Following up on my previous post, Dogs, Joy, and God: Chronicle of Higher Education: Course Catalog: Do All Dogs Go to Heaven?:
After the loss of a pet, many people wonder whether they’ll ever see their beloved companions again. In her course, “Do All Dogs Go to Heaven?”, Chelsea Jordan King, an assistant professor of Catholic studies at Sacred Heart University, presses her students to answers that provocative question. To do so, King encourages students — believers and nonbelievers alike — to use critical thinking and research to articulate and defend their positions. …
Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez: Let’s start from the beginning, not Adam and Eve, but how did you come up with this course
Chelsea Jordan King: So I was kind of grieving the loss of my childhood pet. Her name was Lucy. We had her when I was in middle school. So she was a huge part of my life. And she passed away when I was finishing up my doctoral work at Notre Dame. And so it was the height of the pandemic. It was the year 2020. And I was in the middle of thinking about courses that I might want to teach after I graduate with my PhD. I was thinking through a course where I could honor her legacy in some way. But when she passed, I thought, you know what, I want to do a class where I’m asking that question, do dogs go to heaven? Do our pets go to heaven? Will there be an opportunity to see my beloved family member again? …
Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez: This sounds like a fascinating course, but I’m curious what an atheist might make of it. Sacred Heart, as you mentioned, is a Roman Catholic university. A lot of your students grew up in the church. But do you think this kind of material is accessible for non-believers?
Chelsea Jordan King: That I would argue is exactly who this course is for. I always say this at the beginning of the class. I do not assume that all of my students are Catholic, are believing Catholics. Like you can be Catholic and not be practicing, right? I don’t assume any of that. And I also find that the students who are atheists and are able to articulate why they’re atheists, they’re actually the greatest theologians in the room because they have thought about why they’re rejecting God, why they’re rejecting this idea of Christianity. They have reasons for it. It makes for fascinating conversation. …
Chelsea Jordan King: I would say that the majority of the students already think that there is a heaven. They may not know exactly what they believe in or what it means, but they are definitely spiritual and they are primed and ready to go. Like, the question is, yeah, let’s talk about heaven because I already accept it. You have the minority though of students who, I’ll be honest, I’m struck by those students. I appreciate them, as I said earlier, because the ones that outright reject Christianity or reject the idea of heaven, they’re still taking my class. And so I think I find that fascinating because these students I think are just, they’re thinkers. The other students, honestly, they probably are just, cause Mom told me that I should be Catholic because that’s how I was raised. There’s less reflection there. And so I think because the class is discussion-based, it’s an opportunity for the students that may not believe in heaven or even God to have an opportunity to kind of, you know, just have these existential conversations perhaps. I think that’s just a human experience, is no matter what, we’re always going to be asking those really, really deep, profound questions. So this class is just an opportunity for them to do that.
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