Stewardship versus dominion
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain how Judeo-Christian beliefs about stewardship and dominion influence some human attitudes toward the environment.
Key learning points
- Philosophy helps us explore big questions about how we treat the world, using reason and logical thinking.
- Dominion is a belief that humans were given power by God to rule over the Earth.
- Stewardship teaches that humans have a responsibility to care for the world God created and protect it.
- Mary Midgley argued that anthropocentrism contributes to environmental destruction.
- Instead, she believed humans should see themselves as part of nature, not above it.
Keywords
Stewardship - looking after the world on behalf of God
Dominion - having God-given power or control over the Earth’s resources
Anthropocentric - seeing humans as central and the most important part of the universe
Judeo-Christian - beliefs shared by Judaism and Christianity
Common misconception
Students might think that there is only one interpretation of Genesis passages linked to creation.
Genesis passages can be interpreted to argue for either dominion or stewardship. Most Christians in the UK today take a stewardship interpretation.
Teacher tip
You might like to give students copies of the Biblical passages so they can annotate them and look for evidence. Use 'I do, we do, you do' approaches to aid interpretation. Speak to the Biblical context of these being ancient passages and not written as scientific accounts.
Licence
Lesson video
Loading...
Prior knowledge starter quiz
5 Questions
Q1.Which section of the Bible includes stories like Noah and Moses?
Q2.What does the Bible say after God created the world?
Q3.What is found in the New Testament?
Q4.What is a Christian denomination?
Q5.Which Christian group helps care for the environment?
Assessment exit quiz
5 Questions
Q1.Match each term to its meaning.
looking after the world on behalf of God
seeing humans as central and most important
beliefs shared by Judaism and Christianity
Q2.Some people interpret dominion as the God-given of humans over nature.
Q3.Genesis passages about creation only support dominion.
Q4.What did Midgley say about anthropocentrism?
Q5.Mary Midgley said harming the Earth is like sawing off the we’re sitting on.
To help you plan your 9 religious education lesson on: Stewardship versus dominion, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 9 religious education lesson on: Stewardship versus dominion, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 religious education lessons from the Changing world: How should the Earth's resources be used? unit, dive into the full secondary religious education curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.