"God and the Pandemic" (N. T. Wright)

TITLE: God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath
AUTHOR: N. T. Wright
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020, (96 pages).

The year 2020 will be best remembered as the year of the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the earliest books reflecting on a Christian response is John Piper's "Coronavirus and Christ." In that book, Piper offers six answers; that we should remember God is still at work; that he rules; that we ought to repent while we can; and that we should not lose hope. Our hope is not in odds or in healing but in Christ alone. However, as a reader, I sense that book seems to be written in a hurry to be published at the start of a worldwide lockdown earlier this year. 

Instead of asking why, author and theologian NT Wright helps us deal with the question of what we could do. Like how Christ put his own life on the line for us, we ought to find ways to help one another as much as we could. Wright puts it very well that we ought not to be stoics just to fit into the system. Neither should we be like Epicureans who just accept the random things in life and just enjoy whatever we have left. He also cautions us against taking the platonic lifestyle that seems to elevate the afterlife over and above our present world. Worse, some people would even jump to conclusions to play the blame game. The two superpowers are famously at each other's throats with regard to assigning blame regarding the virus origins. Some would even claim the pandemic as the Armageddon. This book is to offer a Christian alternative to such philosophies that many of us practice unwittingly. Like any good biblical scholar, Wright begins with the Word of God. 

From the Old Testament, there are lots of prophetic statements with regard to a cause-and-effect explanation of disasters and pandemics. In Exodus, the Egyptians were punished because of their open defiance of God. In Amos, the Israelites suffered because they repeatedly failed to return to the LORD in repentance. It is thus easy to jump to conclusions about a similar explanation for our modern situation. Wright reminds us that both action and inaction have consequences. While the Bible has instances of retributive justice, not all circumstances occur in the same context. There are mysteries yet to be revealed, such as the suffering of Job. In fact, Wright points out that the book of Job does not even have a "resolution." Being able to deal with unresolved questions brings us to the place of lament. It calls for patient waiting and optimism that things will one day get better. Quickly, Wright moves on the the Person of Christ, in whom many Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled. 

From the gospels, we read about Jesus addressing some of the questions surrounding disasters in Luke 13:1-9; the sign of Jonah; and the reasons why the man was born blind (John 9). We are urged to look beyond the surface of physical tragedies to deal with a deeper "anti-kingdom forces" at work. Wright is showing us the way in terms of Christian living. We should not be paralyzed into inaction because we don't understand the reasons for the pandemic. Instead, we should do our best to do something positive in the light of much negativity. During the first century, Jesus was constantly pointing people to a future in him. How do we interpret the signs? Wright challenges us to learn to adopt a discerning attitude to ponder upon the words of Jesus and to trust that in due time, we will know the answers that we need to know.

From the New Testament, Wright skillfully weaves together the lessons from the whole Bible, to identify patterns then and how they could inform or shape our present responses to the pandemic. Three questions form the gist of the non-knee jerk reactions. 

• Who is going to be at special risk when this happens? 
• What can we do to help? 
• And who shall we send?

Wright then goes on to spell out our need to lament; how we can talk about God; how then do we live; and how we could recover from our present malaise.

My Thoughts

Wright is absolutely spot on when he cautions us from adopting quick-fix knee-jerk reactions to the current pandemic. In fact, it is not just the pandemic but the nature of human beings to react to problems by asking the why question. Whether earthquakes or tsunamis, floods or wildfires, or human problems like massacre, shootings, tragedies, etc, the question of why will almost almost pop up. When that happens, instead of conserving our resources toward constructive rebuilding, we play the blame game. Some might even blame God. Such thinking triggers all kinds of irrational conclusions which are either over-simplistic or fail to recognize the nature of mysteries. For every question that poses the why, there is a corresponding reaction that says "What if it is not?" Superficial binary answers will fail to accommodate the multiple perspectives in between because of the differences of contexts. I am glad that the author begins with the cautionary note for us not to jump to quick answers but to appreciate the questions.

We need to learn the art of waiting and to lament while we are still in the midst of the pandemic. So what if we know the answers to the why question? That does not solve our present crisis and need for a vaccine. Perhaps there are positive lessons that we could learn. The pandemic could be an opportunity for us to bring about a positive change in mindset. For instance, we are observing better hygienic habits and community awareness through social distancing. We learn to better appreciate our normal activities of the past like global travel, going to the office, interacting with people in public, going out to a restaurant, enjoying singing in church, and so on. Many of these things are taken for granted, until the pandemic hits. I would say that many people are longing to go back to the "normal days." Unfortunately, we might not see that for a while. We might have to bear with a new normal, whatever that normal is. 

I appreciate Wright's cautiously optimistic approach not to give quick-fix answers but to show us practical ways in which we can think about God, about the pandemic, and what we could do during this time. When we distance ourselves from any sort of theodicy or over-analysis, we would be better placed to see the bigger picture of what it means to live better as a community. 

Nicholas Thomas Wright is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and was formerly Bishop of Durham in England. His books include How God Became King, Simply Christian, Surprised by Hope, Jesus and the Victory of God, and Paul and the Faithfulness of God, as well as the New Testament for Everyone commentary series & Bible translation.

Rating: 4.5 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of Zondervan and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.