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2004, Logos - Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture
Historically, most if not all Catholics have abstained from eating animal flesh as an expression of their faith. Although most have abstained only for certain periods of time, others have abstained permanently. While Catholics have abstained for a variety of reasons, this essay focuses on distinctively theological reasons Catholics, especially in the early centuries of Catholicism, have chosen to abstain from consuming animal flesh. On the one hand, this essay will show how such abstinence has been an aspect of the spiritual practice of fasting and a response to the capital vice of gluttony. On the other hand, it will show how such abstinence has been predicated on Catholic doctrines concerning creation and nature, the Fall, and eschatology.
Mostly, Pope Francis’ ecological ethic has human well-being in mind: the planet must flourish so that human communities may flourish, and this is the clear motive for his comments to the European youth. Vegetarianism, to one degree or another, is an extrinsic good, exemplifying the sort of concrete initiative needed to ensure the planetary health that contributes to the intrinsic value of human life by providing a context in which such flourishing is possible. Neither the suffering of Earth nor the suffering, sacrificial animal are, in his recent comments, at the heart of Francis’ promotion of vegetarianism. There is, however, implicit in Francis’ broader thought, the potential for a more expansive vegetarian theology and ethic within the context of intensive, industrialized global food systems. Francis affirms in Laudato Sí that creation and creatures bear “intrinsic value,” i.e., a goodness and moral significance irreducible to any sort of extrinsic value deriving its significance from the contributions it makes to another’s intrinsic value. The intrinsic goodness and moral value of creation and creatures suggests that Francis’ exhortation towards peaceful coexistence and respect for alterity should apply to the more-than-human world for its own sake in addition to his other concerns. I suggest then that contemporary animal food systems are problematic for Catholic theology and ethics beyond Catholicism’s typical emphasis on human dignity and development and that there are multiple reasons—rooted in the intrinsic goodness of Earth and its creatures and the profound harm our food systems inflict on each—for considering a vegetarian ethos beyond the legitimate and pressing concern of human flourishing. Through analysis of Catholic ecological thought and philosophies of value, this essay suggests a pluralistic, axiological approach to the possibility and potential of a Catholic vegetarian ethos that promotes the intrinsic value of creation and creatures as such, without exclusive attention to human flourishing. Thus, while vegetarianism is a complex ethos and is likely not universally applicable, I suggest four potential ways to approach Catholic vegetarianism as part of a broader human initiative to reimagine global food production and eating habits, emphasizing its theocentric, anthropocentric, ecocentric, and biocentric value.
Abstaining from meat consumption has persistently been a source of debate within religious communities, often functioning as a center pivot around which theological or philosophical orthodoxy and orthopraxy turns. Drawing upon diverse ancient practices, motivations, and textual perspectives in Judaism, Christianity, and Indic traditions along with contemporary religious vegetarians, this essay maps three stages that religious communities have historically grappled with, are presently attempting, and must continue to tackle, as they re/consider eating animals and animal by-products as part of their ethical identities and community meals: (1) critical, deconstructive engagement of textual multiplicity and interpretive authority, (2) robust analysis of human supremacy in light of animal behavioral studies, new materialist science, and empathic experience, and (3) constructing imaginative coalitions beyond species, institutional boundaries, and cultural identities.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
Ecotheology and the theology of eating: Convergencies and controversies2015 •
Environmental theology (or, ecotheology) developed slowly during the first half of the twentieth century and has become a major field of study since the late 1960s. While many of the issues discussed in ecotheological works have included consequences for food production and eating habits, these themes were often not explicitly discussed. The reasons for this are interesting and complex. Issues related to food have been culturally very sensitive and have manifold connections to religiosity. In regard to the discussion about the rights and value of animals, controversies have been seen to arise between ecotheology and ‘animal theology’. Recently, a new interest has arisen in the themes of food, eating, and Christian theology, which has resulted in a new field of literature which could be called the ‘theology of eating’. This article gives an overview of the relations between these fields, with an emphasis on both early ecotheology and new literature about the theology of eating.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
Ecotheology and the theology of eating: controversies and convergenciesEnvironmental theology (or, ecotheology) developed slowly during the first half of the twentieth century and has become a major field of study since the late 1960s. While many of the issues discussed in ecotheological works have included consequences for food production and eating habits, these themes were often not explicitly discussed. The reasons for this are interesting and complex. Issues related to food have been culturally very sensitive and have manifold connections to religiosity. In regard to the discussion about the rights and value of animals, controversies have been seen to arise between ecotheology and ‘animal theology’. Recently, a new interest has arisen in the themes of food, eating, and Christian theology, which has resulted in a new field of literature which could be called the ‘theology of eating’. This article gives an overview of the relations between these fields, with an emphasis on both early ecotheology and new literature about the theology of eating.
Journal of Moral Theology
Animals, Evil, and Family MealsThe article intends to demonstrate that a theology of vegetarianism is possible, despite some contrary evidence present in the biblical texts. Like other theologies dealing with issues not directly voiced in the Bible, it becomes possible to interpret the biblical statements in a new way, on the bases of a specific methodology. As a result, an objective comprehension will go back inductively to Sacred Scripture. The article advocates for applying this new method as well as for introducing its ethical implications into the Christian tradition. An additional supportive argument in favour of establishing the new understanding can be found in the history of the Roman Church, besides the consolidated custom of carnivorous nutrition: there has been no shortage of positions in favour of vegetarian asceticism. This stance was also represented by Thomas Aquinas. By valorizing classic Christian authors in favour of vegetarianism (starting with Jerome), the inauguration of the theology of vegetarianism becomes legitimised. Such an inauguration would reorient Christian thought toward reconsidering cosmology, ecology and topical contemporary issues such as anthropocentrism and speciesism.
In Laudato Sí, Pope Francis calls Catholics and all people of goodwill "to move forward in a bold cultural revolution," embodying a "revolution of tenderness" that rejects sovereign powers that perpetrate ecological violence and animal cruelty. The principle powers to resist in this context are the rapacious capitalist industries that annihilate and consume the more-than-human in order to maximize profit. Yet, while Francis recognizes the sinfulness of capitalist greed and condemns anthropogenic ecological and animal violence, the concrete nature of ecologically violent economies and paths toward revolution receive little attention. Francis' revolutionary ethic concerning the more-than-human must be pushed further. Insofar as modern food economies exist via unsustainable and unnecessarily cruel production methods, I argue that responsibility exists to resist and withdraw from such systems insofar as possible, re-imagining what it means to "eat well" as a path toward a revolution in global food economies. To eat well necessarily entails a willingness to sacrifice animal sacrifice, which begins taking shape-at least in a Catholic setting-through the re-imagination and reintegration of ascetic, virtuous fasting driven by justice for Earth and our more-than-human neighbors.
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