SUMMER HOURS

        I hope everyone is enjoying the Memorial Day weekend - and taking time out to remember all those who lost their lives in service of our freedoms: humans, dogs, horses, carrier pigeons, and others.  

       As summer officially begins, I wanted to let everyone know that, at least for the summer, I will be posting less frequently.  Although everything I've read about blogging says that you MUST post at least one a week to develop any kind of following, I find that, having posted once a week since September, I need to take some time do some more reading, thinking, praying, reflecting - and even resting - if I am going to have anything to say that is worth reading.  I plan to post again in early July and then again in early August, and after Labor Day I will see where I am and let you know my plan going forward.  

      In the meantime, I will continue to post links to interesting things on the Dominion In The Image of God Facebook page.  Please check there - and "like" the page if you haven't already.  I may also post links here.  But I don't want to post just for the sake of posting, and theology on the fly isn't usually very good.   I believe the topic of revisiting our theology of animals is a critical one for Christians in a world of decreasing resources and increasing mistreatment of animals - it deserves careful consideration, not random thoughts. 

      I hope you will stick with me - and even help spread the word about this blog.  In the meantime, enjoy your summer, visit this page in early July and August, and maybe in between catch up on some earlier posts you may have missed! 

Photo credit: Lois Wye

ANIMALS AND THE TRINITY

PART TWO

Disproportionate use of the goods of the earth, despoiling creation, harming other creatures, abusing other persons, are unnatural ways of being in relationship because God is not glorified by them.

                                           ~ Catherine Mowry LaCugna

            Last week, I began this discussion of the Trinity with a look at the work of Catherine Mowry LaCugna, who steers us away from speculation regarding God’s “inner life” and urges us to understand the Trinity by looking at God’s work in the world through the Son in the power of the Spirit and to respond with praise to God through the Son in the power of the Spirit.  She urges us, in short, to consider the Trinity as God’s way of being in communion with us, and allowing us to be in communion with Him, in an outpouring of love and response of praise.  This communion, she argues, will reshape who we are and how we order our lives. 

            It is clear from her writings that she intends to include all of creation - including all God’s creatures - in the scope of her vision.  So, in God In Communion With Us, she says a Trinitarian theology grounded in the economy of salvation understands that we are created to live in “authentic communion with God, with other persons, and with all God’s creatures.”[1]  In God For Us she explains the Trinity is “overflowing love, outreaching desire for communion with all that God has made” and that when we establish a new household of God, it will be “the dwelling place of all creatures.” [2]  But what, exactly, does this mean, and how do “all creatures” fit into her theological framework? 

Photo credit: David Wye

ANIMALS AND THE TRINITY
PART ONE

 “Human beings are created in the image of the relational God and gradually are being perfected in that image (theōsis), making more and more real the communion of all creatures with one another.”

                         ~ Catherine Mowry LaCugna, God For Us [1]

                        The Trinity!  Yikes!  Like many Christians, for much of my faith journey I had a fairly vague notion of the Trinity and found struggling to come to terms with how three are one to be a fairly esoteric and largely impossible task, without much bearing on the actual practice of my faith.  Then I read Catherine LaCugna and everything changed.  Suddenly, I saw that the practice of my faith was only possible because of how the Three are One. 

            I also saw that God as Trinity has radical implications for Christian ethics – including, yes, the ethics of how we relate to animals.  This post and the next one will seek to explore what our Christian understanding of God as Trinity might have to say about animals.   

Andrej Rublëv

           

THEOLOGICAL VEGAN 

“I love that every time I sit down to eat, I’m able to take a stand on behalf mercy and compassion, and against misery and cruelty. Saint Paul calls on us to ‘pray ceaselessly,’ and for me, veganism is a kind of prayer.”

                                                                                              ~ Bruce Friedrich[1]

            It seems that lately there has been a lot in the news about famous people becoming vegan. Bill Clinton, of course, has been vegan for some time. Al Gore has recently joined him.  Beyoncé famously wore a fur coat to a vegan restaurant shortly after announcing she was adopting a short-term vegan diet. [2]  Mike Tyson is vegan. Even NFL players are writing and speaking about veganism.  And Samuel L Jackson was recently quoted as saying that he has a “new vegan diet” because he wants “to live forever.”
           All this got me thinking about the different reasons people become vegan or vegetarian or just reduce their consumption of animal products. Before going further, though, I want to pause to say that in this post, I will use “vegan” as a sort of goal or end point, recognizing that food (and other lifestyle) choices are most often not an “either/or” proposition (either you are a “vegan” or you are not). Most of us start eating the way our community and culture eats – with lots of meat and dairy - and some of us later move toward veganism, giving up or reducing meat and/or dairy by degrees. Few of us are perfect vegans. Let me also say that as I talk about veganism as a Christian ideal, I have no intent to look down my nose at people of faith who eat meat. Many meat eaters are, no doubt, much better Christians than I am in other areas. Instead, I believe we are all on a Christian journey. Christ meets us where we are and helps us draw closer to God as we are able. My hope here is to raise diet (and other animal-related lifestyle choices) as one of the areas where Christ can work in us and with us to bring us closer to him, and enable us to do his work here on earth. As always, I seek to include animals and diet as not only a legitimate, but an important, element of the on-going conversation about how we, as Christians, can live our whole lives as God intends.

Photo credit: Herbert T, Wikicommons, Creative Commons license

INTERLUDE

O LORD, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all; 

the earth is full of thy creatures.

                                 - Psalm 104:24

      Alas!  This past week was a very busy one for me and as I sat down in haste to write, I was confronted with a case of writer's block.  The result is that my planned post is not quite up to snuff.  Rather than post something I am not happy with, I decided to post this wonderful psalm celebrating the glory of all of God's creation, and His delight in all in creatures.  I hope for more productive and thoughtful days to come.  Thank you for your patience.

Psalm 104

      1Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, thou art very great! Thou art clothed with honor and majesty,  

      2 who coverest thyself with light as with a garment, who hast stretched out the heavens like a tent, 

      3 who hast laid the beams of thy chambers on the waters, who makest the clouds thy chariot, who ridest on the wings of the wind, 

      4 who makest the winds thy messengers, fire and flame thy ministers.