Acknowledgements
Introduction
1: Animals in the Garden of Eden
2: Human, Animals and Death Revisited
3: Animal Suffering-philosophical responses
4: Animal Suffering-theological responses
5: The Best of all Possible Worlds?
6: The Wheat and the Tares: Re-Imagining Nature
7: A Picture Held us Captive
8: New Dynamics in Evolutionary Theory
9: Dualism or Tares in Evolutionary History?
10: The Fall and Beyond
11: Concluding Animal Ethics
Epilogue
Notes
Index
Nicola Hoggard Creegan is a research scholar at St. John's College, Auckland. Besides theology she has training in mathematics and biology, and is interested in all matters relating theology to science, evolution, and ecological issues. She is Chair of TANSA (Theology and the Natural Sciences in Aotearoa) which promotes science/theology discussion, and she is a trustee of A Rocha in New Zealand.
"This provocative study calls for an understanding of animal
suffering both before and after the arrival of humans -- and, in
doing so, points to a rethinking of its theological significance...
Recommended." --CHOICE
"In this lively and thoughtful yet accessible book, the author
challenges the reader to consider more carefully the theological
issues associated with animal suffering, and offers her own novel
resolution arising out of a metaphorical interpretation of the
parable of the wheat and the tares. One of the most significant
aspects of this book is that it encourages theologians to consider
the lives of other animals more seriously as relevant for
theological
hermeneutics, including reinterpretation of core Christian concepts
such as fallenness, death, and evil... This book is sure to
provoke, entice, and perhaps even rattle those who have so far
failed to notice
the growing tide of books dedicated to re-thinking the theological
significance of evolutionary science and animal studies." --Celia
Deane-Drummond, Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame
"How can we think about a God of love in an evolutionary world,
knowing how closely we are related to other animals and knowing
something of the extent of their suffering? This thoughtful,
learned, and deeply Christian book is a challenge to conversion in
the way we see animals, ourselves and God. It will leave readers
asking new questions, seeing the world with fresh eyes, and invited
to act differently." --Denis Edwards, author of How God Acts:
Creation,
Redemption and Special Divine Action
"Nicola Hoggard Creegan tackles one of the most difficult problems
in Christian theology--the extent of the suffering of non-human
creatures--with energy and honesty. She draws on wide reading and
extensive acquaintance with the latest science, including new
thinking on convergence and symbiosis. Her effort to draw that
science into conversation with the thought-world of the Gospels is
fascinating." --Christopher Southgate, author of The Groaning
of
Creation: God, Evolution and the Problem of Evil
"Original and thought-provoking..."-- The Journal of Religion
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