The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis

Lynn White Jr's essay The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis, published in the peer reviewed journal Science in 1967, is the widely cited argument that Judeo-Christian dominion theology bears historical responsibility for the modern ecological crisis. Its authority rests on publication in one of the most prominent scientific journals and on its enormous and well documented influence in provoking the modern Christian ecotheology and creation care movements. It is a historical and theological argument rather than an empirical scientific finding, and its causal claim about Christianity's role has itself been extensively debated by historians and theologians since, so it is best read as the essay that started that conversation rather than its settled conclusion.