An Animal Lover's Perspective

I admit it! I develop serious attachments to my pets. Call it love. Call it concern. Call it what you will, but I have a weakness toward the welfare of our God-created friends in the animal world.

One of my favorite writers, C.S. Lewis, has a chapter in one of his books The Problem of Pain in which chapter he discusses (speculates might be a better term) concerning animal “pain” and the possible place of animals in the spirit realm. He opens by saying:

“The problem of animal suffering is appalling; not because the animals are so numerous. . .but because the Christian explanation of human pain cannot be extended to animal pain. So far as we know, beasts are incapable either of sin or virtue; therefore they can neither deserve pain nor be improved by it. . . God has given us data which enable us, in some degree, to understand our own suffering. He has given us no such data about beasts. We know neither why they were made nor what they are, and everything we say about them is speculative.”

Lewis then goes on to describe how the animal species “prey upon” one another and are in a state of “ruthless” competition. He asks the question, “How can animal suffering be reconciled with the justice of God?” and he gives the best reasons that his intelligence can come up with.

Lewis considers the Bible use of the term “soul” for animals as compared to humans. He then states:

“It is worth considering whether man, at his first coming into the world, had not already a redemptive function to perform. Man was told to ‘have dominion over every living thing’. Man, even now, can do wonders to animals: my cat and dog live together in my house and seem to like it. It may have been one of man’s functions to restore peace to the animal world, and if he had not joined the enemy he might have succeeded in doing so to an extent now hardly imaginable.”

Lewis continues to speculate much in the chapter about animals, their perceived pain, their innocence, their uses by man, the relationship between their reaction to environment and their instinctive choosing.

Then Lewis comes to the part that really grabbed me (brackets used are my thoughts):

“I have been warned not even to raise the question of animal immortality, lest I find myself in company with all the old maids [or old retired pet-lover guys like me!] … The complete silence of Scripture and Christian tradition on animal immortality is a serious objection ... If animals were, in fact, immortal, it is unlikely, from what we discern of God’s method in the revelation, that He would have revealed this truth. Even our own immortality is a doctrine that comes late in the history of Judaism. The argument from silence is very weak … If, neverthe­less, the strong conviction which we have of a real, though doubtless rudimentary, selfhood in the higher animals, and especially in those we tame [like the dogs I have had - Foxy, Barney, Nicky, etc.], is not an illusion, their destiny demands a somewhat deeper consideration.”

Now Lewis’ speculation got very interesting to me. He said:

“Man is to be understood only in his relation to God. The beasts are to be understood only in their relation to man and, through man, to God. Man was appointed by God to have dominion over the beasts, and everything a man does to an animal is either a lawful exercise, or a sacrilegious abuse of an authority by divine right. The tame animal is therefore, in the deepest sense, the only “natural” animal - the only one we see occupying the place it was made to occupy, and it is on the tame animal that we must base all our doctrine of beasts. Now it will be seen that, in so far as the tame animal has some real self or personality, it owes this almost entirely to its master. If a good sheepdog seems “almost human” that is because a good shepherd has made it so.”

Now we come to what this old animal lover, myself, finds speculatively fascinating in Lewis’ treatise. He says:

“There is a mysterious force in the Bible use of the word “in” … Man is “in” Christ and Christ “in” man and Christ “in” God and the Holy Spirit “in” the Church and also “in” the individual believer. …1 AM NOW GOING TO SUGGEST - THOUGH WITH GREAT READINESS TO BE SET RIGHT BY REAL THEOLOGIANS - THAT THERE MAY BE A SENSE CORRESPONDING, THOUGH NOT IDENTICAL, WITH THESE, IN WHICH THOSE BEASTS THAT ATTAIN A REAL SELF ARE IN THEIR MASTERS. That is to say, you must not think of a beast by itself, and call that a personality and then inquire whether God will raise and bless that. You must take the whole context IN which the beast acquires its selfhood - namely the goodman and the goodwife [children IN union with Christ] ruling their children and their beasts in the good homestead. That whole context may be regarded as a ‘body’ [in human union] by God, and how much of that ‘body’ may be raised along with the goodman and the goodwife, who can predict? So much, presumably, as is necessary not only for the glory of God and the blessing of the human pair, but for that particular glory and that particular blessing which is eternally colored by that particular terrestrial experience. And in this way it seems to me possible that certain animals may have an immortality, NOT IN THEMSELVES, BUT IN THE IMMORTALITY OF THEIR MASTERS. And the difficulty about personal identity in a creature barely personal disappears when the creature is thus kept in its proper context. If you ask, concerning an animal thus raised as a member of the whole Body of the homestead, where its personal identity resides, I answer ‘Where its identity always did reside even in the earthly life - in its relation to the Body, and especially to the master who is the head of that Body.’ In other words, the man will know his dog, the dog will know its master and, in knowing him, will BE itself.”

Lewis continues: “The theory I am suggesting makes God the center of the universe and man the subordinate center of terrestrial nature - the beasts are not co-ordinate with man, but subordinate to him, and their destiny is through and through related to his. And the derivative immortality suggested for them is part and parcel of the new heaven and new earth, organically related to the whole suffering process of the world’s fall and redemption.”

What Lewis is saying, as I read it, is that the Bible says that in the spirit realm, there is a spirit union of beings. Paul and John in particular speak of a living union between Christ and the believing born again Christian. Galatians 2:20 says that “Christ lives in me.” Lewis speculates on the concept that whatever union of personality exists between the tame beast and his master MAY BE ALLOWED BY GOD TO CARRY OVER INTO THE SPIRITUAL REALM OF HEAVEN. If a pet is a big part of our human life, then why not make it a part of our spirit life also? Possible? The Bible is silent. Speculation? As an animal lover who in 74 years has seen the joy and companionship of many pets, I would appreciate the fulfillment of Lewis’ speculation.

Ten years ago when my faithful one-eyed dog, Foxy, died, I speculated to my wife that one day in the spirit realm I would resurrect Foxy with two eyes as a companion again. It was a sad day which was brightened somewhat by my speculation. Now it seems that C. S. Lewis has the same concept as a possibility.

My wife has since passed on and I now live with a faithful fifteen year old Pomeranian dog named Nicky. I like Lewis’ speculation that Nicky lives IN ME just as I live in Christ and He lives in me. Nicky has been tamed by me and I am his master. I have done my job of “having dominion over him” and Nicky has been incorporated into my terrestrial “household”. There is a friendly competition between us to see who will last the longest and who will die first. But whatever the outcome of our ages, I want to believe, like Lewis, that Nicky will be allowed by God to be a happy part of my heavenly existence.

“Why speculate?” you say. “What good does it do?” Some speculations are provable now. Others must wait to be proven when we are total spirit members of the family of God. But speculation serves a purpose. It EXPANDS our minds into thinking what the kingdom of God will be like. This is not day-dreaming! This is not escapism! This is not wasting your time. Our long range goal for living is the kingdom of God and whatever glorifies God in The spirit realm. GOD MAY WELL BE BETTER GLORIFIED BY WHAT WE RESURRECT AND GLORIFY OF OUR EARTHLY CREATURES WHO HAVE BONDED IN AN EARTHLY UNION WITH US.

Yes - I love my pets!

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