The Friends We Keep: Unleashing Christianity's Compassion for Animals
245
The Friends We Keep: Unleashing Christianity's Compassion for Animals
245eBook
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Overview
Today we find ourselves in an anomaly in human history: many of our lives are empty of animals. Many of us have pets or watch documentaries on Animal Planet, but, for the most part, we humans don't really know how all the other species on our planet live today. And as Laura Hobgood-Oster reveals, many of them are not living very well--sadly, not very well at all.
Seeking to awaken Christians to the place and, too often, plight of animals in the twenty-first century, The Friends We Keep gently but astutely introduces the situations animals face today--as companions, as animals in sport, as animals raised for food, and as creatures in the wild--and simultaneously retells a myriad of often surprising and instructive stories from the long, rich history of Christianity. We see and experience animals as Christians have for generations--as beloved companions to the saints, as unfortunate prisoners in Roman arenas, as sentient and compassionate recipients and givers of hospitality, and as good and worthy beings created by God. Once upon a time, it seems--not too terribly long ago--animals held an important place in Christianity.
Could it be, then, that Christianity can be good news for animals today?
With a guide for group discussion and ideas for how people of faith can respond, this thoroughly engaging and enlightening book is essential for all who desire to live compassionately.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781481301138 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Baylor University Press |
| Publication date: | 11/28/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 245 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Laura Hobgood-Oster is Professor of Religion and Environmental Studies and holds the Paden Chair in Religion at Southwestern University. Featured in the documentary "Eating Mercifully," produced by the Humane Society of the United States, and frequently interviewed by national print and broadcast media, she is the author of Holy Dogs and Asses: Animals in the Christian Tradition and executive editor of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature. She lives (and rescues every dog she can) in Georgetown, Texas.
Read an Excerpt
"We humans live with other animals in our midst, yet we forget to notice their presence or even consciously choose to ignore them as we deem them insignificant. Yet, deep down, I think most of us know that we cannot live without them and we really don’t want to. Animals enter our lives every day in various ways—as food, as clothing, as objects of entertainment or sport, as co-inhabitants of the earth, and as personal, beloved companions.
"But we rarely if ever consider the impact of our religious belief systems on animals or the impact of animals on our religions. What, if anything, do animals have to do with, in, and for Christianity? And does Christianity have anything to say about the current state of affairs for animals?
"For complicated historical reasons, animals have largely been forgotten by Christianity. While some individual Christians include animals in their circle of compassion, the tradition seems to have collective amnesia about the role of the rest of God’s creatures in religion and in life as a whole. Though they are very much present, they have become absent. Here, I hope to find them again."
—adapted from the Preface
Table of Contents
Preface: Writing a History of Animals in Christianity
Introduction: Even Dogs Deserve the Crumbs
1 What a Friend We Have: Our Animal Companions
2 Lions and Christians: Animals in Sport
3 Eating Mercifully: Animals for Food
4 Good Christian Hospitality: Animals at Home on the Earth
5 Where Have All the Animals Gone?
Group Discussion Guide
How to Help: Ideas for Individuals and Households
How to Help: Ideas for Communities and Congregations
Additional Resources
What People are Saying About This
I hope this is a book to which many will turn. In such lively and engaging prose, Hobgood-Oster shines a light on a hidden ethical issue so that we are forced to wake up to practices that have been tolerated and reinforced by Christians and our theology.
A carefully researched and powerfully argued book - both moving and revelatory.
I hope this is a book to which many will turn. In such lively and engaging prose, Hobgood-Oster shines a light on a hidden ethical issue so that we are forced to wake up to practices that have been tolerated and reinforced by Christians and our theology.
The Friends We Keep is a book both to alert Christians to the theological dimension of God's hospitality to all creatures, and an activists' manual to help us engage lovingly and compassionately with the animals whose lives we humans affect.
With her sensitive retracing of the place of animals in the lives of saints and her constructive proposals for how Christians might include them with religious life in respectful ways, Laura Hobgood-Oster provides answers to the great questions surrounding faith and animals in this short, beautiful book.
Wonderful. Read and share this inspiring, wide-ranging, and easy-to-read book so that we can all expand our compassion footprint to every being, big and small, furred and finned.
Well-balanced and highly readable, The Friends We Keep has all the virtues of good scholarship while being wonderfully suitable for a wide range of readers. Hobgood-Oster has provided a superb example of how to combine scholarship with faith experience and active citizenship. I heartily recommend it.
At last! A compelling and engaging book on how faith can speak to both our love for animals and our concern for their fate. This is a must-read for anyone who has ever loved a pet or who is concerned about the impact humans have on the livelihood of species.
For personal reading, and for group study, there is none better than this! Hobgood-Oster raises the toughest questions and helps us find biblical answers.
Preface
"We humans live with other animals in our midst, yet we forget to notice their presence or even consciously choose to ignore them as we deem them insignificant. Yet, deep down, I think most of us know that we cannot live without them and we really don’t want to. Animals enter our lives every day in various ways—as food, as clothing, as objects of entertainment or sport, as co-inhabitants of the earth, and as personal, beloved companions.
"But we rarely if ever consider the impact of our religious belief systems on animals or the impact of animals on our religions. What, if anything, do animals have to do with, in, and for Christianity? And does Christianity have anything to say about the current state of affairs for animals?
"For complicated historical reasons, animals have largely been forgotten by Christianity. While some individual Christians include animals in their circle of compassion, the tradition seems to have collective amnesia about the role of the rest of God’s creatures in religion and in life as a whole. Though they are very much present, they have become absent. Here, I hope to find them again."
—adapted from the Preface