Reclaiming the garden of Eden’s lost glory: Christian responsibility on ecosystem for sustainable development in Kenya

Abstract

Humanity was created as God’s vice-gerent and was placed in the Garden of Eden to have dominion over all other creatures and enjoy life in abundance. Man was to have a peaceful co-existence with nature, take care of it and as a r, which is the conscience of the society and agent of peace in the world,esult derive all his existence from its bounties. Soon after the fall, humanity misunderstood the right to dominion to domination and started to mercilessly and selfishly exploit nature. The continuous destruction of the environment by human beings has been the greatest hindrance to sustainable development in the world. In most cases, the Church which is the conscience of the society and agent of peace in the world has not taken it as her responsibility to mend the broken relationship between man and nature. The aim of this study was to look at how Christians in Kenya can participate in environmental conservation for sustainable development. No sustainable development can be attained while nature is groaning in pain. The study which involved 384 respondents mainly Christians drawn from various denominations and counties, found out that the Church in Kenya has not taken it her responsibility to care for the ecosystem. Christians in Kenya have concentrated on other things and have neglected the pertinent issue of ecological disaster which threatens to wipe out all existence. Consequently, Christians should take it as their responsibility to conserve the environment if all any meaningful sustainable development has to be attained in Kenya. This is tantamount to attaining the lost Garden of Eden’s glory.