Friday, January 18, 2019

Favorite Quotes Update

I hope you have taken the opportunity to check out my Favorite Quotes page, which collects quotes from a variety of people ranging from St. Francis of Assisi, to Albert Schweitzer, to Desmond Tutu, to Immanuel Kant and many more on the issue of Christianity or ethics and our treatment of animals.  I have just updated the page with some quotes from the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.  The quotes are from the Operation Noah Annual Lecture in 2009 regarding climate change.  The full text of his remarks, which are well worth reading, is here

My hope with the Favorite Quotes page is not only to provide inspiration, but to illustrate that this connection between faith and care for the animals is one that has been shared by a wide range of writers, theologians, and clergy.  In raising these issues, we stand in august company. 

In the meantime, here are quotes I have added to my page:

The creation stories of Genesis 1 and 2 see the creation of humanity as quite specifically the creation of an agent, a person, who can care for and protect the animal world, reflecting the care of God himself who enjoys the goodness of what he has made.

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The image of Noah summoning the creatures to the ark may also be meant to recall God bringing the animals to Adam so that they can be named (Gen.2.19): once on the scene, humanity has to establish its relationship with the animal world, a relationship in which meaning is given to the whole world of living things through the human reflection of God’s sustaining care. 

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The one thing we should not imagine is that God’s covenant means that we have a blank cheque where the created world is concerned. The text points up that God’s promise has immediate and specific implications about how we behave towards all living beings, human and non-human. It is not a recipe for complacency or passivity.


Photo copied from Operation Noah page linked above

2 comments:

Kathy D said...

Very nice, look forward to reading your quotes page, I have not read the whole page! Blessings, Lois. :) I hope you are well, keep you in prayer, and Puck - praying things are going okay and praying for discernment, strength, God's peace as the days go forward.

Lois Wye said...

Thank you, Kathy! And thank you for your prayers for Puck, who continues to hang in there but is getting really thin because he's not eating very well. Back to the vet on Tuesday.