God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath

by N. T. Wright

Paperback, 2020

Status

Available

Call number

231.8

Publication

Zondervan (2020), 96 pages

Original publication date

2020-05

Description

Discover a different way of seeing and responding to the Coronavirus pandemic, an approach drawing on Scripture, Christian history, and the way of living, thinking, and praying revealed to us by Jesus. What are we supposed to think about the Coronavirus crisis? Some people think they know: "This is a sign of the End," they say. "It's all predicted in the book of Revelation." Others disagree but are equally clear: "This is a call to repent. God is judging the world and through this disease he's telling us to change." Some join in the chorus of blame and condemnation: "It's the fault of the Chinese, the government, the World Health Organization..." N. T. Wright examines these reactions to the virus and finds them wanting. Instead, he shows that a careful reading of the Bible and Christian history offers simple though profound answers to our many questions, including : What should be the Christian response? How should we think about God? How do we live in the present? Why should we lament? What should we learn about ourselves? How do we recover? Written by one of the world's foremost New Testament scholars, God and the Pandemic will serve as your guide to read the events of today through the light of Jesus' death and resurrection.… (more)

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

96 p.; 8.38 inches

ISBN

0310120802 / 9780310120803

User reviews

LibraryThing member Bill.Bradford
This short book deftly tackles the larger problem of suffering and evil. Wright uses themes from his other writings to formulate a response, specifically to the current pandemic.

Wright briefly takes us through the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the remainder of the New Testament to help us
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formulate our response. He then explains what this means in practical terms. He spends several pages in Romans chapter 8, and this was one of my favorite sections of the book.

To summarize, God certainly has the power to create a pandemic. However, given the Biblical story, we are not understanding that story when we try to explain the current pandemic. God has already called all men to repent, He does not need a pandemic as a reminder. We misread the Bible if we think that God sends natural disasters as punishment. And, honestly, most American evangelicals probably lean towards one of these explanations. Looking at Romans 8, Wright believes that our response is lament, and in lamenting we are called to positive action. God's purpose has always been to work with us to heal creation (one of the ways that we are image bearers).

Wright offers a much more robust picture of a Christian response than is frequently heard. To paraphrase Wright and add my own thought, a petty God who sends calamities is no better than the ancient Greek and Roman gods, and is not worthy of our worship. We should not be surprised that this god has little appeal to others.
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LibraryThing member deusvitae
A short but powerful and engaging exploration into the Scriptures regarding what the COVID-19 pandemic ought to mean for Christians.

Most books of this type suffer from the tyranny of the present: they come out in response to a given situation, and many of them do not age well. I am glad to say that
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this work of Wright's is not among them.

He begins by establishing the lay of the land: we have this global pandemic, and we see a range of responses in society and among Christians. He speaks about the various philosophical inclinations of modern man and their response to the pandemic. Many are confident it is some kind of judgment on society or the church, or part of a conspiracy, but as Wright well notes, the "answer" seems to be the same answer which the person was advocating for beforehand. All kinds of passages and ideas are brought up about what the pandemic "must mean."

And so Wright systematically explores the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the rest of the New Testament in light of what we are experiencing during the pandemic. He well demonstrates how events like these are considered part of "normal" existence, and need not mean a specific kind of judgment from God. He shows well from the Old Testament the power of lament in difficult situations, deeply informed by the psalms (for Wright theological fans, all the old hits are here - the psalms, robust resurrection themes, Romans 8 and the corruption of the creation, Kingdom values). He shows how the Gospels portray Jesus as recognizing the plagues and challenges of the world that is, but how He in Himself points the way to a better way - the Kingdom of God, and the pursuit of the purposes of that Kingdom should always be a thing, not just in a pandemic. Jesus is Lord now; His people must follow His way of the cross now. He then goes through the New Testament and sees a community of people who provide mutual help and aid, to love and to serve, all in light of the hope of the changed world imagined in the resurrection. His exegesis of Romans 8:28 is fascinating, diverging even from his own Kingdom translation - exploring whether Paul's point is more that God works with/in/through us to do the good, very much consistent with Ephesians 3:14-21 and other passages.

To this end he addresses what Christians should do, and what he says sounds apropos in almost any disaster or time of distress: lament, repent, be active in advancing God's purposes in prayer and humility, to encourage the powers that be to be prepared and to function well, and in the pandemic itself, to show love to one another - he uses the oft-cited quote from Luther when he was in the midst of an outbreak of plague to encourage people to serve as they can but to not cause greater harm by becoming a vector. Both sides of his point regarding churches and assemblies are important: the importance of not maintaining a vector, but the danger to society in creating the idea that religion is a mere private affair and sacred space is optional. His conclusion in regards to what should be done in recovery is also well considered, to strive to establish more justice and righteousness in the land, and to avoid the temptation to just "return to what it was" and to miss the opportunity for growth and fresh and creative ways forward.

The only disappointment I register is that Wright could have spent some time with the idea of such events as apocalypses for those who endure them - apocalypse as an unveiling, the exposure of what is in the minds and hearts of people, when in anxiety and fear people show aspects of themselves they would rather not have exposed. This is a major theme in judgments throughout Scripture, and even if it remains true that we need to be careful about seeing COVID-19 as a specific kind of judgment, the crisis has certainly exposed a lot of things about people, governments, and systems, and we need to take that to heart.

Nevertheless, a great resource for consideration in the days of COVID-19, but also relevant in any moment of distress.

**--galley received as part of early review program
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LibraryThing member SABC
This presents a Christian reflection on the coronavirus and its aftermath. "What are we supposed to think about the coronavirus crisis?"
LibraryThing member 2wonderY
Valuable theological discussion of our role in bringing about the kingdom here on this world.
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