On the 800th anniversary of St. Francis and the first nativity scene to include live animals (1223 C.E.), this session explores the various roles accorded to animals in imagining Christian stories and texts. These presentations complicate and challenge the ways in which the term ‘animal’ is understood, both in nonhuman and human incarnations.
The offering here is in particular recognition that St. Francis all to the good, historically Christianity has been often dismissive of animal beneficence and agency in its long-time preoccupation with human supremacy—and how much more, such “gift-economy mysteries” when it comes to insect-animals! They are not noted among the zoomorphic and feral presiders at the crib-epiphany of Bethlehem, but given who was in attendance, would likely have been along for the ride. And in much indigenous perspicacity, insect-appearance of quite varied kinds shows up in myth and ritual as divine and powerful. In this presentation, flies—and their kindred-ly-two-winged cousins, gnats—will be explored biblically as parodic players referenced in the “finger of God” rhetoric of both Moses and Jesus when engaged in high stakes “throw down” with political opponents, leading to investigation of early Israel as a humano-insectual partnership and raising questions for the insect-apocalypse of our time.
Benedict XVI warns that “purchasing is always a moral—and not simply economic—act.” This paper argues that food choice is a venue in which Christians can move on from what moral theologian John Berkman calls “abstract concern,” taking effective steps to secure justice—for laborers, for non-human animals, and for the planet. Meals on tables testify, not just about fellowship and hospitality, but about our faith in a benevolent God who cares deeply for the oppressed and marginalized.
The question of whether Christians ought to support industrialized animal agriculture is one that reaches beyond issues of animal welfare into the core of Catholic Social Teaching. It connects with the rights and dignity of workers, a preferential option for the poor and vulnerable, the call to family, community and participation, and care for God’s Creation. I argue that moving beyond abstract concern for the marginalized—human and non-human—requires action.
Aquinas refers to animals in relation to humans as “other animals” and as “without reason”. Some argue that Aquinas fundamentally separates humans and animals according to reason; others highlight the shared sensitive nature. I argue that animal as “other” posits an analogical approach to the relationship between the terms “human” and (other) “animal”. This permits *some* similarity of action without a univocal transference of meaning, and places the realities signified by these terms in relationship. An analogical approach affirms *both* the common genus of animal *and* the human distinction of the *imago Dei*. Therefore, I consider two paradigms of human action where Aquinas uses the example of sheep. While the first shows how human action is *unlike* that of other animals, the second likens imitation of Christ to being *like* sheep, and disposes toward restoration of justice in the created order, including in the relationship between humans and other animals.
The figure of the worm has often been a fruitful site for theological reflection in Christian history, from St. Francis’ Psalm-22-inspired compassion for their vulnerability to St. Teresa and Jonathan Edwards’ descriptions of the silkworm’s transfiguration as an image of Christ’s death and resurrection. This paper looks at a bleaker invocation of the worm: Simone Weil’s description of the “half crushed worm” as a type of the crucified Christ, thrown at an infinite distance from God and sunk into godless affliction. Drawing on Weil’s contemporaries Adrienne von Speyr and Hans Urs von Balthasar as well as the medieval theologian Hadewijch, the paper explores how for Weil separation and loss are constitutive of the love of God. The figure of the worm serves to reorient theology away from triumph and glory and toward signs of mourning, absence, and longing.