Dave Aftandilian – författare

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.

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.

This edited volume draws together educators and scholars to engage with the difficulties and benefits of teaching place-based education in a distinctive culture-laden area in North America: the United States South. Despite problematic past visions of cultural homogeneity, the South has always been a culturally diverse region with many historical layers of inhabitation and migration, each with their own set of religious and secular relationships to the land. Through site-specific narratives, this volume offers a blueprint for new approaches to place-based pedagogy, with an emphasis on the intersection between religion and the environment. By offering broadly applicable examples of pedagogical methods and practices, this book confronts the need to develop more sustainable local communities to address globally significant challenges.