Andrew Linzey, at a British conference for animal rights. Better yet, read some of his work and then argue with him.
Most of our theology comes from people who assumed you had to eat meat to live. I suspect that might have had something to do with the current state of things. It’s an interesting picture when you get out from under “normal” enough to see both sides. For further reading, check the listings on the resource page.
c.1250, from Anglo-Fr. catel “property,” from M.L. capitale “property, stock,” neut. of L. capitalis“principal, chief,” from caput “head” (see head). Orig. sense was of moveable property, especially livestock; not limited to “cows” until 1555.
1502, from L. pecuniarius “pertaining to money,” from pecunia “money, property, wealth,” from pecu“cattle, flock,” from PIE base *peku- (cf. Skt. pasu- “cattle,” Goth. faihu “money, fortune,” O.E. feoh “cattle, money”). Livestock was the measure of wealth in the ancient world. For a related sense development in O.E., see fee. Cf. also Welsh tlws “jewel,” cognate with Ir. tlus “cattle,” connected via notion of “valuable thing.”
I agree that this conversation is just as much about the idea of animals as ‘property’, i.e. generators of human wealth as it is about anything else. Humans have been (and still are) considered ‘property’ too, it’s the wrong paradigm in both cases. Interestingly, the idea of women (or any class of supposedly inferior human) and animals as chattel property arose at the same time in human culture. Property, private ownership of life, is a societal and cultural construct, not a theological one. Of course there is property in the Bible – but it’s not like there was an 11th commandment that says “Thou shalt invent currency and own property”. When we see ourselves as the ultimate ‘owner’ of life, other life as well as our own, it is a de-facto denial that God has primary rights to everything. You must first objectify something, deny that it has any inherent worth, before you can treat it as a commodity. See how the concepts are born from the same seed?
Yes, even with the animal kingdom. In the Genesis 2 account the animals are presented as helpers, just as Eve was. Adam named all the animals, just as he named Eve. Of course, this has been viewed by some as support for the fact that men can treat animals and women the same, with the assumption that animals as property is a given (it wasn’t always so). Do we really believe that today, that the second creation account means to say animals are property therefore women are property? I think most of us know that when you name an animal it’s a sign of relationship. In fact, denying a creature its individual identity is exactly how we put something in the category of ”that which can be exploited, that which has no self- interests”.
Biblical covenants are about relationships of commitment. God makes covenants with with animals too, not just humans Gen. 9:8-17. Of course we’re not the same as them (we can’t fly, or smell cancer, or navigate by the earths magnetic field, or breathe underwater, or see at night, or communicate using thermal inversion – animals can do these things naturally) but the covenant is based on relationship (responsibility to and for) and not ownership the way we think of it today (predation, exploitation).
Matt. 6:24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.
Mammon. This word occurs in the Bible only in Mt. 6:24 and Lk. 16:9, 11, 13, …. It means simply wealth or profit, but Christ sees in it an egocentric covetousness which claims man’s heart and thereby estranges him from God (Mt. 6:19ff.): when a man ‘owns’ anything, in reality it owns him. (Cf. the view that mammon derives from Bab. mimma, ‘anything at all’.) ~ IVP New Bible Dictionary
But if animals are not here for us to exploit, i.e. own, then what will we eat? What will we wear?
Matt. 6:31 Therefore don’t be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’, ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘With what will we be clothed?’32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.33But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.34Therefore don’t be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day’s own evil is sufficient.
I can see every loss of human dignity in our continuing to feed this infernal machine, and none in our disengagement. Profit, however, will tell another tale entirely.
