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The Friends We Keep: Unleashing Christianity’s Compassion for Animals

Reviewed by Fr Luke Penkett.

This book is a wake-up call to the place and plight of animals, the situations in which we, as Christians, find animals – as companions, in sport, raised for food, in the wild. A wealth of stories from the history of Christianity illustrates Hobgood-Oster’s argument that animals once enjoyed an important place in Western culture.

Laura Hobgood-Oster is Professor of Religion and Environmental Studies and holds the Paden Chair in Religion at Southwestern University. She is frequently interviewed by national print and broadcast media in the States and is author of Holy Dogs and Asses: Animals in the Christian Tradition. She is also Executive Editor of the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Nature.

After a prefatory description of writing a history of animals in Christianity, Hobgood-Oster describes the role of animals as companions to the saints and unfortunate prisoners in Roman arenas, as sentient and compassionate givers and recipients of hospitality and, above all, as noble beings created by God.

There is a guide for group discussion and ideas for individuals and communities, including a wide variety of services, and a list of additional resources, with lists of Christian and secular organizations addressing animal issues, an excellent set of endnotes, an imaginative and far-ranging bibliography and a well-prepared index, although the inclusion of an index of biblical passages would have been apposite.

Far from being sentimental, the writing is at the same time engaging and scholarly, and definitely good news for animals.