Immortal Animal Souls: Joseph Hamilton’s Animal Futurity 1877 Together With the Debate Among Karkeek,spooner, and Manthorp on “The Future Existence of …

Whether animals possessed immortal souls was a controversial topic in the nineteenth century. Answers to the question constituted an important manner of addressing the status of animals. While relatively little was written on the theme, the issue was a common topic of conversation, as it had also been in the prior centuries. The contributions to the subject presented in this volume were among the most significant of the Victorian era, coming from members of the newly established veterinary profession and from an author with a general interest in theological questions. These essays demonstrate Victorian patterns of thought on the human-animal relationship and help modern scholars understand the complexities of the contemporary approach to the status of animals. In addition to the essays, the editor provides a substantial introduction and detailed annotation which allow the modern scholar to both place Victorian ideas on this topic in the context of the thought of prior and later centuries, and also to understand the context of Victorian society in which these matters were addressed.