I found this article by Andrew Linzey while searching for something yesterday. Good stuff.
I reviewed Linzey’s Animal Theology here.
"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal
2 responses to “C.S. Lewis’s theology of animals”
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Lee, I went and read your post/review.
I always appreciate Linzey’s work on animals.
Of note for me at the heart of meat eating is that is was not necessarily common and everday among the Israelites, who might only eat meat muchly when certain sacrifices were offered.
The gorging consumption of animal flesh that Americans are into is not comparable in any way to Israelite practices. Nor is the way most of our animals are treated as they are produced for consumption of their flesh. Anyone who has seen a chicken factory knows what I mean. Positively barbarian. No, on second thought, barbarians treated their domesticated animals better.
I think the most important matter for me is thanksgiving and blessing God in all things. Much of our excess comes from a “take it” mentality that neither is grateful that another being has had its life taken so that we might eat (therefore eat in moderation), nor thankful to God for all of life (hence, nothing is simply ours for the taking, but exists for the praise of God–so many psalms speak of animals doing just that, and is therefore, gift).
Benedict wished monks would all be vegetarian but made provision. A middle route, something I’m fond of most days, and I think blessing God and giving God thanks are at the heart of the matter. Rather than thinking pure or impure, thinking in terms of blessing and thanksgiving perhaps is a way beyond gluttony or self-righteous activism. Given Linzey’s Trinitarian underpinnings, he might just agree.
And I would add, Br. Puppy, while certainly a dog, and therefore our relationship with him is a human-canine relationship, blesses our lives. There isn’t a day that I don’t bless God for his being a part of our baptized household, nor that I don’t tell him that he is a blessing, after all, he’ll even join us for meditation or the Office. Some might find that cutesy, but neither Benedict of Nursia nor Francis of Assisi nor David of Wales nor Julian of Norwich would be quick to dismiss the bond with animal companions.
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*Christopher, thanks for your comment.
I think you’re right that our modern consumption of mean on such a mass scale is probably unprecedented in history, much less of Israelite history. Some of the ritual restrictions on meat-eating in the OT seem almost designed to turn the Israelites into de facto vegetarians!
I also couldn’t agree more with approaching everything we take and use with thanksgiving. I imagine that doing so seriously would probably make many of our current practices unthinkable. Maybe part of it is that we’re so removed from how food gets to our plate?
It’s interesting, too, how many of the stories of saints involve their friendships with animals. An eschatological sign of the healing of creation?
A Thinking Reed 
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