Listen to A Heaven for Animals by Christopher Steck

**Christopher Steck** (0:01)
Ephesians 1, verse 10
If animals are to be saved, it is because they are included in this summing up. There is no special pet door or rainbow bridge to heaven that bypasses Christ. The book argues that animals and all of creation are indeed included in the work of Christ. With that phrase, I refer to the life, death and resurrection of Christ and the salvation he achieved. Theologians use other phrases to convey a similar meaning. Salvation history, for example, refers to the history of God's salvific work. It is a history that begins with creation and then continues with the call of Abraham, the formation of a chosen people led by Moses, the anointing of David as king, the collapse of the Israelite kingdom, and the announcement by the prophets of a future messiah, the anointed one. Christians believe Jesus Christ to be the fulfillment of that prophecy. Other terms for God's work in Christ include the divine economy, i.e. God's labor in the world as recounted in the Bible, and God's salvific plan. All these terms, the work of Christ, salvation history, the divine economy, and God's salvific plan are different ways of naming the basic Christian belief that God has been at work in human history, entered that history in the sending of his son Jesus Christ, and through Christ now offers salvation to all human persons. I argue that God also includes animals in this salvific plan in ways appropriate to each animal. For some animals with developed cognition, for example, dolphins and elephants, salvation will include, we can hope, God's resurrection of them in the end times. For other animals, for example, fruit flies and worms, God's salvation might entail something else, such as God recreating new versions of them.
My hope is that listeners will enjoy an added dividend in understanding this foray into Catholic theology. Understanding how God might wish to save animals and bring them to heaven requires us to understand the theological basics of human salvation.
The book's exercise in theology will then, I hope, offer listeners a chance to deepen their understanding of the fundamentals of Catholic theology and the wonderful gift that God has achieved in Christ Jesus.
The book is divided into four parts. Each part has two chapters. The first part, prelude to the argument, clears out the historical underbrush and fashions the theological landscape for my case. I examine why Thomas Aquinas rejected the idea of animals in heaven and note how his position influenced Catholic views of animals up through the mid 20th century. Recently, however, a number of forces have converged to encourage a reconsideration of these views. For example, the climate crisis and new insights into animals and the natural world. And I examine those in the second chapter.
The second part, a Catholic case for animals in heaven, brings us to the core of my case for animals. I argue that we find significant support in both the Bible and church teachings for what theologians call a cosmic eschatology. From the Greek word eschaton, end. A cosmic eschatology is committed to the view that God's salvific intent in Jesus Christ encompasses not only humanity, but the whole created order. And thus, at the end of time, the entire cosmos will join humanity and be saved in Christ. This eschatology does not, however, necessarily mean that individual animals of the present age will be resurrected. Based on recent teachings, including those found in the writings of Pope John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis, I make a case nonetheless that at least some of these animals, those with sentience and especially those with developed cognition, will be resurrected in the age to come. By necessity, the book's third part, Constructing a Catholic Theology of Animals, becomes more speculative as I attempt to make theological sense of two ideas. God saves animals and animals will join us in heaven.
The discussion needs to be speculative.