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Inner Animalities: Theology and the End of the Human

Book Review
Eric Daryl Meyer’s book, “Inner Animalities: Theology and the End of the Human” raises the ambiguous question of human animality. He aims to both reveal the flaws of anthropological exceptionalism and show that it does not have to be an integral part of Christian theology. Moreover, in his book, Meyer intends to expand the boundaries of his discussion of human animality to a broader context, namely to reflect upon people’s inability to withstand ecological degradation. In other words, Meyer is interested not only in Christian theology but also in such important issues as ecology. In this regard, he uses human animality to design a new understanding of ecological theology.

Meyer’s theological explorations emerge from the idea of human uniqueness, which is deeply grounded in Western culture. People believe in their specialness, which results in such a distinctive feature of Christian ideology as “a categorical distinction between human beings and all other animals(1)” and plays a vital role in the understanding of the concept of sin, among others. Meyer points out that even the great philosopher Aristotle defined a human being as a political animal. Throughout history, representatives of Western civilization tried to distance themselves from animals as far as possible. One of the consequences of such perception is not only the emergence of Christian theological anthropology, but also people’s failure to cope with modern ecological disasters, including but not limited to climate change, environmental pollution, and extinction of numerous species. Thus, there is an urgent need of reevaluation of human animality, which might give rise to a better understanding of people’s place in the world and the improvement of their relationship with God and nature alike.

With such global objectives in mind, Meyer divides his book into two parts. The first part of “Inner Animalities” is a critical analysis of “Animality and Ascent” by Gregory of Nazianzus and “Reading Animality and Desire” by Gregory of Nyssa, as well as the discussion of the issue of human animality in modern theological anthropology. Meyer shows how human animality makes the theology of Gregory of Nazianzus conflicting. On the one hand, Gregory of Nazianzus fiercely disavows human animality. On the other hand, human salvation appears to be impossible without it. Meyer discusses the main elements of Gregory’s theology, namely mind, flesh, logos through the lens of humanity-animality opposition and proceeds to a discussion of his sermons, “Oration 39” and “Oration 28.”

In “Homilies on the Song of Songs,” Gregory of Nyssa struggles with the same challenge. He wishes to deny human animality, yet its exclusion from a proper spiritual understanding of the text seems to deprive it of essential meaning. Therefore, in his interpretation of “The Song of Songs,” Gregory of Nyssa allows, “the desires proper to animality become indispensable to human perfection in an unacknowledged way. (55)” From this point, Meyer can move to contemporary visions of human animality.

The second part of the book reconsiders the issue of human animality in the context of three essential notions, the image of God in Chapter 4, sin and redemption in Chapter 5, and eschatological transformation in Chapter 6. In conclusion, Meyer emphasizes that discussion of humanity and animality goes far beyond theological disputes. In particular, this discourse applies to a wide range of important issues, from relations between human thoughts, bodies, desires, social ties, and subjects to the boundaries of class, gender, sexuality, race, citizenship, and ethnicity(173). He invites further research of this topic as he believes in its significance and relevance.

Eric Daryl Meyer’s, “Inner Animalities: Theology and the End of the Human” is interesting literary writing, mostly since it takes a seeming purely theological question and turns it on its head. In other words, what begins as a critical reading of fourth-century authors ends as a meaningful discussion of the future of the humankind in the context of a rapidly deteriorating ecology. Meyer points to a cause-effect relationship between people’s confidence in their superiority and uniqueness and anthropogenic ecological degradation, giving readers much to think about and to question.

From this perspective, “Inner Animalities” is written for a wide audience and it can be recommended for both theological scholars and people interested in different kinds of literature that nurture reasoning. The book might cause disagreement and even resentment with the readers who firmly believe in the idea of human exceptionalism, yet even in this case, fervent advocates of traditional theological anthropology of Christianity will find something informative and new. As for the rest, “Inner Animalities” suggests fresh ideas and unusual approaches to common Christian visions.

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