The School of Compassion

A Roman Catholic Theology of Animals

Deborah M Jones

The School of Compassion

Deborah M Jones engages with theCatholic Church’s contemporary attitude towards animals. This is thefullest sustained study of the subject in that faith tradition. The book begins by exploringthe history of the Church’sideas about animals. These were drawn largely fromsignificant readings of Old andNew Testament passages andinherited elements of classicalphilosophies. Themes emerge,such as the renewal of creationin the apocryphal legends, inthe Desert Fathers, and inCeltic monasticism. Thespirituality of St Francis of Assisi, the legal status of animals, and liturgies of theEastern Catholic Churchesalso shed light on the Church’sthinking. The British Catholictradition – which is relativelyfavourable to animals – isconsidered in some detail. The second part of the bookprovides a forensicexamination of the fourparagraphs in the

Catechism of the Catholic Church

whichrelate particularly to animals.Finally, major contemporary issues are raised – stewardship,anthropocentrism, and gender – as well as key ethical theories. The studythen revisits some teachings of Aquinas, and explores doctrinal teachingssuch as that of human beings created in the ‘image of God’, and, with anod to the Orthodox Tradition, as the ‘priests of creation’. These help forma consistent and authentically Catholic theology which can be viewed as aschool 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.

Revd Professor Andrew Linzey

Deborah M Jones

is general secretary of the internationalorganisation Catholic Concern for Animals and a Fellow of the OxfordCentre for Animal Ethics, with a doctorate in animal theology. She hasalso worked as editor of the

Catholic Herald

, deputy editor of

Priests & People

, as a writer and lecturer, and diocesan adviser for adult religiouseducation.978 0 85244 731 4256 pages£14.99 Publication August 2009

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