A Theology of Tending Animals

On the spiritual discipline of managing livestock.

Cover image by Karla Miller

There was a dinner with some city friends when I was seven or eight. The adults were eating steak and drinking wine. Our bummer calf came up.

“The kids bottlefeed it?” someone said.

To this day the sick-sweet smell of formula brings back cold mornings feeding calves. Some like to toss their heads to encourage the milk, which th…