Living With Other Creatures Green Exegesis and Theology

includes index and biblioraphy

1. The Human Place in Creation -a Biblical Overview 1 Human Authority in Creation (Genesis 1:26-8) 2 Human solidarity with the rest of creation 4 Living in a theocentric creation 5 Ruling fellow-creatures -hierarchy qualified by community 5 Ruling within the order of creation -sharing the earth 5 Preserving creation 6 Letting creation be 6 Summary 7 Putting Us in Our Place (Job 38 - 39) 7 Humanity within the Community of Creation 9 The Praise of God by All Creation 12 2. Dominion Interpreted -a Historical Account 14 Introduction 14 The Dominant Theological Tradition 20 An Alternative Tradition: Saints and Nature 29 Francis ofAssisi as Representative of the Alternative Tradition 36 Creating the Modern Tradition 43 Italian Renaissance humanists 43 Francis Bacon 47 Domination of Nature after Bacon 55 An Alternative Modern Tradition: Dominion as Stewardship 58 3. Reading the Synoptic Gospels Ecologically Jesus in His Ecological Context The Kingdom of God as the Reneuml of Creation Jesus and the Peaceable Kingdom Concluding Comment 4. Jesus and Animals Compassionate Treatment of Animals An Apocryphal Story God`s Provision for His Creatures God`s Concern for Every Creature Humans are of More Value than Animals Sacrifices and Meat-Eating The Messianic Peace with Wild Animals 5. Jesus and the Wild Animals in the Wilderness (Mark 1:13) The Hermeneutical Context Exegetical Options Friends and Enemies The Wild Animals in Jeivish Tradition Inaugurating the Messianic Peace 6. Reading the Sermon on the Mount in an Age of Ecological Catastrophe Introduction Structure of Matthew 6:25-34 Audience and Context God Feeds the Birds of the Air God Clothes the Wild Flou`crs Living within the Community of Creation The Faith of the Day Labourer Is it Impractical? Approaches to Contemporary Appropriation A Parable from Kierkegaard 7. Joining Creation`s Praise of God A Biblical and Christian Tradition Humans Are Not the Priests of Creation Antiphonal Praise Francis of Assist Christopher Smart And His Cat Jeoffry 159 Nature Divine or Sacred? 161 8. Creation`s Praise of God in the Book of Revelation 163 The Four Living Creatures in Revelation 4 164 The Four Living Creatures in the Context of Jewish Traditions 165 Comparison with the Apocalypse of Abraham 168 Detailed Exegesis of Revelation 4:6b-8 171 The position of the living creatures in relation to the throne 171 The eyes and the wings of the living creatures The likenesses of the living creatures The form of the qedushah The history of interpretation From the Worship of the Living Creatures to the Worship of the Whole Creation An Ecological Perspective for the Twenty-First Century? 9, Creation Mysticism in Matthew Fox and Francis of Assisi Matthew Fox Creation as well as Salvation Gift and Gratitude Theism, Panentheism and Dualism Jesus and the Cosmic Christ Francis of Assisi Francis and the Non-Human Creation All Creatures` Praise of God The Canticle of the Creatures Creation Mysticism Christ Mysticism Conclusion 10, Biodiversity - a Biblical-Theological Perspective Living in an Age of Mass Extinction Biodiversity and Conservation of Species in the Old Testament The Old Testament recognizes biodiversity God delights in biodiversity All creatures live to glorify God The various creatures have specific habitats Human kinship with other creatures Humans and other creatures are fellow-creatures in the community of the earth Adam as the first taxonomist Solomon as naturalist Humans to fill and to subdue the earth (land), but not at the expense of other creatures Humans have `dominion` (caring responsibility) for other living creatures Dominion begins from appreciating God`s valuation of his creation 228 Dominion is to be exercised in letting be just as much as in intervention Why Try to Preserve Biodiversi