This volume demonstrates how animals have played key roles in every known religious tradition and how animals have crucially shaped how we understand ourselves, the other living beings around us, and our relationships with them.
What do animals—other than human animals—have to do with religion? How do our religious ideas about animals affect the lives of real animals in the world? How can we deepen our understanding of both animals and religion by considering them together? Animals and Religion explores how animals have crucially shaped how we understand ourselves, the other living beings around us, and our relationships with them.
Through incisive analyses of religious examples from around the world, the original contributions to this volume demonstrate how animals have played key roles in every known religious tradition, whether as sacred beings, symbols, objects of concern, fellow creatures, or religious teachers. And through our religious imagination, ethics, and practices, we have deeply impacted animal lives, whether by domesticating, sacrificing, dominating, eating, refraining from eating, blessing, rescuing, releasing, commemorating, or contemplating them. Drawing primarily on perspectives from religious studies and Christian theology, augmented by cutting-edge work in anthropology, biology, philosophy, and psychology, Animals and Religion offers the reader a richer understanding of who animals are and who we humans are. Do animals have emotions? Do they think or use language? Are they persons? How we answer questions like these affects diverse aspects of religion that shape not only how we relate to other animals, but also how we perceive and misperceive each other along axes of gender, race, and (dis)ability.
Accessibly written and thoughtfully argued, Animals and Religion will interest anyone who wants to learn more about animals, religion, and what it means to be a human animal.
On Human Animal Being: An Opening Linda Hogan Introduction to Animals
and Religion Aaron S. Gross, Dave Aftandilian, and Barbara R. Ambros Part I:
Religion and Identity
1. Lnuwey Views of Animal Personhood and Their
Implications Margaret Robinson
2. Animal Consciousness and Cognition Robert
W. Mitchell and Mark A. Krause
3. Emotion Donovan O. Schaefer
4. Gender and
Sexuality Katharine Mershon
5. Race, Animals, and a New Vision of the Beloved
Community Christopher Carter
6. From Inspirational Beings to Mad Veg/ans:
Tensions and Possibilities between Animal Studies and Disability Studies Alan
Santinele Martino and Sarah May Lindsay
7. Human Beings and Animals: Same,
Other, Indistinct? Matthew Calarco Part II: Religious Practices and Presence
8. Learning to Walk Softly: Intersecting Insect Lifeworlds in Everyday
Buddhist Monastic Life Lina Verchery
9. An Islamic Case for Insect Ethics
Sarra Tlili
10. Animal Theology Allison Covey
11. Blue Theology and Water
Torah: People of Faith Caring for Marine Wildlife Dave Aftandilian
12. Animal
Families in the Biblical Tradition Beth A. Berkowitz
13. The Cat Mitzvah:
Jewish Literary Animals Andrea Dara Cooper
14. Blessings of Pets in Jewish
and Christian Traditions Laura Hobgood
15. Becoming-Priceless through
Sacrifice: A Goat for San Lázaro-Babalú Ayé Todd Ramón Ochoa
16. Refraining
from Killing and Releasing Life? The Ethical Dilemmas of Animal Release
Rituals in East Asia Barbara R. Ambros
17. Vegetarianism, Prohibited Meats,
and Caring for Animals in Chinese Religious History Vincent Goossaert
18. The
Difficult Virtue of Vegetarianism in Tibetan Buddhism Geoffrey Barstow
19.
Veganism as Spiritual Practice Adrienne Krone
20. The Spiritual Practice of
Providing Sanctuary for Animals Barbara Darling
21. Cow Care in Hindu Animal
Ethics Kenneth R. Valpey
22. The Council of All Beings: A Deep Ecology Ritual
Connecting People with Animals and the Natural World Eric D. Mortensen
23.
Commemorating Animals in Asia, Europe, and the U.S.: Celebrating Kinship or
Manifesting Difference? Barbara R. Ambros Part III: Religious Responses to
Animal Lives
24. Contemplative Practices for Connecting to Animals (and
Ourselves) Dave Aftandilian
25. Companion Animals Laura Hobgood
26.
Domestication and Religion Nerissa Russell
27. The Ethics of Eating Animals:
Jewish Responses Aaron S. Gross
28. Meditations on Living with Ghosts: The
Settlement Legacy of Buffalo Extinction James Hatley
29. Urban Wildlife:
Threats, Opportunities, and Religious Responses Seth B. Magle and Dave
Aftandilian
30. The Connection We Share: Animal Spirituality and the Science
of Sacred Encounters Barbara Smuts, Becca Franks, Monica Gagliano, and
Christine Webb. About the Contributors Index
Dave Aftandilian is Associate Professor of Anthropology, member of the leadership team for the Compassionate Awareness and Living Mindfully (CALM) Program, and founding Director of the Human-Animal Relationships (HARE) Program at Texas Christian University.
Barbara R. Ambros is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Aaron S. Gross is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of San Diego, a past president of the Society for Jewish Ethics, and the founder of the nonprofit organization Farm Forward.
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