Summer Session II is underway! The 27 college students on our Great Lakes campus spent Monday exploring the area, hiking on the North Country Trail and learning how to safely use our canoes and kayaks. Discussions focused on how humans have impacted the local landscape, including logging and oil and gas extraction on our property and state land. Students were asked to explore their role as stewards of creation and to consider five key elements of biblical earth keeping:
- The intrinsic value of non-human creation (Genesis 1:1-25)
- The moral agency, purpose and directive of humans (Genesis 2:15)
- The capacity of humans to view the world from perspectives different from their own (Genesis 1:26-28)
- The authority of humans to rule over creation (Genesis 1:26-28)
- The inclusion of non-humans in God's redemptive plan and purpose (Romans 8:18-22, Colossians 1:16-23, Hosea 2 and Revelation 20).