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School of Compassion published

28th September 2009

Centre Fellow, Dr Deborah M. Jones, has published a pioneering new work on Roman Catholic attitudes to animals, entitled The School of Compassion: A Roman Catholic Theology of Animals. Published by Gracewing, this is the fullest sustained study of the subject in that faith tradition.

Professor Andrew Linzey writes in his Foreword: “The joy of this book is that it helps Catholic Christians to re-engage with the issue of animals by utilising the riches from within their own tradition … And what Dr Deborah Jones has discovered is a remarkably more complex, infinitely richer, and considerably more animal-friendly Catholic tradition than might be supposed by the usual caricatures. This book is the fullest systematic treatment of the moral status of animals within the Roman Catholic tradition. It is the result of painstaking scholarship, wide reading, and, most of all, insightful theological exploration. It builds on the work of others, like myself, and provides a stream of fresh perspectives on our lives with God’s other creatures. It is a deeply Catholic work, and I pray that it strikes a deep chord within the Catholic community here and overseas.”

Dr Deborah M. Jones is General Secretary of the international organization, Catholic Concern for Animals, and was previously editor of the Catholic Herald, deputy editor of Priests & People, and a diocesan adviser for adult religious education.

Further details of the book can be obtained from Gracewing publishers here, and can be ordered online here.