Academic Periodical

“God’s Image – The Steward of the World” is a chapter from the book by Hans Walter Wolff Anthropology of the Old Testament (1973). It opens the third section, entitled The World of Man. Social Anthropology, covering such topics as ‘man and woman’, ‘parents and children’, ‘brothers, friends, and enemies’, ‘lords and slaves’, ‘wise and foolish (teachers and disciples)’, ‘man and society’, ‘human vocation’. According to H. W. Wolff, the vocation of man to be the steward of the world implies his responsibility for the entrusted creation and eliminates the arbitrariness and the domination of man over man, which distorts the image of God. The conquest of the world should not lead to environmental pollution, human unfreedom, technical and economic subordination.