Roles of animals in religion, etc.
Two things I found 11/22/03:
First:
“This year, for the first time, the American Academy of Religion has organized a group of scholars who will discuss the roles of animals in religion at its annual convention Nov. 22-25, 2003.”“Why it matters
Some theologians say that a common respect for animals as spiritual beings could serve as a bridge between religions because it rises above doctrine, rituals, and practices. They point to the fact that every major world religion - Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam - recognizes animals and man as of divine origin.”
The whole article (which has several interesting links) can be read here: The new animal spirituality: Do all dogs go to heaven?
(The Witness and the Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals are both mentioned in the footnotes of this article.)
Second:
“Recently, I began reading a book so interesting that I stayed up until 2:30 a.m. finishing it. If you ever want a detailed account of how the nineteenth-century English Evangelicals ended the British slave trade, abolished sati and infant sacrifice in India, banned child labor and other such abuses in England, started the world’s first ‘animal rights’ group (The RSPCA, which banned the torture of animals for sport), rehabilitated prostitutes, reformed the Parliament, brought education and relief to the destitutes of England, brought about prison and lunatic asylum reforms, etc., etc., then the book to read is ‘The Call to Seriousness: The Evangelical Impact on the Victorians,’ by Ian C. Bradley (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co, 1976)….”
(Read the rest of the article here: Why do we need apologetics?
The Tragic Failure of English Evangelicalism Repeated by the Indian Church, by Jonathan W. Rice)
Here is a little background history that tells about Arthur Broome (an Anglican priest) who was one of the founders of the RSPCA. (Is there anyone out there, who is in a position to do anything about it, get him a page in Lesser Feasts and Fasts?)
I don’t want anyone to take this out of context, but want to share a metaphor (as well as I can remember it) from this morning’s sermon, which had to do with the Kingdom of God, among other things. This is a paraphrase:
“How stupid it would be for one flea to say to another flea, that it had a special relationship with the dog.”
– AWM+
Meditate on that….
I think it’s pretty profound, and isn’t limited to any one meaning. So don’t get stuck on the most obvious. In fact, there is a real Eucharistic quality to it, among other things….
“God… is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’….”
– Acts 17:27-28 (NSRV)
All this reminds me of a post by an Episcoveglist member from this past week — which is reprinted here with permission:
…Below is a short excerpt from an interview with the artist Donald Roller
Wilson. Following that is an essay by Dr. Jay McDaniel (CVA advisor) that
appeared as a newspaper column (posted with his permission). He is a
professor of religion at Hendrix College, where he teaches world religions
and contemporary religious thought. Following the essay is a postscript
specifically about animals and God, taken from his letter to me. This came
to me as a sort of validating epiphany:From the Wilson interview:
Q: The phrase “God Is Near” appears in your work and on your Web site. Is
it meant as a satirical statement?DRW: absolutely not … absolutely absolutely not. i feel that god
SATURATES everything, IS everything — hence — god is always near … god
is inside, outside, beside, overhead, underfoot, in and out of pocket … in
your auto tires, in your friend’s auto tires, in your refrigerator, in the
ice box of the old woman in Nebraska somewhere, way before electricity came
along, and God is in your heart … and your little dog’s heart too…IN PAN-EN-THEISM, GOD EXISTS IN BEINGS EVERYWHERE
by Dr. Jay McDaniel
GOD … IS NOT FAR FROM EACH OF US. IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING. –Acts 17:27-28
In contemporary Christianity there are different ways to think of God.
One common way is on the analogy of a male political ruler who presides over
his subjects, issuing commands and threatening reward and judgment. The
philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once observed that this involves
rendering unto God that which belongs to Caesar. Sometimes this monarchical
image of God is accompanied by images of war. The divine Caesar is
envisioned as a holy warrior who fights evil with evil, enjoying the
vengeance he reaps upon others. Those who fight in the name of this divine
Caesar then imagine themselves as on His side, sharing in the vengeance.
