I was listening to @swamidass interview from today and he mentioned animal death. I thought I’d go looking for church fathers again. @r_speir I’m sure you’d be interested too
Irenaeus is super clear:
In direct contact with a generation of believers who had still known the Apostles, he unambiguously teaches that animals were not carnivorous in the original creation. He also brings creation and eschatology together when he writes in his books Against the Heresies (Adversus Haereses, book 5, chapter 33):24:
“Predicting these times, Isaiah says: ‘And the wolf shall feed with the lamb, and the leopard shall rest with the kid; the calf, the bull, and the lion shall feed together, and a little boy shall lead them. The ox and the bear shall feed together, and their young shall live together; the lion and the ox shall eat straw. An infant boy shall thrust his hand into the asp’s den and into the nest of young asps, and they shall do no harm nor hurt to anyone upon my holy mountain’ (Isa 11:6–9). Again, recapitulating, he says, ‘Then wolves and lambs shall feed together; the lion like the ox shall eat straw; the serpent shall eat earth as bread; and they shall do no
harm or hurt upon my holy mountain, says the Lord’ (Isa 65:25). I am aware that some try to refer these texts metaphorically to savage men who out of various nations and various occupations come to believe, and when they have believed live in harmony with the just.
But though this now takes place for men who come from various nations into the one doctrine of the faith, nevertheless it will take place for these animals at the resurrection of the just, as we have said; for God is rich in all things, and when the world is re-established in its primeval state all the animals must obey and be subject to man and return to the first food given by God, as before the disobedience they were subject to Adam (Gen 1:28–30) and ate the fruit of the earth. This is not the time to show that the lion will eat straw, but this indicates the size and opulence of the fruits. For if an animal like the lion eats straw, what will be the quality of the wheat whose straw is food for lions?”