Animals on the Agenda: Questions about Animals for Theology and Ethics

This encyclopaedic volume is the most comprehensive collection of original studies on animals and theology ever published. With contributors from both sides of the Atlantic, it tackles many apparently simple issues which raise fundamental questions about theology and how it is done. Are animals part of a fallen creation? Is nature God's wll? Do animals have immortal soul? How does God value animals? Does God's reconciling work include animals? These were some of the issues with which the group behind the volume began and which are discussed in it. There are four main parts: the first seels to understand scriptiral perspectives; the second wrestles with the Christian tradition; the third discusses disputed questions and the fourth obligations to animals. As Andrew Linzey points out in his introduction, it cannot be right or theological practitioners to carry on their business as though the world of animals was invisible. It took 1900 years for women to arrive firmly on the theological agenda, but at least they are now unambiguously there. The same cannot be said of animals, and mainstream Christianity still propagates a range of ideas about them which are hugely detrimental to their status and welfare. It is time for a change here also.