CRAFTSMANSHIP, ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, AND PLANETARY SUSTAINABILITY: BIBLICAL LESSONS FOR TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AFRICA

the biblical perspective, the universe of existence is a result of God's creative activity. At the summit of F this "very good" creation (Gen 1: 31), God placed man, made in his own image, to ensure its harmony and development. Man, the only being with intellect, as God's image-bearer, has rightly understood his position in the material universe as responsibility to use his intellectual capacity to control the created worldfor "man's good" (Gen 1: 26-31). One however, observes thathuman creativity oozingfrom man's desire to live up to his responsibility, is in discord with humanity's "authentic good", which is central in God's charge to man. Nature has been reduced to a mere object to be manipulated and exploited. This improper application of man's great advances in science, technology, the economy, and the liberal arts to the various fields ofhuman life apparently threatens rather than enhances the dignity ofman and planetary sustainability. This paper serves as a reminder and warning concerning the adverse consequences that abuse and damage made to the material universe have caused and are causing on planetary living and sustainability, and to suggest a wayforward. For a methodology, the paper employs theological analysis ofthe biblical teaching on creation as the basis of assessment ofissues involved in man's relationship to the environment.