Most theology proceeds under the assumption that divine grace works on
human beings at the points of our supposed uniqueness among earth’s
creatures—our freedom, our self-awareness, our language, or our
rationality. Inner Animalities turns this assumption on its head.
Arguing that much theological anthropology contains a deeply
anti-ecological impulse, the book draws creatively on historical and
scriptural texts to imagine an account of human life centered in our
creaturely commonality. The tendency to deny our own human animality
leaves our self-understanding riven with contradictions, disavowals,
and repressions. How are human relationships transformed when God
draws us into communion through our instincts, our desires, and our
bodily needs? Meyer argues that humanity’s exceptional status is not
the result of divine endorsement, but a delusion of human sin. Where
the work of God knits human beings back into creaturely connections,
ecological degradation is no longer just a matter of bodily life and
death, but a matter of ultimate significance. Bringing a theological
perspective to the growing field of Critical Animal Studies, Inner
Animalities puts Gregory of Nyssa and Karl Rahner in conversation with
Jacques Derrida, Giorgio Agamben, Kelly Oliver, and Cary Wolfe. What
results is not only a counterintuitive account of human life in
relation with nonhuman neighbors, but also a new angle into ecological
theology.
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Theology and the End of the Human
Product details
ISBN
9780823280179
Published
2018
Edition
1. edition
Publisher
Fordham University Press
Language
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Author