bounded, and responsible not only for immediate human benefit but also for the integrity of ecological communities and the conditions inherited by future generations.