Animals, the World and the World to Come.
In many cultures around the world, dogs are believed to have a special place in guiding and protecting the dead. For example, in Zoroastrianism (the faith probably practised by the Biblical Magi), dogs are sacred, and their presence beside the recently departed is understood to purify the room and drive away evil. There are also beliefs about canine spirits guiding the soul on its journey to the afterlife.Within Scottish folklore, a cù-sìth or fairy dog, was sometimes feared as a harbinger of death, but also at times regarded as a guardian, accompanying a person on their journey out of the human world. There is a touching tale of a man who loses his hound to fae, but is ultimately reunited when he comes to die, and he hears his faithful friend’s unmistakable bark.
The bond between humans and dogs is deep: they share our lives, shower us with love, and we look to them for comfort and understanding in times of sadness and distress. The same is true for many other companion animals. Losing them brings the same grief as parting from any other loved one. We long for one more lick from a rough tongue, nuzzle from a velvet nose, swat from a cheeky paw or excited squawk or squeak as we approach with food. However, many we received during their lifetime, it was never enough when the end comes. Equally, when we think about our own death, or the death of friends and family, we seek reassurance about the unknown. What will happen to us, and who will take care of them?
At this point in the year of church, with the feasts of All Souls, All Saints and the coming of Remembrance Sunday, these questions can seem very immediate. Christian Scripture makes clear that God’s love is for all of Creation, not simply humankind, and that the death and resurrection of Christ was for the healing of the entire cosmos (John 3:16). Visions of the coming Kingdom of God include animals as well as humans (Isaiah 11:6), and this should be exactly what we expect from a just and compassionate Creator.
The narrative in Genesis 3 presents animal as well as human suffering and death as a the consequence of the brokenness of this current world. Furthermore, with both our own experience, and contemporary scientific research into the cognitive and emotional life of animals, we can be in no doubt that they experience pleasure and pain, carry memories and feel love. What kind of god would make beings with these capacities, and then be indifferent to whether they lived good lives, or knew nothing but suffering? What justice would there in a universe where a creature could experience nothing more than a short time of pain, confusion and fear?
Animals in war provide a powerful example, although only one of many that we could choose. They are in no way responsible for human conflict, yet many individual animals pay a heavy price for it. Sometimes it is simply because they are unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, quite literally in the firing line, or abandoned by fleeing human farmers or caretakers. Alternatively, it may be that their habitat is utterly destroyed or horribly polluted. In none of these cases did they have any agency to change the course of events.
Of course, another category of animals pulled into war zones, are those who serve in the Armed Forces, state emergency services or organisations providing humanitarian aid. The overwhelming majority of personnel working with these animals see them as friends and colleagues, and do everything in their power to promote their welfare. However, the nature of their work and the environments that they enter mean that they share the danger of these situations, and the physical and emotional demands that come with this.
Animals who serve in this way are remembered with respect and gratitude as part of the wider commemoration of Remembrance Sunday, including at the ASWA service (taking place this year at The Animals’ War Memorial, Brooke Gate, Park Lane, London, W1K 7QF, Sunday, November 8, 2026, at 3:00 PM). It is always moving to see and interact with some of the four-legged attendees of this occasion, whether they are service animals taking part or companion animals who have brought along. It is striking how even on a solemn day, with many people experiencing strong emotions, and some living with ongoing grief and trauma, the animals present bring comfort, and frequently smiles as well.
By any measure, animals enrich our lives. If Heaven is life in all of its fullness, and perfect of all that is good, how could it possibly exist with them? Despite our pathological tendency to imagine that we are the pinnacle and purpose of Creation, this is a profoundly unchristian perspective. Animal life, in all of its wonder and variety, form part of a universe that is greater than we have the capacity to even begin to fully imagine. God is concerned about all that he has made. This is something of which the Prophet Jonah is sharply reminded, when he throws a hissy fit because the Lord refuses to destroy Ninevah. God points out the cost in human and animal life of the kind of obliteration that Jonah thinks that he wants to see. They are not simply irrelevant collateral damage.
It is true that neither Scripture nor Tradition paints a detailed picture of the world to come. However, it does make clear that it a restoration of the world that we currently experience. It is inconceivable therefore that the animals who form such an integral part of this current reality would be excluded from that future kingdom. Animals contribute their love, joy, energy and beauty to this world, and our faith assures us that they do the same in the world to come.
