Early Christians and Animals presents a lively study of the significance of animals in early Christian thought, tradition, text and art. Robert M. Grant: * examines the diverse and often conflicting sources, from the pagan antecedents Aristotle and Pliny, to Biblical animal references and the Church fathers * provides fresh translations of key texts concerning animals - the Physiologus, Basils homilies and Isidores chapters.

Early Christians and Animals presents a lively study of the significance of animals in early Christian thought, tradition, text and art. Robert M. Grant: * examines the diverse and often conflicting sources, from the pagan antecedents Aristotle and Pliny, to Biblical animal references and the Church fathers * provides fresh translations of key texts concerning animals - the Physiologus, Basils homilies and Isidores chapters.

The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life is the first comprehensive guide to animals in the ancient world, encompassing all aspects of the topic by featuring authoritative chapters on 33 topics by leading scholars in their fields. As well as an introduction to, and a survey of, each topic, it provides guidance on further reading for those who wish to study a particular area in greater depth. Both the realities and the more theoretical aspects of the treatment of animals in ancient times are covered in chapters which explore the domestication of animals, animal husbandry, animals as pets, Aesop's Fables, and animals in classical art and comedy, all of which closely examine the nature of human-animal interaction. More abstract and philosophical topics are also addressed, including animal communication, early ideas on the origin of species, and philosophical vegetarianism and the notion of animal rights.

A study of animal sacrifice within Greek paganism, Judaism, and Christianity between 100 BC and AD 200. After a vivid account of the realities of sacrifice in the Greek East and in the Jerusalem Temple, Maria-Zoe Petropoulou explores the attitudes of early Christians towards this practice, and the reasons why they ultimately rejected it.

In the Eye of the Animal: Zoological Imagination in Ancient Christianity complicates the role of animals in early Christian thought by showing how ancient texts and images celebrated a continuum of human and animal life.

Christian concern about how we treat animals has increased strikingly in recent years. More and more Christians are deciding that our attitudes toward animals must change. Here is a book that presents, for the first time, a comprehensive and well-argued theological case for the rights of animals, and offers a challenging critique of our existing insensitivity toward animal life. Everyone who cares about the rights of animals, particularly clergy and ministers who are constantly being asked for answers on the issue, will welcome this new and important book.