STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The paper posits that in spite of the fact that the Bible is replete with duties of Christians towards caring for and sustaining the environment, little or no attention has been paid to assessment of the practical attitude of Christians, particularly Nigerian Christians, to the environment; this is the vacuum this work intends to fill in sustainable development discourse. This task becomes expedient in light of contemporary environmental problems manifesting in global warming, environmental degradation, deterioration, contamination, and littering of the Earth among others. The work which is premised on theory of environmental ethics pioneered by environmentalists the likes of Carson, White, Hardin, Leopold, Baxter, Taylor, Botkin, Callicott and Nelson and Martin examined the attitudes both negative and positive of Christians to the Nigerian environment. The research approach is both descriptive and argumentative and was carried out mainly from the context of biblical ethics. Upon a critical review, It is evident in the field work that many churches abuse the environment through illegal sitting of the churches, the use of drum-size loudspeakers during religious programmes which sometimes resulted to environmental pollution and there is too much emphasis on dominionship over the environment as against stewardship towards it as evident in the teachings of the Bible and Church traditions.Based on this, we suggest that the Nigerian government, individuals, and corporate institutions should help sensitize and orientate Nigerian Christians and non-Christians as well to develop good understanding, using, sustaining, preserving and managing of the environment. This task becomes urgent as the contemporary Nigerian environment poses threats to human survival especially in Nigerian cities