God's Covenant with Animals


Book Description

From Genesis to Christ, the Bible testifies to God's love and concern for animals. The same self-centeredness that led to the violence and abuse that has marked human relations also caused the abuse and exploitation of animals. The Bible, argues the author, calls upon human beings to stop their violence and abuse of each other and all other creatures. It promises that when they do, the sorrow and the suffering that marks life on Earth will give way to the joy and peace that God ordained at the creation of the world. In these compelling essays, Rev. J. R. Hyland explores the Old and New Testament and reveals the prophetic voices that called for compassion over killing, and humane concern for all of God's creation.




Will I See My Pet in Heaven?


Book Description

Friar Jack wants you to know: God loves and cares for all creatures, including and especially those we are closest to! "Today at school, one of the kids told me that only humans go to heaven," my young friend, Eva Maria said. "I almost started to cry. Is that true, Friar Jack?" She went on, "My dog Daisy is my best friend. When I go home she jumps into my arms and licks my face. Wouldn't God want her to be with me in heaven?" Eva Marie looked at me, waiting for my answer. . . "We don't know everything God has planned for us in heaven," I told Eva. "But there are many good reasons for you to believe that your dog, cat, fish, hamster, snake, ferret, iguana or any other creature that God created will go to heaven when it dies. God has given us clues and hints in stories from the Bible and in the teachings of my favorite saint, Francis of Assisi" This charming book is the children's edition of the Paraclete bestseller, I Will See You in Heaven (more than 25,000 copies sold). It comforts and explains to children that God loves and cares for all creatures, including and especially those we are close to. Includes a presentation page for gift-giving.




Bible and Ecology


Book Description

In this well-argued and timely book, Bauckham considers the relationship of humans to the rest of creation.He argues that there is much more to the Bible’s understanding of this relationship than the mandate of human dominion given in Genesis 1, which has too often been used as a justification for domination and exploitation of the earth’s resources. He also critiques the notion of stewardship as being on the one hand presumptuous, and on the other too general a term to explain our key responsibilities in caring for the earth. In countering this, he considers other biblical perspectives, including the book of Job, the Psalms and the Gospels, and re-evaluates the biblical tradition of ‘dominion’, in favour of a ‘community of creation’.With its clear analysis and thought-provoking conclusions, The Bible and Ecology is an essential read for anyone interested in a biblically grounded approach to ecology.




Will I See My Dog in Heaven?


Book Description

A Universal Question, thoughtfully answered! What do you think: Will we see our dogs and cats in the hereafter? Does God's plan for eternity include the created nonhuman world? Franciscan friar and popular writer Father Jack Wintz brings a love for all creation and infectious enthusiasm to the serious task of exploring answers to these long-asked questions, In Will I See My Dog in Heaven? Father Jack admits that no one really knows what God has in mind for us in the next life. But in ten thoughtful chapters, he lines up evidence from the Scriptures, Christian tradition and liturgy, and the life and teachings of St. Francis of Assisi, that God desires all creatures (yes, including our beloved pets!) in the afterlife.




Dogs Gone Bad


Book Description

In 1924, a Labrador was sentenced to life in Pennsylvania Penitentiary for murdering the governor's cat. (He was framed.) In 2010, a dozy guard dog was retired from a bar after he slept through their only burglary in 12 years. Every animal lover will lap up these doggone funny tales of imperfect pooches who run away, eat religious offerings, and tear up Christmas.




Your God is Too Glorious


Book Description

Most of us are regular people who have good days and bad days. Our lives are radically ordinary and unexciting. That means they're the kind of lives God gets excited about. While the world worships beauty and power and wealth, God hides his glory in the simple, the mundane, the foolish, working in unawesome people, things, and places.In our day of celebrity worship and online posturing, this is a refreshing, even transformative way of understanding God and our place in his creation. It urges us to treasure a life of simplicity, to love those whom the world passes by, to work for God's glory rather than our own. And it demonstrates that God has always been the Lord of the cross--a Savior who hides his grace in unattractive, inglorious places.Your God Is Too Glorious reminds readers that while a quiet life may look unimpressive to the world, it's the regular, everyday people that God tends to use to do his most important work.




All God's Animals


Book Description

The book is the first of its kind to draw together in conversation the views of the early Church, contemporary biblical and theological scholarship, and post-conciliar teachings. Steck develops a comprehensive, Catholic theology of animals based on an in-depth exploration of Catholicism's fundamental doctrines—trinitarian theology, Christology, pneumatology, eschatology, and soteriology. All God's Animals makes two central claims. First, we can hope that God will include animals of the present age in the kingdom inaugurated by Christ. Second, because of this inclusion, our responses to animals should be guided by the values of the kingdom. As Christians await the final liberation of all creation, they are to be witnesses to God’s kingdom by embodying its ideals in their relations with animal life. Because the kingdom's fullness is yet to come and because our world remains marked by the wounds of sin, however, Christian treatment of animals will at times require acts that are at odds with the kingdom’s ideals (for example, those causing suffering and death). Steck examines each of these ideas and explores all of their complexities.







Animal Theology


Book Description

Animal rights is animal theology. The author argues that historical theology, creatively defined, must reject humanocentricity. He questions the assumption that if theology is to speak on this issue, 'it must only do so on the side of the oppressors.' His theological query investigates not only the abstractions of theory, but also the realities of hunting, animal experimentation, and genetic engineering. He is an important, pioneering, Christian voice speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves.




Stewards of Eden


Book Description

Sandra L. Richter cares about the Bible and the environment. Using her expertise in ancient Israelite society as well as in biblical theology, she walks readers through biblical passages and shares case studies that connect the biblical mandate to current issues. She then calls Christians to apply that message to today's environmental concerns.