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The Blessed Book of Beasts
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The Blessed Book of Beasts, written by an anonymous author under the pen name Jonathan Scott, (Eastern Christian Publications in 2014), is the first bestiary written in the Christian tradition in several hundred years, according to theologian Eugene Fisher, and serves as a significant contribution to the Christian literary genre. Devotional in intent, poems are written for every animal in the Bible in heroic couplets, similar to the bestiary from the Middle Ages, Physiologus which was a manuscript written in the first century by an unknown author. Physiologus was revised and widely circulated during the Middle Ages as a means of conveying Christian mysteries in a fantastical way. However, Physiologus included only a few of the animals in the Bible. The Blessed Book of Beasts is derived from this traditional Christian genre and includes every animal named in the various translations of the Bible. Since the Middle Ages, especially in the early part of this century, several writers have drafted secular bestiaries which proport to illumine secular ideology. The Blessed Book of Beasts underscores its connection with sacred Scripture and the writings of the Saints. As Dr. Eugene Fisher writes:
"Each entry includes an illustration of the creature itself, accompanied by a biblical verse from the Hebrew Scriptures and/or the New Testament, which refers to the creature and derives a lesson from it. Scott adds to each a four-line poem of his own writing. Sometimes he stretches a bit to make his point, but the result is well worth it. He states, for example, that the Douay-Rheims translation of Verse 11 of Psalm 91 mentions a unicorn, where the original Hebrew and other translations do not. He notes quite accurately, however, that the unicorn was a symbol of Christ in the Middle Ages, with its horn understood to have healing powers, as Jesus healed people in his own time, a metaphor for the healing of sin through Christ. His resulting verse conveys a theological truth: 'If you’re wounded, trust the Unicorn / to heal you with its one, majestic horn. / In unity with Christ, entrust your soul. / Be one in Christ, and Christ will make you whole.' He cites appropriately, Chapter 6, Verse 19 of St. Luke’s Gospel and Chapter 12, Verse 5 of the St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, stressing the healing power of Jesus’ touch and Paul’s assertion that we are, as church, 'one body in Christ.'"
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