''Biathanatos'' (from Greek meaning "violent death") is a work by the English writer and clergyman
John Donne
John Donne ( ; 1571 or 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a clergy, cleric in the Church of England. Under Royal Patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's, D ...
. Written in 1608 and published after his death,
[.] it contains a
heterodox
In religion, heterodoxy (from Ancient Greek: , + , ) means "any opinions or doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position".
''Heterodoxy'' is also an ecclesiastical jargon term, defined in various ways by different religions and ...
defense of "self-homicide" (
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death.
Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
), listing prominent Biblical examples including
Jesus
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
,
Samson
SAMSON (Software for Adaptive Modeling and Simulation Of Nanosystems) is a computer software platform for molecular design being developed bOneAngstromand previously by the NANO-D group at the French Institute for Research in Computer Science an ...
,
Saul
Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late eleventh c ...
, and
Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot (; ; died AD) was, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane, in exchange for thirty pieces of sil ...
.
Thomas De Quincey
Thomas Penson De Quincey (; Thomas Penson Quincey; 15 August 17858 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' (1821).Eaton, Horace Ainsworth, ''Thomas De Q ...
responds to the work in his "On Suicide", and
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...
responds in "''Biathanatos''".
Background
During their sixteen years of marriage Donne's wife Anne More gave birth to 12 children, out of which three died before the age of ten. Donne wrote ''Biathanatos'' in a state of despair that almost drove him to kill himself. He noted that the death of a child would mean one mouth fewer to feed, but he could not afford the burial expenses. During this time, Donne wrote but did not publish ''Biathanatos'', his defence of suicide.
Contents
Donne begins by addressing his patron, Phillip Harbert, then divides the book, after a preface, into three parts, each part divided into distinctions, each distinction divided into sections. The first part focuses on "The Law of Nature", the second on "The Law of Reason", and the third on "The Law of God", before ending with a conclusion.
Sources
Modern Edition
* .
{{nonfiction-book-stub
Prose works by John Donne
1608 books
Books about suicide