earticle

영어

Ecological Ethics in the Rhetoric Structure of Genesis 1:1-2:4a Eun Woo Lee, Ph..D Professor, Department of Hebrew and Old Testament Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary The entire ecosystem is now confronting a serious crisis as a consequence of environmental pollution and ecological destruction. The critics of the Christianity argue that the anthropocentric world view in the Bible brought about environmental crisis. The purpose of this paper is to focus on Genesis 1-2 which, according to the critics of the Bible, justifies evironmental destruction and suppression, and to study the feasibility of their argument. For this purpose, the present writer investigates the rhetoric structure in Genesis 1:1-2:4a and finds symbolic instructions given to maintain the balanced harmony and beauty of the created world. The present writer also attempts to make lexical and exegetical analysis on the verbs as ‘conquer’ and ‘subdue’, which the critics of the Christianity maintain as one of the most environmentally destructive terminologies. The writer stresses the democratic concept of Imago Dei which is given to the human being. The writer examines the ecological meaning in the concept of the Sabbath and dietary culture which is emphasized in Creation story. In conclusion, the writer argues that the contention of Christian critics is resulted from the misunderstanding or deficiency of knowledge on the biblical texts and expressions. At the same time, the writer insists that biblical scholars should make more efforts for ecological Bible reading and meet the demands of the times to preserve the ecosystem.

한국어

이 논문은 창세기 1장 1절-2장 4a절에 대해 환경 파괴적이고 인간 중심적인 본문이라 비판하는 주장들의 타당성을 본문의 수사적 구조 그리고 용어와 표현에 근거해서 살핀다. 이 논문에서 저자는 필자는 린 화이트로 대변되는 기독교 비판자들의 주장이 성경 본문과 표현에 대한 부족한 이해에 기인한 것임을 밝힌다.