The implications of Christian salvation on animals in an Orthodox approach

This article by Pietro Chiaranz, a doctoral student at the Saint-Serge Institute, examines the question of Christian salvation as applied to animals from the perspective of Orthodox theology. Drawing on a patristic, hagiographic, and ascetic approach, the study shows that salvation, understood as transfiguration and deification, is not limited to humanity but concerns the entire cosmos. The author analyzes interpretations of Psalm 35:7 among several Church Fathers, revealing a tension between a strictly anthropocentric reading and a more universal vision. He demonstrates that humanity, as the pinnacle of creation, plays a decisive mediating role: its spiritual conversion radiates outward to the animal world. The article's contribution lies in bringing together patristic and iconographic sources alongside testimonies from contemporary ascetics, attesting to a living Orthodox tradition of harmony between saints and animals, bearing a cosmic soteriology.