World Christianity and Covid-19: Looking Back and Looking Forward 303112569X, 9783031125690

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World Christianity and Covid-19 Looking Back and Looking Forward Edited by Chammah J. Kaunda

World Christianity and Covid-19

Chammah J. Kaunda Editor

World Christianity and Covid-19 Looking Back and Looking Forward

Editor Chammah J. Kaunda Yonsei University Seoul, Republic of Korea University of the Western Cape Cape Town, South Africa

ISBN 978-3-031-12569-0    ISBN 978-3-031-12570-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the ­publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and ­institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

This volume is dedicated to the memory of millions of people worldwide who have lost their lives, jobs, source of revenue, ability to feed their families, been raped, and to all George Floyd’s “I can’t breathe”.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Palgrave Macmillan and Amy Invernizzi, commissioning editor for philosophy & religion, and for their help in bringing this book to fruition. My profound gratitude to Atola LongKumer, Kenneth R. Ross, and Esther Moraa Mombo for working with me on the Routledge volume on Christianity and COVID-19. They also gave some initial critical perspectives on the issues discussed in this volume. My deepest gratitude goes to the contributors who waited patiently for over two years before the book could be published. I have also gained considerably from my encounters with students in the Global Institute of Theology, Yonsei University, South Korea, and their global-oriented thinking conveys my boundless appreciation for their intellectual gifts.

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Contents

1 Introduction:  “See, Choose, Act”  1 Chammah J. Kaunda Part I Faith Trouble  17 2 A  Test Case for the Theodicy Problem 19 Ernst M. Conradie 3 Lament  in the City 35 Geomon K. George, Reji George, Sarah Gerth van den Berg, Mark R. Gornik, Adebisi Oyesile, and Afia Sun Kim 4 Faith  in the International Order 47 Kenneth R. Ross 5 Punisher,  Healer, or Sufferer? 61 Hanna Kang 6 Disaster Socialism 77 Sheryl Johnson

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Part II Unveiling and Naming Distortions  91 7 Weaponization of Faith 93 Breana van Velzen 8 Anti-black Racism107 Xavier L. Johnson 9 Anthropocentric  and White Supremacist Notions of God121 Philip Woods 10 Lockdown  and Sexual Exploitation133 Fulata Lusungu Mbano Moyo 11 Online Sexualization151 Lizette G. Tapia-Raquel Part III New Eyes for Rereading the Bible 163 12 A  Reflection on Psalm 88165 Kojo Okyere 13 Expression of Korean Han177 Hyun Hee Deborah Park 14 Ghanaian Prosperity Preaching193 George Ossom-Batsa and Nicoletta Gatti 15 Malawian Christian Suffering207 Mzee Hermann Yokoniah Mvula 16 Epidemics  and Major Disasters219 Simon Kossi Dossou

 Contents 

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Part IV (Un)Rethinking Traditions 233 17 Zambian  Pentecostalism and Traditional Healing235 Chammah J. Kaunda 18 Kerala Pentecostalism and Mental Health Crisis257 Allan Varghese Meloottu 19 Marian  Pentecostalism and Environmentalism271 Sanna Pauliina Urvas 20 Death  Rituals in Western Kenya285 Esther Moraa Mombo and Aloo Osotsi Mojola Part V Mobilizing Subversive Spiritualities 303 21 Animal Suffering305 Dietrich Werner 22 Possibilities of Resurrection331 Cláudio Carvalhaes 23 Imago Dei Ecclesiology345 Lisa Joy Fowler 24 Filipino Family Eucharist359 Alexeis Emmanuel F. Gelverio 25 Spiritual Challenge373 Abraham Kuruvilla Index385

Notes on Contributors

Sarah Gerth van den Berg  is the dean of Curriculum and Pedagogy at City Seminary of New York, where she co-directs MA in Ministry in the Global City and serves on the Walls-Ortiz Gallery’s curatorial team, USA. Cláudio  Carvalhaes is Associate Professor of Worship at Union Theological Seminary in New York, USA. Ernst  M.  Conradie  is a professor in the Department of Religion and Theology at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Simon Kossi Dossou  is a former president of the Methodist Protestant Church of Benn and former Special Envoy to West and Central Africa for All Africa Conference of Churches Lisa  Joy  Fowler  is a doctoral student in the Intercultural Studies program at Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky, USA. Nicoletta Gatti  is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies in the Department for the Study of Religions, University of Ghana, Legon. Alexeis  Emmanuel  F.  Gelverio is currently a teacher for Senior High School Students of Theology at San Beda College Alabang, teaching Contemporary Moral Theology, Social Teachings of the Church, Fundamentals of Theology, and Eschatology. Geomon  K.  George  is the dean and co-director of the Master of Arts Ministry in the Global City at City Seminary of New York. He is also pastor of the International Gospel Church in New York City, USA. xiii

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Reji George  is the registrar/bursar at the City Seminary of New York. She is also involved in the pastoral ministry with her husband, as leaders of the International Gospel Church in New York City in the USA and India. Mark R. Gornik  is the director of City Seminary of New York, USA. Hyun Hee Deborah Park  is working as the music director/organist at Fairview United Church, Branford, Ontario. Sheryl Johnson  is an ordained minister with dual standing in the United Church of Christ/United Church of Canada and a lecturer at St. Stephen's College (Edmonton, Canada) and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (Berkeley, USA). Xavier L. Johnson  is the pastor of the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church of Dayton, Ohio; the director of Contextual Ministry Education; and Assistant Professor of Practical Theology at Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana. Hanna  Kang  received her PhD in Religion and Practice at Graduate Theological Union in California in 2022. Chammah J. Kaunda  is an assistant professor, Yonsei University, Korean Republic; extraordinary professor, University of the Western Cape, South Africa; and Research Fellow at the Southern African Institute for Policy and Research (SAIPAR), Zambia. Afia  Sun  Kim teaches World Christianity at the City Seminary of New York, USA Abraham Kuruvilla  is an ordained minister from the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, India. He served the Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, Kottayam, initially as a Professor in the field of Christian Ministry and finally as the principal. Allan  Varghese  Meloottu is a PhD student (Intercultural Studies) at Asbury Theological Seminary, researching the intersection of Pentecostalism and social/public engagement in inter-religious contexts. Aloo Osotsi Mojola  is Professor of Philosophy and Translation Studies at St. Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya, and Honorary Professor, Faculty of Theology, Pretoria University, Pretoria, South Africa.

  NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 

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Esther  Moraa  Mombo is currently Professor of Theology and  director  of  International Partnerships and Alumni Relations  at St. Paul's University, Limuru, Kenya. Fulata Lusungu Mbano Moyo  is the vice-president of AfriAus iLEAC, an Australia & Malawi registered NGO, and founder and board member for Thimlela-Stream, a Malawi/USA registered NGO. Mzee Hermann Yokoniah Mvula  is Lecturer in Old Testament Ethics and Applied Theology at the University of Malawi. Kojo  Okyere  is a senior lecturer in the Department of Religion and Human Values at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. George  Ossom-Batsa is Associate Professor of Biblical and Mission Studies at the Department for the Study of Religions, University of Ghana (Legon). Adebisi  Oyesile is one of the provincial pastors of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the Americas. He is a professor at the City Seminary of New York, teaching in the Master of Arts in Ministry in the Global City program, and holds a graduate degree from Bakke Graduate University. He is the founder of the Global Center for Transformational Leadership. Kenneth  R.  Ross  is Professor of Theology and dean of Postgraduate Studies at Zomba Theological College in Malawi. Lizette  G.  Tapia-Raquel  is an associate professor and director of the Innovative Theological Education Program (ITEP) at Union Theological Seminary, Philippines. Sanna Pauliina Urvas  is a Pentecostal systematic theologian, a founding member of the Finnish Pentecostal Theological Symposium, a freelance writer, and a lecturer. Breana  van Velzen is an ordained Baptist minister, is presently at the intersection of faith and justice on behalf of Duke University Chapel in Durham, NC, USA. Dietrich  Werner  is ordained pastor of Evangelical Lutheran Church, Northern Germany; Honorary Professor at the University of Applied Sciences for Intercultural Theology Hermannsburg; and former senior

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theological advisor, Bread for the World, and head of Ecumenical Theology Unit, Bread for the World. Philip  Woods  is a British United Reformed Church (URC) minister serving with the Presbyterian Church (USA) as World Mission Associate Director for Strategy and Program.

List of Figures

Fig. 13.1 Fig. 13.2

“As the Deer”—Psalm 42 (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=8BT5N5jU1s8)188 “Your Unfailing Love”—Psalm 44: 130 (https://soundcloud. com/user-­480830350/your-­unfailing-­love-­by-­deborah-­park) 189

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction: “See, Choose, Act” Chammah J. Kaunda

Introduction The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres lamented, “We are facing a global health crisis unlike any in the 75-year history of the United Nations—one that is killing people, spreading human suffering, and upending people’s lives. But this is much more than a health crisis. It is a human crisis. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is attacking societies at their core.”1 Having been first reported in Wuhan in China in December 2019, COVID-19 was declared to be a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. The rates of infections quickly accelerated in almost every corner of the world with millions

1  The Associated Press, “UN Chief Says COVID-19 Is Worst Crisis Since World War II,” New York Times (March 31, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/03/31/ world/ap-un-virus-outbreak-united-nations-1st-ld-writethru.html (accessed 26 Nov. 20).

C. J. Kaunda (*) Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_1

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of people infected and millions of fatalities.2 In the initial phase of the spread, many countries adopted extraordinary forms of social distancing as many of them resorted to lockdown.3 There were widespread travel restrictions and business closures which threatened job security and brought about a global economic recession. In less than a year, COVID-19 altered every aspect of world landscape.

An Apocalyptic Pandemic One significant observation was that in the initial stages of COVID-19, that is, early 2020, a frequently rallying phrase was “We are all in this together!” There was a global horror embedded in apocalyptic imagination which was quickly rechanneled to superficial optimistic feelings and expectations for the dawn of a possible new world. “We are in it together” as the performance of secular resurrection in which possibly a new global order could arise like a phoenix out of the ashes of COVID-19. That for the first time in history, humanity was given an opportunity to construct a vision of the world “that values abundance over affluence, gratuity over greed, compassion over unfettered consumption, goods over commodities.”4 That COVID-19 was catalyzing a global call to rethink the future in a world of increasing complexity, uncertainty, fragility, and woundedness. Scholars described the pandemic variously as apocalyptic (revealing), wakening, or summons to faith. COVID-19 as an apocalyptic pandemic had two schools of thought. The first underlined the traditional view of the apocalypse which assumed doom, dread, judgment, and divine retribution for human sinfulness. Some conservative Christians declared the pandemic as God’s judgment on the world because of its sin and tolerance of what they perceive as evils, such as LGBTQ and abortion. A prominent evangelical scholar and pastor, John Piper in the book Coronavirus and Christ maintained, “God is giving the world in the coronavirus outbreak, as in all other calamities, a physical picture of the moral horror and spiritual ugliness of 2  For official daily updates of COVID-19 cases and deaths worldwide see World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 Dashboard, https://covid19.who.int (accessed 26 April 2022). 3  There were also some draconian lockdowns which involved a significant restriction on freedom of movement on their citizens and resulted in human suffering. 4  Richard Kearney and Melissa Fitzpatrick, Radical Hospitality: From thought to action (New York: Fordham University Press, 2020), 8.

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God-­belittling sin.”5 Piper’s perspective is that “God sometimes uses disease to bring particular judgments upon those who reject him and give themselves over to sin.”6 Piper further argues, “Physical pain is God’s trumpet blast to tell us that something is dreadfully wrong in the world.”7 Therefore, “Some people will be infected with the coronavirus as a specific judgment from God because of their sinful attitudes and actions.”8 This means “The coronavirus is a God-given wake-up call to be ready for the second coming of Christ.”9 However, he maintains: If we come to Christ, we can know that our suffering is not the punitive judgment of God. We can know this because Jesus said, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). It is discipline, not destruction. “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Heb. 12:6).10

This means COVID-19 is a judgment only for those who are not Christ. For Christians, “The coronavirus is God’s thunderclap call for all of us to repent and realign our lives with the infinite worth of Christ.”11 To be fair, Piper also believes: The coronavirus is God’s call to his people to overcome self-pity and fear, and with courageous joy, to do the good works of love that glorify God … In the coronavirus God is loosening the roots of settled Christians, all over the world, to 5  John Piper, Coronavirus and Christ (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2020), 38, italics as found. 6  Piper, Coronavirus and Christ, 41, italics as found. Jonathan Merritt, “Some of the Most Visible Christians in America Are Failing the Coronavirus Test In place of love, they’re offering stark self-righteous judgment,” The Atlantic (April 24, 2020), https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/christian-cruelty-face-COVID-19/610477/ (accessed 26 Nov. 20). 7  Piper, Coronavirus and Christ, 41, italics as found. 8  Piper, Coronavirus and Christ, 43, italics as found. 9  Piper, Coronavirus and Christ, 44, italics as found. See also Michael Foust, “44 Percent Say Coronavirus Is ‘Wake-Up Call’ from God, Sign of His Judgment,” Christianheadlines. com (April 1, 2020), https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/44percent-say-coronavirus-is-wake-up-call-from-god-sign-of-his-judgment.html (accessed 26 Nov. 20). 10  Piper, Coronavirus and Christ, 43, italics as found. 11  Piper, Coronavirus and Christ, 37, italics as found.

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make them free for something new and radical and to send them with the gospel of Christ to the unreached peoples of the world.12

Perceiving a pandemic as a judgment from God for ubiquitous evil in the world is not new. A generation ago it was a common response to the appearance of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). Pope Francis warns of fundamentalism: Faced with this uncertainty, ideology and the rigid mindset have an allure that we must resist. Fundamentalism is a means of assembling thought and behavior as a refuge that supposedly protects a person from a crisis. Fundamentalist mindsets offer to shelter people from destabilizing situations in exchange for a kind of existential quietism. They offer you an attitude and a single, closed way of thinking, as a substitute for the kind of thinking that opens you to truth. Whoever takes refuge in fundamentalism is afraid of setting out on the road to truth. He already “has” the truth, and deploys it as a defense, so that any questioning of it is interpreted as an aggression against his person.13

The second emphasized the etymology of apocalypse (apokaluptein) “to uncover or ‘unveil’ or to reveal something slightly visible. The key is that in order to reveal something new, we have to get the old out of the way. This is also the way Walter Brueggemann uses the phrase, ‘virus as a summons to faith.’” As Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev argues, COVID-19 summoned the church “to learn how to peaceably relinquish the old world and how to imaginatively give birth to a new world in which all life can flourish.”14 COVID-19 as an apocalyptic pandemic was being conceived “as created room for something new by clearing out the old—old ideas, old stories, old ways of thinking.”15 The ecumenical Christians have tended to view the pandemic not as an apocalyptic pandemic not in an eschatological sense as a revelation of the ultimate history, but rather in  Piper, Coronavirus and Christ, 53, 58, italics as found.  Pope Francis, Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future (Simon & Schuster, 2020), kindled (italics as found). 14  Rabbi N. Ward-Lev, “Preface,” in Virus as A Summons to Faith: Biblical Reflections in a Time of Loss, Grief, and Uncertainty by Walter Brueggemann (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2020), vii. 15  Franciscan Richard Rohr, “A Time of Unveiling,” Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation (April 25th, 2021), https://cac.org/daily-meditations/2021-daily-meditations/ (accessed 26 April 2022). 12 13

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the sense of unfolding, unveiling, and uncovering human wickedness and systemic evil that seems to be hidden and concealed from view. It has unmasked and exposed the problem of the neoliberal capitalism that defines the contemporary world order.16 COVID-19 has lifted the veil which hides human wickedness in the twenty-first century. The pandemic is likened to the great deluge of Genesis which functioned as a revealer of human wickedness and global structural sin. Genesis 6: 5-6 reminds us, “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.” In the light of COVID-19 humanity has an opportunity to “see anew and afresh the distorted realities and inequalities powerful interests” even in the church as indicated above “have passed off as ‘normal’ and unquestionable.”17 Brueggemann writes that hearing “the devastation caused by the COVID-19 virus is the same summons that all prophets hear in the midst of calamity: the call into right relationship with Living Presence, a call into deeper, more caring, and mutually beneficial relationship within all that is.”18 Franciscan Richard Rohr made a similar suggestion: “Despite the uncertainty and disorder, our present moment is a great opportunity to awaken to deeper transformation, love, and hope. Amid the widespread need for healing, reality offers us an invitation to depth—to discover what is lasting and what matters.”19 Pope Francis described it as a “contagion of hope” giving rise to “global solidarity.”20 He insisted, “This is not a time for indifference, because the whole world is suffering and needs to be united in facing the pandemic.” He urged, “Indifference, self-centredness, division and forgetfulness are not words we want to hear at this time. We want to ban these words forever!” In his best-selling book, Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future, Pope Francis, underlines, “We Christians talk about this as taking up and embracing the Cross. Embracing the Cross, confident that what will come is new life, gives us the courage to stop  Anglican Focus, “‘Economy of Life in a time of Pandemic.’”  Anglican Focus, “‘Economy of Life in a time of Pandemic.’” 18  Ward-Lev, “Preface,” viii. 19  Rohr, “A Time of Unveiling.” 20  Philip Pullella, “Banish ‘Self-centredness’, Pope tells the World as it Faces Coronavirus,” Reuters (April 12, 2020), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-easterpope-idUSKCN21U0E0 (accessed 26 April 2022). 16 17

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lamenting and move out and serve others and so enable change, which will come only from compassion and service.”21 Pope Francis was optimistic in his understanding of the situation: This is a moment to dream big, to rethink our priorities—what we value, what we want, what we seek—and to commit to act in our daily life on what we have dreamed of. What I hear at this moment is similar to what Isaiah hears God saying through him: Come, let us talk this over. Let us dare to dream. God asks us to dare to create something new. We cannot return to the false securities of the political and economic systems we had before the crisis. We need economies that give to all access to the fruits of creation, to the basic needs of life: to land, lodging, and labor. We need a politics that can integrate and dialogue with the poor, the excluded, and the vulnerable, that gives people a say in the decisions that impact their lives. We need to slow down, take stock, and design better ways of living together on this earth.22

“I Can’t Breathe” However, the disruptive or creative chaotic potential to repair injustices and set humanity on a new path to a transformed future was short-lived. On the one hand, COVID-19 initiated optimism and unmasked untold human and creation suffering and the hidden systems of global coloniality and its various forms of crises such as gender and racial inequality even in most developed nations. On the other hand, what it really achieved was escalations of the ever-swelling global and local inequalities and injustice. The stratification of societies that were most affected is those on the underside or Darkside of Modernity. Hence, numerous scholars queried: Are we really all in this together? For instance, Michel Sandel argued that “the moral paradox of solidarity through separation highlighted a certain hollowness in the assurance that ‘We are all in this together.’”23 The 21  Pope Francis, Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future (Simon & Schuster, 2020), kindled (italics as found). 22  Francis, Let Us Dream, kindled. 23  Michael Sandel, The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), 4-5, see also Michael Sandel, “Are We All in This Together? The pandemic has helpfully scrambled how we value everyone’s economic and social roles,” The New  York Times (April 13, 2020), https://www.nytimes. com/2020/04/13/opinion/sunday/covid-workers-healthcare-fairness.html (accessed 26 April 2022).

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pandemic provoked new forms of resentment and reinforced prevailing ­hostilities such as xenophobia, racism, gender-based violence, and political corruption. COVID-19 has had serious negative effects on the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable families and communities as it quickly translated into increased poverty, gender-based violence, racism, corruption, and other social injustices.24 Many countries around the world were struggling to “address the fragilities, inequalities, and gaps in social protection that have been so painfully exposed, and place women and gender equality front and center if we are to build resilience to future shocks.”25 The response of some churches to COVID-19 unmasked the dynamics that reproduce and perpetuate neo-colonization, patriarchy, anthropocentrism, neoliberal capitalism, materialism, commercialization of Jesus, and all other death-dealing forces. The pandemic unmasked and exposed the pretentious solutions that have been advocated by neoliberal capitalist, atheist, and materialist philosophies as awfully inadequate in enabling the creation of collective humanity. From George Floyd’s  outcry for help—“I can’t breathe”—became a powerful metaphor for a planet deliberately deprived of life through the Anthropocene  and negative anthropocentrism, and the echoes of it are still heard in ongoing violence such as Russia’s war on Ukraine. COVID-19 became a mega-catalytic pandemic that energized existing global pandemics of injustices in the mundanities of a deeply wounded and traumatized everyday life. Hence, COVID-19 did not challenge the dominant discourse of modern meaning but rather reinforced it. COVID-19 became one of the most profound ethical, relational, social, economic, political, philosophical, theological, and public health challenges of the twenty-first century. Richard Kearney and Melissa Fitzpatrick observe that COVID-19 forced us to face the difficult tensions that exist between health and economic progress, inalienable rights and global capitalism, the common good and self-interest, preparedness and paranoia. The question of what the post-­ 24  Charlie Chilufya SJ., “The African Economy is ‘Infected’: The Economic Impact of COVID-19 is Worsening Poverty in Africa,” https://xavier.network/news/the-africaneconomy-is-infected-the-economic-impact-of-COVID-19-is-worsening-poverty-in-africa/ (accessed 26 Nov. 20). 25  António Guterres, “Opening remarks at virtual press briefing from UN Headquarters,” United Nations General Secretary (30 April 2020), https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/ sg/speeches/2020-04-30/remarks-virtual-press-briefing-un-headquarters (accessed 26 Nov. 20).

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pandemic future holds tests the limits of our hospitality to the unknown and the welcome disruption of our seemingly stable, though often fragile, agendas, projections, and plans.26

As Jürgen Moltmann eloquently argues almost half a century ago, “The suffering in suffering is the lack of love, and the wounds in wounds are the abandonment, and the powerlessness in pain is unbelief.”27 Brueggemann could only lament: The fact is that uncritical, systemic affluence that issues in consumerism is an incredible narcotic that keeps us in the grip of old creation and its deathliness. Under such a narcotic, we remain unschooled in hearing groans from non-human creatures, unaccustomed to deep human heaving. Under such a narcotic, critical discussion is too trivialized by therapists, managers, and entertainers; sex, power, money, and security become the defining marks of systemic denial. The cry characteristically breaks the vicious cycles of denial.28

COVID-19 demonstrated that for the church to confront the pandemic and all social ills requires rethinking and reconstructing everyday theology and faith tradition to awaken to the reality of this world. In other words, to achieve Moltmannian radical spiritual of “the suffering of abandonment … overcome by the suffering of love, which is not afraid of what is sick and ugly, but accepts it and takes it to itself in order to heal it”29 required a radical rethinking of the church and its approach to the mission of God. It demands God’s mission of the future. The world is on the brink of extraordinary transformation. Christianity needs new conceptions of God in order to rethink God’s mission that affirms Pope Francis’ observation that “the harmonious unity of humanity and nature, and how humanity’s fate is inseparably bound up with that of our common home.”30 Then the church can rethink how it has to participate in that mission of God to create the future world out of the wounded world. COVID-19 proved to be a time of deep distress for the church that found itself powerless as the  Kearney and Fitzpatrick, Radical hospitality, 106.  Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology (New York, Harper & Row, 1974), 227. 28  Walter Brueggemann, Virus as A Summons to Faith: Biblical Reflections in a Time of Loss, Grief, and Uncertainty (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2020), 68. 29  Moltmann, The Crucified God, 227. 30  Francis, Let Us Dream, kindled. 26 27

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virus took its ravaged and traumatized the world. For some, it was literally an issue of life and death. For others, it was livelihood that was at stake. For others again, it meant mental health and general well-being coming under threat. For many, it meant plans and hopes being shelved or abandoned. For most, it meant economic and financial pressures. Taken together, these different dimensions of the pandemic amounted to an assault on life as we have known it. Few, if any, could just carry on as normal. It is a contagious illness but also a social disease, a social and ecological crisis. COVID-19 spread everywhere regardless of culture, religion, gender, sexuality, race, or region. Relational rituals such as hugs, handshakes, and kisses were suspended in many contexts. Cultural ways of venerating the dead and customary bereavement consolations were discarded in order to reduce the spread of the virus. The questions raised by COVID-19 go far beyond the epidemiological. While the medical dimension is fundamental, the experience of suffering calls for consideration from many different perspectives: spiritual, relational, cultural, funeral, families, race, gender, economic, political, psychological, mental, and ethical. Underneath all the presenting issues, there was an existential crisis to be faced—a crisis of the human person. Who are we and what is our purpose? We have been challenged at so many levels by the pandemic and one thing this has perhaps revealed is how far the human person has been surrendered to the “false gods” that have asserted themselves in the modern world. Yet, instead of recovering the dignity and vocation of humanity, many lost their humanity. Many lost their trust in each other, in their communities, and countries.

Seeing, Choosing, Acting The contemporary history of suffering within sufferings calls for critique, wisdom, and praxes from many different quarters. This volume looks back and looks forward, to turn to the spiritual dimension of life and to explore the disruptions, subversions, (un)rethinkings, and struggles from faith perspectives. It does so while the experience is still fresh, recognizing that more mature reflections might be possible at a later stage but finding value in an attempt to think theologically while still searching for the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. It takes a “World Christianity” approach, with contributors coming from many different parts of the globe and diverse ecclesial traditions. Notwithstanding areas of tension and even

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conflict, it works from the premise that there is a coherence to the global expressions of Christian faith that validates an attempt to take account of the whole. This does not mean that it seeks to blur or minimize the difference. Just as the pandemic exposed social, economic, and political fault lines, so in the realm of faith it revealed contrasting priorities and theologies. Scholars have called us to rephrase such questions as “where God is in COVID-19?” to “what is the nature of God as God is revealed through COVID-19? What does it mean to talk of the goodness and the love of God in the context of COVID-19? What does COVID-19 reveal to us about the creation as God sees it?”31 As Paula Clifford rightly argues, these questions are not about “glorifying suffering (as did the medieval mystics, who longed to experience a suffering akin to that of Jesus on the cross, in order to be united with him), or accepting it as somehow part of a Christian’s duty.”32 Rephrasing this ancient question which touches on the core of the “problem of suffering,” and “theodicy” is a way to overcome the metaphysical impassable God of the pure act and to turn instead to the question: what kind of God was in view when Saint Matthew wrote of “God with Us”? Traditionally, theologians and philosophers have largely engaged this problem in the form of theodicies, or justifications of God in the context of suffering. This question, with which human beings have grappled from time immemorial, leads us to serious misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the God who suffers. Moving beyond the metaphysical impassable God we encounter God in suffering. The experience of pandemics has taught us that human beings “need a God who suffers, because God’s willingness to suffer with and for creation enables us to make our own suffering meaningful. In identifying with Christ in his suffering, human suffering can be made meaningful and appropriated into one’s being; this meaning-making also provides the impetus to stand in solidarity with others who suffer and to work against the oppression of all people.”33 As Pope Francis argues, “When the Church talks of the preferential option for the poor, it means that we need always to keep in mind how any decision we make might impact the poor. But it also means we 31  Paula Clifford, “Theology and the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” Christian Aid (2004): 1–23, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.556.1316&rep=rep1&type= pdf (accessed 26 Nov. 20). 32  Clifford, “Theology and the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” 4. 33  Josh Shrader-Perry, “Who Wants a God Who Suffers?” Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies 1, no. 2(2018): 26–35, 27.

