Quotes for All
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 of ecological consciousness or environmental responsibility but seldom, if ever, is this responsibility articulated towards other non-human species in particular. Andrew Linzey
There are only two ways to deal with the media: either elect to take the Buddha’s vow of eternal silence, or make one’s voice known as responsibly as one humanly can, and take the consequences. Andrew Linzey
Familiarity with holy things can often engender blindness, and churches are, for all their merits, institutions that embody, perhaps more than most, the will to perpetuate themselves. In this process, they can easily lose sight of the purpose for which they came into being and, in so doing, frustrate the Spirit. Andrew Linzey
Moral education, as I understand it, is not about inculcating obedience to law or cultivating self-virtue, it is rather about finding within us an ever-increasing sense of the worth of creation. It is about how we can develop and deepen our intuitive sense of beauty and creativity. Andrew Linzey
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 … Read more
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 exclusivity, should now be seen as the seed-bed for a creative understanding of animal liberation. … Read more
I fear theology is–in the words attributed to William Temple–still in its infancy when it comes to animals. Andrew Linzey
If the cross does provide us with a true picture of what God is like, it follows that God is a redeeming presence in all creaturely experiences of suffering. All innocent suffering will be transformed. Andrew Linzey
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
I look forward to the time when the churches come to celebrate and honour the work of animal protection as an imperative arising from their belief in the Creator and in the gospel of the crucified. After all, similarly remarkable things have happened, for example, the growing consensus among churches that the environment should be … Read more