ABOUT THE EVENT

Ranana L. Dine PhD

“Surely Bury: Jewish and Catholic Law, Responding to Suicide, and the Work of Catholic-Jewish Studies”

When it comes to tricky questions of ethics and law, Jewish and Catholic traditions at times converge, and at times develop distinct approaches. In the history of Jewish and Catholic responses to suicide both patterns emerge. Both Judaism and Catholicism historically denied religious burial and funeral rites to those who had committed suicide on theological grounds. As modern conceptions of mental illness and pastoral care developed however, both moved towards holding more compassionate responses to suicide, including allowing religious burial. The ways each tradition changed its legal practice surrounding suicide reveals differences in Jewish and Catholic legal method, and open the door to potentially contrasting responses to the legalization of physician-aid-in-dying (currently being debated in the Illinois State Senate). The comparison between Jewish and Catholic law regarding burial after suicide can help us think through the larger work and methods of Catholic-Jewish studies. Thus the talk will conclude with a discussion of how the study of Judaism, and particularly deep ethical issues within it, can illuminate developments in Catholic studies (and vice versa) and how that work will inspire the future program for the Catholic-Jewish studies program at Catholic Theological Union.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Ranana Dine
Assistant Professor of Catholic-Jewish Studies
Crown-Ryan Chair in Jewish Studies
Director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program

Joined the CTU faculty in 2025 after finishing her PhD at the University of Chicago Divinity School in religious ethics. Prior to enrolling in the PhD at the University of Chicago, she studied religion and art at Williams College and completed two master’s degrees in Christian theology and medical humanities respectively at the University of Cambridge. She also has experience in clinical ethics from the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. Originally from the Washington DC area, Ranana attended local Jewish day schools and has studied Jewish texts and Hebrew language at the Drisha Institute, Hadar Institute, and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Her research interests include modern Jewish thought and ethics, Jewish feminist thought, bioethics, and religion and visual culture.