ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I argue for the possibility that some non-human animals might have conscious awareness of God’s presence or action in the world. The argument draws on strands of the Christian tradition that argue that humans are able to have awareness of an invisible, immaterial God primarily because of God’s initiative to accommodate human epistemic limitations. Given what is supposed about God’s nature as personal and loving, there would have to be a principled reason to suppose that God’s self-revelation only reaches down to the human species. After considering two models for thinking about human awareness of God from William Alston and Eleonore Stump, I offer an argument from analogy that concludes that if humans are capable of having awareness of divine action or presence in the world, many animals likely have such awareness as well. I support the analogy by drawing on research about animal social intelligence. In conclusion, I offer suggestions for how the possibility of animal awareness of the divine might have implications for practical ethics and theodicies and defenses for animal suffering.
