Enduring After God: An Anatheistic Reframing of Augustine on Suicide

Abstract

This paper proposes a retrieval of Augustine's argument on suicide in De Civitate Dei I.17–27, rearticulating its ethical core for a post‐theistic age through the hermeneutic lens of Richard Kearney's anatheism. Confronting the dual reality of persistent suicide and declining religiosity, I argue that Augustine's pastoral case against ending one's life can be translated from a theological framework into an existential wager. The analysis proceeds in three phases: first, examining Augustine's original argument and its limitations; second, outlining Kearney's anatheism; and third, constructing an anatheistic reinterpretation. This retrieval deconstructs Augustine's dogmatic scaffolding while reconstructing his ethical preference for life as a courageous openness to future possibility. The result is a non‐dogmatic rationale for choosing life, rooted in the human capacity to wager on the advent of peace.