79-94 Chapter 6 Eschatology of Environmental Bliss in Romans 8: 18-22 and the Imperative of Present Environmental Sustainability from a Nigerian Perspective Sampson M. Nwaomah Introduction Since the historian Lynn White’s much-quoted article, “The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis,”1 in which he opined that the exploitive activities and negative ecological practices of technology derive from the biblical mandate “to rule and subdue the earth, ” there has been a great deal of discussion on the biblical mandate on the environment. White wrote that God’s design for humanity was “to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects.”2 He further argued, based on the account of Genesis 1:26-28 for humans to “rule and subdue the earth,” that “it is God’s will that man exploit nature for his proper end.”3 While it might easily be shown that the Old Testament (OT) passages on ecology (e.g. Gen 1:26-28, Ex 23:10, 11, Deut 15:1-11, Ps 24:1-2, Ps 65:9 etc) properly interpreted indicate responsible stewardship in the care of the environment 4, some New Testament 1Lynn White Jr., “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” Science 155 (1967): pp. 1203-1207. 2 Ibid. 3Ibid. 4 See Sampson M. Nwaomah, “Biblical Ecology of Stewardship: Options in the Quest of a Sustainable Environment in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria,” Living Word: Journal of Philosophy and Theology 113 (2007): pp. 89-103 and