A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics

Edited by Paul Waldau and Kimberley Patton

Paper, 720 pages, 14 illus.
ISBN: 978-0-231-13643-3
$29.50 / £20.50

November, 2006
Cloth, 720 pages, 14 illus.
ISBN: 978-0-231-13642-6
$62.00 / £43.00

"This substantial contribution opens up a broad field and will clearly be inspiration to further work on animals and religion. It is very much welcome." — Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"This groundbreaking volume contains an impressive number of useful and thought-provoking articles organized in an accessible and helpful manner. It will serve as a terrific teaching tool in introductory and cross-disciplinary courses. The editors, who are themselves leading figures in the field, have skillfully blended the essays such that all of the major discourses (religion, science, art, law, ethics, environmentalism) surrounding "the animal question" are addressed. This is a volume that I and several other instructors will find immensely valuable." — Matthew Calarco, chair and assistant professor of philosophy, Sweet Briar College, Virginia, and editor of Animal Philosophy

"An outstanding collection, ranging over most aspects of the lives of animals in the human world. The essays on the place of animals in religious traditions are particularly authoritative, but all the contributions are thoughtful, well-informed, and enlightening." — J. M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

"A Communion of Subjects is a rich collection that reveals the surprising extent to which religious and ethical traditions worldwide have recognized animals as living subjects, not objects for human exploitation. Supported by meticulous scholarship, this pioneering volume of over fifty articles covers a vast range of traditions from African mythology to Confucianism, making it a monumental contribution to both religious studies and animal studies, an indispensable resource for all interested in and concerned about the moral and cultural status of animals in human society." — Josephine Donovan, University of Maine

"A Communion of Subjects is an impressive achievement that enriches religious studies by its thoroughness and diversity of perspectives." — Barbara Darling-Smith, Wheaton College

Related Subjects

• Animal Studies
• Comparative Religion

About the Author

Paul Waldau is the director of the Center for Animals and Public Policy at Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Boston and is the author of The Specter of Speciesism: Buddhist and Christian Views of Animals (Oxford). He is also co-chair of the Animals and Religion Consultation at the American Academy of Religion and president of the Religion and Animals Institute. Kimberley Patton is professor of the comparative and historical study of religion at Harvard Divinity School, where she teaches a course on animals in religion. She is the author of several books, including most recently, The Sea Can Wash Away All Evils: Modern Marine Pollution and the Ancient Cathartic Ocean (Columbia).

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