In recent years, questions about food, animals and Christian responsibility have moved from the margins to the centre of theological and ethical debate. As industrial farming intensifies, ecological crises deepen, and churches revisit what faithful discipleship looks like in a wounded world, long-standing assumptions about animal use are being re-examined. Christian Inspired Vegetarianism. Humans and Animals in the Divine Plan by Marilena Bogazzi enters this conversation with clarity and theological seriousness, asking whether care for animals belongs not merely to ethical reflection but to the spiritual heart of Christianity itself. Alma Massaro’s reflections on the book offer a careful guide through its scriptural, theological and historical arguments.
Questions about animals have long shaped how humans understand their place in the world. Do animals differ fundamentally from us? Do they have a soul and, if so, does it endure, or, in more contemporary terms, do they possess intrinsic value? Are justice and morality exclusively human concerns, or do they extend beyond our own species? And when it comes to food, is eating meat a legitimate human right, or an abuse of power over weaker creatures?
These questions remain unresolved and continue to press upon us. In Christian Inspired Vegetarianism. Humans and Animals in the Divine Plan, Marilena Bogazzi turns to Christian theology to ask whether vegetarianism is merely an ethical choice or whether it also belongs to the life of the spirit. More specifically, she asks whether Christianity offers distinctive reasons to adopt a vegetarian way of life and to resist the exploitation and killing of animals for human interests. In doing so, Bogazzi makes a thoughtful and original contribution to contemporary animal theology, a growing area of Christian thought concerned with humanity’s moral and spiritual responsibilities towards other creatures.
To articulate the Christian foundations of vegetarianism, the book adopts what might be called an interspecific reading of Scripture and tradition, one that takes seriously the relationships between humans, animals, and the rest of creation. Alongside the Bible, Bogazzi draws on hagiography, that is, the lives and writings of the saints, to show how compassion for animals has been lived out within Christian history. She traces God’s relationship with humans, animals, and creation from Genesis to the eschatological horizon, meaning the biblical vision of the world’s ultimate renewal.
The opening chapters of Genesis, Bogazzi argues, provide two key foundations for understanding this relationship. First, if God is love and entrusts creation to human beings, made in the divine image and likeness, then human dominion over animals must be understood as guardianship rather than domination. Human superiority is not a licence to abuse but a calling to care, guiding all creatures towards God.
Second, the original dietary command in Genesis, which prescribes a vegetarian, indeed vegan, diet for both humans and animals, is not merely a practical instruction but a theological affirmation of humanity’s vocation to protect life. The vegetarian diet is presented not as a precaution against contamination but as an expression of humanity’s responsibility to safeguard creation in love.
Bogazzi emphasises that the rupture introduced by human sin does not negate God’s original plan for harmonious coexistence among God, humans, and animals. Drawing on prophetic texts such as Isaiah 11 and Jeremiah 7, she highlights the persistent biblical vision of reconciliation that encompasses the whole of creation. While the law and the prophets call humanity away from violence, they are ultimately insufficient to restore humanity fully to the image and likeness of God. That restoration, Bogazzi argues, becomes possible through Christ.
The Incarnation therefore emerges as the decisive moment in which fractured relationships within creation are healed. Through redemption, humanity is invited to recover its original vocation as steward of God’s creation, including a non-violent relationship with animals. The Incarnation also opens the horizon of the eschatological future, memorably expressed in Isaiah’s vision of peace among all creatures, where fear and predation give way to harmony under the guidance of a child.
On the basis of this scriptural framework, the book turns to two central questions within contemporary debates about animals: animal rights and animal afterlife. Bogazzi offers a theological account of animal rights grounded not in human recognition but in God’s creative intention. Animals possess value in themselves because life is a gift from a Creator who creates for happiness. From this perspective, the rights of animals arise from the very gift of life itself. This approach is similar to Andrew Linzey’s concept of theo-rights, the idea that the value and rights of animals are grounded in God rather than in their usefulness to humans.
On the question of animal afterlife, Bogazzi adopts a careful and measured position. Scripture does not provide a definitive answer, yet this uncertainty cannot be used to justify exploitation. If animals do share in a future life, they deserve respect because of that destiny. If they do not, their vulnerability in this life calls for even greater care and compassion. Either way, human responsibility towards animals remains unchanged. The ultimate ordering of creation, Bogazzi concludes, rests with a Creator who knows how to place all creatures within divine time and purpose.
These theological reflections are further illuminated through the lives of the saints. Bogazzi devotes particular attention to those who made their lives a living testimony to the Gospel through compassion for all creatures, including figures such as Francis of Assisi, Philip Neri, Martin of Porres, and Anthony of Padua. She also highlights saints who transformed compassion for animals into a distinctive ecclesial vocation, most notably Francis of Paola, founder of the Minim Order. The order’s vow of perpetual Lent, which required abstinence from all animal products, stands as a striking historical example of a Christian commitment to a vegan way of life.
The book concludes with a brief presentation of the Association of Vegetarian Catholics, outlining its origins, aims, and spiritual commitments. Members seek to live a vegetarian diet as an expression of faithfulness to Scripture, prayer, and love for creation, grounding their practice in Genesis, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the Pauline vision of creation longing for redemption in Romans 8.
Drawing on a deep knowledge of Scripture, the lives of the saints, and more than twenty years of experience in social organisations, Bogazzi offers a rich and coherent theological account of Christian vegetarianism. This is a book not only to be read once but to be returned to, particularly by Christians seeking to reflect more deeply on food, compassion, and discipleship.
Alma Massaro holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Genoa and works in the history of philosophy. Her research interests include animal ethics, food ethics, moral philosophy, and environmental ethics. She is the author of three books and numerous articles and chapters, including A Short History of Animal Philosophy, which explores philosophical attempts to include nonhuman animals within moral thought.
Marilena Bogazzi is an Italian philosopher and educator whose work focuses on animal ethics and Christian theology. She has served as President of the Associazione Cattolici Vegetariani since 2009.
Christian Inspired Vegetarianism. Humans and Animals in the Divine Plan
Marilena Bogazzi
English translation by Stefania Angerami
Youcanprint, 2025
Originally published as Cristianesimo di ispirazione cristiana. Uomo e animali nel disegno divino (Youcanprint, 2024)
