Christian Stewardship and Sustainability - Essay Example

Number] Christian Stewardship and Sustainability The basics of Christian stewardship from the ecological perspective tells us that the concept is about trusting in the theory that everything belongs to God and for all purposes, the resources that we have been blessed with should be used in the service of God. This term of stewardship is usually used by the Catholics. In literature, steward is derived from the word sty-ward that means to take care of the farm and its livestock. Stewardship implies both the right to enjoy the fruits of creation and an injunction against destruction or disposal (Barrett 11) The concepts of stewardship require such a living approach that persuades desirable qualities of an individual and enjoys the harmony of living with unity. For instance, in stewardship the use of excessive resources like water, forests soil, wildlife and etc is prohibited or at least most likely to be avoided at its best. The word stewardship is mostly understood as a type of responsible and answerable management pattern and practice where the points of sustainability and quality of the environment are considered as the key area to focus on (Worrell, and Michael 263). Our notion of stewardship comes from biblical creation theology, distributed throughout the Bible but most visible in Genesis, the Psalms, and the Wisdom literature of ancient Israel (Butkus 19) It can be said that stewardship is just not a way of living; in fact it is better to be taken as a good way of living or an approach to better way of life. The starting and ending idea of stewardship lies in belongings to God. And on the other hand the theory of keeping everything in a moderate situation prevails in the ecological concepts of sustainability without damaging the productive rate of the society. Few of the best examples of sustainability are the forests that have been there from a long time with no harm. Sustainability is not only a matter of self interest for the communal societies of human being but they also consist of questions against the fundamental values of earth and other species besides humans. Human beings should be capable enough of restricting themselves for the unnecessary consumption of reserves of nature and should learn to limit themselves for being a good use for the community. Sustainability does not only refer to the greening concept instead it uncovers global justice gaps if considered as a big picture. Overall it depends on the broad culture of life (Barrett 13). Comparison of stewardship with sustainability Whereas the concepts of sustainability when contrasted with the ecological perspectives of stewardship, states that sustainability is like an ethical theory based on the expectations of Gods restoring the human creation. Through sustainability, stewards tend to lengthen the life system and reducing the chances of crises, panic situations which overall enhances the living performances of an individual. In general terms, we can summarize sustainability as a defined term for fulfilling the needs of a person without sacrificing the use of natural resources by keeping a balance between the environmental, economic and social concerns. And according to the ecological models of stewardship the actions and the state policies that affect the health and survival mechanism of earth are highly opposed. They usually emphasize on utilizing the non renewable resources and the key factors that are the main parts of the climate change. For example we can take a more realistic and practical example of a small town in US that is now used to remember the good times of their lives being moved on with a constant speed. In those there used to be like six o seven grocery stores in a town. But now as they take a look around themselves, they realizes that all those businesses are gone like a wind and every individual is fighting his own fight again his survival (Worrell and Michael 263). It is essential to highlight the current perspective of sustainability which reflects the term sustainability as a potential of human survival with all the good in the long run. In all these theories and ideas of both terms, the central point revolves around the basis of ecological foundation areas. The need of explaining these terms in context with ecology is the increasing effect of human activities on the climate and environmental conditions of this planet. As per the stewardship’s view, creation s not a onetime occurrence, it keeps repeating with a sustaining level of power which reflects the presence of God. The spiritual ecological dimensions of stewardship state that different types of ecological spirituality, tend to look out for compromising situations between the self and a cosmic context (Butkus 17) ‎. There are certain types of claims that prevail in the society about stewardship. One of them is this that the Christians should devote their lives for the services of others in the community as their teachings and faith tells them to do so. And the people who tend to neglect this belief will be like empty souls that are tired physically, mentally and spiritually. In fact not any other person will come for their help when they would be facing hard times (Barrett 13). Stewardship is potentially a useful concept in modernizing management philosophies (Worrell and Michael 263). God has enabled human beings to critically think and make their decision on their own free will. Si if they are more likely choosing the God’s wills as their own, this would reward them for sure in future. As far as my own opinion is concerned God has not provided us with so many great things, resources and gifts of nature just to rule over them and use them in a quite wild manner. The great gift of God, our healthy should be put into a good use of helping mankind in their hardships. This is the best way to reflect how grateful we are towards God’s gifts. And we should be the one’s taking care of God’s provided facilities with helping the people around us. The great idea for human beings is to assume that a person does not own himself; instead his soul is under the authority of God. This will make easy for us to keep a positive attitude towards helping our communal friend and neighbours (Worrell, and Michael 263). The discussion could be sum up with the conclusion that Christianity promotes the positive behaviour in the society and overall it’s a good gesture for the harmony of this world Work Cited Barrett, Christopher B. "Fairness, stewardship and sustainable development."Ecological Economics 19.1 (1996): 11-17. Butkus, Russell A. "The Stewardship of Creation." The Centre for Christian Ethics at Baylor University (2002): 17-23. Worrell, Richard, and Michael C. Appleby. "Stewardship of natural resources: definition, ethical and practical aspects." Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 12.3 (2000): 263-277. Read More