Animal Agency, Ecology and the Bible

By considering multiple nonhuman or more-than-human perspectives, this book stimulates imaginative, non-anthropocentric ways of narrating the world, moving beyond traditional biblical narratives and interpretations centered on human protagonists. Recent biblical scholarship influenced by animal studies understand nonhuman animals of biblical texts as living agents/actants with their own storied perspectives. This perspective challenges anthropocentric ways of reading the Bible, one of the central concerns of ecological hermeneutics. This volume brings together scholars from diverse disciplinary and geographic backgrounds to explore animal agency and actancy in scripture, tracing the ethical, ecological, and theological implications of reading biblical texts with attention to nonhuman perspectives. By emphasizing animal agency and ecological entanglement, the book participates in a broader effort to rethink the Bible’s human-centered canon in ways that respond to both scholarly and real-world concerns, representing a critical step in reorienting biblical scholarship toward ecological relationality. Animal Agency, Ecology and the Bible is of interest to students and scholars working on animal studies, ecological hermeneutics, and biblical interpretation.