Peter Singer — Reconsidering Man’s Dominion

A few Christian thinkers have sought to reinterpret “dominion” as “stewardship,” suggesting that God entrusted humanity to care for his creation. But it remained a minority view, favored by environmentalists and animal protectionists, and Aquinas’s interpretation remained the prevailing Catholic doctrine until the late twentieth century. 

Francis has now come down decisively against the mainstream view, saying that Christians “have at times incorrectly interpreted the Scriptures,” and insisting that “we must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures.” Our “dominion” over the universe, he declares, should be understood “in the sense of responsible stewardship.” 

Against the background of nearly 2,000 years of Catholic thinking about “man’s dominion,” this is a revolutionary change. But the encyclical includes another statement that could have even more far-reaching implications. That statement, which originally appeared in the Catechism of the Catholic Church issued by Pope John Paul II in 1992, calls it “contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly.” To ensure that the sentiment would be noticed, Francis tweeted it. (Yes, Francis tweets, using the Twitter handle @Pontifex.)

Project Syndicate
Reconsidering Man’s Dominion

Peter Singer | Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne