Theological Thursday
No Dog is an Island:
On The Death of a Pet…
Written by the Hobbit
Recently we have seen a lot of friends and families lose beloved pets. Which reminded me many families will deal with the death of a pet, and that a brief piece on animal death is something that is needed in a blog that has family as one of its focuses.
My thoughts are not terribly original and are compiled from a couple of my favorite authors…and it is good to say up front that we cannot know certainly. Pets as we know them are a relatively modern idea – unknown to Biblical authors – and so we must infer, rather than turn to specific Biblical support.
“I ventured the supposal – it could be nothing more – that as we are raised in Christ, so at least some animals are raised in us…Of course, we can only guess and wonder. But these particular guesses arise in me, I trust, from taking seriously the resurrection of the body….”C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady. Taken from The Quotable Lewis.
Moving forward to today and taking the concept of bodily resurrection one step further (and staying with a British author)….
“Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation….every act of care and support…for one’s fellow nonhuman creatures….all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make.” N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope.(italics are mine).
Both of these quotes ground themselves in a belief in bodily resurrection. We still tend to think of eternal life as sitting on a cloud playing a harp; if, on the other hand, you believe that you are going to be taking walks around the park with our friends (which takes bodily resurrection seriously), then I think we must take animal resurrection seriously. Further discussion on bodily resurrection is best left to another post; I would recommend Wright’s book in the meantime.
When we love an animal we would certainly desire and hope to see that animal again. And that is not a hopeless thought. We believe that God cares for His creation. Intricately designing the blades of grass as much as designing the fur on our cats and dogs (although my vacuum and I would prefer a little less of that fur). If Heaven might be filled with exotic and beautiful plants and animals- why not our sweet pets? To return to Lewis:
“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak.” C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Almost 400 years ago the English poet John Donne penned the famous lines, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” As pets have assumed a greater part in our lives, is it too much to presume that beloved pets become a part of us, perhaps in a way we do not fully understand? Therefore, given what God desires for us, and given the resurrection of the body, would I be comfortable telling a child that they will some day see their pet again? I would. Given that God knows my desires, and given what he has said about the new creation, do I believe that I will one day see a gloriously resurrected Max (my dog) by my side? I believe I can, without any theological compromise at all, fully believe that.
The Quotable Lewis. Wayne Martindale and Jerry Root, ed. Tyndale House, Carol Stream, IL. 1990
Surprised by Hope. N.T. Wright. HarperCollins, New York, 2008.
Devotions. John Donne. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. 1969.
Down The Hobbit Hole Blog uses affiliate links, we only link products we think you’ll like and you are never charged extra for them. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you. We also use cookies to gather analytics and present advertisements. This allows us to keep writing discussion questions and telling ridiculous dad jokes. Find our other reviews with discussion questions here. Our posts about faith here. And our posts about family stuff here.