Thomism and the Problem of Animal Suffering

“At colleges and universities today, students are inundated with arguments against God’s existence. Keltz takes up a major such argument, from animal suffering. Brilliantly retrieving Aquinas’s philosophy in dialogue with modern science, he demonstrates that the standard arguments along these lines against God’s existence arise from mistaken notions of both God and animals. This book is a level above all previous work on this subject and should be required reading for scholars and upper-level students.”


—Matthew Levering, Mundelein Seminary





“The last decade has seen an extensive and robust discussion of the problem of evil as it relates to animal suffering. This volume provides a rigorous and thorough Thomistic response to the topic. Keltz’s treatment is philosophically rich and scientifically grounded. Future treatments of the matter will need to engage the arguments in this volume.”


—Michael J. Murray, Franklin and Marshall College





“Thomism and the Problem of Animal Suffering represents a landmark contribution to the scholarly debate over the problem of evil. Using insights from both Thomistic metaphysics and modern cognitive science, Keltz argues convincingly that animal suffering poses no problem at all. This is, in my opinion, a far superior approach than other works on this topic. The topics covered in this book make it valuable not just for those interested in studying the problem of evil, but also for those interested in broader questions surrounding the moral status of animals and the nature of animal mentality.”


—Timothy Hsiao, Grantham University