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need to put the poor at the center of our thinking. By means of that preferential option, the Lord gives us a new perspective on value with which to judge events.”34 This volume regards COVID-19 as a prophetic pandemic for World Christianity, revealing that no one is safe in such a global system of domination. This has two main objectives: First, seeks to demonstrate that the household of God—oikoumene—is  infected by COVID-19 which unmasked underlying  pandemics of social injustice and inequalities unmasked by COVID-19. Second, to rethink participation in the mission of God in relation to new changes COVID-19 has brought to the meaning of human freedom and rights, particularly in relation to the rise of populisms, ethnocentric nationalisms, illiberal democracies, and sustained histories of racial discriminations. This is essentially a call for theologies and economies of life that can account for the Christian hope in the collective search for the collective resurrection of humanity and all creation (1 Peter 3:15). COVID-19 has demonstrated, like HIV, that without justice in and from the margins, there can be no authentic peace in the world. This also means perceiving “All true values, human values, are non-­ negotiable.”35 It is about transforming perceptions and interpretations of values and the world. As Pope Francis argues: Our sin lies in failing to recognize value, in wanting to possess and exploit that which we do not value as a gift. Sin always has this same root of possessiveness, of enrichment at the expense of other people and creation itself. It’s the same sinful mindset that we were just discussing in relation to abuse. The sin is in exploiting what must not be exploited, in extracting wealth (power or satisfaction) from where it should not be taken. Sin is a rejection of the limits that love requires.36

A non-negotiable understanding of values has the potential to open “a path of hope into the future, a path of liberation that was not merely political but something more: a human liberation, that conferred that dignity that only the Lord can give us.”37 COVID-19 has allowed us to see how exclusive and destructive the way of life is we have developed in late modernity. But we need now to choose and act in the interest of the  Francis, Let Us Dream, kindled (italics as found).  Francis, Let Us Dream, kindled (italics as found). 36  Francis, Let Us Dream, kindled (italics as found). 37  Francis, Let Us Dream, kindled. 34 35

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common good. The Christian faith is reengaged in this way, suggesting reconstructing a vision of transforming discipleship—of our own hearts being transformed through our encounter with Christ and our whole life being called into a mission of transformation that moves the world in a new direction. Pope Francis reminds: Coronavirus has accelerated a change of era that was already under way. By “change of era” I mean not just that this is a time of change, but that the categories and assumptions that we used before to navigate our world are no longer effective. Things we never imagined would take place—the environmental collapse, a global pandemic, the return of populisms—we are now living through, and what we once considered normal will increasingly no longer be. It is an illusion to think that we can go back to where we were.38

Conclusion and Chapter Outline As can be observed from the above discussion of various approaches to apocalyptic interpretations of COVID-19, there is a spectrum of apocalyptic interpretative possibilities. These exemplify the interpretive approaches, understandings, and interpretations of COVID-19 in the light of the Bible. First, we can appreciate that there are various positions within the literal (apocalyptic) interpretations ranging from moderate, strong, to extreme (most evangelical Biblicist, populist, conversionist, and supernaturalist forms of Christianity fall into this spectrum). Those who hold to this interpretive paradigm and its fixation with a faith that suggests “that God means what he says (in the Bible) and does (in history) what he means,”39 struggle to reinterpret their dominant understandings of God in relation to ever-shifting questions concerning human existence  and universal reality. Second, there are equally various strands within the nonliteral (apocalyptic) interpretative probability, from moderate, strong, to extreme (most liberal and liberationists fall into this category such as the Roman Catholic Church and World Council of Churches). These face the challenge of failing to adequately speak to what Harvey Cox describes as “the spiritual emptiness of our time by reaching beyond the levels of creed and  Francis, Let Us Dream, kindled.  Timothy Samuel Shah, “The Bible and the Ballot Box: Evangelicals and Democracy in the ‘Global South.’” The SAIS Review of International Affairs 24, no. 2 (2004): 117–132, 120. 38 39

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ceremony into the core of human religiousness, into what might be called ‘primal spirituality,’ that largely unprocessed nucleus of the psyche in which the unending struggle for a sense of purpose and significance goes on.”40 Like all liberationist movements, they potentially lose their appeal to the masses, especially in the Global South. However, there is also within the spectrum of interpretive traditions (mainline Protestant, Catholic, and Evangelical [some Pentecostals and Charismatics]) what can be tentatively described as a “third way” (apocalyptic) interpretative possibility—various in-between, betwixt, and between positionalities—between literal and nonliteral interpretive strategies that seek to synthesize creative residues of different possibilities into new and critical interpretive theories. An in-depth discussion of the spectrum of apocalyptic interpretative possibility theory is beyond the scope of this book, but has missiological and ecclesiological implications in the engagement of various Christian traditions’ responses to sociopolitical or public issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Third-way poetics of Bible interpretations and theology construction is a creative endeavor to engage the core or primordial emptiness; it is “about doing things, about things that deeply affect the lives of numbers of people.”41 Thus, there is a way in which theology is about the search for otherwise possibilities. This also means Bible interpretations and theological reflections arise out of human’s never-ending struggle to make sense of life and its existential questions, and possibly access otherwise and excess possibilities to realize and actualize abundant life in the present (John 10:10). Undoubtedly, the way faith communities interpret their sacred texts, for example, the Bible, is not neutral but inherently political because it is normative and primarily involves deeply rooted and value-laden strategies. The book does not claim to have adequately engaged this spectrum of interpretative probability. Rather, it adopted four different lines of approach in its exploration of these profound issues. The first part takes us into an existential realm about what COVID-19 has meant for individuals, families, and communities. Essays in this part are united by suffering as a theological approach, guided by the immediate and pressing question of how the church was overtaken by suffering in the wake of the pandemic. 40  Harvey Cox, Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-first Century (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1994), 81. 41  Andrew F.  Walls, The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of the Faith (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1996), 10.

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Approaching suffering from a variety of angles, the essays unfold theologies of struggle. This, according to the second part, requires considering political and moral issues that are presented by COVID-19. In some cases, these are issues that were already present but have now been accentuated by the experience of COVID-19. In other cases, issues for which we were little prepared have appeared on the agenda. This led to the third part which demonstrates that the COVID-19 pandemic gave the church new eyes for interpreting its biblical text and rethinking its theological traditions. Essays in this part considered the opportunity the pandemic has given the church to mobilize biblical resources to respond adequately to the current challenges and give direction to the world. The fourth part turns our attention to the ways in which traditions have been disrupted resulting in rethinking their theological practices. This demonstrates that the resilience and the creativity of a tradition do not lie in its rigidness but in the creative ability or capacity to adapt to the prevailing circumstances. Finally, the final part traces lines along which we may be called upon to act in the aftermath of the pandemic. As opposed to taking a passive approach and remembering the pandemic as something that happened to us, essays in this part challenge us to think in terms of action. “Build Back Better” is a slogan that has captured the imagination as people have sought to imagine the post-­COVID-­19 world. Such issues as gender, race, and the future of the planet, already urgent before the pandemic, have been thrown into even sharper relief. As we look ahead to a time to act and a time to build, theological and missiological resources are deployed here to ignite the action-­reflection cycle that can open up new directions and create fresh hope for a broken, wounded, and suffering world. Across these various parts, the volume engaged the COVID-19 pandemic, and other pandemics of injustice and inequalities, from such perspectives as systematic theology, social ethics, missiology, biblical studies, liturgy, and practical theology. The contributions seek to deepen Christian understandings of the meaning of suffering, humanity, and creation, as well as the suffering of God in light of the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a suggestive volume, it set out fresh ways in which World Christianity can contribute to rethinking theologies of human relations beyond injustices in regard to such fault lines as race, class, geography, gender, environment, and sexuality. It hopes to expand our understanding of what it means to be human in the context of suffering, the place of or justifications of God in suffering, the human place in creation, and the role of the church in re-discovering the theological and missiological meaning

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of suffering and the human search for the alternative future worlds. In the words of Pope Francis: we transcend the narrow individualist framework of the liberal paradigm without falling into the trap of populism. Democracy is then reinvigorated by the concerns and wisdom of the people who are involved in it. Politics can once again be an expression of love through service. By making the restoration of our peoples’ dignity the central objective of the post-Covid world, we make everyone’s dignity the key to our actions. To guarantee a world where dignity is valued and respected through concrete actions is not just a dream but a path to a better future.42

Here we are dealing with a positive hope that has a concrete goal to promote human dignity and the common good. It is the opposite of negative hope that is preoccupied with optimistic prosperity gospel, evil and selfishness. The positive hope is not just religious but embraces all that seek the flourishing of all life. It seeks to promote justice, dignity and quality of life, and well-being to every human being and all planetary life. The church worldwide can no longer settle down or relax as it did in  preCOVID-19, with millions of people deceased; COVID-19 would remain one of the highlights of the twenty-first century.

 Francis, Let Us Dream, kindled.

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PART I

Faith Trouble

CHAPTER 2

A Test Case for the Theodicy Problem Ernst M. Conradie

Introduction Why does a God of love not respond more palpably to a suffering world? The European Enlightenment may well be understood as the search for an adequate response to the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, namely to resist the suggestion that this was God’s punishment for Lisbon’s sins. The causes were purely “natural.” Auschwitz posed a different challenge because the causes were altogether human and the perpetrators were regarded as Christian by their mainly Jewish victims. Still, why does God allow so much suffering? This contribution will explore the relationship between natural “evil” and social evil in the wake of COVID-19 as a pandemic situated in a globalized world. Why are there deadly viruses in God’s otherwise good creation? How are humans complicit in the root causes and impact of the pandemic? Six classic theodicies will be put to the test given how the COVID-19 pandemic is unfolding, namely in terms of the categories of acquiescence, protest, punishment, pedagogy, vulnerability, and liberation. Although each of these theodicies will almost inevitably fail in the

E. M. Conradie (*) University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_2

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move from Wuhan to Cape Town, it is striking to see how they are indeed employed in an ecclesial and theological discourse on COVID-19.

From Lisbon to Auschwitz Why does a God of love not respond more palpably to a suffering world? This is the classic, irresolvable theodicy question. The European Enlightenment may well be understood as the search for an adequate response to the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, namely to resist the suggestion that this was God’s punishment for Lisbon’s sins. The causes were purely “natural.” Auschwitz posed a very different challenge because the causes were altogether human and the perpetrators were regarded as Christian by their mainly Jewish victims. Still, why does God allow so much suffering? Why does God not intervene to alleviate suffering as parents would do for their children if they are able to? And at the individual level: why do the godless often seem to prosper while the pious live in agony? Modern consciousness is marked by the sense that the two problems posed by Lisbon and Auschwitz be radically separated.1 This is not merely a theological question. In a secular form, the Auschwitz version of the question prompted a critique of the Enlightenment: How could such war crimes be perpetrated by Germans? Can we trust the light of reason to address such atrocities? In a different, secular version the question is about market failure. How could the invisible hand of an omnipresent, omniscient Market fail to deliver well-being for all?2 Or in the postcolonial, subaltern, or decolonial version: why do other nations seek to copy North Atlantic consumerist lifestyles if this implies a global economy that is unequal, unjust, and unsustainable? At a 1  See Susan Neiman, Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2002), 5. Her book offers a sustained reflection on how the relationship between natural and social evil has characterized modern philosophy. She argues that the modern attempt to separate these was never fully successful, not least given the urge to naturalize/pathologize evil, to give natural causes for social problems, treating perpetrators as patients (236). She also recognizes the secularizing tendency in this debate: “The distinction between natural and moral evil began as a debate about how much of the world’s misery was God’s fault, how much of it ours. Once God was overcome as a human projection, the distinction itself must be overturned” (107). Neiman adds: “Humankind lost faith in the world at Lisbon, and faith in itself at Auschwitz” (250). She concludes that “Lisbon” signalled that traditional theodicies were hopeless, “Auschwitz” that every replacement fared no better (281). 2  See Harvey Cox, The Market as God (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2016).

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more existential level, the question is simply about coming to terms with suffering, given that it is unevenly distributed. Why me? Or my loved ones? The COVID-19 pandemic provides another example of a situation where such theodicy questions surface. This applies to those infected, to those dying from the virus, to those whose livelihoods are destroyed by the economic implications of the pandemic,3 and to the lonely and marginalized for whom self-isolation is too much to bear. Even if we all realize that such questions are irresolvable, it is also true that we, the religiously “musical” and the secular among us alike, cannot avoid giving some provisional answers in order to cope with suffering. Such answers are being tested for their adequacy—and not surprisingly typically found wanting. In this contribution, I will explore the COVID-19 pandemic as one such test case for six influential answers to the theodicy question. I will first comment on the multiple sources of suffering, describe the six options, and then show how these have been used in theological, ecclesial, and secular responses to the pandemic. I will not discuss details about the pandemic itself as ample literature in this regard is available, with more expertise than I can muster. The symbols of Wuhan and Cape Town may suffice here to indicate two locations that were at some point during the course of the 2020 an epicenter of the pandemic. The tension between these symbols conjures up multiple connotations regarding BRICS politics in a global world (all the BRICS countries have been heavily affected), animal trade, health care, economic inequalities, demographics, and the like.

Sources of Suffering One reason why the theodicy problem is often so difficult to address is that it tends to distinguish between natural and social sources of suffering that are in everyday life hardly separable. The theodicy question looks very different if discussed from the perspective of “natural evil” (symbolized by Lisbon) or of “moral evil” (symbolized by Auschwitz). In contemporary theological movements, this tension is evident in the discourse on science and theology where the problem of so-called natural “evil” is typically 3  See the discussion by Chijioke Nwosu and Adeola Oyenubi Adeola Oyenubi, “COVID-19: How the Lockdown has Affected the Health of the Poor in South Africa” in The Conversation, 23 August 2020. See https://theconversation.com/COVID-19-how-the-lockdown-hasaffected-the-health-of-the-poor-in-south-africa-144374? (accessed 23 August 2020).

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upfront, if compared with a range of so-called contextual theologies that focus on social evil (especially liberation theology).4 The suffering associated with COVID-19 is clearly to some extent natural insofar as viruses form part of the natural world. Why, then, are there viruses in God’s otherwise supposedly good creation? The origins of this particular virus remain unclear but it may well have to do with illegal trade in animal products or with disturbances in the natural habitat of animals. This would suggest some social causes for the disease. However, the genealogy of the disease (supposedly in China) hardly matters any longer given the way it has spread globally and has been affected by government policies adopted in different countries. With each new infection, the “natural” and the “social” cannot be separated if only because the virus spreads through social contact and because complete isolation, whatever that may mean, is not “natural.” Even though natural and social causes cannot be separated from each other, they also cannot be conflated since different responses are required depending on how the mix of factors contributing to the pandemic is discerned. In an earlier contribution, I suggested that there are not only two main sources of pain and suffering but that a mix of at least six such sources can be identified.5 A one- or two-sentence summary of each may suffice here. First, there are clearly some forms of pain that have natural causes— irrespective of human impact, including that induced by earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, droughts, predation,6 gravity (falling down) biological factors associated with anxiety, diseases (viral infections like COVID-19), the limited life-cycle of cells, aging, degeneration, and death. Not all suffering is caused by human evil, directly or indirectly. Second, some forms of suffering are the product of randomness, for example, random biological variations that prove to be unfruitful, various disabilities, being in the right place at the wrong time, and freakish “accidents” where no individual human agent can be blamed for such suffering, directly or indirectly. Viral mutations and some “accidental” infections despite precautions are relevant here. Such randomness may be interpreted 4  For a discussion, see Ernst M. Conradie “On Social Evil and Natural Evil: In Conversation with Christopher Southgate,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 53:3 (2018), 752–765. 5  See Ernst M. Conradie, “HIV/AIDS and Human Suffering: Where on Earth is God?” Scriptura 89 (205), 406–432. 6  See Ernst M. Conradie, “Eat and/or be Eaten: The Evolutionary Roots of Violence?” Scriptura 114 (2015), 1–22.

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as fate or fortune (luck), as God’s providence or calling, imposing a sense of necessity on what is actually contingent.7 Third, there are some forms of suffering induced by one’s own decisions and lifestyle, for example, the abuse of alcohol, tobacco, drugs, risky sexual behavior, criminal activities that are duly punished, remorse over relationships that have gone awry, unwise financial decisions, and opportunities missed. Not taking the necessary precautions during COVID-19 lockdown regulations, especially for high-risk groups, could be considered here but probably represents a small percentage of infections and deaths. Fourth, there are forms of suffering directly induced by one individual human being (or group/institution) on another, in the form of “being sinned against,”8 including obvious examples associated with murder, rape, assault, slander, stigmatization, and so forth. In the case of COVID-19 one may consider campaigns focused on wearing a mask for the sake of others who are vulnerable—to protect them and not oneself. More ominously, one may consider the blame game and conspiracy theories, for example, by blaming China for (deliberately?) causing the pandemic. Fifth, there are cases where suffering is induced indirectly through “structural violence,”9 by unwise, unjust, unfrugal societal structures, policies, and regulations, including cases of tyranny, corruption, patriarchy, feudalism, oppression, the caste system, and of course apartheid. Here suffering is induced by law and policy, as a matter of routine. This leads to a spiral of violence involving oppressive regulation, resistance, and law enforcement. In the case of COVID-19, there are ample examples at the global and at a community level, ranging from inhumane trade in animals, differentiated national policy responses and regulations, corruption regarding funds available for COVID-19, and housing conditions that prevent self-isolation, unequal access to health care, and so forth. The most penetrating analysis is perhaps that COVID-19 has to be understood in terms of earth system science: the balance between earth systems has become disturbed in the negative Anthropocene so that such outbreaks 7  See David Tracy, Fragments: The Existential Situation of Our Time: Selected Essays, Volume 1 (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2020), 70. 8  For this category, see especially Andrew Sung Park and Susan L. Nelson, The Other Side of Sin: Woundedness from the Perspective of the Sinned-against (New York: State University of New York Press, 2001). 9  See especially Johan Galtung, Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization (Oslo: International Peace Research Institute, 1996).

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are to be expected given a global economy that is unjust, unequal, and unsustainable.10 Sixth, there are vicarious forms of suffering where individuals (occasionally institutions) are willing to make themselves vulnerable in order to alleviate the suffering of others, illustrated by stories of heroes and martyrs. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there are remarkable stories of nurses, doctors, hospitals, and community clinics who have given their lives to help others. It should be clear that in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic a blend of these sources of suffering may be found but also that this blend will be different in specific contexts. How this blend is discerned will necessarily shape a response to the theodicy problem. When confronted with the heavily infected and the dying, one would tend to emphasize the natural sources of suffering (and underplay the comorbidities) while an emphasis on structural violence will be found when discussing government policies and regulations. It is at least clear that the temptation to interpret all other sources of suffering in terms of one source only (e.g. by pathologizing evil11 or by morally denouncing what is actually natural) needs to be resisted. No wonder the All Africa Conference of Churches  (AACC) issued the warning that “Every interpretation of the origin and purpose of COVID-19 is guesswork” and “We should test every claim of prophecy”!12

Posing the Theodicy Problem On the basis of the discussion above, drawing on teaching at the University of the Western Cape where I am based, I will now investigate the actual content of six classic responses to the theodicy problem. I will show that such responses are indeed found amid the pandemic and are adapted according to the situation. In the process, the relative adequacy of each 10  See the remarkably prescient book on emerging infectious diseases by Daniel R. Brooks, Eric P.  Hoberg, and Walter A.  Boeger, The Stockholm Paradigm: Climate Change and Emerging Disease (University of Chicago Press, 2019). See also Daniel R. Brooks and Walter A. Boeger, “Climate Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases: Evolutionary Complexity in Action,” Current Opinion in Systems Biology 13 (2019), 75–81. 11  An interesting example amid COVID-19 is Albert Camus’ use of a natural problem (the plague) to symbolize a moral evil (Nazism). See Neiman, Evil in Modern Thought, 297. 12  These are the first two of the AACC’s “Ten Theological Theses on COVID-19  in Africa.” See https://www.globalministries.org/ten_theological_theses_on_covid_19_in_ africa (accessed 5 September 2020).

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response is tested by the pandemic. I will not tie these responses to specific theoretical exponents but will focus on the plausibility of the response. The theodicy problem emerges as a result of the tension between three propositions: (1) Evil is present in the world and is the cause of much suffering; (2) The Christian notion of God assumes that God is a God of mercy and love also for perpetrators, and would therefore presumably not want creatures to suffer more than they can bear (whether they are innocent or not); and (3) God is powerful (some would say omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient) and therefore presumably able to do something about suffering. Why, then, is there so much suffering in the world, especially innocent suffering? Why does evil prevail? The term “theodicy” refers to Christian attempts to defend God, to justify God against accusations that God (1) does not exist, (2) is not really loving, or (3) is not able to address the evil causes of suffering. The theodicy problem is partially resolved when any one of these propositions are dropped. This comes in the form of (1) Gnosticism (evil is only a matter of appearance); (2) atheism, deism, secularism, or fatalism (either God does not exist or another force influences or even determines our lives, such as fate, luck, the Market or the Party), or (3) Manichaeism (matter is evil, suffering comes from our attachment to the material world). According to the latter, the universe is ruled by two co-original principles, God and Satan, locked in a constant struggle for domination. If so, we need to muster the forces of goodness against evil in the hope that goodness will prevail. However, the presence of suffering should not surprise us. Another option (followed by the Marquis de Sade) is that God exists but is an utterly malevolent genius.13 All theodicies have to address three further tensions that result from the way the problem is posed: (1) Some would tend to emphasize God’s power more than God’s love or the inverse; (2) Some would emphasize God’s responsibility to address suffering more than our human responsibility to do so (leading to quietism) or the inverse (leading to an anxious, somewhat desperate activism); and (3) Some would attempt to offer rational explanations (and become despondent when these inevitably fail), while others would in humility prefer to maintain a respectful, apophatic silence amid suffering, not jumping to quick-fix solutions14 (that may well  See Neiman, Evil in Modern Thought, 116.  Recommended by NT Wright in God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and its Aftermath (London: SPCK, 2020), xi. 13 14

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fail to address the problem). These could be regarded as legitimate tensions: the question is how to do justice to both the polar opposites.

Six Influential Responses to Theodicy Questions Here, then, are six options to address the theodicy problem: (a) “Suffering is incomprehensible.” We simply have to accept suffering as something that comes from God’s hand. God’s ways are wonderful and in our own best interest but they are sometimes hidden for us. A sense of humility is called for because we are not God; our understanding remains rather limited. Like Job we have to confess that we do not know why there is so much suffering and why it is so unevenly distributed. The most appropriate response for human beings is to live a quiet life in gratitude coram Deo. In this quietist approach human responsibility to address the sources of suffering is underplayed. God is the potter and we are the clay. Silence in the face of suffering is regarded as more appropriate than an anxious search for sophisticated answers. Such an approach may encourage an acquiescence in suffering and suppress a resistance against unjust suffering. Amid COVID-19 such an approach is scarcely adopted by ecclesial authorities but readily adopted by the laity. This is typically evoked by a recognition of the natural causes of the pandemic. Why are there deadly viruses in God’s good creation? Since this question is unanswerable, a quiet acceptance seems appropriate. Moreover, it is in the very nature of infection that it is not something one seeks: the virus invisibly penetrates one’s immune system. One rarely knows how one will be infected (or else such contact will be avoided) except for cases within a family. Besides risky behavior, if one has come into contact with an infected person unknowingly, one can only await the outcome of a test. Why are some heavily affected by the virus while others have little or no symptoms? The virus continues to baffle medical scientists so an emphasis on its incomprehensibility seems appropriate. Besides comorbidities (sometimes unknown to the patient), age, and perhaps blood types, the outcome of infection still seems arbitrary, at least to some extent. Some stoic silence in the face of suffering, therefore, seems appropriate. Or in a more secular version, many who are still uninfected would say: “If it is your day, it is your day!” If so, it is fate that rules our lives.

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(b) “We need to offer protest before God about human suffering.” We cannot accept human suffering as being God’s will. God’s will is not hidden or mysterious but known in the Torah and in the teachings of Jesus and Paul. It is unacceptable and indeed incomprehensible that God could allow such suffering to continue. A radical trust in both God’s power and God’s love calls for a complaint addressed to God in God’s name against God’s refusal to act. This may be expressed in the form of a prayer and the hope that God will still act to alleviate the suffering. It may also be expressed, perhaps more authentically, in the form of lament.15 The emphasis in this approach is again on God’s own responsibility and not so much on human responsibility. The origins of evil and suffering are not found in something outside God’s power. God is therefore called to address such evil. Unlike the previous approach, suffering may be quite comprehensible, but God’s refusal to act is not. This response is evoked more readily by a recognition of overwhelming social evil (symbolized by the Holocaust) than by natural evil. Amid COVID-19 one may consider the illegal trade in animal products that seem almost impossible to bring to a halt, even by autocratic governments. There seems to be a clear correlation between corrupt or unpopular governments and an inability to address the pandemic. Put differently, the pandemic has exposed the underlying cracks in government. While there are many possible examples here, let me mention only the Trump administration in the USA, the Bolsonaro administration in Brazil, and the ANC-led government in South Africa, countries with the highest, the second highest, and fifth-highest official number of infections at the time of writing (August 2020). In the case of South Africa, President Ramaphosa acknowledged in an open letter to his own party that the African National Congress (ANC) is accused number 1 given the state of endemic corruption within the party, fatally illustrated by contracts secured by cadres involving COVID-19 funding.16 How, then, does one address the pandemic if this requires overcoming forms of corruption that have spread 15  In God and the Pandemic Wright recommends grief and also lament, but focuses on admitting that we do not have easy answers in the face of the pandemic (53), probably because he does not allow for the problem of natural evil (57). In the psalms lament also focuses on protest over God’s failure to act where injustices clearly demand that. 16  See, for example, https://www.scribd.com/document/473358868/200823-Letter-­ to-ANC-Members#from_embed (accessed 25 August 2020).

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like a cancer throughout society?17 Against overwhelming odds it is not surprising that the faithful would turn to God in the hope that God would intervene to put an end to a form of violence that is structural in nature, scope, and impact. (c) “Human suffering is the product of human sin and may be regarded as God’s punishment or chastisement for sin.” God is not responsible for human suffering because God willed the emergence of free, rational but therefore also fallible creatures. The possibility of sin and of suffering is a necessary function of human freedom. This Augustinian approach accepts individual and collective human responsibility for sin as the most obvious cause of human suffering. It emphasizes God’s righteousness and power more than God’s love. The most appropriate response is a confession of sin and the proclamation of God’s forgiveness. However, such a confession would not resolve several theological problems that follow from this position. Why did God allow sin to emerge in the first place? What about those who suffer as a result of the sins of others? Would this not blame victims (e.g. of rape) for their own suffering? Why does God need to punish us that much? Is all suffering really the result of sin? Such an emphasis on divine punishment is much maligned in ecclesial discourse and official resolutions.18 It portrays God as a bully who metes out severe punishment, even to God’s own children. It seems to undermine any notion of a loving parent. Amid the HIV/AIDS pandemic the view that AIDS is God’s punishment for either homosexuality or promiscuity was rightly rejected as contributing to its stigma. There is ample 17  This prompted a statement (dated 26 August 2020) by a group led by the South African Council of Churches calling for transparency, accountability, and ethical governance. The statement added, “There comes a time when the moral depravity of some in positions of authority, and in the private sector, undermine the very notion of nationhood and the underlying value of public service. We are compelled to assert: This is not how we shall be known as a nation.” See https://www.oikoumene.org/en/press-centre/news/moral-call-­collective-­issues-statementon-COVID-19-corruption-in-south-africa (accessed 5 September 2020). 18  The second thesis in a circular letter entitled “Kairos for Creation – Kairos for Humanity: The Corona-Crisis as Expression and Acceleration of the Ecological Crisis: How to Mend Disturbed Balances Between Humanity, Nature and Wildlife?” reads: “The virus is not a punishment from God, but God is suffering with those who encounter illness.” This letter was distributed to participants in a conference on “Kairos for Creation” held in Wuppertal in June 2019.

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evidence with COVID-19 that victims of the disease are also stigmatized, exacerbated by the need for social distancing that is easily blurred with social exorcism and even ecclesial excommunication. This is abhorrent, especially at the individual level where victims are rightly treated as patients and not perpetrators. Admittedly some comorbidities are related to lifestyle issues (eating, smoking, drinking) and this affects the ability of those infected to overcome the disease. But who would interpret that as divine punishment? In secular circles, perhaps surprisingly, this response may be less outrageous, especially if the pandemic is understood in terms of the widest possible lens, namely that of Earth system science. The term “earth systems” (and earth system science) refers to the way in which planetary systems interact with each other. These include, in layperson’s terms, the biosphere (living organisms), the atmosphere (various gases in different layers), the hydrosphere (oceans, fresh water, ice), and the lithosphere (solid earth). Each of these can be further subdivided and all are influenced by fluctuations in the earth’s axis, the earth’s orbit around the sun, solar radiation, the moon, and other forces in the solar system. One would also need to add the influence of the noosphere (the human mind) and its outcomes in terms of technology, culture, and (contested) notions of civilization. Earth system science emerged over the past two decades to study the interaction between these Earth systems. The landmark “2001 Amsterdam Declaration on Earth System Science,” issued by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), reported that the relative stability that characterized the Holocene (roughly the 12,000 years since the last ice age) and also the Pleistocene (roughly the last 2.5  million years characterized by intermittent ice ages) has become disturbed.19 What makes this troubling within the current COVID-19 pandemic is that earth system scientists have predicted the outbreak of such viral diseases as likely given habitat loss, loss of biodiversity, and the impact of climate change (given the movement of species and therefore also of pathogens). They warn that COVID-19 may be followed by other viral pandemics and that its impact on the global economy will pale into insignificance given the much larger-scale impact of climate change expected in decades to come.20

19  See http://www.igbp.net/about/history/2001amsterdamdeclarationonearthsystemsci ence.4.1b8ae20512db692f2a680001312.html (accessed 16 January 2019). 20  See again Brooks, Hoberg and Boeger, The Stockholm Paradigm.

