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Dominion theology is a religious belief that humans have rights and responsibilities over the earth, animals, and celestial powers. It has various forms, including caring for life forms and establishing civil law. It is controversial due to perceived threats to religious freedom. Adherents believe in the creation narrative in the Bible, but interpretations vary. Some believe in political domination through civil law, while others believe in spiritual domination over unseen spirits.
Dominion theology has several forms, all of which express the religious belief that the creator of mankind conferred both rights and responsibilities on the humans he created. Various forms of rulership teachings include beliefs that humanity collectively has rulership over the animals and plant life of the earth, political rulership through civil law enforcement, or spiritual rulership over celestial powers. Most believe that the basis for these theological teachings originated from passages in the Bible. An important passage cited by dominion theologians is the narrative in the book of Genesis, which states that God created the first man and woman – Adam and Eve – by commissioning them to exercise dominion over the new creation. Various forms of these beliefs can be quite controversial, due to perceived concerns about threats to religious freedom.
Dominion theology adherents generally agree that God created the first man and woman. These adherents accept various aspects of the creation narrative as a historical event. Interpretations regarding the time it took for God to create the world vary considerably, with some insisting that creation occurred over a literal period of six days, while others interpret creation as an event that spanned a period of very long time required for different plant and animal life to evolve. A belief in some variant of domination theology can be professed by either group.
In one form of this theology, adherents believe that humanity has been given dominion over the earth to care for its many life forms. This is a long-standing theological belief within Jewish-Christian religious belief systems. The idea behind this variant of dominion theology is that people are under divine command to be stewards of the plant and animal life of the earth. Adherents draw on the creation account in the book of Genesis as a basis for this form of dominionism.
Another form of domination theology believes that God granted mankind the authority to establish civil law, in order to protect life and property, and to promote flourishing cultural and economic vitality. Over the centuries, this theology has formed the basis for both terrible acts of cruelty and modern systems of law. People have been killed or abused by religious adherents for violating religious edicts. Sometimes the same biblical passages applied in those cases, such as the Ten Commandments, have also underpinned the legal systems used by modern democracies.
This is one reason why a newer form of domination theology is somewhat controversial, as its adherents profess the belief that Christians should achieve political domination through the application of civil law. Yet another type of domination theology promotes the belief that Christians have the ability to wield powers over unseen spirit beings. In this form of domination theology, certain rituals are believed to limit the powers of demonic spirits that tempt humans and cause destruction or sow dissension among groups of religious adherents.
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