Eden's Other Residents: The Bible and Animals

by Michael J. Gilmour, Laura Hobgood-Oster (Foreword)

The Bible teems with nonhuman life, from its opening pages with God's creation of animals on the same day and out of the same earth as humans to its closing apocalyptic scenes of horses riding out of the sky. Animals are Adam's companions, Noah's shipmates, and Elijah's saviors. They are at the center of ancient Israel's religious life as sacrifices and yet, as Job discovers, beyond human dominion. It is an animal that saves Balaam from certain death by an angel's hand, and an animal that carries Jesus into Jerusalem. The Creator declares all of them good at the beginning, and since the Apostle Paul writes of God's eternal purposes for all things on earth, they are somehow part of a hoped-for eschatological restoration. So why are animals so often ignored in Christian moral discourse? In its theological thinking and faith-motivated praxis, human-centeredness typically results in the complete erasure of the nonhuman. This book argues that this exclusion of animals is problematic for those who see the Bible as authoritative for the religious life. Instead, biblical literature bears witness to a more inclusive understanding of moral duty and faith-motivated largesse that extends also to Eden's other residents.

188 pages, Paperback

First published June 20, 2014

Reviews

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtful and exhaustively researched study of the role of animals in creation and the Bible. The author's scholarly analysis sometimes becomes tedious reading, but throughout the work his love for his subject always shines through. A repeated theme is the Divine Triad of God, human, and animal: the interplay of which throughout the Bible is not always readily apparent. Mr. Gilmour makes a compelling case for a new understanding of the respect the Bible actually offers for animals.

As a dog lover, my favorite part of the book is Mr. Gilmour's amazing interpretation of the dog who traveled with Tobias in the Book of Tobit. Through careful analysis of the original Greek, he reveals the angelic (figurative) nature of the dog and God's will, in answering Tobit's prayer for divine protection, that it accompany both Tobias and the disguised archangel Raphael on their perilous journey. Very inspirational and well-reasoned.