On God and Dogs A Christian Theology of Compassion for Animals

Many of us keep pet animals; we rely on them for companionship andunconditional love. For some people their closest relationships may be withtheir pets. In the wake of the animal rights movement, some ethicists havestarted to re-examine this relationship, and to question the rights of humans to"own" other sentient beings in this way.In this engaging and thought-provoking book, Stephen Webb brings a Christianperspective to bear on the subject of our responsibility to animals, looked atthrough the lens of our relations with pets--especially dogs. Webb argues thatthe emotional bond with companion animals should play a central role in the waywe think about animals in general, and--against the more extreme animalliberationists--defends the intermingling of the human and animal worlds. Hetries to imagine what it would be like to treat animals as a gift from God, andindeed argues that not only are animals a gift for us, but they give to us; weneed to attend to their giving and return their gifts appropriately. Throughoutthe book he insists that what Christians call grace is present in our relationswith animals just as it is with other humans. Grace is the inclusive andexpansive power of God's love to create and sustain relationships of realmutuality and reciprocity, and Webb unfolds the implications of the recognitionthat animals too participate in God's abundant grace.Webb's thesis affirms and persuasively defends many of the things that petlovers feel instinctively--that their relationships with their companion animalsare meaningful and important, and that their pets have value and worth inthemselves in the eyes of God. His book will appeal to a broad audience ofthoughtful Christians and animal lovers.

Stephen H. Webb is Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Wabash College. He is the author of The Gifting God: A Trinitarian Ethics of Excess (OUP 1996).