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In short, COVID-19 is only, in a superficial sense, a health problem. It serves as a dress rehearsal for the kind of challenges posed by climate change. Is such a position open to a theological interpretation? Few would dare to go there but it would sound something like this: God is sending us a warning through COVID-19 that we are endangering the health of the whole planet and therefore our own health as well. By not intervening God is punishing the world’s human population for their folly. This is then interpreted as “God’s wrath on extractive civilization, and particularly on its secular salvation narrative of human progress through mastery of nature.”21 If we fail to heed this warning we should expect worse punishment to come. If so, only a small remnant will be saved. God’s wrath regarding humanity’s sins is a function of God’s love for all other creatures. (d) “God is teaching us a lesson through suffering.” Suffering comes from God as a form of divine pedagogy. It strengthens our character. Something good may come out of suffering. The creative acceptance of suffering provides an opportunity for spiritual growth. The attractiveness of this so-called Irenaean approach is related to its emphasis on human freedom and responsibility. However, the question would remain whether that much suffering is really necessary to teach us a lesson? Are some forms of suffering not in the end destructive of character? Is the emphasis here not on God’s power more than on God’s love? Is this approach not more concerned with protecting God’s honor through logical argumentation than with addressing the anguish of those who suffer? Amid COVID-19 this position can readily build upon but also amend a theological interpretation of earth system science. It would emphasize divine pedagogy instead of divine punishment. If so, COVID-19 is God’s wake-up call to recognize the impact of industrialized capitalism and the global inequalities associated with that.22 Instead of hoping to overcome the disease to get the economy back on track, even to recover to the “new-­ normal,” we need to see that a radical transformation of the energy basis 21  See Willis Jenkins, Evan Berry, and Luke Beck Kreider, “Religion and Climate Change.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources 43 (2018): 9.1–9.24 (9.2). 22  See again the circular letter “Kairos for Creation – Kairos for Humanity.” See also Thesis 5 of the AACC: “COVID-19 is a wake-up call for the church.” This wake-up call is understood in terms of the church’s diakonia in the world. See also Thesis 6: “COVID-19 is a reminder to the church of calling to be in solidarity with the poor and the vulnerable.”

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of the global economy is required starting within this decade. The significance of the enforced cut in carbon emissions in 2020 (as compared to 2019) is hotly debated but would need to be followed by further cuts every year up to 2050 when net zero emissions should be reached. If we fail to heed God’s pedagogy we should expect worse forms of self-inflicted punishment. (e) “God’s power is a function of persuasive love.” God’s love is vulnerable. God’s power is the strange power of the cross. The cross of Christ is then our only hope. This is the way God opted for in order to address suffering induced by the might of Empire—not through coercive (even violent) control that would perpetuate long-term suffering, but through patient and vicarious suffering that would identify, expose, and transform the sources of suffering from within. God’s love for creation implies a vulnerability that causes God grief and suffering when this love is not reciprocated. There is a close correlation between intimacy and vulnerability, also for a God of love. This approach suggests that suffering may well be a necessary function of creaturely existence. The intuition behind this approach is that God’s love should be central in any theological attempt to address human suffering. It offers a resolution for the tension between God love and power by regarding God’s power as a function of God’s love. God’s power is not coercive but persuasive. This position remains vulnerable in the face of the feminist critique against the abuse of sacrificial suffering to legitimize the oppression of women. The focus on the power of the cross begs theological questions about the power of the resurrection. If God has the power to raise Jesus from the dead within the context of human history, why does God not address other forms of human suffering? Is solidarity in suffering all that the Christian gospel can offer? Is it enough to say that God works only through the cross, only through patiently waiting, that God does something by not interfering (e.g. letting Jesus die on the cross)? Is this not the same as saying that God is doing something by doing nothing? Is such a God worthy of our worship? Is this what the world needs?

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This approach is probably the default ecclesial response from industrialized contexts during COVID-19.23 The intuition is that God’s loving presence is more helpful than any emphasis on God’s power, especially for those dying, their family members, and also those for whom social distancing means isolation and is already the worst form of punishment. Given the impact of social and economic inequalities, this response is readily extended to emphasize God’s solidarity with those who are vulnerable and without access to proper health care or health financing. The answer to the question “Where is God amidst the pandemic?” is then “Out there, on the front line, suffering and dying to bring healing and hope.”24 Does this imply that God is helpless amid the pandemic? The danger is that a vulnerable God can easily become irrelevant. Some ecclesial authorities wish to assert their role in care giving, but others recognize the secularizing impact of a few months of lockdown regulations where the world needs to and seems able to continue without regular worship services. By contrast, the world seems to be pinning its hope on the power of technology: that scientists will produce a vaccine and that this can be spread all over the world rapidly. The virus can be stopped in its tracks only if the weakest link is strengthened. Vulnerability is then a danger, not an asset. Does this mean that God nowadays works mainly through science, suggesting a need to pray for scientists?25 Or is God’s vulnerability (and inactivity) the necessary prompt for taking up human responsibility (a form of concursus)? (f) “What is required is not passive acquiescence in suffering but courageous human participation in God’s struggle against evil.”

23  For example, see the pastoral letter of 18 March issued by Agnes Abuom and Olav Fykse Tveit, https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/general-secretary/ messages-­and-letters/pasoral-letter-18-march-2020/view (accessed 27 August 2020). An excerpt reads: “In the face of this challenge, fear and even panic is a common reaction, and self-interest often pushes solidarity aside. We pray that our living and loving God will calm our fears, and quell any rising panic, so that we can be able to focus on what we can do for one another.” See also the AACC’s Thesis 4: “Even in suffering and death, we know God promises to be with us.” 24  Wright, God and the Pandemic, 68. 25  See the statement issued by Biologos entitled “A Christian Statement on Science for Pandemic Times,” https://statement.biologos.org/?utm_source=BioLogos%20Primary&utm_ campaign=a4ed7aabe2-EARTH-DAY-AT-50_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_ term=0_17bb4843ae-a4ed7aabe2-419398501 (accessed 27 August 2020).

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According to most forms of liberation theology, suffering is quite comprehensible. It can be attributed mainly (if not exclusively) to the forces of evil which can be named and exposed. God is against such evil. Human beings are God’s instruments who are called to resist such evil. This is arguably the default position from the perspective of minorities in affluent societies and majorities in the global South. It would not help to focus on the natural causes of a viral pandemic if its impact is vastly exacerbated by structural violence in the form of economic injustices, more direct forms of violence, and ecological destruction. Amid COVID-19 the existing inequalities are exposed by inequalities in health, access to health care, and the quality of the health care itself. Not only black lives, but especially black health matters.26 Hope in the promises of God may encourage us to fight against the causes of the COVID-19 pandemic, to care for its many victims, and to work for a better future. Like with protest theodicies evil has to be analyzed and resisted, but unlike protest theodicies, the emphasis here is on human responsibility and not so much on God’s responsibility. The danger though is that God-talk may become little more than a metaphoric way of talking about human responsibility. It remains a question whether such a futurist orientation can bring salvation also for the victims of the past. Has God sacrificed the dead for the sake of the living, the past for the sake of the future? And will a better society finally arrive somewhere in the future or will new manifestations of evil surface in each new dispensation? Do prospects for a better future not look bleak? Can the forces of good and the forces of evil be distinguished so clearly (e.g. the rapist and the rape victim, the oppressor and the oppressed)? Or perhaps not (e.g. gangsters as victims and perpetrators)? What then about collective guilt for the side-effects of industrialized society, given anthropogenic climate change?

An Inconclusive Postscript The theodicy problem remains intractable. Any such a “Why?” question tends to be both unanswerable and disorienting.27 Likewise, even if the COVID-19 pandemic is overcome (through a successful vaccine widely 26  See the volume edited by R. Drew Smith, Stephanie C. Boddie & Bertis D. English, Racialized Health, COVID-19, and Religious Responses: Black Atlantic Contexts and Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2022). 27  Tracy, Fragments, 73.

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distributed and administered), this would not undo the fact that so many died or were affected by the disease. Its impact can be ameliorated but past suffering cannot be undone. Not even an almighty God can do so. Every moment of suffering in the history of life on earth poses the theodicy problem. Even if faith in God is abandoned, secular forms of the same problem emerge, especially regarding the prevalence of social evil. Even if final answers cannot be expected, Christians would be advised not to accept easy answers and to guard against distortions that plague each of the six options sketched above. One of these distortions is a preoccupation with natural evil—thus blaming all suffering on God. Augustinian and liberation theodicies rightly focus our attention on human complicity in a pandemic such as COVID-19. If humans have become a geological force of nature, as discourse on the so-called Anthropocene suggests, then such complicity reaches much further than previously thought. One needs to acknowledge the anthropogenic causes of the disease—in order to recognize the much greater challenge around anthropogenic climate change.28 While liberation theologies rightly emphasize a differentiated complicity, Augustinian views rightly emphasize a common predicament.29 Such a recognition may even challenge the interest in the theodicy problem itself—and focus our attention on the Christian message of what God has done in Christ and through the Spirit to overcome (social) evil.30 This does not resolve the deeper problem though, namely how to do justice to faith in God as Creator (given natural sources of suffering) and in God as Savior (given social evil). Through the tertium datur of God as Consummator?31 From a Trinitarian perspective it is at least clear that the secular tendency to love creation while blaming the Creator for its faults is not a viable route.32

28  For recent discussions, see Ernst M. Conradie, and Hilda P. Koster (eds), T&T Clark Handbook on Christian Theology and Climate Change (London et al.: T&T Clark, 2019); also, Ezra Chitando, Ernst M. Conradie & Susan M. Kilonzo (eds), African Perspectives on Religion and Climate Change (London: Routledge, 2022). 29  For one retrieval of an Augustinian position see Ernst M.  Conradie, Redeeming Sin? Social Diagnostics amid Ecological Destruction (Langham: Lexington, 2017). 30  See my argument in Ernst M.  Conradie, “The Project and Prospects of ‘Redeeming Sin?’: Some Core Insights and Several Unresolved Problems,” Scriptura 119 (2020), 1–22. 31  For a discussion, see Ernst M. Conradie, The Earth in God’s Economy: Creation, Salvation and Consummation in Ecological Perspective (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2015). 32  See Neiman, Evil in Modern Thought, 299.

CHAPTER 3

Lament in the City Geomon K. George, Reji George, Sarah Gerth van den Berg, Mark R. Gornik, Adebisi Oyesile, and Afia Sun Kim

Introduction In January 2020, foreboding signs of what we now call the COVID-19 pandemic emerged as a threat to global public health, and within a month, fears of an outbreak in New York City were increasingly being realized. By mid-March 2020, New York City, where we are located, locked down. For a time, the city became the national and global epicenter of this pandemic, bringing unspeakable loss of life. By 25 May 2020, 21,259 deaths from COVID-19 were recorded in New York City, more than one out of five

G. K. George • R. George • S. G. van den Berg • M. R. Gornik (*) • A. Oyesile • A. S. Kim City Seminary of New York, New York, NY, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_3

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total deaths from the virus in the United States.1 Two years later, by April of 2022, the total deaths in New York City from COVID-19 exceeded 40,000 lives lost. In the first months, ambulance sirens filled the silence of “the city that never sleeps.” Lament for loss can also ground hope, as Fr. Emmanuel Katongole has shown.2 In New York, this began with a 7:00 pm city-wide ritual of clapping, banging pots and pans, and cheering for health care providers, delivery persons, building workers, local merchants, and others who keep the city going. To understand the church in response to COVID-19, of hope amid lament, in March 2020 City Seminary of New York began a research initiative called “Sustained by the Spirit”, to attend to the experiences, practices, and beliefs of congregations in the city during the pandemic, with an emphasis on congregations closely connected to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. While the initial geographical focus is New York City, and to this end we also included a selection of churches in the larger metropolitan area, by November 2020, the study became national. We will not know for years what major and lasting changes will have come to the institutions and practices of Christian faith as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but by seeking to understand the church in the present moment, we will be better able to engage in an assessment of these changes over time. In this report on our findings on the first phase of the pandemic, we summarize the research methodologies we took to understand the church in the city during this time of COVID-19, provide a selection of case studies, identify some early thematic practices of the churches during this time, and conclude with preliminary observations. But first, we will introduce the context of Christian faith in New York City.

1  The Gothamist website is an important source of daily data; see https://gothamist.com/ news/coronavirus-statistics-tracking-epidemic-new-york. On 25 May 2020, The New York Times front page was without images, only columns of names of people who have died from COVID-19. The headline reads “U.S. Deaths Near 100,000, An Incalculable Loss.” 2  Emmanuel Katongole, Born from Lament: The Theology and Politics of Hope in Africa (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017).

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Christian Faith in New York As the historian Andrew F. Walls has noted, Christianity has in principle always been culturally diverse, and it is now in practice present around the world: a six-continent religion.3 For much of the church in the West, however, this world of Christianity has not entered into its consciousness. Such developments are often seen as something “over there” or perhaps a course of study. World Christianity, however, has reshaped the religious ecology of New York City and is more significant to societal and ecclesial structures than may be realized. In fact, New York has experienced the most significant change to its religious life in over a century. The great immigration of 1880–1910 from Europe influenced and shaped religious life in New York, and led to many new parishes and churches across the city. A more recent great immigration from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean has led to diaspora movements of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries across New York City. The movement of people has also brought a crossing of religious commitments, resulting in the forming or renewing over 1500 congregations and parishes.4 As Reji George, a part of our research team has observed, Christian faith in New York City is like an Indian sari, a fabric of many threads woven together into the neighborhoods and life of the city.5 Each thread brings its own beauty, but together, it witnesses to the fullness of the body of Christ in the city. This has continued to be evident during the pandemic.

Research Methodology Sustained by the Spirit began with our own experience of different cultures, worship experiences, and neighborhoods during the pandemic. We started by listening to and recording the conversations happening with colleagues, church networks, and congregations. As those stories encouraged us, we hoped they might encourage and inspire others, so we created 3  Andrew F.  Walls, Crossing Cultural Frontiers: Studies in World Christianity, edited by Mark R. Gornik (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2017). 4  Nancy Foner, From Ellis Island to JFK: New  York’s Two Great Waves of Immigration (New Haven: Yale University Press and New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2000). 5  This analogy comes from Reji George, “Women, Faith and Everyday Life: Indian Diaspora Women Living in the United States” (City Seminary of New York, MA Capstone Paper, 2020).

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a website to house these short anecdotes about health and community, and, with our colleague Maria Liu Wong, continued adding to it each week. We also reflected on our seminary context of Harlem and the loss of life being experienced in the neighborhood. As we realized that this is a key moment in our public and congregational life to archive for future study and learning, we sought to gather these stories more systematically and intentionally across diverse church communities. In particular, we wanted to understand: • How is COVID-19 uniquely impacting churches in New York City? • How are churches during COVID-19 impacting their communities and city? • Could the disruptions caused by COVID-19 help us learn something about the global city as an epicenter not only of a worldwide pandemic, but also of world Christianity? We created a survey addressing changes in worship, ministry, community life, and pastoral care and sent it to members and alumni of City Seminary of New  York learning communities, currently serving in and leading churches and ministries across the city. This provided a broad overview of the landscape of church life during coronavirus. From this sample, author networks, and the Global New  York Church Project of City Seminary, we next identified approximately 20 congregations in the greater New York metropolitan area for interviews and digital “site visits.” Interviews elaborated on the questions developed in the survey. Site visits involved attending virtual services, for which we recorded field notes and screenshots as a visual archive of worship.6 From the interviews and site visits, we developed case studies for a more detailed portrait of this sample of churches and pastoral ministry. What follows is a selection of those case studies, and themes we drew across survey, interview, and site visit data.

6  For background on technology and religion, Heidi Campbell, Exploring Religious Community Online: We are One in the Network (New York: Peter Lang, 2005); Heidi Campbell, When Religion Meets New Media  (New York: Routledge, 2010); Heidi A. Campbell, eds., Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds (New York: Routledge, 2013).

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Case Studies As the city experienced months of death and job loss, congregations heard the laments, the cries and responded in holistic ways. Crossroads Christian Center Crossroads Christian Center is a Pentecostal church in Queens, New York City, and is part of the Council of Damascus Christian Churches. At present, the church membership is composed mainly of people originating from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Worship is conducted in Spanish and English, but primarily in Spanish. According to Pastor Norma Santiago, COVID-19 significantly impacted the Crossroads Christian Center. The church quickly shifted to online services the same week of the shutdown. They gathered together using a telephone conference line for prayer, reflection, and worship through conference calls and Zoom. Pastor Norma continues to offer the same weekly services of prayer, Bible study and worship, and in each meeting, attendance has increased. In April, there was a congregational week of fasting and prayer. Everyone took a day to fast, with another campaign of fasting and prayer planned. In addition, on Wednesdays the church started a 24-hour chain prayer in partnership with CONLICO (Confraternidad de Líderes Conciliares), the network of Hispanic Pentecostal churches in New York. Pastor Norma provides pastoral care to each member by praying with them, especially the ones who have lost their jobs. She is continually encouraging them by sending motivational text messages and Bible verses. Pastor Norma is “constantly” praying for essential workers, especially those in her church. Her husband, Jose W. Santiago, works in maintenance. Another member of the church is a driver for the public transportation system (MTA). The biggest challenge she faced as a pastor so far has been the death of a church member. Pastor Norma is saddened by the fact that after this member was sick with COVID-19, she was not able to visit and pray with him. During this time, Pastor Norma was by the side of the family. She continuously talked with them, dropped off food, and prayed with them. The church continues to minister to the wife and family and has also sent offerings.

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The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Chapel of Hope The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Chapel of Hope is part of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, a global network based in Nigeria. Chapel of Hope was established in October 2006 by Pastor Adebisi Oyesile (Pastor Ade), in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, and began with the support of his wife, Pastor Abosede Oyesile (Pastor Abby). Prior to the pandemic, the church typically engaged in prayer and fasting for the first seven days of each month. However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the church modified this practice for the health of their members and engaged in additional initiatives: • Encouraged congregants to pray individually for a minimum of five minutes every hour of every day, interceding for the health of their communities and the world. • Implemented Prayer Program tagged: “Morning Shower” where members gather via teleconference every morning (Monday– Saturday) from 6:00 am to 6:15 am to pray for the communities and nations of the world. • Established “For Such a Time Like This,” a program with a focus on ministry for members affected by the impact of the pandemic through assistance with, but not limited to, accommodation, financial support, general well-being, and prayer. • Developed sermon messages about the need to use this time to consider God’s purpose for their lives, just like Esther in the Biblical story. There were three cases of the COVID-19 within the Redeemed Christian Church of God Chapel of Hope, but each individual recovered. There is a belief in the church of God’s faithfulness, power, and kindness. All Nations Church-House of Restoration All Nations Church-House of Restoration, in nearby Elizabeth, New Jersey, is a Ghanaian congregation. All Nations Church-House of Restoration has been streaming Sunday Worship online for several years, leading to their perspective that when the COVID-19 shut down took place, “We are ready, God has been preparing us for this time.” They were using multiple platforms even before the pandemic, such as Homepage,

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Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Zoom, and conference calls. General attendance before COVID-19 was approximately 200 persons. However, almost 800 people watched their worship service within a week in April, and this online “attendance” is growing. What causes them to thrive in this situation is not only about how many platforms they have been using, but also how much they embrace online platforms as a new way of gathering and worshiping. Online platforms are not supplementary but substantial tools for them. While the church had the technological capacities to shift to online services, they are continually facing new challenges as they stretch from their comfort zone to this new territory. Pastor Asmah creatively made a personal connection with members in at least three different ways during their online worship service of 17 May 2020. First, one youth member was invited to church to join the live streaming essential team and to lead the opening prayer. This student won a prize during their Bible competition and attended the worship service in the sanctuary to take the prize. She was also there to represent the second-­ generation group, signaling that they matter to the wider church community. Second, while he was preaching, Pastor Asmah used his phone to check the reactions in “real-time” on YouTube and Facebook from the pulpit. Sprinkled into his sermon were responses to his congregation’s reactions: “I can hear you, your amens and shouts.” He demonstrated that he values people who are watching online, emulating the kinds of connection that come from the energy of in-person call and response rhythms to the sermon. Lastly, Pastor Asmah mentioned all the names of those who are celebrating their birthday during the week. Taking time to name those individuals one by one meaningfully recognized them within the broader community. Epiphany Mar Thoma Church The Rev. Sibu Pallichris is the Vicar of the Epiphany Mar Thoma Church in Queens, New York, the first Mar Thoma congregation in North America. With a membership of over 1000 Kerala (India) diaspora Christians, Rev. Sibu shared, “This is the hardest part of pastoral ministry. I want to be with my parish members, especially with those who are suffering.” At the time, according to Rev. Sibu, there were 73 church members diagnosed with COVID-19. Every day, Rev. Sibu calls each one and prays with them. Rev. Sibu Pallichris is serving his second year of a

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three-­year term at the Epiphany Mar Thoma Church. With his wife Soji and three children, Rev. Sibu resides at the parish home next to the church. During the lockdown, this is where you will find Rev. Sibu praying and interceding for parish members, city, and nations. Rev. Sibu is in the sanctuary daily at 5 am. Recognizing that this pandemic is affecting the overall well-being of the congregation, Rev. Sibu started a series of daily online prayers. The first congregational prayer starts at 5:15 am. The second meeting starts at 8:45 am. Both of these meetings are targeted for essential workers. Over 25 percent of the congregants are essential workers: doctors, nurses, physical therapists, firefighters, and postal workers. Rev. Sibu wants to pray with them and encourage them with a short message of hope before they leave for work. At 5:45 pm, there is an English prayer for the next generation, who are not proficient in Malayalam. On an average, 60 people join this meeting. At 7 pm, there is the evening prayer. Around 200 families join the evening prayer service. There are two worship services on Sunday. The first service offered in Malayalam starts at 9:30. The second service is in English at 11 am. Prior to COVID-19, the online resources of the church, such as the website and WhatsApp, were primarily used to disseminate church news and announcements. During the pandemic the church quickly shifted to different online platforms such as Zoom. Many people use telephones to access Zoom meetings. One reason is that the majority of the first-­ generation Keralites, now retired, are more comfortable using telephones. The telephone conference line is another platform through which the church comes together. During this pandemic, the church has organized members to purchase food and cook for those who are most impacted. Rev. Sibu also encourages his members to think of their “home as a church.” He wants to have a seismic shift in their thinking. If worshipping from home is the “new” normal then Rev. Sibu wants to change the way they think about church. Instead of allocating a few hours over technology to gather for service, he asks, “how can you make your home a church?” He is not in a rush to open the church building. Rev. Sibu sees a growth in the faith of his members during this time. More people are also praying and reading the Scripture. The homes are becoming a church. One of the innovative resources is the creation of an iPhone application called “segtho,” named after the Aramaic word for worship. Developed by members of the Epiphany church Yuvajana Sakhyam (Youth Group), this

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liturgical resource is based on the book of common prayer, Namaskaram, of the Mar Thoma Syrian church. The app also provides a way to submit prayer requests and is embedded with a church bell as a reminder for worship (every three hours). This was originally designed as a worship resource for the local parish. However, through mobile sharing, 15,000 people worldwide are using this app daily. As Rev. Sibu reflects over the past few months, he says, “it is by the grace of God that I am sustained.” The global COVID-19 pandemic has stretched his imagination to provide pastoral care for congregations. Since he can’t be physically present, he wants to be virtually present. He is always looking for ways to make himself “present” in the life of the parish. Rev. Sibu says, “Please pray that my voice won’t go.”

Themes As we engaged in research with pastors and churches, the following themes emerged: pastoral care, lament, community, worship, finance, and home. While we identify them individually, they overlap and must be thought of in relation to each other. As we discuss these themes, we emphasize the unique impact of COVID-19 on diaspora churches in the city, using each to refract some way in which we think about the intersection of a worldwide pandemic with world Christianity in a global city. Pastoral Care The COVID-19 pandemic has been very demanding on pastors, who want to be close to their congregations and communities. Pastors work at all hours, using zoom and telephone calls, and provide care by prayer for healing and protection, checking, coordinating food, and much more. They also preach amid the times and seek to craft sermons that comfort, encourage, and address new daily realities. Lament The tremendous loss of life in the city has led to lament, found in the prayers and daily life of congregations. This is represented in funeral bunting on a church building in Harlem for a pastor who died and in the absence of more traditional funeral services held for those who died, from young to old. Given limits on in-person gatherings, home memorial

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services have been held via Zoom. Pastoral care meets lament in the rise of violence against Asian and Asian Americans in the city. Following the police killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, protests became part of everyday life in the city, continuing for weeks. Again, in the face of neighborhood and racial disparities of life outcomes due to COVID-19, such as in the Bronx and parts of Queens, there is also lament.7 The ­intersection of religion, migration, economics, health, and living crystallizes the complexity of this pandemic and its effect on the fabric of communities across a global city. Community While congregations have been unable to gather in-person, there have been a variety of means of sustaining community life. Once the shutdown of the city occurred to stop viral spread, churches used a variety of technological modalities to maintain community, grow the gathered congregation, and continue ministry. This has also shifted generational patterns. For first-generation members, churches provide a, if not the, primary form of community in a new city, which is adhered to fiercely in daily conference calls for prayer. Now, it’s increasingly the next- and second-­generation members who are more technologically savvy and mediate the influx of platforms for worship and ministry, as they do a True Holy Apostolic Church in East New York, Brooklyn. Technology In our research, we found that congregations used a variety of technologies for common life, prayer, and worship. Indeed, many congregations were already agile with technology and made the transition to fully online very smoothly. WhatsApp groups and Facebook were frequent internal modes of communication. Conference calls, along with Zoom, were a common means of conducting daily and weekly prayer meetings. For 7  Webb Hooper M, Nápoles AM, Pérez-Stable EJ, “COVID-19 and Racial/Ethnic Disparities,” JAMA. Published online May 11, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1001/ jama.2020.8598. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2766098. CDC National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), Division of Viral Diseases, “COVID-19  in Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups,” Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Published online April 22, 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/ coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/racial-ethnic-minorities.html.

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worship and other church meetings, conference call lines, Zoom, GoToMeeting, and Facebook Live were all used. A number of congregations already had in place their own YouTube Channels from which to live stream services. While we do not have a comparison to a mainstream evangelical church in this sample, we do find the transmedia nature of worship in diaspora churches noteworthy—consider, for example, how Pastor Asmah checked and incorporated “live” comments from YouTube and Facebook during his live-streamed service, and prayer requests and updates that travel across WhatsApp, Facebook, and conference calls. While it may seem evident that the use of technologies during the pandemic represents a shift to a more digital, the long-term implications are unclear. One reason is that thus far, the use of technologies is not as much a new way of being church as an adaptive practice to maintain the connection. A second reason is the theological questions around mediation, particularly the Eucharist, and the role of technology for historically sacramental ecclesiology. Worship Initially at least, as they went online, many worship services appeared to have gained participants, not just locally, but globally, adding overseas “members” as Christians in Kerala stream into a service with a sister church in Queens, or Ghanaian Christians in Elizabeth tap into the well-­established infrastructure of YouTube services based in Accra. Examples abound, from Seoul to Jamaica. Some technologies, like YouTube, emphasized viewing the service or sermon, with other ways for small groups to be in the conversation. Other churches, using means like GoToMeeting and Facebook Live, supported more face-to-face worship, prayer, and conversation. Finance All the pastors whom we interviewed reported, at least in the initial months, a decrease in financial giving during COVID-19. Many of them have seen their members lose their jobs, and approach church giving sensitively. Churches have taken different initiatives to receive tithes and offering through mobile, online platforms, postal service, or personal collection. For example, as part of the Sunday morning worship service, members of the Crossroads Christian Center in Manhattan hold up their tithes and offerings envelope as the pastor prays.

