'Contrasts'

From The Vegetarian, 15 December, 1900 edition

Quotation: The Rev. R. J. Porteous (1903)

" We cannot be spiritual beings and beasts of prey at the same time."

From The Herald of the Golden Age, March 1903 edition

'Bible and Beef' by Henry S. Salt

An article on the theological implications of vegetarianism by the acknowledged father of animal rights theory. From a series of essays which were published in The Vegetarian during 1899 and collected as The Logic of Vegetarianism in the same year.

See also: 'Henry Salt on the Bible and Vegetarianism' and 'The Vegetarian Society and the Bible'

Bibliography: 'A Guiltless Feast' by Derek Antrobus

'The Death of General Booth'

An appraisal of the life of Salvation Army founder William Booth which appeared in The Vegetarian, September 1912 edition

See also: 'Food reformers and the Salvation Army' and 'Vegetarianism by Bramwell Booth' (1900)

Letter from Gandhi to the Natal Mercury

From the February 3rd, 1896 edition
See: 'Letters from History'

Untitled letter from Leo Tolstoy

Dated 21st September, 1910
See: 'Letters from History'

'Some vegetarian saints' by The Rev. G.F. Tull

From the Winter 1958 edition of The Vegetarian News

'Vegetarianism and the extension of God's Kingdom on Earth' by Ronald M. Lightowler

Transcript of an address by the Secretary of the London Vegetarian Society which appeared in the July/August 1963 edition of The British Vegetarian

'A Vegetarian Church' by the Rev. A.O. Broadley

Published in the November 1906 edition of The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review

See also: 'The Race that is set before us'

'Saint Monacella's Lambs' by William E. A. Axon

First published in The Vegetarian Messenger of February 1894 and reprinted as a tract in the same year.

See also: 'Vegetarianism in the early Christian Church'

Welcome

The religious origins of the Vegetarian Society may be quite well known but the Christian influence on the historical Food Reform movement is largely forgotten.

Hundreds of vegetarian tracts, journals and sermons were published by societies, groups and individuals long before the arrival of the modern animal rights movement. A selection of writings from British publications of the past two centuries which have presented vegetarianism from a theological perspective will be reproduced here over the years ahead. Whilst the scope of the subject may occasionally expand to include material which relates to other cultures and eras the source periodicals will remain the same.

There is an evident range in the historical status of individuals whose writings will eventually feature; from the iconic to the unknown. However their insights may hopefully spread without distinction and inspire people of goodwill throughout the world today.