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Animals and the Image of God in the Bible and Beyond
Author(s) -
Moritz Joshua M.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
dialog
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.114
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1540-6385
pISSN - 0012-2033
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6385.2009.00449.x
Subject(s) - image of god , dominion , soul , relation (database) , compassion , human animal , philosophy , doctrine , imago , theology , judaism , religious studies , history , ecology , livestock , botany , archaeology , database , biology , computer science
: This article examines theological thought pertaining to the imago Dei doctrine in light of its relation to non‐human animals within the framework of biblical, intertestamental Jewish, and early Christian writings. Evaluating theological understandings of human nature as they relate to and interact with theological and philosophical understandings of animals and animal nature, the author finds that the understandings of the image of God and dominion as they are ideally conceived in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures are significantly more closely related to the ideas of human‐animal continuity, compassion, and responsibility than to human rationality or the human immaterial immortal soul (and the entailed implication of animals' lack thereof).