In The School of Compassion, Deborah M. Jones engages with the
Catholic Church's contemporary attitude towards animals. This is
the fullest sustained study of the subject in that faith tradition.
It begins by exploring the history of the Church's ideas about
animals. These were drawn largely from significant readings of Old
and New Testament passages and inherited elements of classical
philosophies. Themes emerge, such as the renewal of creation in the
apocryphal legends, in the Desert Fathers, and in Celtic
monasticism. The spirituality of St Francis of Assisi, the legal
status of animals, and liturgies of the Eastern Catholic Churches
also shed light on the Church's thinking. The British Catholic
tradition - which is relatively favourable to animals - is
considered in some detail. The second part of the book provides a
forensic examination of the four paragraphs in the Catechism of the
Catholic Church which relate particularly to animals. Finally,
major contemporary issues are raised - stewardship,
anthropocentrism, and gender - as well as key ethical theories. The
revisits some teachings of Aquinas, and explores doctrinal
teachings such as that of human beings created in the 'image of
God', and, with a nod to the Orthodox Tradition, as the 'priests of
creation'. These help form a consistent and authentically Catholic
theology which can be viewed as a school of compassion towards
animals. The joy of this book is that it helps Catholic Christians
to re-engage with the issue of animals by utilising the riches from
within their own tradition....And what Dr Deborah Jones has
discovered is a remarkably more complex, infinitely richer, and
considerably more animal-friendly Catholic tradition than might be
supposed by the usual caricatures. This book is the fullest
systematic treatment of the moral status of animals within the
Roman Catholic tradition. It is the result of painstaking
scholarship, wide reading, and, most of all, insightful theological
exploration. It builds on the work of others, like myself, and
provides a stream of fresh perspectives on our lives with God's
other creatures. It is a deeply Catholic work, and I pray that it
strikes a deep chord within the Catholic community here and
overseas. Revd Professor Andrew Linzey Deborah M Jones is general
secretary of the international organisation Catholic Concern for
Animals and a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, with a
doctorate in animal theology. She has also worked as editor of the
Catholic Herald, deputy editor of Priests & People, as a writer
and lecturer, and diocesan adviser for adult religious education.
General
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