Dominion, Stewardship, Reconciliation: How Should Humans Live with Other Species?

In an age of climate change and widespread destruction of natural habitats, human beings increasingly control the future of all life on our planet. With unprecedented power in our hands, we desperately need wisdom on whether, why, and how we should care for the nonhuman world. What responsibilities do we have to nonhuman species, and what philosophical or theological principles justify those obligations? Is Christian thinking about human dominion over the earth a source of the problem, or part of the solution? Conversely, does thinking of humans as fundamentally no different from other animals encourage us to respect them or to exploit them? Join us for an evening of conversation with evolutionary ecologist Madhusudan Katti (NC State) and theologian Celia Deane-Drummond (Oxford, Laudato Si’ Research Institute) as we explore rationales for ecological responsibility.

This event is co-sponsored by the North Carolina Study Center and InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries, with the Center for Christianity & Scholarship at Duke serving as the lead sponsor. It is made possible by the generosity of the John Templeton Foundation.

Registration is being facilitated by email invitation.  Please contact matt@ncstudycenter.org if you are an interested faculty member and have not received an invitation.