Religion and Animals: Animal Theology | 453 believe that the same should also be said of all world religions Further Reading Birch, Charles and Vischer, Lukas 1997 Living with the animals: The community of God’s creatures Geneva: WCC Publications Chapple, Christopher Key 1993 Nonviolence to animals, earth, and self in Asian traditions Albany: State University of New York Press Foltz, Richard C 2006 Animals in Islamic tradition and Muslim cultures Oxford: One World Kapleau, Philip 1981 To cherish all life: A Buddhist case for becoming vegetarian Rochester, NY: The Zen Center Linzey, Andrew 1994 Animal theology London: SCM Press and Chicago: University of Illinois Press Linzey, Andrew 1999 Animal Gospel: Christian faith as if animals mattered London: Hodder and Stoughton and Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press Linzey, Andrew 1999 Animal rites: Liturgies of animal care London: SCM Press and Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press Linzey, Andrew, and Yamamoto, Dorothy, eds 1998 Animals on the agenda: Questions about animals for theology and ethics London: SCM Press and Chicago: University of Illinois Press McDaniel, Jay B 1989 Of God and pelicans: A theology of reverence for life Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press Phelps, Norm 2002 The dominion of love: Animal rights According to the Bible New York: Lantern Books Robinson, Neal, ed 1991 The sayings of Muhammad London: Duckworth Sorrell, Roger D 1988 St Francis of Assisi and nature: Tradition and innovation in Western Christian attitudes toward the environment New York: Oxford University Press Walters, Kerry S., and Portmess, Lisa, eds 2001 Religious vegetarianism from Hesiod to the Dalai Lama Albany, NY: State University of New York Press Webb, Stephen H 1998 On God and dogs: A Christian theology of compassion for animals New York: Oxford University Press Andrew Linzey RELIGION AND ANIMALS: ANIMAL THEOLOGY Animal theology relates Christian thinking to contemporary debates about the status and rights of the nonhuman animals It seeks to address and redress the failure of historical theology to take seriously alternative insights that lie largely silent within the Christian tradition Systematic theology has largely proceeded on the basis of the virtual nonexistence of animals Historically, they have been the outcasts of theology, defined as beings with no mind, reason, immortal soul, or moral status Basic questions about their status and significance have simply not been addressed The question raised by animal theology is whether Christian doctrine is necessarily speciesist, and whether it can incorporate animal-centered concerns into mainstream thinking Modern theologians argue variously that even conservative theological understandings can be enhanced and deepened by the adoption and development of these insights In terms of traditional doctrine, there are three main areas The first is creation Much theological emphasis has been laid on the special creation of humans, to the detriment of nonhumans But the special place of humanity in creation can be read another way: as support for the special role of humanity in looking after the world, not as the master but as “the servant species” (Linzey, 1994) The second area is incarnation Traditional doctrine affirms that God became human in the person of Jesus Christ While this is frequently taken as a vindication of human uniqueness, some