The City of God · Chapter
Of suicide committed through fear of punishment or dishonour explained
Augustine argues that suicide is a form of homicide and is never justified, even to avoid dishonor or punishment.
What happens
Augustine argues that suicide is a form of homicide and is never justified, even to avoid dishonor or punishment. He uses the example of Judas to show that self-killing adds another sin rather than expiating guilt, and insists that the innocent must not commit a sin against themselves to escape another's crime.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This chapter is the dramatic climax because it marks the irreversible psychological and spiritual turning poin…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Sin, Grace, and Redemption
Augustine emphasizes that suicide is a sin that precludes repentance, contrasting with the possibility of divine mercy for other sins.
- Morality and Virtue vs. Pagan Corruption
The chapter condemns the pagan valorization of suicide as noble, arguing instead that self-killing is a moral crime.
Characters to notice
- Augustine
Author and primary voice arguing against the justification of suicide.
- Jesus Christ
Referenced as 'truth itself' in the condemnation of Judas's suicide.
- Judah
Mentioned as Judas, who hanged himself and thereby aggravated his betrayal of Christ.
Key passages
“For if it is not lawful to take the law into our own hands, and slay even a guilty person, whose death no public sentence has warranted, then certainly he who kills himself is a homicide, and so much the guiltier of his own death, as he was more innocent of that offence for which he doomed himself to die.”
Since no private individual may execute even a criminal without legal authority, a suicide is a murderer of himself, and his guilt is greater the more innocent he is of the crime he sought to escape.
Augustine's core argument that suicide is a form of unjustified homicide.
“Do we justly execrate the deed of Judas, and does truth itself pronounce that by hanging himself he rather aggravated than expiated the guilt of that most iniquitous betrayal, since, by despairing of God’s mercy in his sorrow that wrought death, he left to himself no place for a healing penitence?”
We rightly condemn Judas's suicide because it compounded his betrayal with despair, cutting off any chance for repentance and mercy.
Augustine uses Judas as a biblical example that suicide worsens sin rather than atoning for it.
