What is the purpose of animals? Didn’t God give humans dominion over other creatures? Didn’t Jesus eat lamb? These are the kinds of questions that Christians who advocate compassion toward other animals regularly face. Yet Christians who have a faith-based commitment to care for other animals through what they eat, what they wear, and how they live with other creatures are often unsure how to address these biblically- and theologically-based challenges.
In A Faith Embracing All Creatures: Addressing Commonly Asked Questions about Christian Care for Animals, editors Andy Alexis-Baker and Tripp York have gathered authors from various denominational, national, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds wrestle with the text, theology and tradition to explain the roots of their desire to live peaceably with their nonhuman kin. Together, they show that there are no easy answers on “what the Bible says about animals.” Instead there are nuances and complexities, many of which those asking these questions are often unaware. Wrestling with the nuances and tensions in Scripture around nonhuman animals, these authors expand the discussion of nonviolence, peacemaking and reconciliation to include the oft forgotten other members of God’s good creation.
Contents
Foreword – Marc Bekoff
Introduction – Andy Alexis-Baker
1: What About Dominion in Genesis? – Carol J. Adams
2: What About the Covenant with Noah? – Judith Barad
3: What about Animal Sacrifice in the Hebrew Scriptures? – Malinda Berry
4: Doesn’t the Bible Say that Humans Are More Important than Animals? – Nekeisha Alexis-Baker
5: Didn’t Jesus Eat Lamb? The Last Supper and the Case of the Missing Meat – Stephen Webb
6: Didn’t Jesus Eat Fish? – Andy Alexis-Baker
7: Does Christian Hospitality Require that We Eat Meat? – Laura Hobgood-Oster
8: Doesn’t Romans Say Vegetarians Have “Weak Faith”? – Michelle Loyd-Paige
9: Doesn’t Jesus Treat Animals as Property? – Annika Spalde and Pelle Strindlund
10: What Are Animals For? – David Clough
11: Are We Addicted to the Suffering of Animals? Animal Cruelty and the Catholic Moral Tradition – John Berkman
12: Does “Made in the Image of God” Mean Humans Are More Special than Animals? – Stephen R. L. Clark
13: Can the Wolf Lie Down with the Lamb without Killing It? Confronting the Not-So-Practical Politics of the Peaceable Kingdom – Tripp York
14: Vegetarianism: A Christian Spiritual Practice both Old and New – Danielle Nussberger
Afterword: Brian McLaren
