Our wars with the animals go way back. Beyond the light cast by our prehistoric campfires, the eyes glowing in the night seemed to represent a great hostile force. As we began to cultivate crops and husband a few favoured animals, we generally regarded other creatures as threats to our chosen few. Using the logic of war, we sought to maximize the populations of certain creatures, and the destruction of others. In the past, that war effort was our great crusade for the advancement of civilization as we knew it. The war had a frontier, a front line, and an ongoing battle on the home front. Expanding outward from our various cradles of civilization, we progressively "tamed" the forests and grasslands, converting them to monocrop plantations or pastures. Then we had to defend our monocrops from encroaching weeds, insects, and wild animals. In this immediately engaging, story- and fact-filled page-turner of a book, Brian Griffith looks at the range of ways we relate to animals and the stories we tell about them. He asks how we choose whether buddyhood, fearful respect, businesslike predation, or genocidal war is the most appropriate response to each species we meet. He watches how our treatment of "inferior beings" affects our treatment of "inferior people," and traces some of the chain reactions we unleash when we try to weed out species we don't like. "Without much hope of making animals fit my personal preferences," he writes, "I wonder how good our relations can get."

War and Peace with the Beasts: A History of Our Relationship with Animals

Politics & Social Sciences

Griffith, Brian

Anthropology

Woodlake Publishing

Annie Ruth's Truths is a collection of the "wisdom, warnings, and wake-up calls" of Annie Ruth Sharp, collected and written by her son, David Preston Sharp. Annie Ruth, having been raised by parents who sharecropped and lived on the same land in Mississippi where earlier relatives were slaves, took in the culture and communication style she heard around her â a style that was humorous and instructive, pointed and playful, serious and serendipitous. She then married it to her own precocious personality. Rarely do we see in print the wisdom and wit of Christian African-American female elders. These expressions are a creative response to the soul challenges of rural country life lived in the American Deep South. Annie Ruth, now in her mid 80s, still amuses and guides anyone within earshot with her quick-witted takes on daily living. But her words are not meant just for entertainment. They are meant to inspire, and to wake people up to themselves so that they can be better people. No one is above her guidance. As the wife of a Presbyterian pastor in Atlanta, Georgia, Annie Ruth found herself in settings ranging from high-powered politics and the wealthy to the marginalized and homeless. She speaks her truth to her family and friends, to those lacking ambition and to those with perhaps too much. Even today, no matter where she goes, Annie Ruth's "truths" are always at the ready â even if the targets of her zingers are not.

Annie Ruth's Truth: Wisdom, Warnings, and Wake Up Calls

Religion & Spirituality

Preston Sharp, David

Sharp, Annie Ruth

Christian Books & Bibles

Although it is not a book about climate change but rather an exploration of five biblical creation stories, this study can help progressive Christians engage these questions. Understanding the biblical creation stories can help us see creation as a delicate balance, and our role in it as stewards. As people of faith, it is incumbent on us to understand our relationship with every facet of the divine, which is clearly present in the world and everything around us. The question behind this book is this: What did our ancient ancestors want us to understand about the creation of the universe, the divine presence in that creation, and how we might live our lives in response to that?

Creation for Progressive Christians

Schmidt, Donald

In order to send travellers on multi-generational journeys into far space, who better to teach us how to do that than Indigenous communities? In this insightful exploration, a scholar of Indigenous health and education outlines some of the principles that support Indigenous societies, and how they might enlighten future space voyages. She examines how Indigenous principles can sustain not only the basic needs of space travellers and settlements for equitable distribution of food, air, water, and other resources, but also provide the philosophical, ethical, and social processes that would be needed to underpin the mental health and well-being of future voyagers. She further shows how Indigenous ideals can ensure that space voyagers have the ability to have meaningful lives on the planets and in the interstellar space way beyond ours.

Starship Citizens: Indigenous Priniciples for 100 Year Interstellar Voyages

Marsden, Dawn

Social Sciences

What does it mean live "in sync with the sacred"? For Tom Stella it means living an authentic life. It means "stepping to the cadence of the sacred, " which usually requires courage: "the courage to be different, to stand out, to be considered odd and perhaps even a threat by those who find their identity, comfort, and security in the status quoâ¦ The good news is that we can do this within our daily lives. Unlike Thoreau, who felt he had to retreat to Walden Pond "to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach," we don't have to retreat to the woods. According to Stella, "authenticity is first and foremost a matter of being attuned and responsive to the sacred within â to an instinct, an intuition, a sixth sense, a deep, voiceless voice that can be âheard' even in a crowd. This inner guide may at times call us to live apart from others, but it surely summons us to follow a road less travelled; that is, to turn away from the conventional wisdom of society, those ways of thinking, believing, and behaving that go unquestioned â busy is good, more is better, success equals wealthâ¦"

In Sync with the Sacred, Out of Step with the World: Embracing and Unconventional Life in a Culture of Conformity

Stella, Tom

Labyrinths and labyrintine borders have been around for a very long time. In fact, they have been used outside of formal religion as a ritual object to express spiritual values for at least 3500 years in countries all over the world, including China, India, the Holy Land, Ireland, Southern Europe, Scandinavia, pre-Columbian America, and England. They can be found at Neolithic and Sardinian and Hopi rock art sites, in Hindu temples and Taoist shrines, bordering Minoan frescoes, and in Roman mosaics. They have been incorporated into Roman Catholic and Episcopal cathedrals, Protestant churches, and in New Age retreat centres. They have been carved into rocks, turf, and wood; engraved in metal; laid out in stones; woven in reeds; set in tiles; painted and drawn.In other words, the labyrinth is a nearly universal form and comes as close as we can to an archetype. An archetype is a symbol that appeals to us at an unconscious level. We don't have to struggle with its meaning intellectually. Its symbolic meaning is somehow ingrained in us, part of our very nature. As a result, it may appeal to us without our even understanding why.It is always risky to talk about the meaning of such an archetypal symbol. We know that it must carry a wealth of meaning to appeal to so many different sorts of people over such a long stretch of time. But we can, tentatively, explore some of its meanings if we stay aware that we can never really plumb all of its riches.

Celebrating the Labyrinth

MacQueen, Gailand

Women make up over one-half of the world's population, yet throughout history women have been kept out of power; they have been oppressed and disregarded, and have often had their stories ignored. This is a tragedy not only for women but for all humankind, because we all have much to gain by hearing one another's stories, and by experiencing one another in all of our rich fullness - not from a preconceived notion that one group or sex is superior to another. This is important to note at the beginning, because history has largely been told by men. In particular, the stories we have preserved from ancient times tell things from a male perspective, and often ignore women. Thus, we often need to read between the lines and behind the words to really hear the stories of the women who played such a significant role in the events described in the biblical stories, and by extension, in our tradition. Of course there are real differences between women and men, just as there are real differences between men, and between women. We are not all the same; as individuals, we are all different from each other. Rather than a problem, however, we can see this as one of the greatest gifts God has given us - the wonderful and amazing gift of difference. The sessions in this study will invite you to explore the stories of some amazing biblical women, to get to know them and to learn from them. How might we live our lives in response to that?

Women in the Bible for Progressive Christians: Hebrew Scriptures: A Seven Session Study Guide

Reference

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