self among crimes.937 Following Foucault, there is therefore some ground for placing the emerging of also this idea close to the Enlightenment. Certainly they often to a large extent do. These crimes were the results of various and often mingled motives, of which we should not forget the pure hopelessness of many perpetrators. Anyhow, all explanations that have been mentioned and also others were probably more or less involved in many of the crimes. All four major lines of explanation cited have much of their roots in the Enlightenment period and its ideas and understanding of the world.938 Positions and ideas encountered in sources are understood and implicitly valued in the light of this paradigm. Could the research of today find some interpretation that come from other roots or even are new? One of the explanations, the idea that these murders regardless of the specific motives in the individual case should be linked to suicide and even be seen as a form of suicide, is however special as it is so divisive and even provocative. For many finding a way to be executed was a certain way not to commit suicide, which was out of the question as it probably led directly to hell. What we encounter here are clashes between two ways of seeing the world: a more orthodox Christian theology and a philosophy and theology deeply influenced by the Enlightenment and with roots in Roman antiquity – Jerusalem versus Rome. The idea of ’suicidal murder’ is problematic because it is alien, unnecessarily alien, for many upon which it has been applied. It comes from another tradition and does not quite fit on those living in any spirituality reaching for a transcendent reality, such as orthodox or pietistic. This conflict in reality mostly concerns the result of ideas received, probably often without closer reflection, to the research Do the explanations explain? the explanations of the acts 937 Foucault 2003 p 113 sqq, Foucault 2012 p 14 sq. 938 See Ballinger 2000 p 61: ”Moodern humanistic thinking is deeply rooted in the Enlightenment discourses of reason, rationality, progress, science and individualism which has created a conception of individuals as rational agents in control of their own destiny who formulate their own meanings and values within society.” 262
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