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Summary
- The Bible does not say whether cats go to heaven, and no verse describes an animal’s life after death.
- The King James Version never mentions a cat; cats appear once, in Baruch 6:21 in the Douay-Rheims, in a passage mocking idols.
- Genesis uses the same Hebrew phrase, nephesh hayya, for the animals and for Adam; the King James Version renders it “living creature” and “living soul”.
- Ecclesiastes 3:21 asks who knows where the spirits of people and animals go, and does not answer.
- Isaiah 11, Romans 8 and Revelation 21 describe a renewed creation, but none of them names a cat or a pet.
- Thomas Aquinas taught that an animal’s soul ends with its body; John Wesley expected animals to share in the new creation; C. S. Lewis suggested, as an idea open to correction, that tame animals with a real self might share their owners’ immortality.
- Neither the Catholic nor the Orthodox Church has a defined teaching that animals go to heaven: the Catechism says the universe will be transformed without saying how, and an Orthodox priest, in a reflection published on oca.org, says the Church “has never spoken definitively about this question”.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (Genesis 1:24 and 2:7; Psalm 104:29–30; Ecclesiastes 3:19–21; Isaiah 11:1, 11:6–9 and 65:25; Romans 8:21–22; Revelation 21:1–5; Luke 12:6; Psalm 36:6; Psalm 145:9; Proverbs 12:10) and, for Baruch 6:21–22, the Douay-Rheims Bible, 1899 American edition, from Bible Gateway. The absence of the word “cat” from the King James Version was checked against the full text of Project Gutenberg eBook #10.
- Bible Hub, Genesis 1:24 and Genesis 2:7, Hebrew interlinear.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 120 (the canon of Scripture), paragraph 366 (the soul), paragraphs 1042–1050 (the new heaven and the new earth) and paragraphs 2415–2418 (animals).
- Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, encyclical letter, 24 May 2015, paragraphs 83 and 243.
- Pope John Paul II, general audience of 10 January 1990 (Italian text), section 4, and FAITH magazine, Cutting Edge, March–April 2010, on the quotation attributed to it (English translation of section 4 quoted from there).
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, First Part, Question 75, Articles 1 and 6, and Supplement, Question 91, Article 5, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (1920), New Advent.
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, Book Four, Chapter 97, trans. Charles J. O’Neil (1957).
- Daniel Kennedy, St. Thomas Aquinas, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 14 (1912).
- John Wesley, Sermon 60, The General Deliverance, The Sermons of John Wesley (1872 edition), Wesley Center Online.
- The United Methodist Church, Our Wesleyan Heritage.
- Fr. Lawrence Farley, Will We See our Pets in Heaven?, Orthodox Church in America, 27 January 2020.
- Billy Graham, Will There Be Animals in Heaven? Billy Graham’s Answer, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
- C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (London: The Centenary Press, 1940), chapter 9, “Animal Pain”.
- C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (1945), the preface and the meeting with the Lady and her animals.
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