Although Christianity has a poor record on animals (as it does, it must be said, on the treatment of slaves, women, children, and gays), it is also the case that Christian theology, when creatively and critically handled, can provide a… — Andrew Linzey Copy Share Image
Christian theology provides some of the best arguments for respecting animal life and for taking seriously animals as partners with us within God's creation. It may be ironical that this tradition, once thought of as the bastion of human moral… — Andrew Linzey Copy Share Image
When I was in my teens I had a series of intensely religious experiences. They deepened my sense of God as the creator of all things. And they also deepened my sensitivity towards creation itself so that concern for God's creatures and animal rights followed from that. Some people think I'm an animal rights person who just happens, almost incidentally,… — Andrew Linzey Copy Share
If tomorrow we decided only to desist from killing and causing suffering for sport and entertainment, the world would be significantly better for animals.… — Andrew Linzey Copy Share Image
Looking back through the mists of time, I recall some distinctly religious experiences in my teens--when I was only fourteen years old to be precise. These experiences opened my mind to the idea of a Creator and that caring for other living things was a Christian duty. My parents were not strongly religious at the time and when I announced… — Andrew Linzey Copy Share
Despite one or two minority appeals our society is not outraged at man's unremitting use of the animal world. Ecologists and environmentalists may talk… — Andrew Linzey Copy Share Image
Animals are God's creatures, not human property, nor utilities, nor resources, nor commodities, but precious beings in God's sight. ...Christians whose eyes are fixed on the awfulness of crucifixion are in a special position to understand the awfulness of innocent suffering. The Cross of Christ is God's absolute identification with the weak, the powerless, and the vulnerable, but most of… — Andrew Linzey Copy Share
The point to be grasped from the saintly tradition is that to love animals is not sentimentality (as we know it) but true spirituality. Of course there can be vain, self-seeking loving, but to go (sometimes literally) out of our way to help animals, to expend effort to secure their protection and to feel with them their suffering and to… — Andrew Linzey Copy Share
I do not oppose violence simply because it is counterproductive. I oppose it because it betrays animal rights philosophy. Those who resort to such… — Andrew Linzey Copy Share Image
Familiarity with holy things can often engender blindness, and churches are, for all their merits, institutions that embody, perhaps more than most, the will… — Andrew Linzey Copy Share Image
Humans have "dominion" over animals. But that "dominion" (radah in Hebrew) does not mean despotism, rather we are set over creation to care for… — Andrew Linzey Copy Share Image
It took Christians many years to realize that we cannot love God and also keep humans as slaves. It has taken even longer for… — Andrew Linzey Copy Share Image
I would happily, sometimes more than happily, have vacated my role as an animal theologian, if there were others prepared to take my place. — Andrew Linzey Copy Share Image
