Volume II (A Faith Embracing All Creatures) of The Peaceable Kingdom Series is now available.
If you order it now, it’s 40% off. Simply visit the publisher’s website, type in this code, CREATURES, and viola! A great book at almost half the price!
As the point of the series is to think about what it means to embody God’s peaceable kingdom, each volume attempts to examine what this means for ALL of creation. Volume I discusses nonviolence toward enemies, Volume II discusses nonviolence in relation to other-than-human animals, and Volume III opens it up in order to have a larger discussion about environmental issues (which includes us, other creatures, and the earth).
Below is the table of contents (which you can see if you visit the book on amazon), as well as a brief summary of the volume.
What is the purpose of animals? Didn’t God give humans dominion over other creatures? Didn’t Jesus eat lamb? These are the kinds of questions that Christians who advocate compassion toward other animals regularly face. Yet Christians who have a faith-based commitment to care for other animals through what they eat, what they wear, and how they live with other creatures are often unsure how to address these biblically and theologically based challenges. In A Faith Embracing All Creatures, authors from various denominational, national, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds wrestle with the text, theology, and tradition to explain the roots of their desire to live peaceably with their nonhuman kin. Together, they show that there are no easy answers on “what the Bible says about animals.” Instead, there are nuances and complexities, which even those asking these questions may be unaware of. Editors Andy Alexis-Baker and Tripp York have gathered a collection of essays that wrestle with these nuances and tensions in Scripture around nonhuman animals. In so doing, they expand the discussion of nonviolence, peacemaking, and reconciliation to include the oft-forgotten other members of God’s good creation.
Foreword: Marc Bekoff
1 What about Dominion in Genesis? Carol J. Adams
2 What about the Covenant with Noah? Judith Barad
3 What about Animal Sacrifice in the Hebrew Scriptures? Malinda Elizabeth Berry
4 Doesn’t the Bible Say that Humans Are More Important than Animals? Nekeisha Alexis-Baker
5 Didn’t Jesus Eat Lamb? The Last Supper and the Case of the Missing. Meat Stephen H. Webb
6 Didn’t Jesus Eat Fish? Andy Alexis-Baker
7 Does Christian Hospitality Require that We Eat Meat? Laura Hobgood-Oster
8 Doesn’t Romans Say that Vegetarians Have “Weak Faith”? Michelle Loyd-Paige
9 Doesn’t Jesus Treat Animals as Property? Annika Spalde and Pelle Strindlund
10 What’s the Point of Animals? David Clough
11 Are We Addicted to the Suffering of Animals? John Berkman
12 Does “Made in the Image of God” Mean Humans Are More Special than Animals? Stephen R. L. Clark
13 Can the Wolf Lie Down with the Lamb without Killing It? Tripp York
14 Vegetarianism: A Christian Spiritual Practice Both Old and New. Danielle Nussberger
Afterword: Brian McLaren