1st Edition
Animals and Religion
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. L’nuwey 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 Presences
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
Biography
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.
