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| Andrew Chignell |
| Episcopal Church at Cornell Bible study group |
The Episcopal Church at Cornell, an Episcopal chaplaincy in Ithaca, New York, has taken on Matthew Halteman's Compassionate Eating as Care of Creation booklet, published by The HSUS, as a focus of its adult Bible study group this spring.
The Episopal Church at Cornell ministers to students and faculty at Cornell and Ithaca College as well as the surrounding community.
A mix of undergraduates, graduate students, professors and other members of the community, the Bible study meets every Tuesday during the semester to share a simple meal and engage in a one-hour discussion of a short reading assigned for the week.
Below, the sessions' co-leader and assistant professor with the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell, Andrew Chignell, shares his experience with the Halteman study.
Matthew Halteman's booklet has been a fantastic resource for our group this term. It's beautifully written and completely accessible (it is not a mere academic paper). It also manages to bring together in one place a cumulative Christian case for changing our attitudes and behaviors towards the animals with whom we share the Earth.
The readings "have ranged from Biblical commentaries on the meaning of 'subdue' and 'dominion' in Genesis 1, to Halteman's booklet, to 'Earth Friendly' paraphrases of the Lord's Prayer, to writings about nature by various Christian mystics.
Halteman doesn't just reference the usual (albeit alarming) health and environmental effects of our misuse of the earth's resources and creatures. He also provides an inspiring Biblical vision of how we might think differently about our relationship to nature, and a very practical discussion of how we might take steps towards making a difference.
He also refrains from laying it on too thick: this is not a guilt-tripping jeremiad on behalf of veganism or a screed against every aspect of the capitalist food industry. Halteman's point, rather, is to encourage Christians of all backgrounds to cultivate increased awareness about these issues, and to discipline themselves to the spiritual and moral task of becoming more compassionate eaters.
Our group found the book stimulating, challenging, and edifying, and in the course of reading it, many of us made concrete commitments to changing our habits and our mindset.
The Bible study is part of the Greenblade project which is co-sponsored by The Episcopal Church at Cornell and the Trinity Grants Program.
