Dogs and Theology

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course will examine Christian perspectives on animals and the ethical implications thereof, with a particular focus on dogs. Can dogs and our relationships with them instruct us theologically? That is, can they tell us something about who God is, who we are meant to be as humans, and what responsibilities God has given us to care for nonhuman creatures? The course proceeds in two parts: a theology of animals and the ethics of animal treatment within a Christian perspective. In the first part, we will examine dogs and our relationships with them. I hope to use our experience with companion animals (pets) to develop some theological claims. In tandem with that discussion, we will examine how the Christian tradition has understood creation as a part of God’s plan (looking at biblical texts and various historical texts) and discuss the place creation has had in Christian eschatology (i.e., the view of the end times and the new creation that is to ensue). We will also consider the possibility that animal life, past and present, will be redeemed and share in the world to come. Dogs present a particularly interesting case in that they are partly the result of human intervention (humans as co-creators?) and have come to occupy an often-cherished role in the human community. The second part turns to the specific issue of animal ethics. We will appeal to material in the first part of the course – i.e., a theological understanding of animals – to construct and test out possible ethical norms that arise out of a Christian world view (including the traditional view that humans have a distinctive and privileged place in God’s plan and that ethics must reflect that anthropocentric priority). We will explore these ethical frameworks through an engagement with several ethical issues: dog breeding, meat eating, and experiments on animals.