St. Augustine Speaks to the Suicide of a Civilization

Americans are killing themselves in record numbers. According to a study published in August by the Kaiser Family Foundation, between 2011 and 2022, more than half a million lives were lost to suicide, with 2022 showing the highest number of deaths on record, an increase of 16%. A November report from the CDC found that the rate of suicides involving guns has reached the highest level since officials began tracking it more than 50 years ago. According to that same report, youth suicide during the past two decades has risen 62%. ...This being the case, how a people understands suicide would seem to serve as a window into the essential character of a society and its relative health. That, at least, would be the opinion of the North African theologian and philosopher Augustine in his epochal book The City of God. Fifteen chapters into the first book of this tome touching on theology, politics, and ethics, Augustine presents an extended treatise on the diverging opinions between Romans and Christians on suicide, and what that signifies about competing visions of human flourishing.