They feel happy — as if they have accomplished something for the world and
for God — when others suffer.Another way to think of God is intimated in the selection from Acts offered
above. In this way of thinking, God is imagined on the analogy of an
encompassing and inclusive receptacle –filled with compassion — within
which all living beings live and move and have their being. This way of
thinking about God is sometimes called a pan-en-theism, because it
emphasizes that all things are “in” God, even as God is more than all things
added together. It envisions God, not on the analogy of Caesar, but on the
analogy of Christ’s own spacious heart.In this more pan-en-theistic perspective, God is equally present to all
things, just like the ocean is equally present to all fish in the sea. This
means that there is nowhere where God is not “always already present.” God
is “always already present” in Iraq and the United States, in North Korea
and in South Korea, in India and in Pakistan, and in many other parts of the
world besides. God is everywhere at once, and never reducible to a being
among beings in the sky.Christians who advocate pan-en-theism suggest further that God is present in
human life in two ways: as an indwelling lure toward nonviolent love
relative to the situation at hand and as a great compassion who “feels the
feelings” of all living beings as those feelings occur, sharing in their
joys and sufferings. Christians typically call the first way “the
indwelling call of God’s spirit” and the second way as “the empathy or
compassion of God.”In times threatened by war, the pan-en-theistic perspective can be
especially helpful. It suggests that even God suffers from the violence of
war, sharing in the suffering of people on both sides. And it suggests that
God is within all people, all over the world, as an indwelling lure toward
nonviolence, which is itself a Christ-like form of love.Moreover, pan-en-theism suggests that God needs the world for God’s will to
be accomplished. Just as fish in the ocean have some degree of freedom from
the presence of the ocean, such that they can move in this way or that way,
so pan-en-theism suggests that human beings have some degree of freedom from
God, such that they can act in this way or that. The calling of God within
the human heart requires cooperation, on the part of human beings, for its
very fulfillment. Without that cooperation there will be tragedy, even in
God. This is how some Christians understand the cross of Christ. It
reveals what has always been the case: that wherever there is suffering and
sadness, that suffering and sadness is shared by God.When humans cooperate with the indwelling lure of God, what does it look
like? The greatest peacemaker of the last century — Mahatma Gandhi –
called it “peace.” Jesus called it the kingdom of God.Whatever words we use, one thing is clear. Today there is a deep desire for
this kind of peace to emerge on our planet. All over the planet people want
to live lightly on the earth and gently with each other, even as their
leaders may sometimes wish otherwise. From the perspective of
pan-en-theism, their desire for peace and love is not simply human. It is
also divine. It is the very life of God, within each human heart, praying
that the will of God might be done on earth as it is in heaven. It is up to
us — all of us — that this prayer be realized.———————————–
Dr. McDaniel’s postscript:
I believe that the idea that God “feels the feelings” of all living beings,
including our closest spiritual and biological kin, other animals, has
profound implications for how we treat other living beings. When — as is
the case in intensive rearing methods in agriculture — we inflict
unnecessary suffering on them, and deny them their opportunities for
realizing their potentials for movement and play, this suffering and missed
potential is shared even by God. Thus to inflict this unnecessary suffering
on them is to harm God, too.
And that last statement reminds me of this quote
“The creatures of the sense world signify the invisible attributes of God, partly because God is the origin, exemplar and end of every creature, and every effect is a sign of its cause, the exemplification of the exemplar and the path to the end, to which it leads….For every creature is by its nature a kind of effigy and likeness of the eternal Wisdom.
Therefore, open your eyes, alert the ears of your spirit, open your lips and apply your heart so that in all creatures you may see, hear, praise, love and worship, glorify and honour your God lest the whole world rise against you.”
– St. Bonaventure, from The Soul’s Journey to God
And it also brings this to mind:
“And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’”
– Jesus (from Matt. 25:40, NSRV)