Andrew Linzey

Andrew Linzey (born 2 February 1952) is an English Anglican priest and theologian whose work concerns animal theology, Christian ethics, animal rights, animal welfare, and Christian vegetarianism. He is a member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford, and has held the Bede Jarrett Senior Research Fellowship in Ethics, Theology and Animal Welfare at Blackfriars Hall.

Linzey is the founder and director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, an independent academic centre opened in November 2006 for the study and discussion of animal ethics. His books on animals and theology include Animal Rights: A Christian Perspective (1976), Christianity and the Rights of Animals (1987), Animal Theology (1994), and Why Animal Suffering Matters: Philosophy, Theology, and Practical Ethics (2009). He is co-editor, with his daughter Clair Linzey, of the Journal of Animal Ethics, and a series editor with Clair, previously with Priscilla Cohn, of the Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series.

Career Linzey has authored or edited 30 books and published more than 100 articles. He has lectured and broadcast in Europe and the United States. His writings have appeared in translation in several languages, including Italian, French, Polish, Spanish, German, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese.

One of his quoted statements on animals and Christian theology is:

He has criticised Christian attitudes to animals, saying that "Christians haven't got much further than thinking that the whole world was made for us, with the result that animals are only seen in an instrumental way as objects, machines, tools, and commodities, rather than fellow creatures". In 2012, Christian Today reported that Linzey had called for people convicted of animal cruelty to be placed on a register and barred from keeping or working with animals.

Honours In 1990, Linzey was awarded the Peaceable Kingdom Medal for his work in theology and animals. In June 2001, George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, awarded him a Doctor of Divinity degree in recognition of his "unique and massive pioneering work in the area of the theology of creation with particular reference to the rights and welfare of God's sentient creatures".

Selected works Author

Editor