
Inner Animalities
Theology and the End of the Human
Eric Daryl Meyer(Author)
Fordham University Press
Published on 3. July 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-0-8232-8015-5 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
More details
Series
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
340 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8232-8015-5 (9780823280155)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Eric Daryl Meyer is Assistant Professor of Theology at Carroll College.
Content
Introduction
Part I
1. Gregory of Nazianzus: Animality and Ascent
2. Gregory of Nyssa: Reading Animality and Desire
3. The Problem of Human Animality in Contemporary Theological Anthropology
Part II
4. Animality and Identity: Human Nature and the Image of God
5. Animality in Human Sin and Redemption
6. Animality in Eschatological Transformation
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Part I
1. Gregory of Nazianzus: Animality and Ascent
2. Gregory of Nyssa: Reading Animality and Desire
3. The Problem of Human Animality in Contemporary Theological Anthropology
Part II
4. Animality and Identity: Human Nature and the Image of God
5. Animality in Human Sin and Redemption
6. Animality in Eschatological Transformation
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index