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What is been perhaps surprising is that despite the initial decline in giving, the members are making sure that the services of the church continue to operate, and finances largely returned to a stable level. But the challenge of operating was also seen as an opportunity to examine the essential services of the church. Pastor Babu Thomas, an Indian Pentecostal pastor serving in Queens, New York, says, “Spending is being carefully examined. You think twice before spending it.” There was also a concern for church budgets if the economic downturn continues, but here we already see sacrifice and adaptability by pastors and congregations. Our study also indicates the pandemic is impacting remittances, but this still requires further time to fully understand. As the year went on, a number of congregations reported increased giving, yet the financial stress on communities, facing new needs, only seemed to grow.

Conclusion Like the city itself, faith is already coming out on the other side of this pandemic changed. As we have continued with the Sustained by the Spirit project, we have seen faith more resilient, more intensely both local and global, and more engaged in the everyday work of community. We can also look for a world, as Pope Francis urged, that is more generous, more committed to human solidarity, more awakened to the future of the whole of creation.8 Lament is not just in New York City, but for the world in this pandemic. And in this, perhaps the church might be even in closer touch with risk, suffering, and vulnerability, like the Word made flesh itself (John 1:14).

8  This has been an important way of seeing for Pope Francis, including in Fratelli Tutti. See also Pope Francis, “A Crisis Reveals What is in our Hearts,” The New York Times (November 29, 2020), SR 3.

CHAPTER 4

Faith in the International Order Kenneth R. Ross

Introduction One inescapable feature of the COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the world in 2020 is that it has shown how inter-connected and interdependent is the human community. The trade routes and tourist travel that have created a “global village” became the channels along which a deadly virus could travel. Such was its contagious nature that, within a short time, the disease was spreading in many countries and few, if any, were spared from its effects. It was soon apparent that the spread of the coronavirus was a global crisis calling for a global response. The importance of such international organizations as the United Nations and the World Health Organization quickly became clear. Yet the human community had to meet the pandemic after a period of systematic weakening of agencies of international cooperation as populist and nationalist political movements An earlier and longer version of this chapter was published in Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies 37/4 (October 2020). Gratitude is due to the editor and publisher for their kind permission to publish this substantially revised version in the present collection.

K. R. Ross (*) Zomba Theological College, Zomba, Malawi © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_4

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gained the ascendancy in nation after nation. At the very moment when the nations of the world urgently needed to think and act together, they had elected governments with a prospectus of protectionism and hostility toward others. This put the issue of internationalism, the belief that the nations of the world should work for greater mutual understanding and cooperation, high on the agenda. This is a concern for those with a secular outlook as much as for those with a religious one. However, the focus of this chapter is on the role of faith in relation to internationalism, particularly in the crisis of international relations that has been revealed by the coronavirus and, arguably, has exacerbated its spread. It is written out of an awareness that the missionary dimension of Christianity has been closely intertwined with the emergence and promotion of internationalism. Further, it explores what recent thinking about the Christian mission might have contributed to the recovery of internationalism in the crisis of the 2020s. The modern missionary movement was not free from nationalistic pride or cultural arrogance, but it was also a significant force in the development of interconnection and mutual understanding between the nations of the world. The missionaries were motivated by confidence in the message they carried but also by the need to identify with and understand the people among whom they lived their lives. The missionary movement thus became one contributory factor in the emergence of internationalism in modern times. Possibly no one was more aware of this than Joe Oldham, who became a pivotal figure in the missionary movement in the early part of the twentieth century. After organizing the Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference, itself a significant event in fostering internationalism, he went on to serve as Secretary of the International Missionary Council and Editor of the International Review of Missions.1 Oldham was keenly aware that he was breaking new ground in building an international platform on which the missions could develop their cooperation but also that this endeavor was closely integrated with international relations at a political level. When he had to meet the challenge of the First World War, when fond hopes of international harmony and cooperation were being shattered, he “tried to keep the spirit of

1  See Keith Clements, Faith on the Frontier: A Life of J.H.  Oldham (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark & Geneva: WCC, 1999).

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internationalism alive.”2 This was demonstrated particularly in the intensive diplomacy he employed as he sought to negotiate a fair deal for German missions with the Allied authorities in the aftermath of the War.3 As Oldham stimulated and coordinated the ecumenical movement of missions and churches that ultimately found institutional expression in the World Council of Churches, he was conscious that his life’s work was also connected to the political movement that would give rise, contemporaneously, to the United Nations and related bodies after the Second World War.4 When COVID-19 provoked a global crisis in 2020, it exposed the limitations of the international order that was constructed after the Second World War. This poses political questions that are not comfortable for many of today’s national leaders. It also poses questions that relate to the faith dimension of life. Does the mission of the church, as it takes effect globally, have any relevance to the quest for a revived internationalism?

COVID-19 and the Failure of the International Order As COVID-19 began to spread globally in the early months of 2020, it was soon apparent that the disease had no respect for international borders and that it would be a mistake for any country to imagine that it could contain or defeat the virus unilaterally. There was a clear need for a strong international response, both to manage the fight against the pandemic and to seek to limit the economic damage that it would cause. However, rather than rallying to instruments of international cooperation to resist and combat the pandemic, the prevailing tendency was for each nation to operate unilaterally, focusing on minimizing the impact within its own national borders. Calls for a global summit and for committed international engagement seemed to fall on deaf ears. Indeed, there seemed to be widespread reluctance to deploy, resource, and empower the existing 2  Katherine Bliss, revised Andrew Porter, “Oldham, Joseph Houldsworth (1874–1969),” in Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 41, 692–94, at 693, cit. Chris Wigglesworth, “Internationalism and Scottish Missionary Thought,” in Roots and Fruits: Retrieving Scotland’s Missionary Story in Kenneth R. Ross (Oxford: Regnum, 2014), 126–38, at 133. 3  Wigglesworth, “Internationalism and Scottish Missionary Thought,” 133. 4  See further Kenneth R. Ross, Jooseop Keum, Kyriaki Avtzi and Roderick R. Hewitt eds., Ecumenical Missiology: Changing Landscapes and New Conceptions of Mission (Oxford: Regnum and Geneva: WCC, 2016), 7–81.

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instruments of international cooperation that might be expected to be best placed to counter a global pandemic. As Pope Francis observed in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti: “Aside from the different ways that various countries responded to the crisis, their inability to work together became quite evident. For all our hyper-connectivity, we witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all.”5 The triumph of unilateralism was never more clearly displayed than in the decision of US President Donald Trump in April 2020 to suspend US funding to the World Health Organization, purportedly on the grounds that it had failed to contain the virus in China and thus exposed the USA to the pandemic. Such a decision would surely have caused consternation at any time but at the height of a global pandemic when the WHO was needed more than ever, it seemed almost beyond belief. It attracted a swift response from the National Council of Churches in the USA: “This is dangerous, immoral and wrong.… Even though international institutions such as the WHO are not perfect, suspension of funding … is irresponsible and ill-timed.”6 Richard Horton, the editor-in-chief of the Lancet medical journal, went further to describe Trump’s decision as “a crime against humanity … Every scientist, every health worker, every citizen must resist and rebel against this appalling betrayal of global solidarity.”7 American isolationism and protectionism were also evident in relation to the quest for a vaccine against COVID-19. Through earlier multi-­ national collaboration to develop medicines to combat such killer diseases as Ebola, Zika, and HIV, a global infrastructure has been developed that is well-equipped to implement complicated immunization and vaccination projects. Research laboratories in the USA have played a leading role in this collaboration. However, when it came to COVID-19, and arguably the most urgent and compelling need to exploit to the maximum this network of scientific cooperation, the USA signaled that it preferred not to participate and instead planned to proceed unilaterally. When a virtual global summit was convened in May 2020 to raise funds and make plans for global collaboration in the search for a vaccine, the USA chose not to

 Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, 3 October 2020 (Rome: Vatican Press, 2020), §7.  “US church leaders, WCC Dismayed and Urge Reversal of Trump’s Suspension of WHO Funding,” Press Release, World Council of Churches (16 April 2020). 7  Richard Horton, cit. Helen Davidson, “‘Crime against humanity’: Trump condemned for WHO funding freeze,” The Guardian (15 April 2020). 5 6

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participate. The clear signal was that it preferred to take a go-it-alone approach.8 While the USA, under the “America First” policy of the Trump administration, may stand out most clearly for its unilateralist and protectionist strategy, it is by no means the only nation favoring such an approach. As other nations have been affected, they have addressed the challenges one by one, even blaming one another, rather than putting energy and resources into working together on a global strategy. China, another leading player, initially tried to cover up the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan and delayed reporting to the international community. The governing concern was how to protect China’s interests rather than prioritizing consideration of what the disease might mean for the world as a whole. Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at the University of Oxford, concluded his assessment of China’s role in relation to the coronavirus by commenting: “Now the problem is that, for all China’s talk of global leadership, it is doing little to lead international collective action. Nor, for that matter, is the US, the EU or anyone else. And in our me-first world, where states put their interests first, and find collaboration either increasingly difficult or unpalatable, this indeterminacy could have very significant consequences for global affairs.”9 An irony in the failure to achieve a coordinated international response to COVID-19 is that the nations of the world did succeed in creating an organization designed to meet such moments of global crisis: the United Nations. Yet despite the high hopes with which it was founded in the aftermath of the Second World War, it has been consistently and increasingly undermined by its own members, particularly the most powerful ones. The USA, Russia, and China have shown by their words and, even more so, by their actions that they hold the UN in contempt. The UN Security Council has been systematically undermined by the determination of its members to pursue their own interests rather than work for a mutually agreeable resolution to difficult issues. Even at the height of the coronavirus crisis they were unable to agree a global ceasefire in the interest of combatting the pandemic. It was a telling moment. António Guterres, the UN Secretary General, stated, “COVID-19 is greatest test we have faced 8  Tom McCarthy, “The Race for a Vaccine: How Trump’s ‘America First’ Approach Hinders the Global Search,” The Guardian (12 May 2020). 9  Peter Frankopan, “Coronavirus has Presented China with a Historic Opportunity – Will It Take It?” The Guardian (14 May 2020).

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together since the formation of the United Nations. This human crisis demands coordinated, inclusive and innovative action from the leading economies.”10 Yet he was forced to conclude that, instead of any such action, we have seen a lack of global leadership and differing national approaches helping to spread the virus.11 Not only was the lack of unified vision and coordinated action a massive handicap when it came to addressing the global health crisis, it was equally disabling in regard to the severe economic challenges that the virus brought in its wake. Even developed countries with strong economies were severely hit. The economy of the UK, for example, shrank by more than 20% in April 2020. While countries with strong economies could draw on reserves or borrow money to cushion the blow, developing countries had no such contingencies available to them. More than a hundred countries applied for financial help from the International Monetary Fund. Such was the economic downturn that three decades of improving living standards came to a halt, global poverty began to rise, it was predicted that 420 million people would fall into extreme poverty, and the World Food Programme announced that 265 million would face malnutrition.12 The scale of the crisis was clearly beyond what any nation, single-handed, could resolve. The case for international collaboration and common cause was compelling.

The Populist and Neo-Fascist Ascendancy Unfortunately, however, the COVID-19 crisis revealed that, worldwide, a new form of political leadership has come into place during the early part of the twenty-first century. While political systems vary from country to country, there are significant points in common when we consider the leadership offered by, for example, Donald Trump in the USA, Jair Bolsanaro in Brazil, Boris Johnson in the UK, Matteo Salvini in Italy, Viktor Orban in Hungary, Recip Erdogan in Turkey, Vladimir Putin in Russia, Narendra Modi in India, Xi Jinping in China, and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. All are “strongman” leaders, authoritarian and 10  António Guterres, cit. “The Observer View on the World Needing the United Nations More than Ever,” Editorial, The Observer (10 May 2020). 11  Ibid. 12  Gordon Brown, “The G20 Should be Leading the World out of the Coronavirus Crisis – but it’s Gone Awol,” The Guardian (2 June 2020).

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mercurial in style, strongly nationalist, hostile to the rules-based international order, socially conservative, allied to vested interests, and anti-­ immigration. In terms of character and track record, all are open to question as regards their suitability for national leadership. Nonetheless, they have swept to power on a wave of populist enthusiasm. Indeed, they are buoyed by confidence that the tide of affairs is flowing their way. On the eve of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in mid-2019, Vladimir Putin hailed the growth of national populist movements in Europe and America, claiming that liberalism is spent as an ideological force.13 It is hard to contest Putin’s assessment that a wave of populism has shaped the global political environment of the early twenty-first century. Complex issues are reduced to a binary choice between good and evil and anything less than unquestioning support for the populist leaders is portrayed as morally degenerate. Populist movements also nurse grievances and promote exclusionary nationalist politics. The movement propelling Donald Trump to the American Presidency provides a good example. In his inauguration speech, he declared: “From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first, America first.”14 The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 provided a horrifying example of what can result from this kind of leadership. To some extent the strongman leaders of our time have become figures of fun. Their foibles and pronouncements are often so ridiculous as to provoke mirth and their many critics on social media can have a field day. Yet it is not long before the sobering awareness dawns that the issues at stake are no laughing matter. While political culture is being degraded and human society being polarized, there are imminent threats to the earth and its peoples that remain unaddressed. Even before the coronavirus cast its pall across the globe it was already apparent that two of the gravest threats to our common future were being exacerbated by the kind of leadership that was prevailing. Consider the effect of the strongman leader when it comes to the issues of inequality and climate change. In a report issued on the occasion of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, in January 2017, Oxfam concluded: “As growth benefits the richest, the rest of society—especially the poorest—suffers. The 13  Lionel Barber, Henry Foy and Alex Barber, “Vladimir Putin says liberalism has ‘become obsolete,’” Financial Time (28 June 2019). 14   “The Full Text of Donald Trump’s Inauguration Speech,” The Guardian (20 January 2017).

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very design of our economies and the principles of our economics have taken us to this extreme, unsustainable and unjust point. Our economy must stop excessively rewarding those at the top and start working for all people.”15 Under strongman leadership, the direction has been exactly the opposite, for example, with Donald Trump’s administration in the USA prioritizing tax breaks for the wealthy. In his Nelson Mandela Lecture, in July 2020, UN Secretary General António Guterres remarked on how the world’s inequalities, already apparent beforehand, had been thrown into even sharper relief through the effects of the pandemic: The world is at breaking point. [This pandemic] has been likened to an X-ray, revealing fractures in the fragile skeleton of the societies we have built. It is exposing fallacies and falsehoods everywhere: The lie that free markets can deliver healthcare for all; the fiction that unpaid care work is not work; the delusion that we live in a post-racist world; the myth that we are all in the same boat, because while we are all floating on the same sea, it’s clear that some are in superyachts while others are clinging to the floating debris.16

Another critical issue of our time is climate change, as has been highlighted time and again by the UN and its agencies. As Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, reported in June 2019: “Climate change will have devastating consequences for people in poverty. Even under the best-case scenario, hundreds of millions will face food insecurity, forced migration, disease, and death. Climate change threatens the future of human rights and risks undoing the last fifty years of progress in development, global health, and poverty reduction.”17 In this context he highlights a failure of leadership: “Governments, and too many in the human rights community, have failed to seriously address climate change for decades. Somber speeches by government officials have not led to meaningful action and too many

 An Economy for the 99%, Oxfam Briefing Paper (January 2017), 1.  António Guterres, “Tackling the Inequality Pandemic: A New Social Contract for a New Era,” Nelson Mandela Lecture, New York (18 July 2020), The Lamp 185 (August 2020), 13–15, at 13. 17  Climate Change and Poverty: Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights (New York: United Nations, 2019), 1. 15 16

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countries continue taking short-sighted steps in the wrong direction.”18 Pope Francis has declared a global “climate emergency,” and warned that failure to take urgent action would be “a brutal act of injustice toward the poor and future generations.”19 Yet the strongman leadership prevailing in today’s world is making things worse rather than better, often favoring the extractive industries whose activities exacerbate global warming. In relation to these two vast and urgent issues of inequality and climate change, it was already abundantly clear that the strongman leaders of our time were failing to provide the leadership that is required. Instead of making any serious effort to engage with these pressing issues, strongman leaders were compounding the problem. The same has proved to be the case in regard to the coronavirus. As Robin Dembroff has pointedly remarked, “In this moment of crisis, macho leaders are a weakness, not a strength. We do not need patriotism and weapons; we need globally connected medical research, social safety nets and healthcare.”20 Instead, we have had to meet the coronavirus crisis in a context where strongman leaders have disparaged and weakened organizations of international collaboration. The prospectus of such leaders has been a nationalist one that promotes an aggressive us-versus-them unilateralism. At the moment when the nations of the world urgently need to think and act together, they are led by strongmen who have thrived on protectionism and hostility toward others. The bankruptcy of strongman leadership, if not already sufficiently evident, has been laid bare in the coronavirus crisis. In today’s global context is it not high time for a revival of internationalism? This might not only be timely but necessary, or even inevitable, at this point in global history. Joshka Fischer, the former German Foreign Minister, has recalled the confidence with which the world’s developed countries embraced the idea that we had arrived at the “Anthropocene”— the age of humankind’s command over nature. How quickly such confidence was shattered by a microscopic organism—“the mother of all black swans has landed.”21 The models that were being used for planning were all of a sudden rendered obsolete. It will take time to think through all the  Climate Change and Poverty, 1.  “Pope Francis declares ‘climate emergency’ and urges action,” Guardian (June 14, 2019), https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/14/pope-francis-declares-­ climate-emergency-and-urges-action accessed 28 June 2019. 20  Robin Dembroff, “In this Moment of Crisis, Macho Leaders are a Weakness, not a Strength,” The Guardian (13 April 2020). 21  Joshka Fischer, “The Virus That Changed the World,” Weekend Nation (2 May 2020). 18 19

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implications of this great global shock, but it is already apparent that to think politically and economically primarily in terms of the nation-state is no longer going to be viable. Fischer explains: New information and communication technologies, changes in the distribution of labor, and the rise of global value chains have all led to increased interdependence. But now that a virus has brought the entire world to a standstill, we are learning that a globalized economy is like a high-­ performance race car: highly efficient and highly fragile. Looking ahead, the traditional nation-state—even one as powerful as the US or China—will not be able to manage an interconnected world of more than eight billion people. The nation-state’s horizon of interests is simply too narrowly defined. The Anthropocene inevitably will place a growing emphasis on humankind’s shared interests, not least the question of its continued survival.22

In other words, the world is crying out for a new internationalism.

The Soul of Internationalism Neither the biblical text nor the tradition and worship of the church provide any precise prescription for the conduct of international relations nor any indication of the architecture and infrastructure that would be needed to enable a healthy internationalism to take effect in the twenty-first century. This does not mean, however, that the faith dimension is irrelevant. For internationalism is, first and foremost, a matter of the soul. It is a matter of how we regard ourselves, how we regard one another, how we regard our purpose in the world, and how we regard its ultimate meaning. This means that the spirituality and ethics that are the stock-in-trade of faith communities are far from irrelevant. On the contrary, they speak to the inner spirit that is indispensable to a thriving internationalism—the values, attitudes, and dispositions that motivate and inspire an internationalist approach. Here is where recent thinking about the interface of Christianity with the life of the world—also known as mission—proves relevant to negotiating the current global crisis. During the early twentieth century, Joe Oldham could see how the thinking about Christian mission which he was instrumental in promoting had a bearing on international relations and the creation of the institutional architecture that would be required to house a flourishing  Ibid.

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internationalism. Amid the manifest failure of the international order to achieve a unified and coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic, one question to be asked is whether global mission thinking has anything meaningful to contribute today. In 2018, the World Council of Churches Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) held a World Mission Conference, at Arusha in Tanzania, to take stock of the global situation and to discern the meaning of Christian mission in our time.23 This was the last major opportunity to put global ecumenical thinking in focus before the advent of the coronavirus. It therefore offers a ready point of reference when we ask whether current mission thinking has any contribution to make to a renewal of internationalism for our time. As the Conference opened, it was immediately made aware of the trends of divergence, fragmentation, and exclusion that marked the international order. As Jooseop Keum, the CWME Director, observed in his opening address: “The world is broken. Therefore, it is imperative for the ecumenical movement to boldly witness the unity in the Triune God and to live it out for the unity of humanity.”24 As the Conference deliberated, it recognized that “we are living in times when our shared life is volatile, uncertain, fragile and fragmented” and lamented “the ascendancy of death-dealing forces: the nationalism and fundamentalism that foment hatred, the militarism that stokes conflict, the greed that concentrates resources in the hands of the few at the expense of the many, and a new type of colonialism associated with the despotic reach of the culture of money.”25 The Conference’s critique of the anti-internationalist direction of world affairs was reflected in its affirmation that: “We are called as disciples to belong together in just and inclusive communities, in our quest for unity and on our ecumenical journey, in a world that is based upon marginalization and exclusion.”26 In setting out the Christian calling, it implicitly suggested a direction for international affairs. More explicitly, it exposed “the shocking accumulation of wealth due to one global financial system, which enriches few and impoverishes many. This is at the root of many of 23  See Risto Jukko and Jooseop Keum eds., Moving in the Spirit: Report of the World Council of Churches Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, 8–13 March 2018, Arusha, Tanzania (Geneva: WCC, 2019). 24  Jooseop Keum, “CWME: From Athens to Arusha – Director’s Report,” in Moving in the Spirit edited by Jukko and Keum, 73–87, at 86. 25  “Arusha Conference Report,” in Moving in the Spirit edited by Jukko and Keum, 5–19, at 8. 26  Jukko and Keum eds., Moving in the Spirit, 3.

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today’s wars, conflicts, ecological devastation, and suffering. This global imperial system has made the financial market one of the idols of our time.”27 The neoliberal global economic order exercises such hegemony that neither national governments nor international institutions can challenge its injustices and excesses. The Conference therefore called for a new internationalism where values of justice and inclusion will prevail over those of greed and exclusion. Where the Arusha Call particularly identified the need for such values was in relation to leadership. It included the affirmation that “We are called to be formed as servant leaders who demonstrate the way of Christ in a world that privileges power, wealth, and the culture of money.”28 In line with its central theme, the Conference set the question of leadership in the context of discipleship. It recognized that a call to servant leadership very much goes against the grain so far as today’s prevailing culture is concerned: “The human soul and human community are stunted by the institutionalization and amplification of greed in an unrestrained market society. The integrity and well-being of creation is directly and dangerously threatened. We must engage in a determined attempt to present, for this generation, a faithful alternative to the spiritual formation offered by the culture of money.”29 In place of domination and exclusion it called for a form of leadership that is marked by “mutuality, reciprocity, humility and interdependence.”30 Such leadership is needed not only in the context of Christian discipleship but also on the international stage. As Dietrich Werner, reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic, has pertinently commented: “We need visionary political leadership and we need proper ethical leadership of churches as well as scientists to prepare visions of how to re-organize our life in order to strengthen the ability of humanity to act together, to overcome narrow-minded nationalism as well as ethnocentrism and to face together the huge tasks which we have in front of us to curb the destruction of our planetary systems as otherwise, humanity cannot survive.”31  Ibid., 2.  Jukko and Keum eds., Moving in the Spirit, 3. 29  “Arusha Conference Report,” 16. 30  “Arusha Conference Report,” 16. 31  Dietrich Werner, “10 Commandments for Responsible Pastoral Reactions to the Corona-­ Crisis,” Globethics.net Blog, https://www.globethics.net/blog/-/asset_publisher/ PHtOEQkH6J2J/blog/10-commandments-for-responsible-pastoral-reactions-to-the-­ corona-crisis accessed 10 April 2020. 27 28

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In returning to the New Testament theme of discipleship, the Arusha Conference proposed a specific way of being human. It echoed an affirmation of the 2010 Cape Town Conference of the Lausanne Movement: “Biblical mission demands that those who claim Christ’s name should be like him, by taking up their cross, denying themselves, and following him in the paths of humility, love, integrity, generosity, and servanthood.”32 To be a disciple is, first and foremost, a personal matter. It is about an inward encounter with Christ, the formation of Christ-like character, and the embarking on a way of life that corresponds with the path that Jesus followed. As Richard Rohr suggested, Christians do not think their way into a new life; they live their way into a new kind of thinking.33 As they do so, this kind of thinking is applicable not only to their personal lives or that of the Christian community but extends to the world at large. It has a bearing on the values and attitudes that determine the way nations understand themselves and relate to one another. As well as defining and energizing a renewal of the global church in its mission, it can be one source of the vision and ethics needed to reconstruct a viable structure of international collaboration and action. Besides its prophetic exposure of the destructive potential of the anti-internationalist forces that held sway during the early years of the twenty-first century, the Arusha Call to Discipleship offers positive resources that can help to re-set the international order to serve the whole of humanity and the entire created order. The Christian faith, and particularly its missionary commitment, can be one source of the soul that is needed to inspire a new internationalism in the crisis of the 2020s.

 Cape Town Commitment, Conclusion.  Richard Rohr, “Belief or Discipleship,” Center for Action and Contemplation (22 January 2019), https://cac.org/belief-or-discipleship-2019-01-22/ accessed 18 August 2019. 32 33

CHAPTER 5

Punisher, Healer, or Sufferer? Hanna Kang

Introduction Since March 3, 2020, when the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Argentina, the country has seen steady growth in new infections, surpassing 7000 cases nationwide in July, and with an alarming spike in Buenos Aires, the capital city, where population density is greatest.1 Aside from public health issues, the country now needs to brace for a deepening economic crisis, as the poverty rate surges due to one of the longest and strictest quarantines in the world. On top of all this, Asian immigrants and their descendants suffer frequent xenophobic incidents and stigmatization (particularly acute during the early stages of the virus), with the 1  As of April 2022, Argentina has reported around nine million cases and is the second most affected country in Latin America after Brazil with thirty million cases. See OWID, “Number of Confirmed Cases of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Latin America and the Caribbean as of April 7, 2022, by Country,” STATISTA, https://www.statista.com/ statistics/1101643/latin-america-caribbean-coronavirus-cases/. Regarding vaccination, the country has the fourth-highest vaccination rate (77.8  percent) in the region after Cuba, Chile, and Uruguay. To find the most updated vaccination status, visit: https://www.argentina.gob.ar/coronavirus/vacuna/aplicadas.

H. Kang (*) Independent Scholar, Berkeley, CA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_5

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government not taking the necessary steps to prevent such violence but releasing official statements regarding discrimination and xenophobia.2 This article investigates the xenophobia South Korean (hereafter Korean) Argentineans commonly experience in these times of COVID-19 and formulates a theological response. Qualitative research is used to explore the discrimination that Korean immigrants and their descendants experience in Argentina during the early stages of the pandemic (from mid-March to mid-June). It also points to the absence of a balanced theological response to embedded structures of marginalization that intensify in their effects whenever there is a major social upheaval, such as COVID-19. Recent theological responses to the situation seem to focus on God’s role in the pandemic itself, rather than on God’s relation to the suffering of a targeted group of people. Indeed, theologians offer creative interpretations of the relation between God and the outbreak, but little attention is paid to God’s relation to the scapegoated minorities resulting from the outbreak. The former interpretations portray God as the punisher or the healer of the world, not as a deity who suffers with the marginalized. I argue instead for a critical theological reflection on the structural sin that justifies discrimination, and careful attention to the suffering of the marginalized, who can then raise a prophetic voice against injustice in the midst of a global crisis.

On Being a Targeted Group “Pero ustedes… (But your people…)” When I asked Ann to describe a moment in which she felt a barrier between Argentineans and Korean immigrants, she spoke of the words that some local Argentinean customers of her clothing store used to address her, and probably the entire Korean community.3 Even though she has lived nearly forty years in Argentina and considers it her home, people still refer to her and her

2  For instance, in March 2020, the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Racism (INADI) published an official statement condemning any type of discrimination against immigrants with a short guideline of “what to do” and “what not to do.” See INADI, “La discriminación en tiempos de coronavirus: reflexiones sobre el uso de las redes en una pandemia” (March 2020), https://www.argentina.gob.ar/noticias/coronavirus-medios-redesdiscriminacion-xenofobia-algunas-recomendaciones. 3  All names used are pseudonyms.

