[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
created by God from light to darkness to animals to humankind
everything belongs to Him. As the Psalmist says: The earth is the
Lord s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,
for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers
(Ps. 24:1, New Revised Standard Version translation). Furthermore,
from the beginning, humankind was commanded to be fruitful and
multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the
fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every thing
that moves on the earth (Gen. 1:28). Again, as the Psalmist exclaims,
You have given [humankind] dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet (Ps. 8:6).
We are told in Genesis something about the character of this domin-
ion when humankind was given the command to tend the Garden:
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to
work it and keep it (Gen. 2:15). To work it and keep it. The Hebrew
word translated work here is easy enough to understand; it is abad.
It is sometimes translated as to till (Gen. 3:23, 4:2, 12). Keep it
is the word shamar, and it specifies the nature of Adam s labor. Interest-
ingly, the word is used of the occupation of Abel (Gen. 4:9), who cared
for the land and his flocks. The word is also used (in Gen. 28:15, 20)
of protecting persons. When God appeared in Jacob s dream, He said
he would keep him wherever he went. Finally, the word is used of
the priests who served God, faithfully carrying out His instructions
(Lev. 8:35; Num. 1:53, 18:5). Thus, stewardship over the creation mil-
itates against worshiping the creation, and accountability to the Creator
serves to check against abusing the creation. Both responses to creation
are to be avoided. Stewardship sees to it that they are.
Furthermore, though the exact boundaries are not drawn for us, we
can infer from the Creation account that some knowledge is meant to
be possessed by stewards and some is not:
26 CHAPTER TWO
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work
it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You
may surely eat of every tree of the Garden, but of the tree of the knowl-
edge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it
you shall surely die. (Gen. 2:15 17)
This text also demonstrates that the application of technology was
meant to be a feature of human stewardship. Working and tilling the
Garden required tools. By Genesis 4:22, we know that tool making was
a recognized vocation, for Zillah was the forger of all instruments of
bronze and iron. Not only were tools a feature of early human life,
even in the Garden of Eden, but procedures of classification were also
utilized. Adam named all the animals, a process that can be taken to be
a form of taxonomic classification (Gen. 2:20).
Alas, the created order did not remain Edenic. Adam and Eve acted
irresponsibly by disobeying God s command. Thus a divine curse on
the entire order followed human sin. God declared to Adam: Cursed
is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of
your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall
eat the plants of the field (Gen. 3:17b 18). In eschatological hope,
the Apostle Paul adds: For we know that the whole creation has been
groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now (Rom. 8:22).
Human sin and its curse wreaked havoc in the universe. Creation is not
pristine, therefore. Entropy prevails for now. Because of the fallenness
of the world, we should not assume its indestructibility; and because of
the eschatological hope, we should not pander to its fragility.
Boat building (Gen. 6:14 ff ), weapon making (Gen. 10:9), and
building construction and city planning (Gen. 10:20) were early tech-
nologies in the lives and work of the people of God. Homo sapiens
(human knowers) were also meant to be Homo faber (human makers).
As Petroski expresses it, To engineer is human. 28 To create, however,
is divine.
Where human craft flourishes, however, human pride is not far be-
hind. In Genesis 11, we have the account of the technological impera-
tive run amok. As the people settled new territories, their hubris grew.
Finally they cried: Come, let us build ourselves a city and tower with
Humanity and the Technological Narrative 27
its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves (Gen.
11:4). So they used their human technological skills to build monu-
ments to themselves. The theologian of technology Graham R. Hous-
ton says of the towers of Babel:
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]