Review By Conor Gearty of
Animals on the Agenda: questions about animals for theology and ethics
By Eds. Andrew Linzey and Dorothy Yamamoto
From The Tablet dated 3 October 1998
Despite its suggestively political title, Animals on the Agenda
is also more closely involved with the theology than with the
politics of "animal rights". Its 20 essays offer a comprehensive insight
into the current state of the relationship between animal matters and
theological issues, with chapters on the relationship between Jesus and
animals (two good contributions from Richard Baukham) as well as on such
complexities as whether animals are fallen (Michael Lloyd) or capable of
redemption (Petroc and Eldred Willey). Readers of The Tablet
might be particularly stimulated by James Gaffney's piece, trenchantly
entitled, "Can Catholic Morality Make Room for Animals?"
As its title suggests, there is a strong idea lying behind
Animals on the Agenda, informing its whole approach to its
subject. What this is precisely is made clear in Andrew Linzey's
excellent and immensely stimulating introduction, in which he asks, "Is
Christianity irredeemably speciesist?" (He claims to have invented this
word himself, to describe the idea entertained by humans that they are
the species.)
His penultimate paragraph deserves to be quoted: "My particular hope
is that in, say, 10, 20 or 30 years, most authors will be pleased but
also embarrassed by their contributions to this collection. Pleased
because most are pioneering essays. Embarrassed because what true
pioneers most love is for others to go even further than they have done
and leave them behind. That we are still at the beginning of asking
theological questions that matter about animals is painfully obvious."
As Hilda Kean has shown, we are if anything back to the beginning as
far as animals are concerned. Andrew Linzey, Dorothy Yamamoto, Stephen
Webb and their fellow contributors to these opinion-forming works stand
in a longer tradition than is commonly supposed, even sometimes by
themselves. They are in the moral vanguard of what may yet prove to be
our new "Victorian" century.
Conor Gearty
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