The Imago Dei and Great Chain of Being: A Wesleyan Case for the Rights of Nonhuman Persons Open Access
Isernhagen, Brett (2016)
Published
Abstract
The Imago Dei figures prominently in the theology of John Wesley. Its brokenness in humans is the cause of sin, and its restoration and perfection is the end of salvation. Rather than being something exclusive to humanity, however, Wesley saw it being shared in varying degrees by those both above and below humans in the "Great Chain of Being". This thesis argues that Wesley's characterization and comparison of the human and "brute" creations were based on scientific observation and discovery in addition to scriptural interpretation. Modern study and observation of animals such as apes, elephants, dolphins, and whales have demonstrated that their capacities exceed what was previously expected or thought possible in their abilities to be self-aware, communicate, and facilitate culture. These observations can be readily integrated into the Chain of Being which ascends and descends by imperceptible degrees from humanity. The consequence is that we can and should acknowledge certain degrees of the Imago Dei in our nonhuman animal neighbors and come to view our relation to them as a fellowship as well as a guardianship or stewardship. While Wesley made use of the doctrine of the Imago Dei exclusively for soteriological matters it is now, perhaps more than ever before, adaptable to cosmological discourse. This gives Wesleyan Christians the permission and perspective to consider the image of God as something stamped over and possessed by the whole of Creation, the entirety of the unbreakable Great Chain, and thus a starting place to enter the discussion surrounding the legal and moral rights of "nonhuman persons". At the very least this should warrant a reexamination of a doctrine which Wesley already seemed willing to expand, or hold with a healthy, optimistic agnosticism.
Table of Contents
Section I. Introduction 2
Section II. John Wesley on Anthropology and Personhood 4
Section III. John Wesley on the Imago Dei 7
Section IV. The Imago Dei Within the Great Chain of Being 9
Section V. The Anthropocentrism and Theocentrism of the Great Chain of Being 13
Section VI. Anthropocentrism Challenged 18
Section VII. Contextualizing in Wesley's Broader Theology 20
Animal Welfare and the Animal Soul 21
Salvation and Anticipation of the New Creation 24
The Imago Dei as Cosmological Concept 25
Angelology 26
Degrees of the Imago Dei and Modern Discovery 27
Section VIII. Difficulties and a Look Forward 28
Section IX. Conclusion 35
Appendix One: Human Exceptionalism Challenged 37
Appendix Two: The Spiritual Lives of Animals 52
Bibliography 55
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