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On the dominium terrae

1. According to the orthodox interpretation of the imago Dei, it includes, albeit as pars minus principalis, the so-called dominium terrae of Gen 1:26 ff. "Dominium" is understood here in its root meaning to stand pro jure et potestate dominandi. Being created imago Dei, human beings are authorized, i.e., have both the right and the power, to rule.

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4. The merit of this suggestion is that it includes the specifically political aspect of moral responsibility in our very constitution as human beings. Being created by God in God's own image, we are authorized (i.e., entitled and empowered) not only to lead our own individual lives but also to establish, maintain, and transform the social and cultural orders by which human lives alone can be lived, but which also impact the lives of all the nonhuman creatures for which we also bear responsibility. In this sense, the dominium terrae to which human beings are appointed and called in relation to their fellow creatures is always to be exercised "after the image of God's own loving rule -- so rule—so as not merely to use and exploit them but also to enjoy and to further them as co-participants in the all-inclusive end of God's reign" (114).

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