Author Biographies pp

The fourth chapter is an argument concerning liberation theology and its tendency, at least in more popular writings, to lean towards a reformist politics. The authors, Kyle and Piper, urge liberation and animal theologists to support, embrace, and utilize radical direct action techniques. Kyle and Piper argue that such a stance is well-known historically and contemporarily in religious activism. Importantly, they point out how Christianity has often sanctioned violence of non/humans and upheld numerous oppressive hierarchies in the name of Christ but that it need not —and should not—do so. Like Will’s chapter, Kyle and Piper end with four suggestions for radical animal theologians. The final chapter by Michael Loadenthal traces transnational, anarchist-inspired radical activism during the first half of the second decade of the twenty first century, roughly 2010 through 2014. Through numerous examples, Michael illustrates how insurrectionaries have used various tactics to strategically attack targets that are aimed at bringing down systems of oppression and not merely focusing on particular manifestations of systems, e.g., particular McDonald’s locations. With these chapters considered, this is quite a provocative book. Each chapter challenges entire organizations to look more deeply about their history, think more critically about their tactics, and as a result, to act more radically. While authors critique individuals and groups, they also are responding to critiques made towards themselves, others similar to them, or organizations they support and have been a part of. What is particularly interesting is to compare Kyle and Piper’s chapter on radical animal theology to another recent chapter on liberation theology by Sarah Tomasello (2022). These chapters came out in books that were published within about a month of each other, so neither had the opportunity to read and respond to or work with the other. Sarah’s point in her chapter is to argue that liberation theology should integrate animal liberation into its praxis, and that this integration logically follows from liberation theology’s own philosophy. Thus, Sarah’s chapter goes into more history and theory of liberation theology and directly connects it to human movements and social justice causes. Sarah also presents a wider range of actions liberation theologists can take, including taking direct action. Kyle and Piper focus almost exclusively on explaining and arguing for direction action. Sarah’s chapter is more of a bridge-building effort, while Kyle and Piper’s chapter is more “internal” to animal theology. But this is not to say