Death in Theological Reflection
In this paper, I shall criticize three mistaken views of death. Proponents of euthanasia are likely to employ these views in their propaganda, and Christians, misled by them, are likely to be impeded from safeguarding life. These mistaken views are of concern to theology inasmuch as they claim a basis in faith and/or seem to some Christians to pertain to faith. But I shall show that all of these views are incompatible with truths of Catholic faith. I shall not deal here with the implications of theological mistakes about death for matters other than euthanasia, such as the pastoral care of the dying and the bereaved. Nor shall I deal with all the implications of a sound Christian conception of death for example, the need to face up to the prospect of death, to prepare oneself realistically, and to accept death with confident hope when it cannot be rightly avoided or reasonably resisted. Nor shall I take up theological arguments for euthanasia whose unsoundness involves no mistake about death or compassion. 1 Though I shall discuss the views of some theologians, I shall not make a survey of the many theologies of death proposed by recent and contemporary theologians. Nor shall I deal with mistakes about death that have no theological basis for example, the materialist view which, denying that