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community, in a gentle manner, as ustedes (los coreanos), “your people.”4 Ann is one of fifteen respondents with whom I conducted in-depth interviews of 1.5- and second-generation Korean Argentineans in their late twenties to mid-forties. Except for three, they were either born in Argentina or migrated before the age of ten, which means they consider Argentina home. Given the small sample size on which this research is based, I acknowledge that my findings are not representative of the entire Korean immigrant population. However, they might resonate with other cases of Korean Argentineans and other Asian immigrant communities. In the following, I briefly describe the history of Korean immigrants in Argentina, and particularly their experience of xenophobia in times of the pandemic. Korean Immigrants in Argentina Korean immigration to Argentina has a relatively short history compared to its counterpart in the United States, which started early in the twentieth century. Dating back only to the mid-1960s, Korean immigrants in Argentina celebrated their fiftieth anniversary as recently as 2015. After the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1962, Korean immigrants began arriving in small numbers as agricultural workers (economic migration).5 After Korea’s rapid modernization and industrialization, in 1985 the Argentinean government admitted Koreans as investment immigrants, on the condition they would invest US$30,000 and establish businesses, in the hope this would create jobs for Argentines.6 However, when the severe economic crisis hit Argentina in the late 1990s, the influx of Korean immigrants decreased, while the movement of return and re-emigration to other countries increased significantly, reaching a peak in 2001.7 Although some of these migrants re-returned to Argentina upon the recovery of the Argentinean economy, the number of 4  The Spanish subject pronoun ustedes is the second person plural of “you,” takes third-­ person verb conjugations, and is used when addressing somebody formally. 5  Won K. Yoon, Global Pulls on the Korean Communities in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires (New York: Lexington Books, 2015), 27–29. 6  Yoon, Global Pulls on the Korean Communities in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires, 37–38. 7  Matías Benítez, “Miradas locales y globales en la construcción de los barrios migrantes coreanos en Latinoamérica. Los casos de Baek-Ku en Buenos Aires y Korea Town en Guatemala,” Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación 24, no. 111 (2020): 124.

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immigrants during the economic crisis dropped to 15,000. Considering that the Korean population had reached around 40,000 in the late 1980s, this sharp decrease had a negative impact on the image and the economy of the Korean community as many stores owned by Koreans closed. As of 2019, the Korean immigrant population is reported to be around 23,000, which is approximately one-hundredth of the number of Koreans in the United States, while remaining the second largest Korean community in South America.8 Unlike Korean Americans, who settled in major cities across the country, Koreans in Argentina are concentrated almost exclusively in Buenos Aires, where they rely heavily on ethnic enclaves for their everyday living. In addition, Koreans in Argentina not only live close to each other geographically but also show a notable concentration in one specific industry, with around 80 percent of the population involved in the textile business.9 There are, of course, those, especially among 1.5- and second-generation immigrants, who live outside the ethnic areas or engage in other types of businesses, such as restaurants and import stores, or who pursue professional careers in the mainstream of society. However, the greater majority of the Korean community still depends heavily on geographic ethnic enclaves and businesses. These trends of ethnic enclave reliance and concentration of businesses can be explained in several ways. First, as mentioned above, the short tenure of Korean immigration in Argentina means that the population is mostly made up of first-generation immigrants with higher preservation of ethnic culture and a strong preference for ethnic enclaves over larger society.10 Second, related to the first point, the already-established Korean 8  Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea (Korean Diaspora Report 2019), 20, http:// www.mofa.go.kr/www/wpge/m_21507/contents.do.pdf. 9  Even though there is no official record of the percentage of textile businesses within the Korean community, the website of the embassy of South Korea in Argentina reports that out of 1200 businesses owned by Koreans in the town of Flores, 900 are related to the textile industry. Other studies report that around 80 percent of Koreans are engaged in garment industry. See “Report on the Korean community in Argentina,” Embassy of South Korea in Argentina (January 30, 2019), http://overseas.mofa.go.kr/ar-ko/brd/m_6236/view.do?s eq=608681&srchFr=&%3BsrchTo=&%3BsrchWord=&%3BsrchTp=&%3B multi_itm_seq=0&%3Bitm_seq_1=0&%3Bitm_seq_2=0&%3Bcompany_ cd=&%3Bcompany_nm=&page=1. 10  Young-Chul Kim, “A Study on Re-emigration and Settlement of Argentine Korean 1.5 Generations,” Journal of Koreanology 60 (August 2016): 94–95, https://doi.org/10.15299/ jk.2016.8.60.83.

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districts in the city of Buenos Aires (Bajo Flores, Avellaneda, and Once), with their satisfactory infrastructure of grocers, churches, and schools, plus the small size of the immigrant population, function as important gravitational factors. Lastly, the multiple advantages of the ethnic garment industry, which has already gained a certain recognition in the nation’s textile industry, create strong social capital and a network, guaranteeing financial security and upward mobility for immigrant entrepreneurs and their children.11 Although this attachment to ethnic enclaves is natural for first-­ generation immigrants still struggling with language and cultural differences, and because entering the garment industry seems to be the most viable (and safest) option for making a living, it is nevertheless surprising that only a handful (around one hundred) of 1.5- and second-generation ethnic Koreans who grew up in Argentina have become professionals (lawyers, doctors, accountants, etc.), engaged in the mainstream Argentinean society.12 In fact, many factors encourage others to remain attached to their ethnic enclaves and the textile industry. Besides the multiple advantages of choosing an ethnic business, one of the reasons is related to a dire economic situation with an accompanying lack of job opportunities and diversity in the job market after college, plus low average salaries. Another important factor is the perceived racism and xenophobia in Argentinean society at large, which affects the decision-making of many ethnic Koreans. It is the latter point and how this situation has been exacerbated during the pandemic to which I now turn. Chinos: What Is Behind the Name? Before delving into the racism and xenophobia experienced by 1.5- and second-generation Korean Argentineans, it is important to define those terms. While Jerry Pillay provides a clear distinction between racism, racial prejudice, and racial discrimination, I use “racism” as a conglomeration of those terms, since they are intrinsically related and often surface simultaneously. In other words, I employ racism as a word to cover the belief that some races of people are better than others and the resulting practice of treating a group of people less favorably because of their biological race, 11  Carolina Mera, “Los migrantes coreanos en la industria textil de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Inserción económica e identidades urbanas.” 12  “Report on the Korean Community in Argentina,” Embassy of South Korea in Argentina.

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color, national, or ethnic origin.13 I do follow Pillay’s definition of xenophobia as “attitudes, prejudices, and behaviors that reject, exclude, and often vilify based on the perception that they are outsiders or foreigners to the community, society, or national identity.”14 Hence racism involves a sense of the racial superiority of one group, which justifies the oppression of another group considered “inferior,” while xenophobia refers to the rejection of a group of people because they are perceived as a threat.15 While there is no clear-cut distinction between racism and xenophobia, since both are associated with in-group favoritism and out-group discrimination, the experiences of my respondents would more accurately be defined as manifestations of racism before COVID-19, and of xenophobia during COVID-19, especially in its early stages. Regardless of their political citizenship, all my respondents recounted being called chino at school by their schoolmates or by random people on the streets. When I asked Susan if she had any experience of racial discrimination at school, she told me one of her teachers used to call her chinchulín instead of her name.16 In fact, being called names is not unusual and is not limited to Asians. Other out-groups, such as Bolivians and Paraguayans who come to Argentina as migrant workers, are stigmatized as well. Accompanying such derogatory labels is an enduring stigma of inferiority attached to those who are thus addressed, and a sense of guilt-free superiority in the minds of those who use those names. In addition to name-calling at school and on the streets, many have experienced discrimination in workplaces outside their ethnic enclaves. Paula, who now works at a family-owned business, told me that before she became engaged in the current business, she dreamed of working in the movie and TV industry. After realizing there was no place for “Orientals” in the business, she became involved in an ethnic business that secures her economic stability and social status. Similarly, thriving in the mainstream society does not necessarily mean that one has completely overcome racism. Teresa is a medical doctor who spends much more time with Argentinean patients and colleagues than Koreans. She acknowledges that in a male-dominated career such as medicine, being Asian adds another 13  Jerry Pillay, “Racism and Xenophobia: The Role of the Church in South Africa,” Verbum et Ecclesia 38, no. 3, suppl. 1 (2017): 5, https://doi.org/10.4102/ve.v38i3.1655. 14  Pillay, “Racism and Xenophobia,” 7–8. 15  Pillay, “Racism and Xenophobia,” 8. 16  Literally meaning “entrails,” it is a derogatory name for Asians.

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hurdle, especially at the beginning of one’s career. To prove herself, she had to work harder than her colleagues. When I asked her to give me an example, she said: “Well, there are certain things that are more permissible for Argentineans than for me. Like being lazy: when an Argentinean is lazy, people simply think that the person is lazy. But when they see me being lazy, they are like, ‘Oh, this lazy Chinese.’” Likewise, Diego, who has lived in the country since he was three, says that when Argentineans notice his unaccented Spanish, they see him as a Korean with a high level of acculturation. However, when he “misbehaves,” he is automatically considered a chino. What lies behind the label chino is a structural racism that is deeply embedded in society. That label evokes a feeling of inferiority in the out-­ group who need to demonstrate their skills, be they linguistic, cultural, or professional, to seem “more acceptable” or “neutral” in the eyes of the dominant in-group. The word also denotes an over-generalization of groups of people, as it lumps all Northeast-Asians together into one imaginary category created and manipulated by the in-group. Lastly, it reinforces the stigmatization of others and the misrepresentation of a group, meaning that the in-group’s assessment of the entire out-group (chinos) largely relies on their individual interaction with people they consider part of the out-group (Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese). Constant exposure to marginalization from an early age has repercussions at the time of choosing a career. On top of the dire economic situation of a country that produces only a small number of quality jobs in specialized areas, a lack of connection to, and the perceived rejection by, the mainstream society creates a natural attachment to ethnic enclaves where safety and homophily seem to be a given. However, racism should be understood as a factor and not the factor that leads them to remain there, as there are other important contributors that I will not examine here, such as the economic privilege that Koreans enjoy in ethnic businesses. Also, not every Korean Argentinean is happy with ethnic communities, and many intentionally depart because they grow tired of a tightly knit immigrant community where everyone comments on everyone else’s behavior and there is a high degree of rivalry and increasing generational conflicts.

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COVID-19 and Racial Minorities It is worth pointing out that I do not intend to blindly portray Korean immigrants as victims, while demonizing Argentineans. Also, there needs to be a recognition that a significant part of the negative image of Korean immigrants comes from their intentional isolation from, and lack of commitment to, the local community. More importantly, theological responses to the ethnic marginalization that have resurfaced during the pandemic in Argentina. Therefore, the above narratives were deliberately chosen to best portray racism and xenophobia as ongoing issues and not something that has occurred out of the blue. In Argentina, like many other parts of the world, hostility toward Asian communities became overt and more acute at the beginning of the pandemic. According to INADI (Instituto Nacional contra la Discriminación, la Xenofobia y el Racismo), a government organization against discrimination, xenophobia, and racism, the months of mid-March, April, May, and mid-June 2020 reported the highest number of complaints filed against discrimination. As regards the types of discrimination, xenophobia and nationality-based discrimination ranked second (10.2 percent), almost on a par with discrimination based on health status (10.7 percent), which ranked first.17 The outbreak of the virus in China and the growing threat worldwide created a climate of fear and anger and a mis-portrayal of all Northeast Asians as potential carriers. Consequently, reports of verbal and behavioral mockery sparked by xenophobia abounded, as the in-group felt that the Asian out-group was a menace to public health. Although the first confirmed case of the virus in Argentina was a male who had returned from Italy, Asian immigrants became the most targeted group in society.18 In fact, almost all my respondents who were in Argentina during the outbreak faced some sort of xenophobic abuse. Experiences include a notice at an apartment entrance warning Asian residents to stay away, prejudice-­ ridden media coverage, and abuse on the street, including name-calling and lashing out.

17  INADI, “Consultas recibidas en el INADI entre marzo y noviembre de 2020,” PDF file (2020), https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/04_01_2020_consultas_recibidas_en_el_inadi_entre_marzo_y_noviembre_de_2020b.pdf. 18  “Coronavirus: Argentina confirma su primer caso de COVID-19,” BBC News (March 3, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-51728654.

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The Argentinean case is simply one example of a global reaction to COVID-19, which means that xenophobic attacks on Asians are neither restricted to, nor particularly aggressive in Argentina, but are more an illustration of humanity’s “primitive reflex of holding someone accountable in the face of intense fear,” as Mónica Müller, Argentinean medical doctor and writer, puts it.19 However, the peculiarity of the Argentinean case is that it reveals the underlying ideology of Argentinean white supremacy lurking behind the fear of the other. Even after the media reported that the first few confirmed cases came from Europe, Asian communities were still the blamed group. Ironically, although some people openly complained about “rich people bringing the virus to the country,” there was no structural and focused blame placed on Italian Argentineans or Europeans as there was with Asians.20 Likewise, the current situation brings up an important theological issue because it does not place Asian communities merely as victims of prejudiced judgments and xenophobic attacks, but reveals the structure of racial marginalization that justifies the scapegoating of the other and allows it to be repeated whenever there is social upheaval. In the last section of the article, I describe the initial responses of some Korean ethnic churches in Argentina to the pandemic and elaborate on a more balanced theological perspective. It should be noted that, although my research focuses exclusively on the initial stage of COVID-19, a longitudinal study will be helpful to illustrate better the reaction and adaptation of churches during the last two years of the pandemic.

God, the Pandemic, and the Others Korean Protestant Churches in Argentina As Charles Hirschman famously notes, immigrant religious congregations provide their members with three Rs: refuge, respectability, and resources.21 This is particularly true for Korean immigrants in Argentina, since 19  Mónica Müller, Pandemia: Virus y miedo (Buenos Aires: Paidós, 2020), Introducción, EPUB.  For a brief history of East Asian immigrants and Asian discrimination in Latin America see https://www.dw.com/es/la-historia-oculta-del-racismo-y-del-sentimientoantiasiático-en-latinoamérica/a-61201640. 20  Müller, Pandemia, Introducción. 21  Charles Hirschman, “The Role of Religion in the Origins and Adaptation of Immigrant Groups in the United States,” International Migration Review 38, no. 3 (2004): 1228.

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they are small in number and do not have many ethnic associations representing their presence in society. The role of churches thus goes beyond the provision of religious services and spiritual solace. With their material and human resources and infrastructure, churches play an important role in the creation and preservation of ethnic communities as well as providing social and economic assistance for those in need.22 My respondents belong to six different ethnic congregations (five Protestant and one Catholic). When I asked if their congregations were racially mixed, all responded that the number of non-Korean members was less than 3 percent. Some churches create a separate ministry for Latinxs23 when they reached a significant number of non-Korean members, so that they might cater for the specific needs of each group. All my respondents positively recounted their experiences at church and shared how passionately they served the church through multiple roles and participation in various events. Since most of my respondents are in their late twenties to early thirties, their favorite memories date back to their teenage years when they had more time and energy to spend on church activities than they do now. Even though six of them no longer attend any church for various reasons (pregnancy, work schedule, decrease in faith), all of them used affectionate language when describing their churches. Among the multiple benefits of attending an ethnic congregation, a strong sense of belonging and a close-knit community are the ones that stood out most during the interviews. When I asked what he liked best about his church, Diego said it was his friends, adding that he could not wait until weekends to meet his friends at church. I heard similar responses from others, such as Susan, who was in the praise team with her relatives and who said she enjoyed the team greatly because she felt a strong bond with other members when practicing songs together. Paula has been attending the same church for more than ten years and affirms that it is almost part of her family, with even the pastors and other senior members treating her as their daughter and helping her whenever she is in need. However, the intimacy of an ethnic church, which offers the comfort of worshiping in one’s own tradition and a sense of belonging, also has 22  Hirschman, “The Role of Religion in the Origins and Adaptation of Immigrant Groups in the United States,” 1207–1208. 23  In this research, “Latinx” does not refer to North Americans with Latin American backgrounds or Latin American immigrants in the United States as used in the US Latinx studies. Instead, it is an umbrella term used to designate non-Argentine immigrants coming from different parts of Latin America.

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serious side effects that make some want to separate from it. As Clara, a 1.5 immigrant who now lives in the United States, recounts, in hindsight the ethnic church community was so suffocating and full of jealousy that she will never join another ethnic church in the United States. Even though Diego enjoyed meeting friends at church, he also attended local Argentinean churches because he found Korean churches were too fellowship-­centered and weak in religious education. This insularity and the inward-oriented character of immigrant churches are reflected also in the way they respond to the outbreak. Regardless of What Happens in the World, We Keep Our Faith in God My interviews revealed that the overall reaction of the churches to the initial stage of the pandemic was inwardly oriented socially and faith-­ centered theologically. The magnitude of the outbreak and its effects on all aspects of people’s lives prompted ministers to reflect and act upon it quickly. Most of my respondents were either ministers who had to formulate an answer to the pandemic to help their members navigate during this difficult time or church members who heard their pastors talking about COVID-19 from pulpit. Such messages were mostly encouraging and comforting, with appeals to the emotions, especially that of hope. Since most people were affected psychologically, one of the tasks of the ministers was to walk with their congregants so they remained hopeful and to help them build resilience in hardship by drawing on biblical narratives. Another mantra that I heard repeatedly was to “keep one’s faith.” Apart from the overall tendency to defend God from blame for the pandemic, for example, claims like “God is not responsible for the outbreak” or “God is not punishing us with COVID,” the pandemic was seen as an opportunity for Christians to cherish their faith and keep it strong come what may, and also as a time of repentance for their sinfulness. Even for non-­ Christians, the virus seemed to serve as a “chance to return to God,” to use their language, or to seek the divine when the situation seemed beyond human capacity. Many churches have become more insular because the outbreak has put them in a survival mode and under severe economic hardship. While criticism of churches failing to take a public role when they are most needed persists, independent churches with reduced income cannot afford to serve others if they are on track to being closed. Paula’s church is one such—they

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had to temporarily pause their charity work of decades for economic reasons. Yet they continue to take care of their disadvantaged members by bringing them rice and basic supplies, and by checking up on them often.24 While the pandemic has reinforced the detachment of ethnic churches from the larger society, their overall tendency toward conservativism (or evangelicalism), which emphasizes personal faith and individual relationship with God, has encouraged an individualistic, faith-centered theological meaning to the outbreak, in which one is to remain faithful to God, repent, and persevere. Social issues, such as marginalization and xenophobic violence, have not been brought to the table or examined through theological lenses. An Integrated Theological Response to Marginalization Certainly, the multidimensional work of immigrant churches in Argentina pre- and post-COVID-19 merits praise. As independent ethnoreligious congregations, most of them small-to-medium size, they have created places of worship of their own and hubs of fellowship, meeting significant religious, psychological, and cultural needs of their congregants, especially in times of crisis where economic hardship coupled with xenophobic social marginalization becomes habitual. However, when I asked my respondents about the recent xenophobic violence and the theological meaning of the virus outbreak, I found a lack of theological engagement with the embedded macrostructure of marginalization that allows such violence, as if the xenophobic violence fueled by the pandemic and the theological implications of the pandemic were two separate issues. Consequently, though most of my respondents have experienced verbal or behavioral violence, they seldom problematize it or discuss it at church. Instead, they dismiss violence as the acts of some uneducated people. When they examine the relationship between God and the pandemic itself, they do so in terms of the duty of Christians and leave no room for God’s view of the targeting of others that has resurfaced in the outbreak. 24  The Korean Association in Argentina and some ethnic churches that survived the first economic shockwave of the pandemic did reach out to the most vulnerable in their local community with funds and mask donations. Yet, small churches that had already been struggling economically before the pandemic did not have enough resources to help people outside the church. See “재아한인회, 연방정부 치안부에 마스크 6만개 기부,” Cámara de empresarios coreanos en la Argentina, June 19, 2020, http://iacea.com.ar/gnu/bbs/anews-content.html?board=acea&categoria=acea&id=44335&page=5&start=160& menu=news.

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Although they would agree that racism and xenophobia are against God’s will toward humanity, they make no connection between God, the pandemic, and the xenophobic violence that has reemerged. Part of this separation stems from the imagery used to represent God. The tendency to shelter God from the pandemic places God aloof from and indifferent to the suffering resulting from the outbreak. God hovers within the binary of the great healer who wills to cure the entire creation and the punisher to whom they must return before it is too late. Indeed, discerning God through the binary of healer and punisher stresses God’s omnipotence and control over humanity, but overlooks the radical involvement of God in creation, particularly in the suffering of the creation. As the disconnection between God, the pandemic, and the marginalization of the other reveals, God is conceived as a transcendental being who can heal or punish, yet stands remote from human agony. The recognition of God as a sufferer who willingly engages in the suffering of humanity is a vital step toward awareness of the structure of the oppression that causes such suffering. Articulating God as a sufferer does not jeopardize God’s omnipotence, because God’s suffering does not represent a defect in God’s being. It is instead a radical representation of God’s omnipotent love, of a God “who suffers qua God, God as God, entering fully into the realm of human brokenness and anguish,” as Latino theologian Sixto J. García affirms.25 Nor does the concept of the suffering God reduce the complexity and severity of human suffering to another image of God. Conversely, it is a suffering that demands a critical reflection on the painful present, and a mission to act against marginalization instead of passively accepting the way things are.26 Echoing García, the  Sixto J.  García, “The Latino/a Theology of God as the Future of Theology,” in The Blackwell Companion to Latin/a Theology, ed. Orlando Espín (Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons. Ltd., 2015), 139. See also Walter Kasper, The Collection Works of Walter Kasper, ed. George Augustin and Klaus Kramer, vol. 4, The God of Jesus Christ (New York: Paulist Press, 2018), 225–226; Jeff B. Pool, God’s Wounds: Hermeneutics of the Christian Symbol of Divine Suffering, Vol. 2, Evil and Divine Suffering (Eugene: Pickwick, 2009), 1–2. 26  Johann Baptist Metz emphasizes the praxis of solidarity based on the memory of past human suffering and assumes responsibility for suffering as an eschatological promise of justice. See Johann Baptist Metz, Faith in History and Society: Toward a Practical Fundamental Theology (New York Seabury Press, 1980), 130–133. Also, regarding the suffering of the marginalized, Joerg Rieger affirms that suffering cannot be limited to the marginalized, but is a common interest and a prime theological mandate that includes everyone, as the pain reveals the structures of exclusion and its impact on the whole society, including those who benefit from the exclusion. See Joerg Rieger, God and the Excluded (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2001), 188–189. 25

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suffering God and God’s radical intimacy with humanity does not only locate God as a companion in the suffering of the scapegoated minority, in the anguish of families that cannot afford basic needs, and in the despair of those who have lost their loved ones. Rather, such a theological reflection flows into a prophetic call for believers to further live out the social dimension of the gospel by exposing the structures of marginalization and engaging with the suffering of others.27 Needless to say, the gospel should not be reduced to its social dimension. However, the gospel is incomplete when it lacks a sense of social responsibility. Hence the present situation of marginalization sparked by the outbreak demands efforts on the part of theologians and church leaders to achieve more balanced reflection and action on the issue. While the conception of God as a transcendental being is important to affirm God’s sovereignty over creation and to transform humanity’s anthropocentric greed into repentance and humility, a thorough reflection on God as the omnipotent sufferer who willingly participates in the suffering of the oppressed and who brings justice to the cry of the suffering is equally important. Therefore, churches, as unique institutions capable of reaching and changing people’s hearts based on religious values, are believers’ closest companions through this difficult time. Also, illuminated by the suffering God, they share the important task of overcoming their own institutional and ethnic boundaries to stand in solidarity with the marginalized with the willingness to challenge the structures that cause such marginalization.

Conclusion While COVID-19 has struck most people’s lives, its uneven impact sheds light on the deepening socioeconomic and racial inequalities and polarization in our society. In this article, I examined one of the gravest injustices that the outbreak brings to light, that is, racism and xenophobia, and formulated a theological response in the Argentinean context from the perspective of Korean immigrants. This is not to say that racial injustice is a more pressing issue than other types of injustice sparked by the pandemic, but is a problem that requires a theological interpretation from different angles.

 García, “The Latino/a Theology of God as the Future of Theology,” 149.

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I addressed two important points. On the one hand, as in other parts of the world, xenophobic violence is real in Argentina and reveals an ideology of racial supremacy in that society. On the other, despite the diligent work of immigrant churches to assist believers, little attention is paid to a theological approach that addresses the structural sin of xenophobic violence. I suggested that emphasis on the image of God as an almighty, transcendent being detached from human agony fails to portray God as one who suffers with the marginalized and hears their cry. Therefore, critical recognition of God, not only as the great healer or punisher, but as the sufferer, is crucial as the first step in a more balanced theological approach to the current issue of the pandemic, with its intersection of God, racial and xenophobic violence, and the suffering of the marginalized.

CHAPTER 6

Disaster Socialism Sheryl Johnson

Introduction It is often said that crisis can bring out the best—and worst—in humanity. The phenomenon of Disaster Capitalism describes situations where corporations and the wealthy use the chaos of crises to further their interests. But crises also provoke tremendous generosity, turn strangers into neighbors, reveal long-standing injustices, and catalyze social change toward more “socialist” forms of relationships. Therefore, I propose that the concept of “Disaster Socialism” might be used to describe another possible response to crises, one that is characterized by wealth transfers, sharing/ pooling of resources, and initiatives aimed to reduce various forms of inequality, economic and otherwise. In this chapter, I examine the economic responses of North American mainline Protestant churches to the COVID-19 pandemic. I focus on ways that churches are providing economic support and wealth transfer between more and less privileged (racially, economically, etc.) church members both within and between congregations, as well as in wider neighborhoods and communities. I examine the relationship between the

S. Johnson (*) St. Stephen’s College, Edmonton, AB, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_6

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short-term crisis of COVID-19 and long-standing systemic inequalities and the ways that responses to the COVID-19 crisis either integrate or do not draw those connections, and whether arrangements are intended to be short-term or whether longer-term or more transformative change is proposed. I will draw on specific case studies and interview data to root my analysis in grassroots church contexts. COVID-19 is having an enormous impact on the world, and great attention is needed if it is to not further entrench various forms of inequality.

Introducing Disaster Capitalism In her ground-breaking work entitled The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, journalist and theorist Naomi Klein introduces the concept of Disaster Capitalism through an in-depth study of how capitalist interests have intersected with various “disasters,” natural and otherwise, around the world. She notes that capitalist interests do not only take advantage of crises, they require them.1 Klein quotes neoclassical economist Milton Friedman who stated that economic change requires a real or perceived crisis in order to be instituted.2 Friedman served as an advisor to Augusto Pinochet in Chile in the 1970s and encouraged a rapid implementation of a neoliberal economy following the violent coup that instituted his presidency.3 Since then, Klein argues that this approach to advancing capitalist interests has been used throughout the world. She asserts that those with capitalist agendas “us[e] moments of collective trauma to engage in radical social and economic engineering.”4 This social and economic engineering includes a wide variety of hallmarks of neoliberal ideologies. Klein identifies three key policy moves: “the elimination of the public sphere, total liberation for corporations, and skeletal social spending.”5 A primary driver of this shift is the privatization of public goods and services,6 ranging from education to the military to even the work of disaster relief itself.7 Although disasters, real and 1  Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Vintage Canada edition (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2008), 7. 2  Klein, The Shock Doctrine, 7. 3  Klein, The Shock Doctrine, 8. 4  Klein, The Shock Doctrine, 9. 5  Klein, The Shock Doctrine, 17. 6  Klein, The Shock Doctrine, 11. 7  Klein, The Shock Doctrine, 12–16.

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imposed, are necessary to implement these capitalist policies so fully and rapidly, it is generally presented and believed that capitalism arises from freedom and that free markets and democracy are mutually supportive.8 The framework of Disaster Capitalism is important to understand because in moments of upheaval and uncertainty, its agenda is presented as inevitable and essential, and greatly benefits from the distraction, instability, and fear of the crisis moment.

