'It was simply the end of what I could bear': Resetting Christian Theology on Mental Illness and Suicide

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Elizabeth Antus
艾可直播 College

Date: February 21, 2019
Location: Boisi Center, 24 Quincy Road

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Abstract

Of her bipolar disorder and her suicide attempt, the U.S. psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison recalls in聽Night Falls Fast, 鈥淚 had tried earlier to kill myself鈥t was simply the end of what I could bear." The one million people who die by suicide annually 鈥攎any of whom probably have a diagnosable mental illness 鈥 can likely relate to this psychic fatigue.聽However, there is relatively little Christian theological discussion of this vast public health problem, and traditional Christian views of suicide simply condemn it without fully recognizing the psychological agony of suicidal people. As Antus will discuss in her presentation, Christian theologians need to engage with psychological analyses of the experience of suicidality so that they can de-stigmatize suicidal people without normalizing suicide. Furthermore, Christians need to expand their belief in the communion of saints and remembering the dead to include, explicitly, those who have died by suicide.聽Resetting Christian theology in this manner enables Christians to discuss mental illness and suicide robustly and compassionately.聽

Elizabeth Antus

Elizabeth Antus聽is an assistant professor of the practice in the theology department at 艾可直播 College. She is a Catholic systematic theologian writing about theological anthropology in relation to the topics of mental health, feminism, sexual violence, and disability. Among other projects, she is currently working on a book promoting a constructive Christian theological account of proper self-love entitled聽Steady My Soul: An Augustinian Feminist Account of Self-Love.

Event Photos

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Elizabeth Antus, assistant professor of the practice of theology at 艾可直播 College, presented on Christian theology and suicide during a February 21, 2019 luncheon colloquium at the Boisi Center.

Elizabeth Antus
Elizabeth Antus

Photos by MTS Photography

Event Recap

Suicide鈥檚 relationship to mental illness has long been recognized by the general psychiatric community. Treating suicide as an effect of mental illness goes a long way toward approaching it less as a personal choice and more as an extension of an illness -- a tragic symptom rather than a social sin. This approach, Elizabeth Antus claims, is a way forward for Catholic moral theology, where suicide has long been seen in terms of personal and social wrongdoing rather than as the unfortunate result of deep physical, mental, and spiritual suffering. In her February 21st luncheon colloquium, Antus, a professor of the practice of theology at 艾可直播 College, suggested ways that Catholic doctrine be reoriented to destigmatize those who die by suicide without forgetting the damage that suicide does to self, community, and society. Even if the aim of current Catholic teaching on suicide is well intended, namely, to prevent suicide and emphasize its painful and wide-ranging effects on those left behind, the focus on a person鈥檚 actions rather than on the social and psychological reasons for those actions threatens to dehumanize and unjustly condemn suicide victims. In her remarks, Antus advocated creating a space to grieve and remember well those who have died by suicide. This both recognizes the tragedy of the event while raising up and remembering those who have passed. Antus used the German Catholic theologian Johann Baptist Metz to support her argument, saying that, for Metz, theology must be conducted in the midst of theodicy. The question of suffering is omnipresent and cannot be answered, only recognized. This mindset makes rightly remembering the dead essential: recognizing suffering and believing in the saving truth of God means hoping that no one is lost to God because of worldly suffering and the stain of sin. As Antus put it, we must hope that 鈥渆ven suicide decedents are in the communion of saints.鈥 If Catholic theology seeks to engage the issue of suicide more pastorally and with greater mercy, it must begin to see suicide as 鈥渟imply the end of what I could bear,鈥 a line taken from Kay Redfield Jamison鈥檚聽Night Falls Fast. 鈥淚s it a sin to buckle?鈥 Antus asked. If there simply is no more strength left to hold oneself upright, how can we condemn someone for faltering? Taking this compassionate approach is the first step toward reorienting Catholic teaching on suicide, Antus maintained. A lively question and answer session followed her presentation, which touched on the ways universities fail to offer adequate mental health counseling to students and how to teach about suicide in the Catholic moral theological tradition, among others.

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BOOKS

Ashley, Benedict M., Jean DeBlois, and Kevin D. ORourke.聽Health Care Ethics: A Catholic Theological Analysis. 5th ed. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2006.

Jamison, Kay Redfield.聽Night Falls Fast. New York: Vintage, 2000.

ARTICLES

Antus, Elizabeth L. "Disability at the Heart of Theology: On Marginality, Method, and Overcoming 'Best-Case Anthropologies.'聽Journal of Religion, Disability & Health聽17, no. 4 (July 2013): 244-262.聽

Wesselmann, Eric D. and William G. Graziano. 鈥淪inful and/or Possessed? Religious Beliefs and Mental Illness Stigma.鈥澛Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology聽29, no. 4 (2010): 402-437.聽

Kennedy, Thomas D. 鈥."听Christianity Today.聽July 1, 2000.

Koch, H. J. 鈥淪uicides and Suicide Ideation in the Bible: An Empirical Study.鈥澛Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica聽112, no. 3 (September 2005): 167-172.聽

Lee, Rhonda Mawhood. 鈥溾,听National Catholic Register.聽June 14, 2018.

Pillion, Thomas, Robin Reed, and Brian Shetiman. "Mental Illness Recognition and Referral by Catholic Priests in North Carolina."听Psychiatric Services聽63, no. 5 (2012): 510-11.聽

Webb, Marcia. "Toward a Theology of Mental Illness."听Journal of Religion, Disability & Health聽16, no. 1 (2012): 49-73.聽

In the News

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