WHAT IS THIS BLOG ALL ABOUT?

He expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry.

                               Isaiah 5:7

Welcome to Dominion In The Image Of God!  I hope you will visit the About This Blog and About Me pages to learn more about what has motivated me to launch this project and why I believe this topic is so important.  It starts with Genesis 1:26, which tells us that our relationships with animals are inextricably linked with our creation in God’s image.  I believe that, just as our creation in God’s image has been called foundational to what it means to be human[1], so our relationships with animals are foundational to who we are and how we relate to God.  It is my hope that in learning to fulfill the responsibility given to us at the creation to treat animals with mercy and compassion on God’s behalf, we can not only make the world a better place for animals, but we can become more fully human as God intended us to be, growing into God's image and drawing closer to Him as we care for what is His.

Sadly, Christianity’s most mainstream traditional theological perspective on animals is founded not on Genesis 1:26 – or Scripture generally – but on Aristotle’s theory of a natural hierarchy, whereby the “lesser” things in creation were created for the benefit of the “greater”, so that soil is for the use of the plants, plants for animals, and animals for humans.  Therefore, animals have been perceived as existing solely for human benefit, and virtually any use of them has been approved.  This view, however, is contrary to the consistent teaching in Scripture that power and authority always come with responsibility and obligation, not privilege.  I hope in future posts to explore more fully how the traditional perspective came to be so dominant in theological thinking and the tragic impact it has had, as well as to consider that minority voice within the tradition that has always pled for a more compassionate stance toward our fellow creatures.   

I also hope to explore what Scripture has to say about animals – which is a great deal more than is generally supposed – and how that might inform the way we live today, as well as to consider what scientists are learning about the nature of animals and how they experience the world.  When we have a greater understanding of animals’ experience of the world, we can better understand the ways we impact their lives, including the ways we make them suffer, and how we can change. 

When we open our eyes to the presence of animals in Scripture, and when we understand the connection inherent in our creation in God’s image and our exercise of dominion, we see our obligations for the right use of power extend not just to our fellow humans, but to all our fellow creatures of God; indeed the right use of power is the very essence of the gift of dominion.  This becomes even clearer when we consider the perfect image of God: Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15).  As Paul teaches, Christ, who is in every way superior to humans, became human for human benefit, disregarding His status so that we who are “lesser” than God might live abundantly (Phil. 2:5-8).  This is the image in which we are created and this is the image we are called to reflect to the world.  

Cruelty to animals has, sadly, always been an element of human society, but in our modern world, the scale of cruelty simply in terms of the numbers of animals affected is unprecedented, and our modern “factory farms,” testing laboratories, puppy mills, canned hunts, fur farms, and other settings result in cruelties to our fellow creatures undreamed of by previous generations.  While there is virtually no area of human life where we may not say “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), in perhaps no arena is there greater ignorance of sin than in our relations with animals, to whom we rarely give a thought.  Because large-scale animal suffering supports so many aspects of our lives, nearly all Christians (and non-Christians) participate in and support these abuses, even if unwittingly.  While some suspect that, in at least some of these settings, something is gravely wrong, often we choose not to know because knowing would be costly.  

It is the job of the church to open our eyes, to help us conform our lives to the Lamb of God and to grow into the image of God so that we can rightly reflect God’s character to the rest of the world.  If our creation in the image of God is foundational to who we are, and if the right exercise of dominion (that is, the right exercise of our power over animals) is central to that image, then the church must take up the issue of animal welfare, because it is central to who we are as human beings and as Christians.  It is not enough to have an annual Blessing of the Animals service or even a stray sermon about animals, as welcome as those are.  It is not enough to pray for the right use of “natural resources” or to appreciate nature.  Environmentalism is not the same thing as animal welfare, although there are areas of overlap.  We, as a theological community, must recognize animals as sentient individual beings worthy of our care, protection, and sustained theological attention.  We must open our eyes to the ways we thoughtlessly harm their lives, and integrate our relationships with them into our theological understanding of who we are and how, as Christians, we are called to live.  We must address animal welfare in the same way we address our obligations to the poor and the naked and the prisoner – by including them in our theological thinking and by teaching, by example, and by repetition; by supporting church ministries and equipping congregations with information and opportunities.  

I hope you will join me as I try to explore these themes and comment on animal-related issues in the news from a Christian perspective.  I believe that if we can learn to live up to the call for right dominion that we were given at the creation, the world will be a better place not only for the animals, but for humans and the planet generally.  I welcome your comments and suggestions on the journey. 

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[1] See, for example, Waltke, Bruce K.  Genesis: A Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 69-70, saying “Our being and function come from God’s image.”