Disaster Capitalism and COVID-19 The COVID-19 pandemic can certainly be understood as an unprecedented crisis, encompassing realms such as health, politics, and the economy, and further revealing crises of inequality, particularly in relation to class, race, disability, and global location. However, it is too soon to tell exactly how societies will be re-shaped by this experience as it is still ongoing. I am not the first to connect Disaster Capitalism to this particular pandemic. For example, several UK-based scholars of public health have noted many of the short-term and possible long-term effects to health arising from the social distancing protocols instituted by the COVID-19 pandemic. They assert that those who are already marginalized are the most impacted by these measures.9 One of the impacts that they consider is that of school closures, which particularly impact the economically marginalized who particularly rely on schooling, in part, for childcare and, in some cases, meals.10 An interesting nuance of this pandemic with respect to Disaster Capitalism is the vast closure of public services that have been necessitated to slow the spread of the disease. While capitalist interests may not have initiated these decisions directly, it is still important to consider whether these temporary closures may provide a window of opportunity for capitalist interests to pursue reductions in funding for these services or other more long-term shifts away from these programs. One example of this is that of parents with economic privilege hiring private or semi-private

 Klein, The Shock Doctrine, 22.  Margaret Douglas, Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi, Martin Taulbut, Martin McKee, and Gerry McCartney, “Mitigating the wider health effects of COVID-19 pandemic response” BMJ 369:m1557 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1557. 10  Douglas, et al., “Mitigating the wider health effects of COVID-19 pandemic response.” 8 9

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tutors for their children while schools are closed.11 The authors of the UK public health article referenced previously note that an economic recession is underway and, while more likely to impact the socially marginalized, it is “policy response to a recession, rather than the recession itself, that determines longer-term population health.”12 Arising from this observation, they argue that the response to COVID-19 must be progressive rather than one of Disaster Capitalism in order to ensure long-term protection to public health.13 Medical anthropologist Vincanne Adams suggests that Disaster Capitalism may be a factor that has made certain populations, such as in the US, more susceptible to the impacts of COVID-19 due to being underinsured and unhealthy, and revealing significant issues in the US’ largely privatized health sector.14 Adams also notes that the US’ largely corporate response to the pandemic itself (i.e. for the discovery and creation of a vaccine and production of medical and protective equipment) can be understood within the framework of Disaster Capitalism.15 It is important to remember that “crises” are interconnected and many both in the US and globally are impacted in their response to the COVID-19 crisis by other previous and ongoing crises (including that of health care provision and of racism). Theorist Slavoj Žižek asserts, in regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, that his greatest fear is “barbarism with a human face—ruthless survivalist measures enforced with regret and even sympathy but legitimized by expert opinions.”16 He is specifically referencing the impacts of the pandemic on the elderly and the weak as “economized” responses may prioritize the care of those who are younger and relatively healthy.17 Žižek also notes how much of the attention in the pandemic has been focused on  See, for example, Melinda Wenner Moyer, “Pods, Microschools and Tutors: Can Parents Solve the Education Crisis on Their Own?” The New York Times (July 22, 2020), https:// www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/parenting/school-pods-coronavirus.html. 12  Douglas, et al., “Mitigating the wider health effects of COVID-19 pandemic response.” 13  Douglas, et al., “Mitigating the wider health effects of COVID-19 pandemic response.” 14  Vincanne Adams, “Disasters and capitalism…and COVID-19,” Somatosphere http:// somatosphere.net/2020/disaster-capitalism-covid19.html/. 15  Adams, “Disasters and capitalism…and COVID-19.” 16  Slavoj Žižek, “Is Barbarism with a Human Face Our Fate?” Critical Inquiry (March 18, 2020), https://critinq.wordpress.com/2020/03/18/is-barbarism-with-a-human-face-our-fate/. 17  Žižek, “Is Barbarism with a Human Face Our Fate?” 11

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individual behavior and personal responsibility (in response to virus ­transmission) which “obfuscate[s] the big question of how to change our entire economic and social system,” noting, for instance, the economic and ecological factors that caused the disease to jump from animals to humans.18 Yet, in our immediate response to the crisis, he notes that elements of socialism are at play in the push to ensure survival, although he argues that “it is a communism imposed by the necessities of bare survival.”19 Žižek ends his piece with a question, wondering whether the possible futures ahead may represent Klein’s picture of Disaster Capitalism or a more socialist approach to systemic change. This question also lingers in my specific analysis of church responses to the pandemic.

Churches and Capitalism North American Mainline Protestant Churches have a complex relationship to capitalism. Many denominations have official statements that are critical of at least aspects of this economic system,20 yet they exist within communities and nations based in capitalist systems. The inequalities produced by and embedded within capitalism are largely replicated within congregations. Most congregational budgets are primarily funded by donations from members, and most congregations exist in neighborhoods and communities that are largely segregated by factors such as race and class, so congregations in wealthier areas tend to have larger budgets and more financial security than those in poorer areas, making them less vulnerable to economic downturns and crises. Wealthier churches may also have endowments and investments, property that can generate income from rentals, and members with greater financial means. Poorer churches may rent their meeting space and thus be vulnerable to rent increases or other landlord decisions and have members whose level of disposable  Žižek, “Is Barbarism with a Human Face Our Fate?”  Žižek, “Is Barbarism with a Human Face Our Fate?” 20  See, for example, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, “A Social Statement on: Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All” (August 1999), http://download.elca.org/ ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Economic_LifeSS.pdf and The United Church of Canada, “Living Faithfully in the Midst of Empire: Report to the 39th General Council 2006,” (2007) (accessed July 1, 2020), https://commons.united-church.ca/Documents/ What%20We%20Believe%20and%20Why/Theology%20and%20Mission%20of%20the%20 ChurchLiving%20Faithfully%20in%20the%20Midst%20of%20Empire.pdf. 18 19

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income is limited and may be greatly reduced in times of economic downturn. These are, of course, only a few of the many economic differences that exist between various churches, and these economic inequalities certainly also exist between North American churches in those in various other global locations as well.

North American Mainline Church Responses to COVID-19 Needless to say, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have not been experienced equally by all persons, communities, or congregations. Some churches already had significant technological capabilities to shift to online services and a majority of members with access to and familiarity with technology to be able to participate (perhaps except for some elderly members), while others did not. Some churches had many members who lost their jobs and, in some cases, those who lost their jobs were not eligible for government assistance (due to their immigration status, for example). At the same time, in other churches fewer members lost employment or income or were at least eligible for government assistance if they did. In some churches, ministry programs largely moved online, or the pause was not especially harmful, while in other churches, ministry programs that provide basic needs (i.e. food, childcare, health care, stimulation, and connection for seniors) could not move online so easily and their closure had serious impacts on their congregation and neighborhood. The specific health and mortality impact of COVID-19 has also not been equally spread among congregations, mirroring the race and economic (and other) divides in the impact of the disease more broadly.21 The responses of congregations to COVID-19 have also varied. There are the largely conservative/evangelical churches that have filed lawsuits against health department requirements to close temporarily,22 but mainline Protestant churches have generally not participated in these actions. 21  See, for example, Cato T.  Laurencin and Aneesah McClinton, “The COVID-19 Pandemic: a Call to Action to Identify and Address Racial and Ethnic Disparities” Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities 7.3 (2020): 398–402, https://doi.org/10.1007/ s40615-020-00756-0. 22  See, for example, “Three Southern California churches sue Gov. Newsom over coronavirus orders,” Los Angeles Times, April 13, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/california/ story/2020-04-13/three-southern-california-churches-sue-gov-newsom-over-coronavirus-orders.

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Some congregations provided financial and material assistance for members who lost income due to the pandemic, and some have also offered this support to their wider communities. Many denominations have made funding available to churches experiencing hardship due to the pandemic. To name just a few of the many denominational programs, the United Church of Christ’s Cornerstone Fund has established a pandemic relief loan program,23 The Presbyterian Church (US) was offering both loans and grants,24 and several synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American have made grants and loans available to congregations and other ministries (i.e. summer camps) affiliated with the denomination.25 This list is far from exhaustive, but does demonstrate that many mainline denominations are aware of and seeking to mitigate the economic impacts of the pandemic on the life of the church.

Making Connections Between Crisis, Needs and Chronic Inequalities However, as I have noted previously, economic needs and economic inequality in the church are not a new concern. In studying material from denominations related to grants and loans that are offered, it is clear that some denominations are aware of this long history of inequality and are seeking to make connections to it in their responses. For example, in regard to the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance COVID-19 Pandemic Emergency & Short/Long-Term Recovery Grants, in the materials about granting priorities it is stated that they seek to “support communities that have been unfairly disadvantaged due to discrimination and/or limited or no access to recovery resources,” “support refugees or asylum seekers,” and “support activities/programs that address the underlying systemic and structural forces contributing to the unjust impact of COVID-19 on

23  The United Church of Christ Cornerstone Fund, “COVID-19 Church Support from the UCC Cornerstone Fund,” https://www.cornerstonefund.org/churches/covid/. 24  Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, “Guidance for COVID-19 Emergency & Short/Long-­ Term Recovery Grants,” (March 25, 2020), https://www.pcusa.org/covid19/ (accessed June 24, 2020). 25  See, for example, Upper Susquehanna Synod, “Synod COVID-19 Grants,” https:// swmnelca.org/2020/05/21/elca-covid-grants/ (accessed June 24, 2020) and Southwestern Minnesota Synod Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, “ELCA COVID-19 Grants,” https://swmnelca.org/2020/05/21/elca-covid-grants/ (accessed 24 June 2020).

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certain congregations and/or communities.”26 This clearly identifies awareness of the unequal impacts of the pandemic and how ongoing forms of inequality lead to different impacts of the present crisis. In an article in the United Church of Canada’s denominational magazine, Rev. Lee-Ann Ahlstrom, a minister in Toronto, is quoted saying she predicts the pandemic to lead to a “survival of the fittest” scenario for congregations where some in already precarious financial positions may close.27 She states that “communities who have the means to stay connected in alternative ways and who have the financial resources to keep up with expenses are more likely to endure the pandemic.”28 Although emergency grants and loans were  offered by many denominations and some gave preference to those who are particularly marginalized (due to race, class, and other factors), more privileged congregations did not fully engage the economic, programmatic, and pastoral crisis.

Disaster Capitalism and Church Finance During COVID-19 While many denominations have sought to offer forms of support to struggling congregations, and some have identified particular forms of inequality that they are seeking to mitigate in their response, some congregations (and members) were  still more impacted by the pandemic than others. Moreover, denominations themselves have been impacted by the pandemic, particularly as contributions and assessments from congregations may be reduced. Additionally, denominational endowments and other financial holdings are impacted by larger economic downturns. Although denominations are not a perfect parallel to the government/ public sector, there is some overlap: both provide programming and policies to broad constituencies who, in turn, provide funding in a system that is somewhat similar to taxation. The theory of Disaster Capitalism offers a warning that in times of crisis, the public sphere is often reduced, and much is privatized. It is too early to tell exactly what the impact of declines in giving and changes in  Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, “Guidance for COVID-19 Emergency & Short/Long-­ Term Recovery Grants,” (March 25, 2020), https://www.pcusa.org/covid19/. 27  Trisha Elliot, “Church in a Pandemic,” Broadview, July/August 2020, 23. 28  Elliot, “Church in a Pandemic,” 23. 26

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church programming will be on wider church initiatives, but it is likely that there will be consequences. Although not part of the historic mainline tradition, LifeWay, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, has already instituted a 10% budget cut resulting in staff reductions and pay cuts due to declines in revenue arising specifically from COVID-19.29 In the Anglican Church of Canada’s Diocese of Ottawa, a Jubilee was offered to churches, forgiving two months of contributions for congregations struggling to make their usual payments to the wider church.30 While no staffing or programming cuts have been announced due to this decision, it does demonstrate that many churches are struggling to make payments and this is impacting wider church finances. The United Church of Canada is moving forward with a $4 million budget cut, planned before the pandemic, and the chief financial officer states that more cuts may be needed sooner than anticipated due to COVID-19.31 The Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church was already experiencing financial challenges prior to the pandemic, but cut several staff roles and instituted a hiring freeze due to 15% less received in apportionments from congregations compared to the previous year and a significant decline in investment income.32 Many denominations and regional church bodies were already in financially precarious positions, the pandemic only sharpened that reality. Drawing on the theory of Disaster Capitalism, the question of whether or how the work of denominations and regional church bodies might change due to funding cuts might lead one to look for parallels to privatization. This may mean that individual congregations with financial means establish their own initiatives, new ventures may start up using more of a fee-for-service model, or churches may go directly to private businesses for 29  Yanat Shimron,  “Southern Baptist publishing arm, LifeWay, announces cuts due to COVID-19,” Religion News Service (April 29, 2020), https://religionnews. com/2020/04/29/southern-baptist-publishing-arm-lifeway-announces-steep-cuts-due-toCOVID-19/. 30  The Rt. Rev. John H.  Chapman, “A Time of Jubilee,” Episcopal Office, Diocese of Ottawa, Anglican Church of Canada (April 3, 2020), https://www.ottawa.anglican.ca/ images/Bishop/2020-04-03-Jubilee-Ltr.pdf. 31  Glynis Ratcliffe, “Church Finances: Budget Cuts and Emergency Loans,” Broadview (July/August 2020), 52. 32  Bishop Sharma D. Lewis, “Addressing Our Staffing and Serious Financial Challenges,” The United Methodist Church—Virginia Conference (May 12, 2020), http://doc.vaumc. org/News2020/COVIDChallenges_May12.pdf.

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certain services rather than working with denominational structures and staff. For example, a denomination that previously produced educational curriculum materials may cease to do so, but that work may be taken up by individual congregations who are able to produce their own materials or by private entities that sell materials. Some of the materials produced by denominations may have previously been sold at a reduced cost to congregations, subsidized at least in part by the denomination. Other services that may be shifted away from denominations include theological education, public policy and social justice work, guidance and best practices for congregational programming, legal advice and support, and events and conferences for clergy leadership development and renewal. It will be important to monitor how the “public sector” of church life may be impacted by COVID-19 and particularly which denominations/regions, congregations, programs, and demographics more broadly are most affected by any changes.

Church Finance and COVID-19: Congregational Case Studies Many congregations were  aware of economic inequality both between congregation members and within their local community. Many emphasized proportional giving in relationship to stewardship and church finance, arguing that those with greater economic means should contribute more to the church budget. Many also have initiatives to offer those in their congregation and in their wider community various forms of support, be it emergency loans or grants to cover expenses, meal programs, and banks of food, clothing, and other essential goods. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased those efforts in many settings, while in other settings, new initiatives have been established due to the crisis. However, it is important to note that many of these efforts are specifically focused on alleviating the most acute aspects of the crisis. It is possible that over time, the systemic analysis may develop leading to work for more systemic change. However, theorizing related to the Non-Profit Industrial Complex warns that more charitable responses to inequality in the present economic system rarely develop in that way.33 33  For more information related to the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, see INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, The Revolution will not be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (Boston: South End Press, 2009).

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The congregation that I serve, Congregational Church of San Mateo (United Church of Christ), is a medium-sized (approximately 200 persons in the Sunday worship service in English and 40 persons in the Wednesday worship service in Spanish), theologically and socially progressive congregation located just south of San Francisco, California. Many who attend the Sunday service are from middle class or upper-middle class and were not severely financially impacted by the pandemic, and, in fact, Sunday offerings have increased during the pandemic due to both members who have increased their gifts and new online visitors who have begun contributing since the pandemic began.34 On the other hand, many who attend the Spanish service were quite impacted, losing work, and many were not eligible for unemployment insurance or government stimulus programs due to immigration status. Although before COVID, some limited financial assistance had been offered to various members of the congregation and members of the neighborhood community more broadly, during the pandemic, significant financial assistance has been provided, primarily in the form of grocery gift cards, rent assistance, and laptops to help children to participate in online learning. Although income inequality existed in the congregation and neighborhood before the pandemic, the pandemic exacerbated this situation significantly, serving as a real eye-opening experience, particularly for the more financially stable members of the congregation. Veril Phillips, church treasurer, describes the generosity of the congregation at large which has allowed them to continue paying all church staff regardless of whether or not they are still able to work while the church building is closed, forgiving rent payments for the main church tenants, and even returning the funds the church had received from the federal government through the Paycheck Protection Program. Phillips is hopeful that the congregation’s generosity will continue, and that emergency financial assistance will remain available as long as it is needed.35 First Evangelical Lutheran Church and St. Phillip Lutheran Church of Blue Island (located in the economically marginalized southern suburbs of Chicago) are relatively small and aging congregations (median age of 71, about 25  in worship) which had not engaged previously in community outreach work or provided financial support to church members prior to

 Veril Phillips, interview with author, June 27, 2020.  Veril Phillips, interview with author, June 27, 2020.

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the COVID-19 pandemic (although needs existed).36 Their pastor, Rev. Brittany Kooi, states that “this community has always had these needs, COVID has just highlighted them.” She asserts that the pandemic has been a real turning point for this congregation to reach out to their community and congregation in a material way.37 As of late June 2020, they have committed $4500 to financial assistance from both congregation members/churchgoers and residents of the local community, purchased $3000 in gift cards for individuals connected to the non-profit Blue Island Robbins Neighbourhood Network, have donated hundreds of dollars of personal hygiene items, and are sponsoring numerous expenses for two struggling families in the community. Since the pandemic, Kooi is also working with another pastor to envision longer-term economic stability in the area in addition to these more “band-aid” forms of support. Additionally, she expects at least some of these initiatives to continue after the pandemic, especially the financial support for the two families, as their needs are highly likely to continue and strong relationships with them have been established. The Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, of which they are a part, has provided a great deal of financial support to struggling congregations and the Bishop has committed that no church should close due to this pandemic. This commitment is particularly important to racial minority congregations, whom Kooi heard have largely had greater difficulty accessing government financial support. In the Synod, there was momentum prior to the pandemic to make finances more equitable between congregations, and these grants have only strengthened that commitment. Rev. Colie Bettivia is the Associate Minister at Grace Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, one of the largest churches in this small town (200–250 in attendance on a Sunday).38 Although the congregation provided some financial support to congregation and community members prior to the pandemic, this has increased substantially in recent months due in part to several church members who decided to donate their government stimulus checks ($1200 given by the US federal government to most citizens and permanent residents in April

 Rev. Brittany Kooi, interview with author, June 22, 2020.  Rev. Brittany Kooi, interview with author, June 22, 2020. 38  Rev. Colie Bettivia, interview with author, June 23, 2020. 36 37

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202039) to the church. Bettivia describes the general sentiment from these donors as “we don’t need the money, but there are probably a number of members of the church who could use it more.”40 The church established a special fund which has, as of late June 2020, received nearly $9000 in donations from members to assist church or community members experiencing financial needs due to the pandemic. Bettivia states that although her members do not primarily understand their financial situations to be connected to systemic inequality, she “hope[s] that this fund will continue after the pandemic and that as time continues that we can look outside ourselves much more.”41 These three examples are presented not as a representative of how North American mainline Protestant churches are responding but as examples of initiatives, approaches, and understandings particularly related to economic inequality in the time of COVID-19.

Conclusion A post-COVID-19 study is yet to be done to understand whether Disaster Capitalism or “Disaster Socialism” gave a  better responses of North American Mainline Protestant Churches to the COVID-19 pandemic. On one hand, many churches and denominations are still struggling financially, and this may well just continue to increase that difficulty, as well as the overall inequality between churches, church members, and people more generally. Denominations and regional church bodies, a rough analog to the “public sector,” may experience forms of “privatization.” On the other hand, COVID-19 helped some churches to draw closer to one another and to their denominations due to the shared experience, fostering expressions of financial solidarity and support. In congregations, programs of economic solidarity for members and for the wider community may live on beyond the pandemic and galvanize support for systemic and political advocacy, such as toward Universal Basic Income, strengthened unemployment/disability schemes, public health care, and addressing

39  Zack Friedman, “Everything You Need To Know About Your $1,200 Stimulus Check,” Forbes (April 13, 2020), https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/04/13/ stimulus-check-everything-need-know/#fbca610254ff. 40  Rev. Colie Bettivia, interview with author, June 23, 2020. 41  Rev. Colie Bettivia, interview with author, June 23, 2020.

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racial economic disparities. The study is yet to be done to understand the long-term consequences of COVID-19 for the churches. Despite these unknown possibilities, looking to other disasters and crises is beneficial to be aware of the general dynamics that are at play and long-term consequences that have arisen in other scenarios. Disasters bring chaos, distress, and distraction and place our focus on surviving the present. But we must also keep an eye on the future so that this might be a moment of re-shaping toward justice rather than calcified and more deeply entrenched inequality. Awareness of the lasting economic shifts brought about by previous crises and the phenomenon of Disaster Capitalism may help us both identify and shape how the COVID-19 pandemic affects economic attitudes and practices in North American mainline Protestant churches. Because of the particular commitments of North American mainline Protestant churches to justice and social equality, this is an opportunity of critical import that we cannot afford to squander.

PART II

Unveiling and Naming Distortions

CHAPTER 7

Weaponization of Faith Breana van Velzen

Introduction More than could have been predicted, COVID-19 has had a disparate impact on the populations of Durham, North Carolina, and the United States in general. Economically, North Carolina was teetering on the edge of collapse, and many businesses closed down throughout COVID-19 period. Families continue to suffer from illness, food insecurity, violence, lack of resources, inaccessible education and healthcare, and other disparities contributing to their overall loss of quality of life. The long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have yet to be seen; however, the inequities already existing in the United States have been exacerbated by the pandemic. The weaponization of the church universal and partisan politicization of COVID-19 through white Christian nationalism in the United States increased pressure along economic, geographic, and racial divides, leaving communities devastated. The defunding and discrediting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the historical disenfranchisement of indigenous and Black American communities, racialized incarceration, and

B. van Velzen (*) Duke University Chapel, Durham, NC, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_7

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detention of children and families seeking political asylum, led to mass outbreaks with little to no state or spiritual resources. This chapter explores the theoethical and social implications of the role of the church during this pandemic as well as how decolonizing faith and relying on past traditions, womanism, and liberation theologies can help the church re-embrace a necessary ethic of care. This chapter will posit that a well-developed theology of care at the grassroots level is both a tradition of the church universal and a spiritual formation of endurance and resistance in times of crisis and suffering, reflecting the theodicy of a loving, inclusive, healing God who suffers alongside God’s people.

In Durham There is a stereotype in the United States of sleepy southern towns and cities that rely on agriculture for their economic stability and have little access to higher education or industry. Durham, North Carolina, while once a tobacco town, is the vibrant technology hub of North Carolina, featuring two major universities (NC Central University and Duke University), and a steeply growing populace of young professionals. Within the increasingly conservative, austere politics of government and Christian congregations in North Carolina, Durham and its sister city Chapel Hill are oases of collaborative community organizing and coalition building, churches addressing social issues, and local politicians learning to share power. In this context, my work as a community minister is to be present at the intersections of faith and justice as well as connect Duke University students to learning opportunities around faith and justice through worship, advocacy, and education. In March of 2020, Duke University announced that it was initiating COVID-19 precautions and encouraged employees to work from home, and later Durham’s mayor announced a stay-at-home order. There were largely two reactions in Durham: socially privileged, predominantly white churches first asked, “How will we have church? How will our church survive this?” while Durham working class and impoverished residents first asked, “If I’m not working, how will I feed my family and pay the rent?” Ever since, it has been my job and the jobs of several ministers in the area to find answers to those questions—questions rooted in the inequity and injustices of generations of colonial genocide, racism, cis-hetero-sexism, and poor theology. These distinct questions marked a sharp divide in the

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individualist and institutional thinking of those in power and privilege over and against those who have been marginalized in our community. Churches should not have been asking “how will we have church?”— churches should have been asking “how can we be the church?” “how can we be there for our suffering siblings?” rather than seeking our own institutional survival. This oversight is an indication of an ethic of power and privilege, rather than an ethic of care and community. That is not to say that churches with privilege and power do not also have compassion and care; rather, the driving ethic of the gathered church, on a macro level, is often subject to powers and principalities that root its expression in an ethic of power and privilege, in empire.1 In order to truly be proactive in times of crisis, to truly be present alongside the suffering without causing harm, the church universal must decolonize itself and embrace the ethos of its liminal, often marginalized, roots.

COVID-19 and White Christian Nationalism Since that fateful March announcement, white evangelical churches and conservative Christian politicians have eschewed COVID-19 as a falsehood and political move, or, where COVID-19 was believed to be a real virus, minimized and considered it a punishment from God. Some of the other groups of evangelical Christians in the United States also believe that COVID-19 is a punishment from God—for Christian prayers no longer being mandatory in schools, for the perceived unholy behaviors of others, for making LGBTQ+ marriages legal, for having immigrants documented or undocumented, within US borders, and for not having a strong enough military as a nation in order to evangelize the world.2 Christian practice in the United States historically has been shaped by individualism.3 Therefore, sin is individual—so one’s misfortunes in life must stem from one’s individual sin or the sin of one’s ancestors; one’s own power and strength of faith is also one’s own responsibility. In Durham, NC, and NC in general, church culture dictates politics, socializing, and culture: therefore, white Christian nationalism dominating the hearts and imaginations of North Carolinians has had a severe impact on  Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978).  Willie J. Jennings, The Christian Imagination (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010). 3  Jennings, The Christian Imagination. 1 2

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communities in Durham—which, while progressive, still holds many religiously and politically conservative groups. The same or similar groups believe that “God will protect us” and interpret that to mean that without any personal protective equipment, medical care, or precautions of any kind, these Christians believe that they cannot catch the virus—due to their faith.4 This has especially been prevalent in US-based denominations, such as Southern Baptists, and spread through missions’ efforts overseas, which led to many immigrants to the United States holding similar beliefs in a type of self-centered dualism.5 The origins of this type of Christianity are founded in white supremacy and the justifications of the Atlantic slave trade through the Roman Catholic Church and Church of England of the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries.6 As mainline denominations lose members to agnosticism, atheism, humanism, other religions, or other Christian denominations, the former minority that was evangelicalism is now one of the largest growing bodies of Christians in the United States—culturally and politically powerful enough to shape the narrative of COVID-19 through internet, media, public policy, the president, and worship services.7 Between 2020 and 2022, these groups have increasingly been victims to COVID-19, started super-spreader events, disrupted flights, and used COVID-19 as an excuse to enact violence against ethnic minorities. Because of white supremacy and anti-Black racism, through a history of personal and systemic injustices in the United States, though progress has been made, the impact of COVID-19 led to much greater suffering among people of color (Black, Indigenous, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Latinx, Desi, and others) than it did to their white counterparts. Due to historic inequalities, such as the legacy of chattel slavery, Jim Crow laws, redlining districts in housing, and the development of health systems within these super macro sociopolitical structures, Black and Brown people are more likely to be uninsured, underpaid, live in poor conditions, and have limited access to transportation, medical care, paid time off, and other protective factors for health and economic resilience. As such, Black 4  Giovanna Capponi, “Overlapping values: Religious and scientific conflicts during the COVID-19 crisis in Brazil,” Social Anthropology, 28:2 (2020): 236–237. 5  Pui Lan Kwok, “Searching for Wisdom,” Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005). 6  Jennings, The Christian Imagination. 7  Seth Dowland, “American Evangelicalism and the Politics of Whiteness,” The Christian Century (Chicago: The Christian Century Co., 2018).

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and Brown communities have faced higher numbers of COVID-19 and a larger eco-social impact on their communities than their white counterparts.8 According to Buyum et al., this disproportionate impact is global and the product of these sociopolitical and cultural structures based on anti-Black racism and colonialism. This is especially pertinent to Indigenous communities as the legacy of colonialism disrupted and erased traditional healing practices and organized communities; Indigenous peoples have also been exploited by Western medical practitioners, especially in research, and may have some of the most significant disparities in healthcare. Additionally, impoverished reservations on which Indigenous North Americans were placed by governments receive little to no aid and are largely ignored.9 This is not just a social problem: this is a faithfulness problem.

Indigenous Peoples of the United States: A Case Study One of the most famous crises of COVID-19 in the United States was the decimation of the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Nation is the largest concentration of Indigenous peoples in the United States, at 173,000 people, with the most land, spanning across three states. In April and May of 2020, the nation watched as the Navajo people suffered thousands of COVID-19 cases per day, the shortages of medical supplies, medical personnel, and hospitals starkly apparent. While President Trump ignored the Navajo crisis and continued to deny COVID-19’s seriousness, the people of Ireland donated millions of dollars in aid, Doctors without Borders and other medical personnel started to arrive to the Navajo Nation, and people began sending packages to the tribal representatives. However, due to some of the volunteers bringing COVID-19 with them, the Navajo Nation and other Indigenous nations blocked their borders. Some of the medical supplies sent were used, outdated, or broken. At one point, instead of sending medicine, masks, and gloves, one company sent the Navajo body

8  A.M.  Buyum, Kenny, C., Koris, A., et  al. “Decolonizing Global Health: If Not Now, When?” BMJ Global Health, 5:8 (2020); and Brisbois, Ben and Plamondon, Katrina, “The possible worlds of global health research: An ethics-focused discourse analysis,” Social Science and Medicine, 196 (2018):142–149. 9  Brisbois, “The Possible Worlds of Global Health Research,” 147.

