The Souls of Animals - Softcover

Kowalski, Gary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1883478219 ISBN 13: 9781883478216

Publisher: New World Library, 2006

Synopsis

A classic book on animal spirituality - now updated and expanded. In this book, author Gary Kowalski offers vignettes from the lives of creatures that illustrate the qualities he considers spiritual: playfulness, capacity for love, altruism, and awareness of death. Kowalski reminds us, "If we are to keep Earth safe for coming generations, we must awaken to a new respect for the family of life."

About this title

From the Author

Many people think of soul as the element of personality that survives bodily death, but for me it refers to something much more down-to-earth.  Soul is the marrow of our existence as sentient, sensitive beings.  It's soul that's revealed in great works of art, and soul that's lifted up in awe when we stand in silence under a night sky burning with billions of stars.  When we speak of a soulful piece of music, we mean one that comes out of infinite depths of feeling.  When we speak of the soul of a nation, we mean its capacity for valor and visionary change.  "The soul," said psychoanalyst Carl Jung, "is partly in eternity and partly in time."  Soul is present whenever our lives intersect the dimension of the holy: in moments of intimacy, in flights of fancy, and in rituals that hallow the evanescent events of our lives with enduring significance.  Soul is what makes each of our lives a microcosm--not merely a meaningless fragment of the universe, but at some level a reflection of the whole.
No one can prove that animals have souls.  Asking for proof would be like demanding proof that I love my wife and children, or wanting me to prove that Handel's Messiah is a glorious masterpiece of music.  Some truths simply cannot be demonstrated.  But if we open our hearts to other creatures and allow ourselves to sympathize with their joys and struggles, we will find they have the power to touch and transform us.  There is an inwardness in other creatures that awakens what is innermost in ourselves.

About the Author

The Reverend Gary Kowalski is the author of eight books on nature, spirituality, science, and the environment, including Goodbye Friend: Healing Wisdom For Anyone Who Has Ever Lost A Pet, The Bible According To Noah and Earth Day: An Alphabet Book.  His work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Czech, appeared in magazines like Tikkun and Yoga Journal, and been voted a "Reader's Favorite" by the Quality Paperback Bookclub.  A graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Divinity School, Reverend Kowalski has served Unitarian Universalist congregations across the United States.  He currently resides in Burlington, Vermont.

Edition details

• Publisher: New World Library
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1883478219
• ISBN 13: 9781883478216
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 160