originally published 2/1/1999

In this interview from Volume 36, Dr. Darrel Amundsen, author of A Different Death: Euthanasia and Church Tradition, discusses his research into the history of how the early Church viewed suicide. He counters the modern myth, based on sociologist Émile Durkheim’s expansive definition of suicide, that the early Church up until St. Augustine was accepting and even favorable of suicide. Durkheim’s definition avoids all questions of motivation and desire for death and includes even Christian martyrs who acquiesced to death rather than forsake Christ. 

12 minutes

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