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bags.10 Among Indigenous communities around the country, cries for healing and justice, dances and songs for medicine were made, and people sent what resources they could to help. As of August, the Navajo Nation had fifty days COVID-19 free and is working on rebuilding. Amid this suffering and amid the pain of separation, unable to gather in sacred spaces collectively, the Triangle Native Association of North Carolina, an inter-tribal space, has a working group of elders and young members reaching out for education, fellowship, and problem-solving to ease the suffering of the NC tribes. North Carolina has the second largest population of Indigenous peoples in the United States and is aware that if COVID-19 hits those communities, wisdom, culture, language, and practices would be lost in addition to human life. My tribe, the Lumbee, lost many of our elders, including our Firekeeper, who lit the fires for ceremonies and was a religious leader in the community. Among the tribal communities of North Carolina, several of whom are Christian, there is a continued ethic of care for material needs as well as emotional, spiritual, and mental health needs. Programs for connection and continuing traditional practices that encourage social distancing have appeared online— such as medicinal uses for types of plants and inter-tribal phone check-ins with the elderly. Powwows and other important gatherings were canceled; instead, fancy dancers and healers posted their dances online during lockdowns, or danced in their yards and allowed themselves to be filmed. People have been sharing beadwork, sewing, and other practices online. Several women made masks for tribes across the United States using traditional beadwork and allowing the profits to be used for COVID-19 relief. All of this is considered medicine for the people, as are ceremonies and prayers.

Decolonizing Our Communities While practices differ, and community needs can vary, the Navajo Nation, the Cherokee nation, and the tribes of North Carolina have had the same message as other indigenous and First Nation peoples in North America: “We are resilient. We have been surviving for centuries against genocide, cultural erasure, poverty, and wars. We will survive this, too. We have each other, and we have our traditions.” This can be an example of an ethic of 10  Eric Ortiz, “Native American Health Center Asked for COVID-19 Supplies. It Got Body Bags,” NBC News (May 2020).

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care for all communities in the United States, especially churches. While potlucks, communion, and other gatherings common in US churches may not be happening—while rituals such as weddings and funerals may be modified—it is possible to still honor community practices that alleviate suffering while maintaining safer social measures. It is a spiritual resilience passed down from ancestor to descendant. The Christian Church has apostleship and traditions as well—including an ethos of care. It is through decolonizing contemporary Christian beliefs and practices—unlearning what colonialism, racism, and other injustices have taught humanity about ethnocentrism, entitlement, and individualism— that will teach the Western Church its spiritual strength once again.11 Churches in the United States must unlearn the Doctrine of Discovery, rugged individualism, ethnocentrism, white is right, and other markers of a racialized colonial mindset that inhibit both cultural and religious practices that promote relationship, community, healing, and embodying faithfulness. This includes churches of color that have been impacted by whiteness—while some churches may have decolonized to an extent, and do have practices of communal response to crisis, the lessons of whiteness often remain in subtler ways that are made visible in crises such as COVID-19.12 Writing and creating resources, reflections, and theological inquiries while the world is in a continuing crisis are the work of the church. Renewing and reviewing traditions, learning what fails and who the church has failed, learning what is helpful, and seeking out God in the midst of crisis are the constant work of the church. The church universal is called to discipleship, to care for the poor and those in need, and to practice God’s love, which includes justice and mercy. In the context of the southern United States, that often means a divided body: churches and faith communities have been politicized, COVID-19 and responses to it have been politicized, and the church’s teaching of compassion has been corrupted. COVID-19 is a crisis, but it is not the crisis in the United States. Rather, this current crisis highlighted the disparities already present in healthcare, wealth, race, gender, sexuality, housing, employment, and so many categories of identity. It made “the invisible visible.”13 The crisis in the United States is a tradition of exploitation, individualism, consumption, and  George Tinker, Spirit and Resistance (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).  Regina Groff, Sermon. 2 August 2018; and Jennings, The Christian Imagination. 13  Kathryn Lester Bacon, Personal Communication (July 2020). 11 12

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division. It is the heritage and legacy of its citizens, and it reverberated around the world. That heritage shaped the suffering in the United States and its institutions’ attitudes toward its people—including places of worship. It can be difficult to know how, where, and when to respond when people all around, including oneself and one’s own family, are suffering and asking, “Where is God in all this? What do we do?” It is difficult to know what to say or what one means during pastoral care when the blood crying from the ground is so loud that it drowns out all else. The long-­ term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have yet to be seen but are predicted to be dire. The weaponization of the church universal and partisan politicization of COVID-19 through white Christian nationalism in the United States increased pressure along economic, geographic, and racial divides, leaving communities devastated. The truth is that so many people in the United States, especially Black and indigenous people of color, have survived for centuries, often enduring through faith. Rev. Dr. Eboni Marshall Turman, renowned womanist theoethicist at Yale University, utilizes the social gospel, the double consciousness of Blackness, and a theology of incarnation in Toward a Womanist Ethic of Incarnation. Written between the murder of Trayvon Martin and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Turman’s critique of substitutionary atonement and the church universal’s treatment of suffering—especially of Black women—in general was particularly poignant. She posits that for Black people, and Black women in particular, “the oppressed not only seek to overcome their own oppression, but equally privilege the importance of resisting the fantastic hegemonic compulsion to reinscribe injustice in the lives of others…an ‘in the flesh’ body ethic…engenders justice for everybody.”14 Her work describes a way out of the continuous cycle of injustices enacted physically on the bodies of Black and Brown people in the United States—including the bodily threat of the COVID-19 virus, and recently, a resurgence of forced sterilization by the US government. Womanists claim an ethic that “no one is free until we are all free” and that any form of injustice on anybody chains both the captor and the captive. What Marshall Turman is arguing is for true liberation—and for that, it requires an ethic of care for the whole body—physical and spiritual—of Christ, the 14  Eboni Marshal Turman, Toward a Womanist Ethic of Incarnation (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

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whole world, an inclusive liberation that breaks the cycle of harm itself. In many churches founded on or deeply influenced by the racial colonial project that is Anglo-European theology, womanist theological ethics and postcolonial feminist paradigms are revolutionary. Embodying, quite literally, an ethic of care that includes boundaries, truth-telling, healing, provision, and communal mutuality echoes the indigenous North American traditional ethos of care and healing. This even echoes the early Church, sharing “all things in common…as any had need.”15 None of these communities doubted God’s presence; rather, they trusted in God’s continued faithfulness and solidarity. This is one way to create a long-lasting church culture and role of the church universal that, rather than starting from a place of legalism or proving one’s faith, begins located in love and care that addresses suffering in solidarity and seeks liberation. It seeks to live into the wholeness of relationship with God, resilient, enduring, and growing. In Durham, NC, the lack of care looked like many churches ignoring their hungry neighbors during COVID-19 waves; the ethic of care often looked like Black and Latinx churches, full of indigenous peoples, acting as testing sites, vaccination sites, food pick-up sites, and spaces of prayer and care. Re-embracing such an ethic of care, especially for churches shaped by whiteness, must take lead and learn from those who have been marginalized. Such an undertaking must be a grassroots practice inclusive of every image bearer and all of creation—or it remains merely an ethic of power and privilege.

Toward Shalom: An Ethic of Care Lisa Sharon Harper writes that shalom, in its various forms, means “peace and wholeness…to make right and to restore…peace offering…loyal or devoted…peace…well-being…perfection of God’s creation…abundance.”16 It is in practices of abundance and well-being that will lead to the restored wholeness of such brokenness as can be found in suffering. COVID-19 in the United States is in part such a threat and so devastating because of resource inequalities and care inequities brought on by unjust systems of oppression. Had the CARES Act and other decisions made by the government, corporations, local businesses, and various other organizations started from an ethic of care, centering well-being, creation, and  Acts 2:44 NRSV.  Harper, Lisa Sharon. The Very Good Gospel (New York: Waterbrook, 2016).

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restoration—centering on resilience, dignity, and mutuality—then the impact of COVID-19 on life, livelihoods, and communities would be greatly lessened. One highlight is in New Zealand, where Prime Minister Ardern addressed New Zealanders asking them to protect their neighbors—not defeat an invisible enemy. While the New Zealand government did go on an aggressive education campaign and four-stage response— Prime Minister Ardern is given credit for motivating the country to work as a team, being responsible for each other’s well-being, and be united. This attitude came not from a place of fear and scarcity but a place of abundance and devotion. By turning New Zealanders toward an ethic of care and neighborly love, a call for loyalty and communal care, Prime Minister Ardern engaged the entire nation as caretakers.17 Communities need tools for coping with and healing from trauma, even amid crisis, and pastors, lay practitioners, seminaries, and other faith organizations can assist in teaching, sharing, and modeling those tools.18 Christianity began in the Near East and North Africa, in places where the holy fathers and mothers of early Christianity could become ascetics and monastics, utilizing contemplative, meditative practices that some believers still practice today. These practices came out of their own cultural expressions, just as many Christian practices come from Judaism. A colleague in helping local pastors process the impacts of COVID-19 and stressors in the community shared that a rabbi once said during an interfaith prayer meeting, “It’s Wednesday, and we are having a meal. We have something for that,” implying that in the 5000  years that Judaism has been practiced, there is a ritual (communal tool) for “every moment” that marks the moment, and acts in acknowledging it, centering the community in the ways it needs in order to spiritually or physically move in it and through it.19 Biblical practices of grounding, of breathing, of silence—of all of the spiritual disciplines—can be found in both the Hebrew and Greek testaments. Many of these tools are also tools for communal trauma: centering oneself in one’s community and in the moment, positive self-talk, grieving rituals, the reminder that God breathed into us, and with each breath that 17  Beaubien, Jason, “Some Countries Have Brought New Cases Down to Nearly Zero. How Did They Do It?” NPR (May 2020). 18  Sorenson-Prokosch, Ruth, “Tending to Communal Trauma through Spiritual Practices,” Faith + Leader (August 2020). 19  Christopher Ingram, Personal Communication (3 September 2020).

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we breathe in and out, we are breathing with God, and the “discipline of hope.”20 The Gerasene Demoniac, whose community had set him to live in chains among the dead, isolated and without hope, ran and greeted Jesus, who decided to heal him. Jesus listened to his tale of trauma, treated him as an equal, helped him be rid of his affliction, and sent him back into his community—healed, whole, and with new purpose. In healing the demoniac, Jesus not only rid a man of a legion of demons, but he also healed the community of constant pain and fear; he gave the community back its missing member, and he created a path for mutual restoration for them and the demoniac.21 These are all steps in treating complex trauma in both individuals and communities. Jesus practiced an ethic of care for the afflicted man, demonstrating to the town how to as well. Rituals of healing, practices of prayer and liturgy, and practicing faith as a “living sacrifice” have ancient, effective roots in most cultures and are especially helpful during times of strife and trial, as referenced previously in this chapter. People have found new and old ways to pray. One spiritual coach in Durham greets their clients in a field because connecting our bodies and spirits with the earth, centering our minds and hearts together, was necessary work for grounding the Christian pastors they coach in the present moment and in resilient practices. Rituals and liturgy disrupt time distortion and create a sense of familiarity during the isolation and mundanity of COVID-19 daily life in the United States. Rates of suicide and depression increased significantly—during most crises, there is a timeline, and the body can adjust.22 During COVID-19, especially in the United States where politicization of the pandemic and human rights continues to escalate pandemic-related deaths and the spread of the virus, there is no timeline. Rituals can mark time and can offer a space for acknowledgment of grief, of joy, of hopeful waiting. Rituals can create a sense of continuation: a past and future, anchored to this present. Rituals are tools for just such a time as this.

20  Sorenson-Prokosch, “Tending to Communal Trauma”; and Jennings, Willie J., “Racism: The History of the Problem,” Lecture (18 July 2020). 21  Mark 5:1-20 (NRSV). 22  Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (US), “Chapter 3, Understanding the Impact of Trauma,” Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services (Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014).

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Care in the Time of COVID-19 In bearing witness during this time, the Church’s oldest traditions—baptism and communion, marriage and rites of death, ordination, the liturgical calendar—even in liturgically poor denominations, can be a strength and a balm for weary souls. Age-old hymns and spirituals, musical arrangements, and chants can be tools for release and hop. When one cannot grieve with their church community, lighting candles and reading the names of loved ones who have died aloud, praying for each one, and sharing their stories can offer a ritual of passing and comfort. Holding vigil, sharing poetry, praying together via online video conferencing or socially distanced outdoor circles, and the simple act of delivering meals or a favorite comfort item are adaptations to communal ritual. Grief in April 2020 was hundreds of people on a Zoom call when our beloved organizer and elder, Brother Ray, died. People left flowers and food on his porch, attended the Zoom memorial, shared stories with one another, and used every communal space to honor him, even though no one could lawfully gather in person. Communion may look like delivering food and hygiene necessities to the immediate neighbors of a local church; it may look like a neighbor celebrating her birthday by having a low country boil in her back patio, as my neighbor did, masked and gloved, and sharing with the residents of her building as they all sing in her honor through their windows, leaving offerings of their own on their stoops.23 It may be a minister in a park, masked and gloved, creatively finding ways to serve the Last Supper to spiritually hungry congregants, as one of our ministers at Duke University Chapel did. An ethic of care looks like Taize services, wearing face coverings outside of the home, social distancing, calling loved ones, praying for one another, and more. It is an attitude and culture of mutual lovingkindness that means that the liberation of one’s neighbor is tied into the liberation of oneself.24 It automatically centers love of God and neighbors almost instinctually—an “epistemology inconsistent with Western epistemologies.”25 An ethic of 23  A low country boil is a method of cooking various vegetables, seafood, and seasonings in a large pot popular in the southern United States. By its nature, it is meant to feed large gatherings of people in celebrations in close quarters and often during the summer. It is similar to the kamayan in the Philippines. 24  Barth, K., Bromiley, G.  W., & Torrance, T.  F. Church Dogmatics (Edinburgh: T. & T., 1936). 25  Sechrest, Love; Ramirez, Johnny; and Love, Amos. “Decolonizing Salvation”. Can White People Be Saved? Triangulating Race, Theology, and Mission (Intervarsity Press, 2018), 51.

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care begins with sacrificial love, rather than the individual self. It is valuing the lives of the elderly and sick over profit and understanding oneself as connected intrinsically and irrevocably to one’s neighbor, so how one practices spirituality, economics, politics, and other forms of societal expectation matters just as much as worship. It is offering grace as life during COVID-19becoming-endemic seems more chaotic than ever, as elderly and immunocompromised people are left behind in the wake of the mandates of capitalism: profit before all else. This ethic of care holds life to be sacred and God to be love. It looks like protests in the streets on behalf of neighbors unjustly murdered, and it means dismantling harmful social and political structures while co-­ creating inclusive ones that meet the needs of the most vulnerable. It is both grassroots and global, acts of kindness and mutuality. It does not allow the other to be seen as enemy, nor does it allow the oppression of a neighbor. For many cultures, this is sacrosanct, expected, and normalized. In the context of the United States—a nation beset by injustices and suffering humanity—the church enacting an ethic of care is vital. Such a spiritual formation is necessary to defang the current weaponization of COVID-19 as a political tool in the context of the United States, especially in the church, and in order to re-humanize those who have been dehumanized and invisibilized or villainized through an ethic of power rather than the strong tradition of care and compassion that the church universal is called to embody and enflesh.26

Conclusion COVID-19, and the heightened racial tensions and violence in the United States, caused Duke University Chapel and other predominantly white churches in Durham to examine how we cared for our neighbors. We were advocates, on committees, gave funds, and educated our congregations. However, the stark disparities highlighted by COVID-19, and the restructuring of our own worship spaces, forced us to ask: “how are we being church? Who have we considered our neighbor?” We have redirected our efforts into crisis management, but we have also opened our virtual doors  Carter, J. Kameron. Lecture (October 2016).

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to listening with our community. We have given monies where directed by our neighbors, we have shown up, we changed policies and hiring practices, we have prayed together, and we continue to work toward a different prioritizing of our ethics as the church universal. As COVID-19 continues to ravage parts of the world, and as the long-­ lasting and continuing impacts of the Western racial-colonial project unfold in heightened xenophobia, inadequate healthcare and living conditions, harmful and collapsing economies, gatekeeping of education, and empathy-poor theologies, churches that have not already been spiritually formed into an ethos of care and compassion that is fully inclusive, sacrificial, and radical must do the spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and practical labor of orienting themselves from within the gathered body of Christ, from within their identities in Christ, as image-bearers of a God who cherishes each part of creation.27 While many churches in the United States have practiced responsibility and compassion, the hegemonic Western theologies centering privilege and power over and against the well-being of the most vulnerable in a community, and the centering of profit and legalism over and against the sacredness of life, developed into a moral and spiritual crisis within the US Christian context. In order to heal, the church universal must remember our ancestors, our heritage—both harmful and enriching, and exercise a theological praxis that centers wholeness—an ethic of care that is wholly inclusive and loves sacrificially. God is with humanity in its suffering; God bears the groans of the Earth. God sometimes speaks and sometimes is silent, yet God is present.

 Kwok, Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology.

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CHAPTER 8

Anti-black Racism Xavier L. Johnson

Introduction In the United States, predominately black communities disproportionately affected by the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). In a recent report published by the National Urban League, “The State of Black America: Unmasked,” scholars and experts from varying fields and disciplines came together and painted a picture of black American life in the “Age of Coronavirus.” It would seem that the historical marginalization that manifests itself in the everyday lived realities of black people in the United States has left them more vulnerable than most to the ravages of the COVID-19 virus. The emotional distress, economic disaster, and expansive death tolls COVID-19 has left in its wake have only further magnified the many disparities and inequalities that already existed in African American communities. Overcrowded living conditions and systemic obstacles to employment opportunities that make it more likely for them to be employed in jobs that cannot be performed at home and are deemed “essential,” though low-wage earning, have led to black Americans having the second highest rate of COVID-19 infections in the country. Further exacerbating matters

X. L. Johnson (*) Earlham School of Religion, Dayton, OH, USA © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_8

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is the fact that black Americans, again owing to historical inequalities and what has been tantamount to medical apartheid, are more likely to suffer from the kind of pre-existing conditions, like diabetes, hypertension, and asthma, that greatly increase the potential for acute illness if they contract the coronavirus. This, coupled with the fact that many black Americans are either underinsured or uninsured, means that they may or may not have access to adequate healthcare or may defer seeking treatment until their illness is too far gone. The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity found that the Coronavirus death rate among black Americans was 70 deaths per 100,000, more than double that of Latinx and white Americans.1 Lisa Cooper, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, sums up the issue well in her essay “The Silver Lining in COVID-19’s Dark Clouds” when she observes that the difficulties faced by black Americans during this pandemic are primarily the byproduct of systemic racism that has impeded access to “healthy food, a strong education, gainful employment opportunities, safe physical and social environments, and high-quality health care.”2 That being said, the novel Coronavirus is only one of the pandemics facing black Americans. Blacks in America face another pandemic, that is just as deadly but older: anti-black racism. As mentioned above, the current pandemic has been made worse and deadlier by racist attitudes, policies, and practices that are quite literally older than the Republic. In recent months, symptoms of this pandemic have also flared across the country. Clear examples are seen in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with the murder of George Floyd; in Louisville, Kentucky, with the murder of Breonna Taylor (both of whom were murdered by the police); and Ahmaud Arbery, who was murdered while jogging by vigilantes near Brunswick, Georgia. These incidents are just a few instances of the many acts of violence, perpetrated often by those who are sworn to “serve and protect,” committed regularly against black bodies and black lives in the United States. Add to this, the gentrification of black neighborhoods, food insecurity, and lack of access to jobs that pay a living wage, adequate healthcare, and quality education 1  Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, “Johns Hopkins Report: COVID-19 By the Numbers”, https://soba.iamempowered.com/johns-hopkins-report, accessed on November 3, 2020. 2  Lisa Cooper, “The Silver Lining on COVID-19’s Dark Clouds”, https://soba.iamempowered.com/silver-lining-COVID-19%E2%80%99s-dark-clouds, accessed on November 3, 2020.

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and the predicament of black people in America can be seen for the dire and deadly circumstance that it is. Yet, black people are some of the most religious people in the United States. Black religiosity is a major part of the story of black people in America. Blacks did not “get religion” when they were brought to America. They brought their religion with them in the bellies of slave ships. Indeed, it was their religion that made the horrors of the Euro-­ American Slave Trade and American chattel slavery bearable and survivable.3 However, the tendency toward religion did not end for black people after slavery, particularly when it comes to Christianity. In a 2014 study, the Pew Research Center reported that almost 80 percent of black Americans identified as Christian, as opposed to 70 percent of white Americans and 77 percent of Latinx Americans. Further, the majority of black Christians, and 53 percent of blacks in general, claim membership in one of the historically black Protestant denominations. The Pew Research Center also found that, overall, blacks are more religious than whites and Latinx people. Eighty-three percent of blacks profess a belief in God, 75 percent say that religion is important to them, 73 percent claim to pray daily, and 47 percent make it a point to attend some kind of religious service every week.4 Suffice it to say that, even today, a large portion of black Americans consider themselves to be Christians. Black people in America suffer in two ways. In general, they experience the suffering that comes with just being human and alive. The current pandemic is an example of that. However, as demonstrated above, black Americans also suffer because of the lasting legacy of chattel slavery, racism, marginalization, and oppression they have experienced in the United States.5 With so many black Americans identifying as Christian, what role has black faith played historically in their lives in the face of suffering? What role does it play now? In light of the compounding and challenging realities faced by black American Christians in the United States, this essay will take up these questions and seek to answer them while also deepening our collective understanding of human suffering within the context of COVID-19. 3  Gayraud S.  Wilmore, Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Interpretation of the Religious History of Afro-American People, 2nd ed. (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1983), vii. 4  Masci, Pew, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/02/07/5-facts-about-thereligious-­lives-of-african-americans/, accessed November 1, 2020. 5   David Emmanuel Goatley, Were You There? Godforsakenness in Slave Religion (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), 94.

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What Is Black Faith? Black faith is broad and varied and its expressions differ across the Pan-­ African Diaspora. As such, the focus here will be the expression of black faith within the context of the black American, Christian experience in the United States, with the understanding that it is only one of many. Gayraud S. Wilmore notes in his seminal work, Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Interpretation of the Religious History of Afro-American People, that Christianity among black people in America as we know today is different from the one that developed among white Americans.6 Black faith is faith from the underside. It is the “religion of subjugated people.”7 It is a faith that grapples daily with the question of the meaning of the “good news” of Jesus Christ to “those who stand, at a moment in human history, with their backs against the wall.”8 For black American, Christians, black faith has been a means of hope and survival. Black faith energized and preserved black lives and black bodies as black people faced and fought against the harsh conditions historically imposed upon them. It affirmed and reaffirm their innermost longings for life, freedom, justice, and equality. It also assured them of God’s abiding presence with them in their suffering.9 It has literally been a path to freedom and a means of reclaiming their humanity and dignity from a system that would deny them both. Though she addresses the subject with a different intention, theologian Kelly Brown Douglas discusses black faith extensively in her books, What’s Faith Got to Do with It?: Black Bodies/Christian Souls and Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God. Her insights are both informative and instructive. She says that having black faith “means acting as if you really believe in the God of that faith” and identifies many of its characteristics.10 Douglas understands faith as “a response to God” and a reaction to God’s initial action. It is the way in which humanity affirmatively responds to God’s invitation to be in

 Wilmore, Black Religion and Black Radicalism, 2.  Wilmore, Black Religion and Black Radicalism, 14. 8  Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (Boston: Beacon Press, 1976), 11. 9  Kelly Brown Douglas, What’s Faith Got to Do with It? Black Bodies/Christian Souls (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2005), 201. 10  Kelly Brown Douglas, Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2015), 170. 6 7

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relationship with God. She concludes, “Black faith represents a resounding yes to God’s offer.”11 Douglas also sees black faith as a formidable weapon against “religiously legitimated tyranny”12 This is important because it speaks to the revolutionary and radical power of black faith. In many cases, black faith has been the only defense that blacks in America have had against the onslaughts of white supremacy. This is because, as Douglas observes, “The black faith tradition asserts that God is inherently just and responds to historical injustice. More particular, God acts to empower and liberate black people in their struggle with white oppression and to put down the inequitable power of whiteness.”13 For people with no other recourse, their faith saved and sustained them. In the face of state-sponsored and state-sanctioned violence against black bodies, the stifling effects of de facto and de jure segregation, and the debilitating fear that was often the result of unfettered, white domestic terrorism, black faith continued, and continues, to give strength and hope to black people. Douglas also notes that black faith offers a narrative to black people that challenges the prevailing narrative of white supremacy and racism.14 This goes to the heart of Douglas’ definition of black faith and it is the source of its power. Douglas’ definition of black faith resonates with what the writer of “The Epistle to the Hebrews” says about Christian faith in general: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”15 The faith mentioned here is one that implies both assurance and conviction. New Testament scholar, F. F. Bruce says that the words that are translated in the verse as “assurance” (hypostasis) and “conviction” (elenchos) are companion words that both have the same connotative meaning. He suggests that both words imply a sense of confidence not just in the promises of God, but, and perhaps more especially, in the God who made the promise.16 The faith referred to here trusts the God of the promise and, thus, unreservedly believes in the veracity of the promise.

 Douglas, Stand Your Ground, 139.  Douglas, Stand Your Ground, 138. 13  Douglas, What’s Faith Got to Do with It, 202. 14  Douglas, Stand Your Ground. 138. 15  Hebrews 11:1, NRSV. 16  F.  F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, rev. ed. (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1990), 276–277. 11 12

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However, David L. Allen pushes the understanding of faith in Hebrews 11 a bit further. Like Bruce, he notes the potential for both subjective and objective meanings for “assurance” (hypostasis) and “conviction” (elenchos). However, he also notes an alternative interpretation that, too, might be instructive for our understanding of black faith. Citing the work of William L. Lane, New Testament scholar and professor of biblical studies, he says that “assurance” (hypostasis) would be best translated as “faith” and interpreted objectively, it gives the “object of hope,” the things that are “hoped for” a “present reality” which gives the believer the certainty, “conviction” (elenchos), that what they believe will actually happen. Thus, “Faith is the objective ground upon which subjective confidence may be based.”17 As such, Hebrews 11:1 is more a statement of meaning than it is a definition. Bruce explains in his commentary on this verse that the matriarchs and patriarchs who believed and trusted in God often had nothing to hold on to but the promises they received from God. Though they had no visible or concrete proof that would ever come to pass, they lived and ordered their lives as if the promises were true and had come to fruition. Faith in this instance is not simply believing God but believing God enough to live and function as if what God has promised is both true and has already come to pass.18 The faith referenced in the text is an eschatological one. One that sees into the future and lives in the present what it sees. This is the way that black faith functions in the life of suffering black people. Black faith acts as if it really believes in the God it professes. Black faith accepts the invitation of hope, love, peace, and justice given to black people offered in the promises of God. Because of this, black faith is, at its core, eschatological. It is a weapon, in the present, against the narratives about black people that contradict what God has promised them in the future. Its power lies in how it negates the narratives that deny and denigrate the humanity of black people. Like the faith of the matriarchs and patriarchs of Judeo-Christian faith, black faith is built on the assurance that, despite what is, what God has promised shall be. So much so, that that assurance becomes the objective ground upon which the subjective confidence that black people have in God is based.

17  David L. Allen, The American Commentary: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture, Hebrews (B & H Publishing Group, 2010) 35, 542–543. 18  Bruce, “Epistle to the Hebrews,” 276.

