On God and Dogs: A Christian Theology of Compassion for Animals

by Stephen H. Webb, Andrew Linzey

Overview

Many of us keep pet animals; we rely on them for companionship and unconditional love. For some people their closest relationships may be with their pets. In the wake of the animal rights movement, some ethicists have started to re-examine this relationship, and to question the rights of humans to "own" other sentient beings in this way.

In this engaging and thought-provoking book, Stephen Webb brings a Christian perspective to bear on the subject of our responsibility to animals, looked at through the lens of our relations with pets—especially dogs. Webb argues that the emotional bond with companion animals should play a central role in the way we think about animals in general, and—against the more extreme animal liberationists—defends the intermingling of the human and animal worlds. He tries to imagine what it would be like to treat animals as a gift from God, and indeed argues that not only are animals a gift for us, but they give to us; we need to attend to their giving and return their gifts appropriately. Throughout the book he insists that what Christians call grace is present in our relations with animals just as it is with other humans. Grace is the inclusive and expansive power of God's love to create and sustain relationships of real mutuality and reciprocity, and Webb unfolds the implications of the recognition that animals too participate in God's abundant grace.
Webb's thesis affirms and persuasively defends many of the things that pet lovers feel instinctively—that their relationships with their companion animals are meaningful and important, and that their pets have value and worth in themselves in the eyes of God. His book will appeal to a broad audience of thoughtful Christians and animal lovers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195152296
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/10/2002
Series:	Christian Theology of Compassion for Animals
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	9.14(w) x 6.08(h) x 0.67(d)
Lexile:	1380L (what's this?)

About the Author

Stephen H. Webb is Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Wabash College. He is the author of The Gifting God: A Trinitarian Ethics of Excess (OUP 1996).

Table of Contents

	Foreword: Voyage to the Animal World	ix
	Introduction: Pet Theories	3
I	Surveying the Options
1	God and the Giving of Animals	17
	Theological Method	17
	The Biblical Record	20
	The Christian Tradition	28
	Hauerwas and Berkman on a Biblical Foundation for Animal Welfare	35
	Andrew Linzey and the Theology of Animal Rights	38
2	Ecology versus the Peaceable Kingdom	44
	Process Thought and the Luring of Animals	44
	Environmental Theology and the Reclamation of Nature	51
	Ecofeminism and Animal Compassion	55
	The Rhetoric of Rights and the Demands of Care	57
II	Thinking about Pets
3	What Are Dogs For?	69
	The Other as More of the Same?	69
	The Other as Social Self	72
	The Other as Personal Self	78
4	The Difference That Dogs Make	85
	Pets, Women, Meat, and Rhetoric	85
	Vicki Hearne on the Language of Training	91
	Keeping the Other Other	95
	Reading Excess	98
	Excess as More Than Other	102
III	A Theology for the Dogs
5	Theology and Dogtalk	109
	The Sensibility of Sentiment	109
	Evolution and the Problem of Animal Pain	115
	God as a Lover of Dogs	123
6	The Sacrificial Economy of Christian Theology	128
	Economics and Sacrifice	128
	Karl Barth's Sacrificial Economy of Animals	130
	Hebrew Sacrifice and the Covenant	134
	The End of Sacrifice	144
7	Jesus Christ and the Future of Animals	155
	A Vegetarian Eucharist	155
	The Cosmic Christ and the Church for All Creatures	167
	Animal Afterlife	174
	Epilogue: God's Nature as the Future of the World	181
	Notes	185
	Bibliography	205
	Index	219

Editorial Reviews

"Thoughtful and reflective writing on our relationship with the animal world can be hard to come by, particularly among those writing from a specifically Christian perspective....Stephen Webb's latest book is therefore a welcome contribution. It recognizes the theological differences between human beings and other animals, yet without reducing the relationship to a purely instrumental one....Webb has written the best book we have on the subject."—Modern Theology

"Webb...makes an excellent contribution to the growing theological and philosophical debate concerning the relationship between humans and animals....I strongly recommend Webb's book to anyone who cares about the theological and ethical issues surrounding the human-animal relationship and to those interested in environmental studies in general."—Seminary Studies

"Webb has provided a valuable source of information concerning contemporary views on human-animal relations....As important as any aspect of the book is his account of the adventure as well as the intellectual and spiritual gains that come to us not only through what we give to animals but also through recognition of and gratitude for what they give to us....Highly recommended."—Choice

"The study is significant and original because it considers issues that have often been brushed aside....Webb's book does provide an important starting point for further discussion of the theological meaning of pet relationships, and the implications of those relationships for the way we treat all animals and live in the world."—Anglican Theological Review

"A deeply theological book, which is beautifully written and ponders the literary accounts of animals with great sensitivity... Few theologians could have endowed their daily lives, and the relationships that fill them, with such theological skill." Crucible

From the Publisher