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This Element concerns itself with a particular aspect of the problem posed to monotheistic religious thought by suffering, namely the suffering of non-human creatures in nature. It makes some comparisons between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and then explores the problem in depth within Christian thought. After clarification of the nature of the problem, the Element considers a range of possible responses, including those based on a fall-event, those based on freedom of process, and those hypothesising a constraint on the possibilities for God as creator. Proposals based on the motif of self-emptying are evaluated. Two other aspects of the question concern God's providential relationship to the evolving creation, and the possibility of resurrection lives for animals. After consideration of the possibility of combining different explanations, the Element ends its discussion by looking at two innovative proposals at the cutting-edge of the debate.
Those who believe in God often puzzle over how God could permit evil and suffering in the world. Nature Red in Tooth and Claw focuses specifically on non-human animal suffering, and whether or not it raises problems for belief in the existence of a perfectly good creator.
The preeminent example of monotheism, the God of the Hebrew Bible, is the end product of a long process. The world from which this literature emerged was polytheistic. The nature and arrangement of the literature diminishes polytheistic realities and enhances the effort to portray a single divine being. The development of this divine character through the course of a sustained narrative with a sequential plot aided the move toward monotheism by allowing for the placement of diverse, even conflicting, portrayals of the deity at distant points along the plot line. Through the sequence of events the divine character becomes more withdrawn from the sphere of human activity, more aged in appearance and behavior, and increasingly disembodied. All these characteristics lend themselves to the presentation of disparate narrative portrayals as a singular subject in this Element.
The rise of monotheistic religious faith in ancient Israel and post-exilic Judaism inspired the imperative for social justice on behalf of the poor and the oppressed. Though some authors have maintained that monotheism inspires tyranny, this author maintains that real monotheistic faith affirms justice and human equality. This can be evidenced by a consideration of the Old Testament prophets and Law. Especially with the law we may observe a progression in the attempt to provide increasing rights for the poor and the oppressed.
This book will be of interest to college faculty and advanced students interested in the relationship between religion and science, particularly at Christian colleges and seminaries. Its value is to offer an innovative Christian theological approach to the daunting problem that Darwinian animal suffering poses to belief in God.
This Element examines how the Western philosophical-theological tradition between Plato and Aquinas understands the relation between God and being. It gives a historical survey of the two major positions in the period: a) that the divine first principle is 'beyond being' (Example Plato, Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysius), and b) that the first principle is 'being itself' (Example Augustine, Avicenna, Aquinas). The Element argues that we can recognize in the two traditions, despite their apparent contradiction, complementary approaches to a shared project of inquiry into transcendence.
Contemporary thought typically places a strong emphasis on the exclusive and competitive nature of Abrahamic monotheisms. This instinct is certainly borne out by the histories of religious wars, theological polemic, and social exclusion involving Jews, Christians, and Muslims. But there is also another side to the Abrahamic coin. Even in the midst of communal rivalry, Jews, Christians, and Muslim practitioners have frequently turned to each other to think through religious concepts, elucidate sacred history, and enrich their ritual practices. Scholarship often describes these interactions between the Abrahamic monotheisms using metaphors of exchange between individuals-as if one tradition might borrow a theological idea from another in the same way that a neighbor might borrow a recipe. This Element proposes that there are deeper forms of entanglement at work in these historical moments.
This Element shows Open theism as a monotheist model of God according to which the future is objectively open-ended, not just from the finite perspective of creation, but from God's perspective as well. This Element has three main sections. The first carefully defines open theism, distinguishes its major variants, compares it to other monotheistic models, and summarizes its history. The second develops biblical and philosophical arguments for open theism against its main rivals, emphasizing a novel philosophical argument that a causally open future must also be ontically, alethically, epistemically, and providentially open as well. The third responds to common objections against open theism related to perfect being theology, the ethics of risk-taking, biblical prophecy, and theological tradition.
Animal suffering constitutes perhaps the greatest challenge to rational belief in the existence of God. Considerations that render human suffering theologically intelligible seem inapplicable to animal suffering. In this book, Dougherty defends radical possibilities for animal afterlife that allow a soul-making theodicy to apply to their case.
2019 NAUTILUS GOLD WINNER In a time of rapid climate change and species extinction, what role have the world’s religions played in ameliorating—or causing—the crisis we now face? Religion in general, and Christianity in particular, appears to bear a disproportionate burden for creating humankind’s exploitative attitudes toward nature through unearthly theologies that divorce human beings and their spiritual yearnings from their natural origins. In this regard, Christianity has become an otherworldly religion that views the natural world as “fallen,” as empty of signs of God’s presence. And yet, buried deep within the Christian tradition are startling portrayals of God as the beaked and feathered Holy Spirit – the “animal God,” as it were, of historic Christian witness. Through biblical readings, historical theology, continental philosophy, and personal stories of sacred nature, this book recovers the model of God in Christianity as a creaturely, avian being who signals the presence of spirit in everything, human and more-than-human alike. Mark Wallace’s recovery of the bird-God of the Bible signals a deep grounding of faith in the natural world. The moral implications of nature-based Christianity are profound. All life is deserving of humans’ care and protection insofar as the world is envisioned as alive with sacred animals, plants, and landscapes. From the perspective of Christian animism, the Earth is the holy place that God made and that humankind is enjoined to watch over and cherish in like manner. Saving the environment, then, is not a political issue on the left or the right of the ideological spectrum, but, rather, an innermost passion shared by all people of faith and good will in a world damaged by anthropogenic warming, massive species extinction, and the loss of arable land, potable water, and breathable air. To Wallace, this passion is inviolable and flows directly from the heart of Christian teaching that God is a carnal, fleshy reality who is promiscuously incarnated within all things, making the whole world a sacred embodiment of God’s presence, and worthy of our affectionate concern. This beautifully and accessibly written book shows that “Christian animism” is not a strange oxymoron, but Christianity’s natural habitat. Challenging traditional Christianity’s self-definition as an other-worldly religion, Wallace paves the way for a new Earth-loving spirituality grounded in the ancient image of an animal God.