Animals in the New Testament

Justin David Strong

ISBN 10: 0567715825 / ISBN 13: 9780567715821

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, GB, 2025

This volume explores the ubiquity of animals and the remarkable density of animal language in the New Testament and its contemporary world. By situating the New Testament amid ancient discourses and incorporating understanding from the emerging field of Animal Studies, the contributors explore the insights that emerge when non-human animals and notions of animality take centre stage.By analysing the Classical contexts of the New Testament, the gospels, the writings of Peter, Paul and John and extra-canonical Christian contexts, the volume identifies and explores the myriad ways in which humans find themselves and others to be like animals, addressing basic notions of human and animal nature and highlighting traits such as sentience, subjectivity, and intentionality. Ranging from the intense discussions regarding animal souls and their place in contemporary narratives to their various roles in the teachings of Jesus, their depictions in the writing of the apostles and their symbolic and ethical significance in early Christianity, this highly original and methodologically diverse collection introduces an unfamiliar paradigm that offers new perspectives and insights into the New Testament and its contemporary world. Seller Inventory # LU-9780567715821

Synopsis:

This volume explores the ubiquity of animals and the remarkable density of animal language in the New Testament and its contemporary world. By situating the New Testament amid ancient discourses and incorporating understanding from the emerging field of Animal Studies, the contributors explore the insights that emerge when non-human animals and notions of animality take centre stage. By analysing the Classical contexts of the New Testament, the gospels, the writings of Peter, Paul and John and extra-canonical Christian contexts, the volume identifies and explores the myriad ways in which humans find themselves and others to be like animals, addressing basic notions of human and animal nature and highlighting traits such as sentience, subjectivity, and intentionality. Ranging from the intense discussions regarding animal souls and their place in contemporary narratives to their various roles in the teachings of Jesus, their depictions in the writing of the apostles and their symbolic and ethical significance in early Christianity, this highly original and methodologically diverse collection introduces an unfamiliar paradigm that offers new perspectives and insights into the New Testament and its contemporary world.

About the Authors: Justin David Strong is Associate Professor of New Testament at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society; Principal Investigator of "The Ancient Fable Tradition and Early Christian Literature" DFG Project at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz; and Research Associate at the New Testament and Related Literature Dept., University of Pretoria.

Chris Keith is Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Norway. He is the author of The Pericope Adulterae, the Gospel of John and the Literacy of Jesus, a winner of the 2010 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise, and Jesus' Literacy: Scribal Culture and the Teacher from Galilee. He is also the co-editor of Jesus among Friends and Enemies: A Historical and Literary Introduction to Jesus in the Gospels, and was recently named a 2012 Society of Biblical Literature Regional Scholar.

Ruben Zimmermann is University Professor of New Testament on the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Animals in the New Testament
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, GB
Publication Date: 2025
Binding: Hardback
Condition: New