Description
Animal studies may be a recent academic development, but our fascination with animals is nothing new. Surviving cave paintings are of animal forms, and closer to us, as Ken Stone points out, animals populate biblical literature from beginning to end. This book explores the significance of animal studies for the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. The field has had relatively little impact on biblical interpretation to date, but combined with biblical scholarship, it sheds useful light on animals, animal symbolism, and the relations among animals, humans, and God--not only for those who study biblical literature and its ancient context, but for contemporary readers concerned with environmental, social, and animal ethics.
Without the presence of domesticated and wild animals, neither biblical traditions nor the religions that make use of the Bible would exist in their current forms. Although parts of the Bible draw a clear line between humans and animals, other passages complicate that line in multiple ways and challenge our assumptions about the roles animals play therein. Engaging influential thinkers, including Jacques Derrida, Donna Haraway, and other experts in animal and ecological studies, Reading the Hebrew Bible with Animal Studies shows how prehumanist texts reveal unexpectedly relevant dynamics and themes for our posthumanist age.
Author: Ken Stone
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 09/19/2017
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.60d
ISBN13: 9781503603752
ISBN10: 150360375X
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Biblical Studies | Old Testament | General
- Nature | Animal Rights
- Philosophy | Ethics & Moral Philosophy
About the Author
Ken Stone is Professor of Bible, Culture, and Hermeneutics at the Chicago Theological Seminary.