CHRISTIAN APOLOGISTS AND THEOLOGIANS WHO BELIEVE IN THE PROBABILITY OF ANIMAL RESURRECTION

dscn2171-2-copy-640x465PART SIX: WHAT DOES MARTIN LUTHER HAVE TO SAY ABOUT ANIMALS IN HEAVEN—IN PARTICULAR HIS OWN DOG?

The great Reformation theologian, Martin Luther, considered the value of animals primarily by how they benefited people. Nevertheless, like many other Christian theologians, he viewed animals as “hapless, innocent victims” of the Fall. Does this mean Luther believed animals would be recompensed in Heaven for the suffering they endured in this life? I’m not aware that Luther made this specific theological connection, but on a personal level he seemed to endorse animal resurrection. Here’s what Luther had to say on the subject.

When asked if he believed dogs, in particular his dog Tólpel, would be in Heaven, he is reported to have answered, “Certainly, for there the earth will not be without form and void. Peter said that the last day would be the restitution of all things. God will create a new heaven and a new earth and new Tólpel with hide of gold and silver. God will be all in all; and snakes, now poisonous because of original sin, will then be so harmless that we shall be able to play with them” (Animals on the Agenda: Questions about Animals for Theology and Ethics, 91). (Luther was likely enjoying a bit of poetic fancy in describing a heavenly Tólpel as having a skin of gold and silver.)

Elsewhere, commenting on Psalm 36:6 (“O Lord, you preserve both man and beast.”), Luther remarked that the passage affirms that God is savior of all animals.

Martin Luther’s apparent optimism that his own pet would survive physical death, his understanding that animals are innocent victims of the Fall, and his acknowledgement that God is the “savior” of all animals leads me to believe that Luther probably believed that animals alive today will live on in the New Earth. Philosophy professor Michael Murray agrees: “Martin Luther appears to have held that at least some animals are immortal” (Nature Red in Tooth & Claw: Theism and the Problem of Animal Suffering, 124). ©

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