Abstract
Many Christians believe that they have a divine permission to kill animals for food, fur and other human uses. The objective of this chapter is to take issue with this common notion by critically looking at the way theological concepts like “the Will of God” and “the Word of God” are traditionally interpreted. The first part of this chapter, “The Will of God,” presents an apt and sophisticated understanding of this difficult and widely misunderstood theological term. The second part, “The Word of God,” starts from the premise that divine commands and divine permissions in the Bible, including God’s changeable view on eating meat, are to be interpreted in relation to their particular and therefore limited historical contexts. The third part of the chapter is called “The Importance of Philosophical Ethics” and reasserts the Christian conviction that ethical reflections in philosophy are of continuing importance to Christian ethics. The harm done to animals by inflicting pain on them is compared to the harm done by killing them. The fourth and final part of this chapter, “The Necessity of a Reorientation,” is a concise plea for a radical change of human perception and conduct: both academic theological ethics and the moral teaching of the Christian churches ought to be characterized by a presumption against the permissibility of taking the life of an animal, particularly, but not exclusively, a sentient one.
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Notes
- 1.
J. M. Coetzee, The Lives of Animals (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 21.
- 2.
Coetzee, Lives, 41.
- 3.
R. Gascoigne, Freedom and Purpose: An Introduction to Christian Ethics (New York: Paulist Press, 2004), 49.
- 4.
G. Baum, Amazing Church: A Catholic Theologian Remembers a Half-Century of Change (New York: Maryknoll, 2005), 80-81; see also M. L. Lamb, Solidarity with Victims (New York: Crossroad, 1982), 10–14.
- 5.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed., revised in accordance with the official Latin text, promulgated by Pope John Paul II, 1997, accessed May 2, 2014, http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-elieve/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church/epub/index.cfm.
- 6.
See D. Jones, The School of Compassion: A Roman Catholic Theology of Animals (Leominster, UK: Gracewing, 2009), 171.
- 7.
Lamb, Solidarity, 14.
- 8.
H. Küng, Christ sein, 5th ed. (Munich: Piper, 1975), 241 (my translation). Cf. the critical comment in A. Linzey, Animal Theology (London: SCM Press, 1994), 69.
- 9.
A. Peters, S. Stucki, and L. Boscardin, “The Animal Turn—What Is It and Why Now?,” Verfassungsblog (blog), April 14, 2014, http://www.verfassungsblog.de/de/the-animal-turn-what-is-it-and-why-now/#.U2YIhmCKDcu.
- 10.
D. Tutu, “Foreword: Extending Justice and Compassion,” in The Global Guide to Animal Protection, ed. A. Linzey (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2013), xv.
- 11.
United States Catholic Conference, Renewing the Earth: An Invitation to Reflection and Action on Environment in Light of Catholic Social Teaching, 4th ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 1998), sec. III A.
- 12.
United States Catholic Conference, Renewing the Earth, sect. III B.
- 13.
Consider the statement of the British moral theologian Kevin Kelly: “I had tended to accept too passively whatever happened as God’s will. I now realise that it is only by fully accepting responsibility for whatever lies in my control that I am enabling God’s will to be truly realised. In a sense, it is up to me to ‘create’ God’s will.” K. Kelly, “50 Years Receiving Vatican II: A Personal Odyssey,” CatholicIreland.net, May 10, 2012, http://www.catholicireland.net/50-years-receiving-vatican-ii-a-personal-testimony.
- 14.
See Linzey, Animal Theology, 127–29. On the relation between the Bible and Christian ethics in general, see T. Deidun, “The Bible and Christian Ethics,” in Christian Ethics: An Introduction, ed. B. Hoose (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998), 3–46.
- 15.
K. Barth, “Justifiable Killing,” in Animals and Christianity. A Book of Reading, ed. A. Linzey and T. Regan (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2007), 193.
- 16.
C. H. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom (London: Nisbet, 1935).
- 17.
J. B. Metz, Zur Theologie der Welt (Mainz: Matthias Grünewald Verlag, 1968), 144.
- 18.
See J. L. McKenzie, The New Testament without Illusion (New York: Crossroad, 1982), 19: “The fact that we do not know what Jesus looked like … will lead us to reflect further that there is much more than his appearance that is unknown to us.” See also Linzey, Animal Theology, 132–34; K. Remele, “Von Hermelinen, Menschen und Gott: Christliche Tierethik,” in Tier—Mensch—Ethik, ed. E. Riether and M. N. Weiss (Vienna: LIT, 2012), 178–79.; R. Bauckham, “Jesus and Animals II: What Did He Practise?,” in Animals on the Agenda, eds. A. Linzey and D. Yamamoto (London: SCM Press, 2008), 49–60.
