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

I continue to be annoyed by the atheistic protestations of the likes of Stephen Pinker...Well, enough of that!Even my atheist/agnostic friends will admire the works of Jimmy Carter, admiringly.If more Christians would follow suit, we would have more Christians -- just like the aroma of a delicious meal attracts the hungry. This is how, in my understanding, we are to Evangelize the world. Not by having people repeat the 4 Spiritual Laws.Not by rigid following of legalistic traditions. While right belief is important, it is insufficient; hence Jesus' comments to the Pharisees, the Parable of The Good Samaritan, as well as His retort to those criticizing the Disciples while gathering wheat: our thoughts AND our actions must be aligned.So it was quite refreshing to find these words -- and I hope by reading them, you'll be encouraged to pick up this wonderful book, so important in these Pandemic times; there is much wisdom here:"Actually, the best answer I’ve heard in the last few weeks has not been to the question ‘Why?’ It’s been to the question, ‘What?’ What can we do? In the UK, the government asked for volunteers to help the National Health Service with all the extra urgent non-specialist tasks. Half a million people signed up almost at once – so many that it was hard to find appropriate tasks for all of them. Retired doctors and nurses have come back into the front line. Some have themselves caught the virus and died.They are doing what the early Christians did in times of plague. In the first few centuries of our era, when serious sickness would strike a town or city, the well-to-do would run for the hills (part of the problem was often low-lying, foetid air in a town). The Christians would stay and nurse people. Sometimes they caught the disease and died. People were astonished. What was that about? Oh, they replied, we are followers of this man Jesus. He put his life on the line to save us. So that’s what we do as well.Nobody had ever thought of doing that kind of thing before. No wonder the Gospel spread. Even when the Romans were doing their best to stamp it out. The fascinating thing is that much of the world has picked up the hint. As the historian Tom Holland has argued in his recent book Dominion, much of what we take for granted in social attitudes now was Christian innovation. The ancient pagans didn’t do it like that. Medicine cost money. So did education. And the poor were poor (so people assumed) because they were lazy or unlucky. It wasn’t society’s job to look after them. The Christians disagreed. They picked up their rule of life from the Jews, via Jesus of course. The Jews had those texts, those scriptures, which kept on circling back to the belief that there was One God who had a special concern for the poor, the sick, the outcast, the slaves. Their thinkers sometimes flirted with bits of Stoicism or Platonism (never Epicureanism – that was a dirty word to them then, and it still is). Yet their communities, by and large, practiced a kind of extended communal family life. The early Jesus-followers got hold of that, but extended it to the increasing, and increasingly diverse, ‘family’ of believers. Then – long story short – the modern world, touchingly, has borrowed bits of it (medicine, education and social care for all), and sometimes thinks it has discovered this for itself, so the ‘religious’ bit can now drop away. Some have argued this enthusiastically, such as the Harvard psychologist Stephen Pinker."Wright, N. T.. God and the Pandemic (pp. 3-4). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

I really like reading N.T. Wright and I try to read anything by him that I can get my hands on. I was a bit hesitant about this one, however. After all, as much as I think Wright is wonderful on theology and history, I sometimes question his political approaches. Would I see more of that in here? Would I see approaches to blame the right or even the left or would I see a drastic push that we must have universal health care now?Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised. There was a bit on universal health care at the end, but not much. If anything, Wright said something I have been saying for some time. Too often, the church has done work in an area, but we have been happy to let the government take it off of our hands. When plague spread through Rome before, it was the Christians who cared for the sick the most. Even the apostate emperor Julian said that Christians were better at caring for the poor and sick than the Roman Empire.Wright also has a problem with people who try to see the hand in God in all of this. “Ah. A pandemic has come. Now people are ready to hear the message of Christianity.” Yes, some might be. Some might be more resistant actually and be willing to blame God for allowing it to happen or think that He directly caused it to happen.In all of this, Wright has the right emphasis. He points us back to Jesus every time. If we are saying that now is the right time, then we are saying that the words of Jesus before were insufficient. Jesus told us what we must do. We are to go out there and do it.In Acts 11, the church hears about a plague coming and immediately, the cry goes up that this is the perfect time to tell people about Jesus. Wait. You didn’t read that in the Bible? That’s right. They instead said “Who is going to be the most affected and what can we do to help them?” It might sound like just something practical, but that is what they did and that is the example left for us in Scripture.Wright’s words are meant to give hope to those who are suffering wondering when it will end, but are also calling everyone else to go out there and be Jesus to the populace. With regard to churches opening up, there are both sides, although he does deal with a silly idea one parishioner has that the devil doesn’t know how to get in a church. He just tells her that as a bishop, he can assure her that the devil certainly does know how.This is really classic Wright throughout the book, but the good thing is hopefully with it being about a pandemic, more people will read it and take it seriously. The church would be far better if more people were familiar with N.T. Wright. I may not agree with him on the political and practical questions surrounding Corona, but I certainly agree with him on the topic of Jesus.In Christ,Nick Peters(And I affirm the virgin birth)Deeperwatersapologetics.com

Quite frankly, I was extremely skeptical about the quick publication of a spate of books by Christian authors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, I found N T Wright's little book surprisingly refreshing (if one can use that term in any respect of this prolonged season). He goes beyond cliched religious reactions, presenting instead a thoughtful, sensitive and careful response. His inclusion of lament and avoidance of facile answers - his willingness to leave open and unanswered questions open and unanswered - were unexpected. I was able to read the book as offering welcome contributions to sane conversation on this current situation, as well as on significant questions of faith in the midst suffering in a broader scope.

It's a heavily confessional book which if you're into it then it'll be a good challenge. If you've really wanted to know how to rebound from the world shutting down and move your church or life forward in a practical way, there are better options to read.Funny Review: Basically, if you're North American (He tends to speak badly about "Westerners"), see God as all-powerful/all-knowing, or want a practical answer to hard questions, stay as far away from this book as shut-ins avoid grass. If you're looking for an 80 page, one way blog post, slighty misquoted Scripture, conspiracy theories, insults at the U.S., or maybe just a glutton for punishment, then this would be a great read!Fancy Review: The biggest point of concern for some readers is that N.T. Wright for the past few years seems to have an issue with God's omniscience and omnipotence. There's a subtle argument that he makes as it seems God had no conceivable idea that the pandemic could've ever happened and is probably giving a virus a little too much credit against the Ultimate Power in terms of who has the advantage on Earth.

My parish priest is doing a fine job of keeping our community going with Zoomed Sunday Masses and Wednesday Noon-day prayers, without any publishing. I hope that all the proceeds from this timely volume are given to corporeal and spiritual works of charity. Where would we have been without such a book during the period so well illustrated in Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal." Stephen H. Ford

I am sorry. I love N.T. Wright. But this just seems like an opportunity to capitalize on the current situation to make money but I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps it should be put on Zondervan. I was expecting a more substantial book for 14.99 CAD. I am really disappointed in N.T. for putting this out there for such a high cost for something that is more like a pamphlet or a long blog article.

This is a worthwhile read to help us view the Corona Virus Pandemic through a Christ shaped lense. As Christians we are called to be “Christ” to the world. Thank you N T Wright for sharing with us.