Unmaking Eden

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Genesis and the Domestication of the World

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

519 kr

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Domestication is not just something that humans impose on animals, but an ancient structure binding both creatures within shared systems of subjugation. Advancing trenchant new ideas, David Carr unpacks Genesis 1-11 to reveal ways in which embedded human-animal, gender, and group hierarchies constitute our world. Drawing on animal studies and Indigenous perspectives alike, he treats the Bible's origin stories as an invitation to rethink inter-species flourishing and re-imagine community based on intrinsic worth rather than mere utility. Tracing human rule over creation in Eden to slavery and concentrated human power at Babel, the author exposes an escalating trajectory of domination. Yet these foundational stories also suggest that global subjugation is not inevitable, but instead the consequence of a fall from an earlier relational, reciprocal mode of living. Here is a hopeful framework that recognizes this crisis while offering alternatives rooted in respectful relations and multispecies kinship.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-09-30
Vikt500 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor300
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781009745529

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David M. Carr is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. An internationally recognized authority on the formation of Genesis and other biblical books, he is a leader in the emergent field of human-animal studies and the Bible. Recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, he is the author of Holy Resilience: The Traumatic Origins of the Bible, The Formation of Genesis 1-11, and Genesis 1-11: A Commentary.

Introduction: the domestication of the world (us humans included); 1. Genesis 1, the deep meaning of 'animal' and the invention of (a domesticator) God in our image; 2. Biblical, scientific, and other perspectives on domestication; 3. The Garden of Eden, gender, and multi-species personhood; 4. From Cain to Flood: the original sin of Earth violence and the emergence of soul insensitivity; 5. Noah's curse and the post-Flood domestication/enslavement of human brothers; 6. Kingship, the Tower of Babel, and humans as an invasive species; 7. Biblical Sabbath, Exodus freedom, and alternatives to exploitative domestication; Conclusion: the technologization of domestication, forms of dominating and relational knowledge, and other concluding reflections.

'This important book by David M. Carr shows how the stories in Genesis about our relations with animals, especially domesticated animals, undergird the Bible's views about our relations with God, with other humans, and with the earth. It will be required reading for anyone who wishes to grasp the Bible's impact on our treatment of animals and of one another, as well as our understanding of ourselves.' Ken Stone, Chicago Theological Seminary