The Role Of Suicide In Christianity

Suicide is also part of our Gospel heritage. It is clear that Judas killed himself after betraying Jesus. Like Old Testament, New Testament writers condemned Judas for betraying Jesus, but say nothing about his suicide. Early Christian’s attitudes towards suicide are hard to evaluate. Some scholars suggest that Christianity’s ambivalence about suicide rests in the central images of crucifixion; Scripture affirms that Jesus chose the way of the cross. He willing walked into a situation that he knew would kill him. No matter what the expected outcome, this image provides a symbol of heroic choice of self-death on behalf of others. In the fourth century, suicide was formally opposed by the church doctrine as a pastoral concern. Responding to an incident of group suicide by women anticipating rape, Augustine declared that, while Scripture did not prohibit suicide, neither did it make it lawful. To stop martyr suicides, he declared that the commandment against killing applied also to killing one’s self.

People often take a screenshot of their lives good or bad and began to judge themselves based on their own understanding. We need to start asking non threatening questions about anxiety or depressive symptoms and dismiss the myth that asking about suicidal thoughts suggests suicide to the …show more content…
This family member made a regular phone call like any other call one day and in the conversation she told me this was going to be our last time talking. My response back then was, “don’t say that”. Her response was I am going to die. I really did not believe she would end her own life. Most of all I did not know what was disturbing her to the point she felt that ending her own life was the best answer to her problem. Over time I found out a lot of the problem stemmed around marital