7  Further Reading

This chapter suggests where to go next. The first section lists complete editions of early texts quoted in this booklet; the second, scholarly studies; the third, statements by church leaders. Each entry says briefly why it is useful. The full list of works cited is in the References.

7.1 Primary sources in translation

  • Athanasius of Alexandria, Life of Antony. The fourth-century life of the first desert monk, written by someone who had known him. The 1892 translation is freely available online (Athanasius of Alexandria 1892).
  • Bede, Life of Cuthbert. Bede’s prose life of the Northumbrian saint, including the otters on the shore and many other encounters with animals (Bede, n.d.).
  • Adomnán of Iona, Life of Columba. Written about a century after Columba’s death, with the story of the old horse and much else about life on Iona. Freely available in the 1857 translation (Adomnán of Iona 1857); Richard Sharpe’s modern translation with notes is also widely available (Adomnán of Iona 1995).
  • Gerald of Wales, The Topography of Ireland. A twelfth-century description of Ireland that includes the earliest dated account of Kevin and the blackbird (Gerald of Wales 2000).
  • Helen Waddell, Beasts and Saints. Translations from Latin of stories about saints and animals from the fourth to the twelfth century, arranged as the Desert Fathers, the Saints of the West, and the Saints of Ireland (Waddell 1934). A literary translation rather than a critical edition, but the best single collection of these stories in English.

7.2 Scholarly studies

  • Dominic Alexander, Saints and Animals in the Middle Ages. A historian’s study of animal stories in the lives of the saints: where they come from and what they meant to medieval readers (Alexander 2008).
  • Richard Bauckham, Living with Other Creatures. Essays by a biblical scholar on what the Bible says about animals and the rest of creation (Bauckham 2011).
  • David L. Clough, On Animals, volume I: Systematic Theology. A full-length study of animals in Christian doctrine, covering creation, reconciliation, and redemption (Clough 2012).
  • Celia Deane-Drummond and David Clough, eds., Creaturely Theology. Essays by theologians and other scholars on God, humans, and other animals (Deane-Drummond and Clough 2009).
  • Andrew Linzey, Animal Theology. A widely read book by an Anglican theologian that argues for a Christian ethic of animal care. Unlike most of the works above, it sets out to make a case (Linzey 1994).

7.3 Church statements

  • Pope Francis, Laudato si’ (2015). An encyclical on care for creation. Paragraphs 69, 92, and 130 speak directly about animals, including the statement that “every act of cruelty towards any creature is ‘contrary to human dignity’” (Pope Francis 2015, sec. 92).
  • Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, On Earth as in Heaven. Talks and writings on creation by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, who is first in honour among the bishops of the Orthodox Church (Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch 2012).