What Kind of Freedom? A Theology of Liberation for Non-Human Animals

Thinking theologically across the human/non-human boundary often generates surprising results. Considering the topic of freedom in human and more-than-human contexts fits this pattern. This paper engages a number of striking complexities in what it might mean to take freedom for non-human animals seriously. For example, some accounts of animal liberation would require the abolition of all human control, but human accounts of freedom usually justify  human control over humans in certain circumstances. Setting aside implausible demands for full separation between humans and non-human animals, a more complex account is required. This paper argues that a liberation theology for non-human animals does not necessarily mean the abolition of all human use of non-human animals, but that it does have radical implications for what forms of co-existence and collaboration are legitimate.