 |
||
 |
 |
| |
||
| |
|
The Christian Church's condemnation of suicide stems largely from the teaching of two theologians, St. Augustine of Hippo(1) and St. Thomas Aquinas(2). Both of these theologians base their reasoning principally on the works of three pagan Greek philosophers, Aristotle,(3) Socrates, and Plato (Aquinas in particular seems to hold Aristotle in an almost sacrilegious adoration, referring to him as "The Philosopher."(4)
Augustine and Aquinas make brief, weak attempts to stretch the Sixth Commandment (properly translated from the Hebrew as: "Thou shalt not commit murder"(5)) to cover suicide, but for the most part rely on two principles:
Both also offer the oft-cited claim that suicide somehow violates God's exclusive prerogative to decide the duration of one's life. Enlightenment philosophers Jean Jacques Rousseau and David Hume(7) effectively disposed of these arguments, pointing out that, carried to their logical conclusions, they would *obligate* suicide, when it was to the community's benefit, and would prohibit any medical treatment as also interfering with God-willed lifespans.
Aquinas goes on to argue that an obligation of charity and love for oneself precludes suicide. Aside from beginning from an unsupported premise that all suicides stem from self-hatred, Aquinas is inconsistent in this argument: when circumstances are such that the loving and charitable act might be self-deliverance, Aquinas abandons these virtues for the virtue of "fortitude."
Finally, both Augustine and Aquinas deal with the uncomfortable facts that the Bible *does* present the suicide of Samson as the act of a saint, and that the Church has from its earliest days honored as saints certain Christians who, faced with persecution, committed suicide, with an outrageous act of intellectual dishonesty: without any Scriptural support whatsoever, they assert that God must have "secretly commanded" these suicides, and no others.
The first comprehensive Christian-era legal code was the Code of Justinian. This codex, drafted about a century after St. Augustine, did not punish suicide, if the person had a good reason for killing himself; good reasons cited include, "impatience of pain or sickness, or by another cause, weariness of life... lunacy or fear of dishonor." In short, every reason except no reason at all, and that was punished only on the grounds that it was irrational: "whoever does not spare himself will not spare another."(8) Suicide did not become a crime under English Common Law until the 10th Century, in the appropriately-named Dark Ages. England was the last European nation to decriminalize suicide, in 1961, upon the advice of a committee established by the Archbishop of Canterbury, ecclesiastical head of the Church of England.
OLD TESTAMENT SUICIDES:
Abimelech (Judges 9:54), dying of a skull fracture during a siege, ordered his armor-bearer to slay him, to avoid the ignominy of having been seen to have been killed by a woman (she threw a millstone at him).
Samson (Judges 16:26-31) killed himself to avoid being "made sport of" by the Philistines, after his capture and haircut, taking his tormentors with him. Samson's act of Faith earned him a place among the saints (Hebrews, 11:32).
Saul (1 Samuel 31: 3-6), wounded and defeated in battle with the Philistines, asked his armor-bearer to kill him. When the aide was afraid to do it, Saul fell on his own sword. The armor-bearer then did likewise.
Achitopel (or Ahitophel, var. spellings) (2 Samuel 17:1, 23), plotted to overthrow David. When his plan failed, he put his household in order and hanged himself. It is interesting to note that the account specifies that he was buried in his father's sepulchre, as opposed to the Christian Church's long history of refusing burial in hallowed ground to suicides.
Zimri (1 Kings 16:18) usurped the throne of Israel; when he failed, he burned down the palace around himself.
NEW TESTAMENT SUICIDES:
Jesus of Nazareth (all four Gospels) chose to aggravate the authorities into crucifying him. Jesus was explicit in stating that his life was not being taken but that he was voluntarily choosing death: "No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself." (John 10:18) Religious fundamentalists may insist that this doesn't amount to suicide, but St. Augustine's tract opposing suicide was aimed at declaring the Donatist sect (and other martyrdom-seeking sects) heretical, because the were in the habit of goading magistrates, Pagan temple priests and other authorities into executing them, secure in the knowledge that they would go to Heaven.
Judas Iscariot (Matthew 27:4-5) hung himself after betraying Jesus. Presented as an appropriate act of contrition, generally (how would the Gospels look if they said, "And then Judas retired to the Mediterranean resort city of Caesarea and lived to a comfortable old age"?)
The Jailer at Philippi (Acts 16:26-29), under the mistaken impression that all his prisoners had escaped during an earthquake, figured his career and life were in jeopardy and prepared to fall on his sword. Paul stopped him, not arguing that suicide was wrong, but merely that the jailer was acting under a misapprehension.
-hermotimus
Last update: Sunday, May 09, 1999 10:55
| |
|