- 19.
Benedict XVI, “Mass of the Lord’s Supper: Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI,” April 5, 2007, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20070405_coena-domini_en.html.
- 20.
D. Steindl-Rast, Deeper Than Words: Living the Apostles’ Creed (New York: Image Books/ Doubleday, 2010), 105.
- 21.
J. Dear, Christianity and Vegetarianism: Pursuing the Nonviolence of Jesus (Norfolk, VA: PETA), accessed June 15, 2015, http://www.afa-online.org/docs/Christianity%20and%20Vegetarianism.pdf. See also S. Tompkins, “What Would Jesus Do? The Rise of a Slogan,” BBC News Magazine, December 8, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16068178; “Archbishop Asks ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ in Christmas Issue of Radio Times,” Dr Rowan Williams: 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, December 5, 2011, http://rowanwilliams.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/2270/archbishop-asks-what-would-jesus-do-in-christmas-issue-of-radio-times.
- 22.
Linzey, Animal Theology.
- 23.
A. Linzey and D. Cohn-Sherbok, After Noah: Animals and the Liberation of Theology (London: Mowbray, 1997).
- 24.
On the status of animals in different religions, see also the First Annual Oxford Summer School on Animal Ethics 2014 at St Stephen’s House in Oxford, the topic of which was “Religion and Animal Protection,” accessed September 3, 2014, http://www.oxfordanimalethics.com/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/Brochure-Final.pdf.
- 25.
See D. Keown, Buddhist Ethics: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 40–43.
- 26.
Gascoigne, Freedom, 49. See also M. E. Marshall, The Anglican Church: Today and Tomorrow (Wilton, CT: Morehouse Barlow, 1984), 24–30.
- 27.
R. A. McCormick, “Does Religious Faith Add to Ethical Perception?,” in The Distinctiveness of Christian Ethics, ed. C. Curran and R. A. McCormick, Readings in Moral Theology, no. 2 (New York: Paulist Press, 1980), 168.
- 28.
E. Harman, “The Moral Significance of Animal Pain and Animal Death,” in The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics, ed. T. L. Beauchamp and R. G. Frey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 726–37.
- 29.
D. DeGrazia, Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 61.
- 30.
See S. Coren, “Does My Dog Recognize Himself in the Mirror?,” Psychology Today, July 7, 2011, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201107/does-my-dog-recognize-himself-in-mirror.
- 31.
M. Lockwood, “Singer on Killing and the Preference of Life,” Inquiry 22 (1979): 157–71.
- 32.
T. Regan, The Case for Animal Rights. Updated with a New Preface (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 243–248.
- 33.
Coetzee, Lives, 63.
- 34.
Ibid., 65. See also A. Schweitzer’s concept of “reverence for life” in Linzey, Animal Theology, 3–7.
- 35.
C. Wilbert, “What Is Doing the Killing? Animal Attacks, Man Eaters, and Shifting Boundaries and Flows of Human–Animal Relations,” in Killing Animals, ed. the Animal Studies Group (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006), 37.
- 36.
M. Rosenberger, Im Zeichen des Lebensbaums: Ein theologisches Lexikon der christlichen Schöpfungsspiritualität (Würzburg, Germany: Echter), 185.
- 37.
E. Kapellari, “Gespräche über die Jagd: Ein fast mystisches Erlebnis,” Der Anblick 2 (2006): 35.
- 38.
Ibid., 37.
- 39.
S. R. L. Clark, “Empty Gluttony,” in Animals and Christianity: A Book of Readings, ed. A. Linzey and T. Regan (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1990), 202. Of course, from a present-day perspective, veganism would even be preferable.
Bibliography
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Dear, J. Christianity and Vegetarianism: Pursuing the Nonviolence of Jesus. Norfolk, VA: PETA. Accessed June 15, 2015. http://www.afa-online.org/docs/Christianity%20and%20Vegetarianism.pdf.
DeGrazia, D. Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Deidun, T. “The Bible and Christian Ethics.” In Christian Ethics: An Introduction, edited by B. Hoose, 3–46. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998.
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Tomkins, S. “What Would Jesus Do? The Rise of a Slogan.” BBC News Magazine, December 8, 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16068178.
Wilbert, C. “What Is Doing the Killing? Animal Attacks, Man Eaters, and Shifting Boundaries and Flows of Human–Animal Relations.” In Killing Animals, edited by the Animal Studies Group, 30–49. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006.
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Remele, K. (2018). Killing Animals—Permitted by God? The Role of Christian Ethics in (Not) Protecting the Lives of Animals. In: Linzey, A., Linzey, C. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Practical Animal Ethics. The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-36671-9_19
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