Our treatment of animals is a gospel issue, Andrew Linzey contends, because those individuals and institutions that could have become the voice of God's most vulnerable creatures have instead justified cruelty and oppression. He offers an inspiring personal account of the gospel truths that have sustained his commitment to the cause of animals for more than twenty-five years.
After an argument with his family, Buddy Baker heads to the desert for some time to think, but there he meets an usual creature: a wily coyote with the bizarre ability to survive brutally fatal attacks.
"All you beasts, wild and tame, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever." - Daniel 3:81 The long awaited book that finally gives voice to the animals from the Gospel! "Who is this child who has just been born in my poor stable?" wonders the old ox. "Who is this man whom even the winds and the sea obey?" the fish asks himself. "Who then is this king riding on my back?" marvels the trembling little donkey. Playful and profound, this artistically illustrated book gives voice to twelve animals from the Gospels. A Faithful Dog; A Thoughtful Ox; A Gentle Wolf; A Startled Fish; A Hungry Fox; An Impatient Sparrow; A Lost Sheep; An Overburdened Camel; A Mother Hen; A Little Donkey; A Hopeful Rooster; A Joyful Dove. Told in engaging and lyrical stories that carry us along to a close encounter with Jesus.
When we consider modern American animal advocacy, we often think of veganism, no-kill shelters, Internet campaigns against trophy hunting, or celebrities declaring that they would "rather go naked" than wear fur. Contemporary critics readily dismiss animal protectionism as a modern secular movement that privileges animals over people. Yet the movement's roots are deeply tied to the nation's history of religious revivalism and social reform. In The Gospel of Kindness, Janet M. Davis explores the broad cultural and social influence of the American animal welfare movement at home and overseas from the Second Great Awakening to the Second World War. Dedicated primarily to laboring animals at its inception in an animal-powered world, the movement eventually included virtually all areas of human and animal interaction. Embracing animals as brethren through biblical concepts of stewardship, a diverse coalition of temperance groups, teachers, Protestant missionaries, religious leaders, civil rights activists, policy makers, and anti-imperialists forged an expansive transnational "gospel of kindness," which defined animal mercy as a signature American value. Their interpretation of this "gospel" extended beyond the New Testament to preach kindness as a secular and spiritual truth. As a cultural product of antebellum revivalism, reform, and the rights revolution of the Civil War era, animal kindness became a barometer of free moral agency, higher civilization, and assimilation. Yet given the cultural, economic, racial, and ethnic diversity of the United States, its empire, and other countries of contact, standards of kindness and cruelty were culturally contingent and potentially controversial. Diverse constituents defended specific animal practices, such as cockfighting, bullfighting, songbird consumption, and kosher slaughter, as inviolate cultural traditions that reinforced their right to self-determination. Ultimately, American animal advocacy became a powerful humanitarian ideal, a touchstone of inclusion and national belonging at home and abroad that endures to this day.
Christian concern about how we treat animals has increased strikingly in recent years. More and more Christians are deciding that our attitudes toward animals must change. Here is a book that presents, for the first time, a comprehensive and well-argued theological case for the rights of animals, and offers a challenging critique of our existing insensitivity toward animal life. Everyone who cares about the rights of animals, particularly clergy and ministers who are constantly being asked for answers on the issue, will welcome this new and important book.
Animal rights is animal theology. The author argues that historical theology, creatively defined, must reject humanocentricity. He questions the assumption that if theology is to speak on this issue, 'it must only do so on the side of the oppressors.' His theological query investigates not only the abstractions of theory, but also the realities of hunting, animal experimentation, and genetic engineering. He is an important, pioneering, Christian voice speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves.
What does the Christian tradition say about the condition and rights of animals? This helpful and timely anthology of selections from the Bible and from the great Christian thinkers of all times is an essential primer for those who care about animals. The book is organized around four themes--Attitudes to Creation; the Problem of Pain; the Question of Animal Redemption; and Reverence, Responsibilities, and Rights--and concludes with a section on practical issues--Animal Experimentation, Fur-Trapping, Hunting for Sport, Intensive Farming, and Killing for Food. This book includes selections from the following: the Bible, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, Karl Barth, St. Bonaventure, John Calvin, RenŽ Descartes, Austin Farrer, John Hick, St. Irenaeus, St. John of the Cross, C. S. Lewis, St. Thomas More, E. F. Schumacher, Albert Scheweitzer, Paul Tillich, Leo Tolstoy, Alec Vidler, John Wesley, and others
In this eloquent and provocative "open letter" to evangelicals, Ronald Osborn wrestles with the problem of biblical literalism and the ongoing challenge of animal suffering within an evolutionary understanding of the world. Osborn forces us to ask hard questions, not only of the Bible and church tradition, but also and especially of ourselves.
The author argues that there are conflicting traditions with regard to the question of what is the moral standing of animals according to Christianity. The dominant tradition maintains that animals are primarily resources but there are alternative strands of Christian thought that challenge this view.
Fearless and profound, these poems detonate across the landscape of the South at the end of the twentieth century. The author uses animals as mythic totems and contemplative signposts, compelling the reader to relive visceral memories of the enveloping poverty and racial brutality of the American South. The poet's steadfast faith in story and song illuminates and propels this astonishing lyrical narrative. Brian Barker has an Academy of American Poets prize and two Krakow Poetry Seminar fellowships. Currently, he is assistant director of the Center for Literary Arts at the University of Missouri and managing editor of the journal Center, His works have appeared in Poetry, Indiana Review, Sou'wester, Pleiades, and others. He lives in Columbia, Missouri.
