456 | Religion and Animals: Christianity any being’s present status Reincarnation explained not only why humans were superior to any nonhuman animal, but also functioned as a justification for many of the social divisions of the day, although Gotama himself resisted the notion that humans in the lower social divisions were less important than high-status individuals Nonetheless, rich humans were deemed to have been rewarded for past good deeds, and the lame, the mentally disabled, and other unfortunate humans were deemed to be paying for bad acts in past lives Below even the most unfortunate and morally corrupt humans were all other animals The Buddhist tradition, through acceptance of these hierarchical notions of life, thus often tolerated some harsh abuses of animals Elephants, whose natural history was poorly known by Buddhists, were captured from the wild, tamed with painful methods, and used in many different ways Buddhism did not give approval to all such uses, for example, the use of elephants in war was condemned, but other uses of elephants, such as kings or rajahs using domesticated elephants for transportation, was widely accepted Early Buddhists consistently spoke as if rich humans were entitled to ride around on elephants, having lived past lives in such a way as to justly deserve this reward Sadly, though, the Buddhist scriptures also contain many indications that elephants suffered during captivity, being deprived of their naturally complex social lives with other elephants Further Reading Chalmers, R., trans 1926–1927 Further dialogues of the Buddha (translated from the Pali of the Majjhima Nikaaya), vols Sacred Books of the Buddhists series, and London: Humphrey Milford/Oxford University Gombrich, Richard 1991 The Buddhist way In Heinz Bechert and Richard Gombrich, eds., The world of Buddhism: Buddhist monks and nuns in society and culture, 9–14 London: Thames and Hudson Gombrich, Richard 1988 Theravada Buddhism: A social history from ancient benares to modern Colombo London and New York: Routledge Keown, Damien 1992 The Nature of Buddhist Ethics London: Macmillan Keown, Damien 1995 Buddhism and bioethics London: Macmillan and New York: St Martin’s Press Schmithausen, Lambert 1991 Buddhism and nature: The lecture delivered on the occasion of the EXPO 1990: An enlarged version with notes Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies Story, Francis 1964 The place of animals in Buddhism Kandy, Ceylon: Buddhist Publication Society Waldau, Paul 1997 Buddhism and animal rights In Damien Keown, ed., Buddhism and contemporary issues Oxford: Oxford University Press Waldau, Paul, and Patton, Kimberley 2006 A communion of subjects: Animals in religion, science and ethics New York: Columbia University Press Williams, Paul 1994 Mahayana Buddhism: The doctrinal foundations London and New York: Routledge Paul Waldau RELIGION AND ANIMALS: CHRISTIANITY Many of the important ideas that have governed our understanding and treatment of animals arise from Christian and Jewish sources or from reaction to, development of, or opposition to these sources Many animal lovers maintain that Christian indifference has been one of the main causes of the low status of animals Within the Christian tradition in almost every period of history there were