For Our Friends the Animals - by Robert Echols (Paperback)

About the Book

Make the love of Jesus universal!

Join author Robert Echols to become a steward of God's creation. Let this book equip you with the spiritual inspiration and practical tools to practice and share a reverence for life!

Blending biblical wisdom, heartfelt prayers, and the philosophy of Reverentia Vitae--a reverence for all life inspired by Dr. Albert Schweitzer--this book is a rallying cry for anyone with even a spark of compassion for animals.

The author encourages readers to go beyond passive concern and make a personal pledge to change how they interact with and care for all living creatures. Part one lays the spiritual foundation, exploring our moral responsibility toward animals. Part two shifts into action, presenting practical steps to address critical animal welfare issues in the 21st century.

This is a story that will resonate with long-time animal rights advocates and those just embarking on the voyage to greater compassion.

In an era where empathy is increasingly crucial, For Our Friends the Animals offers an accessible, faith-driven call to reshape our relationship with the natural world.

The book is more than just a read--it's an invitation to join a movement of compassion that transcends religious and cultural boundaries and sets humanity, indeed all beings on our shared home, on a trajectory of coexistence and harmony .

A heart for all creation. Explore the spiritual foundation of animal welfare, of how we treat all God's creation. Start your journey with Jesus towards a life of mercy, compassion, and love.

For Our Friends the Animals offers a profound, spiritual trail towards beneficial stewardship, not harmful exploitation.

Book Synopsis

Make the love of Jesus universal!

Join author Robert Echols to become a steward of God's creation. Let this book equip you with the spiritual inspiration and practical tools to practice and share a reverence for life!

Blending biblical wisdom, heartfelt prayers, and the philosophy of Reverentia Vitae--a reverence for all life inspired by Dr. Albert Schweitzer--this book is a rallying cry for anyone with even a spark of compassion for animals.

The author encourages readers to go beyond passive concern and make a personal pledge to change how they interact with and care for all living creatures. Part one lays the spiritual foundation, exploring our moral responsibility toward animals. Part two shifts into action, presenting practical steps to address critical animal welfare issues in the 21st century.

This is a story that will resonate with long-time animal rights advocates and those just embarking on the voyage to greater compassion.

In an era where empathy is increasingly crucial, For Our Friends the Animals offers an accessible, faith-driven call to reshape our relationship with the natural world.

The book is more than just a read--it's an invitation to join a movement of compassion that transcends religious and cultural boundaries and sets humanity, indeed all beings on our shared home, on a trajectory of coexistence and harmony .

A heart for all creation. Explore the spiritual foundation of animal welfare, of how we treat all God's creation. Start your journey with Jesus towards a life of mercy, compassion, and love.

For Our Friends the Animals offers a profound, spiritual trail towards beneficial stewardship, not harmful exploitation.

Review Quotes

A Christianity-infused call for greater respect for the natural world.

Echols patterns this brief, meditative tract about having more "reverence for life" on the writings and broader ethos of Albert Schweitzer, who coined that phrase. The debut author specifically condemns humankind's arrogance, citing its self-centeredness as the main stumbling block to connection with the world's other living creatures: "Our anthropocentrism," he writes, "our unflagging yet highly dubious and injurious belief that the human animal is somehow more deserving than other life forms, is causing great harm to and often the untold deaths of countless other animals, species, and their habitats." Alluding often to Schweitzer's writings, the author offers a series of wildlife-related prayers and meditations on biblical passages, reflecting always on the welfare of nonhuman animals--which were created, he says, so that they might live "free from human domination and devastation, able to enjoy their lives to the fullest extent." As Echols takes readers through these reflections, culminating in an itemized list of the most prominent industries that engage in animal abuse, he regularly notes the key sentiment of Schweitzer's work--the assertion of solidarity between humans and all other forms of life on Earth. The prose throughout this book is clear and ringingly compassionate, steadfastly drawing a one-to-one link between Christian thought and a wide-spectrum empathy for other animals. The author's persistent casting of his calls to action as Christian prayers makes his target audience clear, but his broader claims, particularly regarding the independence of nonhuman animals--their innate value, apart from their utility to humans--are so stirringly put that they may also appeal to secular readers and those of other faith traditions.

A short but powerful religious treatise on animal rights. (Kirkus).

About the Author

Join me to become a steward of the earth, of animals, all life, all God's creation. My writings provide the spiritual inspiration and practical tools for a blessed calling--making the love of Jesus universal!

A cancer survivor, Robert Echols is a recognized and renowned influencer on the ethos of a reverence for life, the love of Jesus made universal, blogging frequently on LinkedIn, speaking on podcasts and in person in the Mobile Bay, Alabama area, and authoring a 4-volume treatise on the topic under the title: For Our Friends the Animals.

Previously Echols served as Founder and President of the For Our Friends the Animals Foundation, a nonprofit entity created to provide financial and managerial support to animal rescues, shelters and sanctuaries.

The Foundation also erected animal shelters in Levy County, Florida permitting Echols to, as Albert Schweitzer envisaged human existence, make his life his argument.

Echols grew up in Exeter, N.H., and was educated at the Phillips Exeter Academy. He received his B.A. from New York University and his J.D./M.B.A from Emory University. Echols also served in the U.S Army as an active duty enlisted man, as an officer as a member of the JAG Corps, and DA Civilian Attorney.