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Article

Open Access

Culture of Life and Culture of Death. Theological Reflection on Suicide and Euthanasia on Films

Author(s)

Bruno Petrušić

Full-Text PDF Download XML 974 Views

DOI:10.17265/2159-5526/2016.08.003

Affiliation(s)

University of Split, Split, Croatia

ABSTRACT

Movies have great power to shape the system of values in contemporary culture. In this paper, we deal with theological reflection of suicide and euthanasia and their presentation as free decisions of individuals shown in the movies Seven Pounds and The Sea Inside. Also, we shall present theological reflection on culture of life and culture of death aimed to find common ground for dialogue between two opposed points of view. In the first, introductory part, we will present two views of human freedom, and we will point out that just a theological speech about freedom includes the category of responsibility. On the other hand, what happens often is neglecting categories of resposibility and absolutisation or marginalization of free will. Then we will, as an introduction to the interpretation of films, present global statistics that justify global concerns when it comes to suicide and euthanasia. Next, we will show in central part the concept of quality of life, and we will interpret it through the two mentioned films. In the last section, we conclude, despite opposition between culture of life and death, to offer category of altruism as a starting point for dialogue between the two cultures.

KEYWORDS

Culture of death, culture of life, freedom

Cite this paper

Sociology Study, August 2016, Vol. 6, No. 8, 508-515

References

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