oa The Art of a ‘Theo-ecological’ Interpretation

This article deals with the clarification of theological hermeneutics from an ecological point of view: a ‘theo-ecological’ interpretation. The relevance of classical texts of Scripture on anthropological and creational issues is dependent upon the ecological framework of the interpreter. I distinguish three types of reading: an anthropocentric, a biocentric and a theocentric way of reading Scripture. The relation between human creatures and the rest of creation can be described respectively in a dominion, a monistic and a servant model. The first one neglects that human beings are simply part of creation. In a biocentric model there is no criterion for the moral assessment of actions. In a theocentric model the reference to the Creator relativizes the absoluteness of the other models and extends the moral community of the human species to include other creatures as well.