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Black Faith and Irrationality In his book The Sacred Canopy: Elements of Sociological Theory in Religion, Peter Berger says that “The Problem of Theodicy” is “the recurrent intrusion into individual and collective experience of the anomic phenomena of suffering, evil, and, above all, death.”19 Suffering, death, and evil are destabilizing, destructive forces that represent a threat to “the sacred order” of the world, what we as human beings have come to know about the world and how we have come to believe that things should be in the world. This means that the intrusion of these destabilizing, destructive forces (suffering) must be lived through and explained in a way that is consistent with the prevailing collective understanding of how things are to be. In religious terms, that explanation often becomes a theodicy. As a function of religion, theodicy helps human beings to better understand and explain the phenomena of human suffering.20 Though Berger’s observations about religion and suffering are instructive, it is the conclusion that he draws about religious legitimations of suffering that is most helpful. Berger concludes that at the core of every theodicy is “a fundamental attitude” that is itself “irrational.” For Berger, belief in any explanation about God and suffering requires the capitulation of one’s entire person to a broader system of beliefs and ideas that grounds reality. That broader system must be given pre-eminence over and above individual experiences, so that it can have enough capital for its explanation of suffering to succor or, at the very least, assuage the suffering, even if that explanation does not entirely rational.21 Douglas sees a kind of irrationality in black faith. She writes, “There is an inherent absurdity in black faith. It speaks of freedom in the midst of bondage. It speaks of life in the midst of death.”22 For Douglas black faith is irrational for two reasons. First, black faith is irrational because though it takes the reality of suffering seriously, it is not confined to the reality of suffering. It allows black people to see and hold in tension both their current reality of suffering and God’s future for them. It is what allowed enslaved Africans to sing about freedom even while being bound by the manacles and chains of chattel slavery. Second, black faith is irrational 19  Peter L. Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (Garden City: Doubleday, 1967) Kindle. 20  Berger, The Sacred Canopy. 21  Berger, The Sacred Canopy. 22  Douglas, Stand Your Ground, 170.

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because at no point does it attempt to resolve the dissonance that it causes. Douglas notes that black faith “does not resolve the contradictions of black living or the contradictions of black faith.”23 However, there is a difference between Berger’s and Douglas’ understanding of irrationality. For Berger, religious explanations of suffering are irrational because they are often illogical. In a world of order, disorder, and sometimes the explanation for that disorder, does not make sense. However, the goal of theodicy is to make it “make sense,” particularly if one believes in a good and omnipotent God who is in control of the world. If one holds to this view, then God is ultimately responsible for everything, including suffering. In Berger’s system, explanations about God and human suffering are irrational because the reality of God’s omnipotence and goodness cannot logically coexist with the reality of evil and human suffering.24 The way that Douglas understands irrationality is different. Black faith is not about reconciling irreconcilable terms. Resolving the cognitive dissonance between the concept of a good and omnipotent God and the reality of human suffering is not the goal of black faith. Douglas says of black faith, “For it is not the case that faith promises to free black people from the suffering and pain of being black.”25 Black faith in America has never known a time when suffering did not exist. It was born in a death-­ dealing system that was designed to dehumanize black people. Because of this, it is a faith that sees suffering for what it is and takes it seriously. It offers no false assurances. However, it also does not despair.26 Black faith is irrational because it inspires and enables black people to remain hopeful while facing, surviving, and even thriving, in the face of profound suffering and insurmountable odds.

Black Faith and Suffering Since the day the first enslaved Africans stepped foot in the American colonies, black people have struggled to understand their suffering. Black religion has been the primary means through which black people have struggled with and interrogated their plight. Wilmore observes that black  Douglas, Stand Your Ground, 164.  Goatley, Were You There, 13. 25  Douglas, Stand Your Ground, 164. 26  Douglas, Stand Your Ground, 138. 23 24

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American, Christian religiosity has been historically used as a means to understand the experience of black suffering.27 Phenomenologist and religious historian, Charles H. Long echoes similar sentiments. In his book Significations: Signs, Symbols, and Images in the Interpretation of Religion, he offers a definition of “religion” that proves to be instructive. Long defines religion as “an orientation.” For him, religion is a means by which human beings come to understand their place and significance in the world. He understands Christianity as having provided a language and means by which black American Christians have made meaning out of and tried to understand their plight in America, even if that meaning and understanding was in some ways inadequate and incomplete.28 Long suggests that religion’s fundamental usefulness is the experience that it offers and in its value as a framework for “intellectual critique.”29 Taken together, Wilmore and Long are helpful to our understanding of the role and function of black faith in suffering. Religion orients us to suffering by giving us a means by which to understand it and cope with it. Black American Christian religiosity, in this instance, orients black Christians to suffering by giving them a language out of which to attempt to make meaning out of the black experience of suffering in America. What black Christians believe and have come to know about God, in and through the black experience in America, is what they draw upon to make meaning out of black suffering. David Emmanuel Goatley examines suffering, particularly black American suffering, in his book Were You There? Godforsakenness in Slave Religion. He examines the suffering of black people in America during and after chattel slavery by exploring the idea of suffering as “godforsakenness.” He explores black suffering during slavery in terms of family separation, violence, female sexual exploitation, and what he calls “anomie,” the total disintegration of the social norms, customs, and practices that gave order to the life of the formerly enslaved in the antebellum South.30 He suggests that “godforsakenness” requires two conditions: (1) the belief in a God who is active and capable of being personally involved in the world and (2) the capacity to know and experience God. Both of these criteria  Wilmore, Black Religion and Black Radicalism, 4.  Charles H.  Long, Significations: Signs, Symbols, and Images in the Interpretation of Religion (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), 7. 29  Long, Significations, 6. 30  Goatley, Were You There, 35. 27 28

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assume God’s goodness as an identifiable characteristic. He defines “godforsakenness” as being experienced, “when the positive experiences of life—both actual and conceptual—which are in some measure attributable to the goodness of the immanent God, are radically revered, transforming life into an abyss of negativity and destruction.” He offers as examples of “godforsakenness” experiences like slavery, physical violence, sexual and psychological abuse. He notes that though all human suffering should not be viewed as “godforsakenness,” as it represents the extreme edges of human suffering, other forms of suffering are just as legitimate and can be life-altering.31 Goatley’s conceptualization of black suffering as “godforsakenness” is instructive as it, in the ways described by Wilmore and Long, uses black faith as a lens through which to examine black suffering. Goatley takes the language and theological constructs of the Christian church and uses them as a framework through which to understand and make meaning out of black suffering and, by extrapolation, the suffering of humanity.

Black Faith and the Presence of God in Suffering Just about every major religious tradition addresses the subject of suffering in some way. Hinduism says that suffering exists because of wrongs that were committed in a previous life and suffering is the way in which those wrongs are righted. Buddhism says that this present reality and all that comes with it, including suffering, are really only an illusion and that the goal of human life should be to escape it and move to higher plane of existence. Islam says that suffering exists in the world because the world has not heard and accepted the message of Allah given through Muhammad.32 Christianity, too, has its answer for suffering and so does black faith. Goatley suggests that when it comes to suffering, the primary question that should be asked is not “Where is God in this?” He says, “I believe that God is present even when God appears to be absent. The fact that we may not be able to experience God in ways that we have come to know and expect while in the midst of suffering does not mean that God is not present.” For him, the reality of God’s presence in our lives is not contingent upon our ability to recognize it. The reality of God’s presence in our lives,  Goatley, Were You There, 12.  N.  T. Wright, Evil and the Justice of God (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 34–35. 31 32

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to include during periods of suffering, is a deep truth that may not always be within our ability to perceive. He calls it a “supra-reality that surpasses our knowledge of what is.”33 Goatley’s sentiments are reflected in the way in which black faith approaches the question of God’s absence in suffering. Black faith in America has only known suffering. Forged in the fires of racism and oppression, it has only known struggle. Yet, throughout the history of the black presence in the world the a priori assumption that black faith makes is that God is there. Black faith does not testify to a good and all-powerful God who prevents suffering, but rather to a good and all-powerful God who is present in suffering.34 With Goatley, Kelly Brown Douglas understands God’s presence in the midst of suffering to be a hallmark of black faith. She says that though black faith, alone, cannot change the world and end the suffering of black people, the black faithful, knowing that God is with them, can. It is black faith, the hope, the strength, and the courage that comes with knowing that God is with them, that gives black people the tenacity, audacity, and fortitude required to work, with God, to bring about a world free of oppression, marginalization, and needless suffering.35 God is with black people in their suffering, renewing and restoring them as they move toward God’s future for them.

Conclusion This chapter began by naming the two pandemics facing black Americans in the United States: the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) and anti-black racism. Both of these deadly plagues have been intensified by the other, are currently wreaking havoc, doing violence to black bodies, and snuffing out black lives. However, suffering is not new to the world, nor is it new to black people in America. All people to a greater or lesser degree suffer. This is not the world’s first pandemic and hegemony and discrimination are as old as human civilization. Suffering is, and has been, an ever-present reality in the world. One of the ways that human beings have grappled with and tried to understand and make meaning out of suffering is through their faith. Every faith tradition has its way of explaining suffering. One of the primary ways that black people in America have tried to make sense of  Goatley, Were You There, viii.  Douglas, Stand Your Ground, 138. 35  Douglas, Stand Your Ground, 170. 33 34

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their suffering is through the faith tradition they garnered from black Christian religiosity. Drawing on Douglas’ scholarship, this essay explored the meaning of black faith by defining it and identifying some of its characteristics. In conversation with Douglas and Berger, it also examined the irrationality of black faith. Further, it also used Goatley’s concept of “godforsakenness,” as a model to demonstrate how the black faith uses the language and theology of the Christian faith as a framework from which to make meaning of suffering. Lastly, it named black faith’s life-giving, life-sustaining contention that God is present in suffering as the dynamo that enables black people to continue to press their way through suffering as they lean into the future that God has promised them. What does this mean for the suffering of black Americans as they continue to face the COVID-19 pandemic and the pandemic of anti-black racism in America? Additionally, what lessons can black faith offer to the broader human family as they grapple with the inclemencies and the vicissitudes of life? For black people, black faith can, and will do, what it has always done: support, sustain, and strengthen them, even as it spurs them on to work for a better world. Douglas’ sentiments about the importance of black faith to Martin Luther King Jr. and the broader black community during the black struggle for civil rights are applicable in this instance as well. She says, “As important as black faith was to King and to the black community in general, King knew that it alone would not prick the conscience of America.”36 Black people, in many cases, energized and empowered by black faith and working in, through, and sometimes around the structures and systems of power in their day made that happen, and that not without much difficulty. Though much progress has been made, just as black faith alone has not eradicated the scourge of anti-black racism in America, it also will not end the coronavirus pandemic and the suffering that comes with it. However, black people must continue on, knowing that God is with them in their suffering, determined to live into the present what God has promised them in the future. When it comes to the broader context that is human suffering, black faith offers the same lessons with one addition: an acceptance of the reality of human suffering. As mentioned earlier, black faith does not know a world, at least not one that is not in the future, that is devoid of human suffering. As such, black faith recognizes that suffering, in some form, is a  Douglas, Stand Your Ground, 214.

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part of life. This is something it shares with the writers of the New Testament. They, too, assume that suffering is a part of what it means to live in a broken and fallen world. Seeing suffering as unavoidable, black faith has learned to ask, with the writers of the New Testament, not “what must I do not to suffer?” but rather “how can I cope with suffering better?” and “how, when I suffer, can I rest more fully in the presence and grace of God?”37 These are questions, we all should ask. Though they may seem to some to be irrational, faith is irrational. Black faith is irrational and so is Christianity, with its crucified Christ and risen Lord, from which it makes meaning of suffering.38

37  Nikki A. Toyama and Tracey Gee, eds., More than Serving Tea: Asian American Women on Expectations, Relationships, Leadership, and Faith (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 71–73. 38  Douglas, Stand Your Ground, 170.

CHAPTER 9

Anthropocentric and White Supremacist Notions of God Philip Woods

Introduction As the coronavirus pandemic began to impact large swathes of the planet, I took part in a Zoom meeting with colleagues around the world and heard deeply moving stories of how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting people and communities from Fuji through Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe to California. Some of the stories highlighted how it is bringing out the best in people—neighbors getting groceries for the vulnerable and leaving them on the doorstep for collection. Others highlighted how a frightening scenario had become a terrifying scenario, like in the Philippines where a form of martial law had been imposed with the police and military empowered to shoot people who they believed posed a threat. A colleague from Ghana said that some people there were saying, ‘People dying is the reality people have to face for some to survive.’ Others spoke of the dilemma of pastors in their contexts, so used to being physically present for people in times of crisis, and now having to keep their distance.

P. Woods (*) Presbyterian World Mission, Louisville, KY, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_9

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How this is especially hard in places where you can’t just organize a digital alternative to Sunday worship, and where funerals have become unmarked or anonymous affairs. Everywhere people spoke of the economic dimension. Of the hardships people are facing through loss of employment, which for many means the loss of the means to feed their families and themselves. A microscopic virus has upended life for all of us everywhere, creating not just a health crisis and an economic crisis, but other crises too, for example, a surge in domestic violence as people find themselves confined in their homes.1 Even routine activities now carry new risks, changing daily life and habits across the world. These are strange and unusual times—most unusual because they are impacting us all more or less simultaneously, but certainly not equally. Clyde Yancy, drawing on data from Johns Hopkins University, has noted in the USA, the ‘infection rate is more than threefold higher than that in predominantly white counties … [and the] death rate for predominantly black counties is sixfold higher than in predominantly white counties.’2 Similarly in the UK the Guardian reported in July 2020:3 Almost every source of data on Covid-19 cases and deaths analyzed by ethnicity—the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre, the Office for National Statistics, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Public Health England among others—has found that minorities are over-represented. The message is clear: we may all be weathering the same storm, but we are not in the same boat.

Globally, this picture is no different. This coronavirus pandemic is exposing and highlighting how systemic inequality affects people’s lives. As Christian Aid reports:4

1  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/world/coronavirus-domestic-violence.html accessed 9/24/2020. 2  Clyde W.  Yancy, “COVID-19 and African Americans,” Journal of American Medical Association, 323.19 (2020): 1891-1892, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2764789 accessed 8/20/2020. 3  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/22/covid-19-britain-­ ethnic-minorities-government-race-inequality-epidemic accessed 8/20/2020. 4  https://www.christianaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/2020-07/building-back-justice-­ covid19-report-Jul2020_0.pdf accessed 8/20/2020.

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Covid-19 has laid bare the extent to which poverty and inequality can be classed as ‘pre-existing conditions’ that have significant implications for ­people’s ability to avoid infection and survive the pandemic. Poverty renders people more vulnerable to catching the disease—whether because of cramped, unsanitary living conditions, the inability to self-isolate or the obligation, as a low-income worker, to keep working, despite the higher risk of exposure. Longstanding associations between poverty and ill-health also increase the likelihood that the poor will become sicker or die if infected.

The World Bank in its latest projections expects nearly half-a-billion people could be pushed into poverty across the world as a result of the coronavirus pandemic based on current projections and forecasts.5 While most of these will be in the Global South, Europe and North America will not be spared this outcome, and in these places, it will be black people, indigenous people, and people of color who will be most affected.6

COVID-19 and Systemic Inequalities Across the board, this pandemic has highlighted the systemic inequalities in our health and economic systems, and in many other systems that are part and parcel of daily life. And it has revealed how racism, both locally and globally, is deeply embedded within these systemic inequalities. It is as if this microscopic virus has held up a mirror to the world and shown us who and what we are, and it is a grim picture of systemic injustice. Meanwhile, creation found itself able to breathe more easily again as our polluting activities in many places were suddenly and dramatically curtailed.7 If there ever was a time for humility, it is now. What we could not do for ourselves, be it the reduction of harmful polluting, climate-­warming emissions, or revealing just how tragically unjust and painfully unequal our world has become this virus has done it, but at a very high cost that continues to unfold as each new day brings more personal dramas, heartache and loss. Could it be that God’s identification with the whole created order runs deeper and is more profound than our egotistical and 5  https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/updated-estimates-impact-covid-19-globalpoverty accessed 8/20/2020. 6  https://www.feedingamerica.org/research/coronavirus-hunger-research accessed 8/21/2020. 7  https://www.wave3.com/2020/04/03/behind-forecast-covid-s-environmental-­­ impact/ accessed 8/20/2020.

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anthropocentric notions of God allow? That is a hard question when so many people are dying and suffering from this virus but is worth pondering as we reflect on our place in the world today.

Creation Renews Itself One of the things that I marvel at is the way in which creation renews itself. It is most visible in the seasons in the parts of the world with clear seasons, but as I observed while living in Singapore, it is also apparent in places where the seasonal shifts are much less obvious. Continually the creation lives out a cycle of renewal that see things flourish, then die, only to be reborn again with new vigor, or to rot and decay providing nutrients for the life of others. It is almost as if the mystery of the resurrection, of the promise that life is stronger than death, is built into the very heart of creation. Today as we face the perils of human-induced climate change we are seeing this on ever-increasing scale in the form of more frequent and more violent storms as the planet seeks to rebalance its systems.8 This, though, is at the macro-level. What about the micro-level? Research has revealed the critical role that viruses play in sustaining all life: ‘the marvelous diversity of life rests on viruses which, as much as they are a source of death, are also a source of richness and of change.’9 If this self-regulating creation, loved by God, as we are told in Genesis chapter one repeatedly, were to experience that one of its parts had become too much of a parasite killing off large swathes of the planet and the flora and fauna on which so much depends, could the created order turn on it to bring it back into the balanced order that we believe God ordained? The prophets of the Bible and Jesus use worldly events to reveal the shocking reality of the injustices that we create in part due to individual traits, but more dramatically and harmfully as a result of the systems that we construct for ourselves and the cultures that arise from them that protect the power and the privilege of a few over and against the needs of the masses. Could this virus be such an event revealing to us how unjust, 8  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/was-the-extreme-2017-hurricane-seasondriven-by-climate-change/ accessed 8/20/2020. 9  https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/08/22/how-viruses-shape-the-world accessed 8/28/2020. The accompanying essay (https://www.economist.com/ essay/2020/08/20/viruses-have-big-impacts-on-ecology-and-evolution-as-well-as-­­ human-health) gives an even more fascinating insight into the world of viruses and how all of creation both depends on them and is shaped by them.

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unequal, and unsustainable our world has become? A prophetic event calling us to repent and transform? Time perhaps for an ecological and theological Copernican revolution that recognizes that not everything revolves around us nor exists simply for our benefit. We have been slow to adjust to the warning signs that persistently keep presenting themselves. Like King Canute, who unsuccessfully commanded the tide not to come in,10 we think we can hold the rising waters and temperatures of climate change back through our technological prowess, and maintain unjust systems through distorted, special interest politics that fail to serve all the people. White people, a minority on this planet, have projected through their systems of white supremacy an unjust order that is not only especially harmful to black and brown people everywhere, but in its unsustainable belief in unlimited economic growth is destroying life for everyone. This coronavirus though is showing us (and I write as a white person) that we are not the masters of the universe that we think we are. This is a time for humility and for reshaping our worldview and the theology that underpins it. There are many ways of looking at God (living and eternal, unity, unique, incomparable, present, active, relational, intentional, interactive, situational, effective, and vulnerable are among the characteristics listed in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible11), but it is hard to conceive of God in ways other than given by our experience and imagination, all shaped by our knowledge and questions that are ever-expanding. As Marcelo Gleiser observes, ‘the more we know, the more exposed we are to our ignorance, and the more we know to ask.’12 Our theological imaginations, though, seem trapped in a Biblical worldview that struggles to contain both the advances of experience and scientific knowledge that have occurred since the Biblical canon was finalized. The Genesis creation account sets out a hierarchical relationship between God, humankind, and the rest of creation, creating us in ‘God’s image’ and giving us ‘dominion’ over all the creatures of the earth (Genesis 10  There are different accounts and interpretations of this apocryphal story told of King Canute (King of England, 1016–1035) drawing on the story told in the twelfth century by Henry of Huntingdon in ‘The Chronicle.’ All of them speak to the vanity and limits of human power. 11  Ed. David Noel Freedman, Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids and Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000), 511–513. 12  Marcelo Gleiser, The Island of Knowledge: The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning (New York: Basic Books, 2014).

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1:26). This is reflected in an even more patriarchal way in the creation account in Genesis 2. Even while we may not hold on to this view of how the creation came into being literally, it still shapes much of our theology, and our attitudes toward the environmental landscape that sustains us, and the social and economic systems that order human life. God, understood as the creator, sits over everything, and everything out there is for our benefit. This hierarchical, linear vision of order took on even sharper focus as the church cemented its power13 ultimately manifesting itself as white supremacy in the Doctrine of Discovery in the fifteenth century, with its European Christo-centric subordination of all other peoples:14 The Doctrine of Discovery [outlined in a series of papal bulls from 1452 to 1493], first directed towards Portugal then directed towards Spain, affirmed the imperial ambitions of these two European powers. It gave theological permission for the European body and mind to view themselves as superior to the non-European bodies and minds. The doctrine created an insider perception for the European while generating an outsider, other identity for non-Europeans; it created an identity for African bodies as inferior and only worthy of subjugation; it also relegated the identity of the original inhabitants of the land ‘discovered’ to become outsiders, now unwelcome in their own land.

All of these ideas have informed and shaped a Christian worldview that is increasingly untenable as science reveals other ways of conceiving creation, and social studies challenge hierarchical, patriarchal, and racist notions of order. The coronavirus pandemic reveals just how self-absorbed and narcissistic we are when it comes to locating ourselves and that which we call God in the whole created order. The world and the whole created order do not revolve around us (especially us white people), and we do not stand in a linear hierarchical relationship with a divinity controlling everything around us for our benefit. The coronavirus pandemic has reminded us of our limits, catching us off-guard and leaving us powerless in the face of a microbe that we cannot even see with the naked eye. Goliath has been felled by David. The question is, what are we going to learn from this

13  David Chidester, Christianity: A Global History (London: The Penguin Press, 2000), 195–214. 14  Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah, Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2019), 21.

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timely experience as we face many more challenges to our self-centered theological worldview?

God in Human Terms One of the reasons we struggle with issues of pain and suffering in the world is because we have constructed a theological worldview that frames God’s power and actions in human terms, and ourselves, in particular Christian believers, as the special object of God’s love. John 3:16 captures this dynamic, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.’ The anthropocentric, partisan lens through which we usually read and understand verses like this, and which gives rise to how we normally conceive of and understand God, is no longer realistic in a world whose workings we can understand and describe in forms that were not available to the authors of the Bible. Our faith needs reframing to give us a theology that speaks to and is fit for our times. As I write in September 2020, over 979,000 people (rising by around 5000 people each day) have been recorded as dying from COVID-19.15 Disproportionately those dying in so-called Western or ‘developed’ countries have been black people, indigenous people, or people of color. This has nothing to do with God’s partiality as such narrow theology has historically led us to believe16 and everything to do with racial injustice in the world and the conditions that we have created, which leave black people, indigenous people, and people of color more at risk from this virus and many other things. To hold and challenge all of this we need a larger, more expansive theology that sees and understands God, not in anthropocentric terms, nor in

15  COVID-19 Dashboard, Johns Hopkins University, https://www.arcgis.com/apps/ opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 accessed 9/24/2020. 16  Charles and Rah, Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, 69–81.

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the terms that conflated white supremacy with Christian supremacy,17 that orders our world hierarchically to this day. Rather, as this virus is teaching us the smallest and most insignificant things can be the most powerful, and that which appears to hold sway over all is nothing in the face of this larger force. The Bible in its ethics speaks to this worldview. In Matthew 23:12 we read Jesus as saying: ‘All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.’ Scientifically it is captured in quantum theory where ‘living systems are by their very nature neither subjects alone nor objects isolated, but both subjects and objects in a mutually communicating (and defining) universe of meaning’.18 Building on this, O’Murchu observes:19 We humans are not the masters of creation; we are participants in a co-­ creative process that is much greater than us and probably quite capable of getting along without us, as happened for almost twelve billion years before our species evolved. If we are to influence global and planetary life, we’ll do it in cooperative interaction rather than in competitive strife. Our inter-­ relationship with life—at both the micro and macro levels—is a learning process of mutual interdependence, and not that of exploitation, combat, and warfare, a lethal process that is almost certain to destroy us in the end.

We need to put aside the hierarchical, at a distance God conceived in our image, not because the authors in Genesis got it wrong within the frames of reference available to them, but because we have too narrowly and literally interpreted their theological imagination. They described a 17  Most succinctly spelled out in the following Study Paper from the WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism on ‘Converting Discipleship: Dissidence and Metanoia’: ‘Western colonial missionaries … used imperial expansion as a means to Christian expansion and in proclaiming Christ, rather asserted the “salvific”, “civilizing” power of Whiteness and a White Christ. Mission is now understood to be from everywhere to everywhere.… But, many missionaries from the South are still in the ‘colonial’ mode perpetuating certain forms and norms of Christianity. The old ways of offering financial inducement, privilege in leadership, “love” dependent on conversion, promise of future blessing and the benefits of a superior faith and civilization are still the core evangelism tactics of these “new” missionaries. In this way the discipleship paradigm of White Supremacy has morphed into “Christian Supremacy”’ (https://www.oikoumene.org/sites/default/files/2020-11/STUDY%20 PAPER%20on%20Transforming%20Discipleship_0.pdf). 18  Diarmuid O’Murchu, Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics (New York: The Crossroads Publishing Company, 2004). 19  O’Murchu, Quantum Theology.

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God intimately relating to and part of creation using images and ideas accessible to them. Today we have a much more extensive palette of ideas and images to draw on, which should inform our theology so that we can shape a different theological worldview that speaks to the challenges of our time offering a vision of meaning and purpose that can help us manifest harmony and justice—shalom—in all our relations, with each other and with the Earth and all its life forms that sustain us and contribute to the fullness of life that is possible only when everyone and everything is truly valued, respected, and working together. God, rather than being conceived as external to our existence, as the ultimate master of the universe, needs to be reimagined as the very essence of all that is. That which gives life to everything, sustains, and renews everything. Conceptually this is not new. Variants of this have been articulated by Tillich with his description of God as the ‘ground of being’20 and by Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne in their work on process theology.21 From this perspective, everything is of value, with an important role to play to support the harmony of all things. People are of equal value, called to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31), not just for our neighbor’s sake, but for the sake of the whole of creation, which we all need to cherish so we might all experience life in its fullness as promised by Jesus (John 10:10). Biblical ethics are much more rooted in this relational equity model, possibly because they were formed against the backdrop of, and in contrast to, the patriarchal hierarchical worldview of their times, necessarily addressing its limitations. Science, though, has revealed to us a natural order which in all its many relational parts enables a coherent whole that nourishes all that is, both seen and unseen. Our theological worldview should embrace both perspectives to offer larger horizons on life as we currently understand it. Our anthropocentric worldview and notions of God severely curtail our ability to even consider how God might be present working in and through creation to preserve the ecological order, which, as already noted, God saw as ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31). The totality and every part were ‘very good’ as the story tells it. Death, decay, pain, and suffering will not go away but their place in the larger scheme of things changes. They are part 20  Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology Volume 1 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1951), 155–157. 21  John B Cobb, Jr. and David Ray Griffin, Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition (Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 1976).

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of the processes of life by which new things emerge, lessons are learned, change happens. We do not have to ask why God ‘allows’ them, for in this new way of thinking they too are of the essence of God. Not God’s will, but God’s being. They are intimately part of God and God is intimately present in them. Jesus understood this intimacy and so he called God ‘Abba,’ ‘Father,’ a heretical idea in his time, condemned by the Pharisees, but it expressed for him the way his spirit connected with God’s spirit, the spirit of life that flows through all things. This gets played out within the patriarchal, messianic narrative that the Jewish people had developed and shaped over centuries to help them make sense of their world, with all its historical twists and turns, and so Jesus became the Christian savior, the Christ of faith, inspiring Christians and helping them to make sense of their persecution and suffering. Reframing our understanding of God does not diminish any of this. Rather, it helps us to refocus on the intimacy with the divine that Jesus captured, and challenges us to name how that might be described and what it might demand of us today at a time when COVID-19 is revealing how flawed our world is and how limited our abilities are. As the protestors for racial justice in the USA and England have torn down and called for the removal of statues that commemorate our flawed history, we need to reshape our theology and remove the images and ideas that no longer help us to conceive of God in terms expansive enough to hold and lead us into the justice, humility, and creation-focused relationality that our times require and demand. COVID-19 is showing us the limits of the old order. Still, it is a stretch for our imaginations, possibly because it offends our egos, to shape a theological worldview that is not framed around human experience, needs, and desires. Thomas Berry, even before this current crisis, recognizes the enormity of the challenge. Previous generations have had to navigate ‘adjustment to disturbances of human life patterns. They were not dealing with the disruption and even the termination of a geobiological period that had governed the functioning of the planet for some 67 million years.’22 He is not unhopeful though, because ‘we are heirs to an immense intellectual heritage, to the wisdom traditions whereby they were able to fulfill the Great Work of their times.’23 22  Thomas Berry, The Great Work: Our Way into the Future (New York: Bell Tower, 1999), 3. 23  Berry, The Great Work, 3.

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This requires of us both a new openness to historical traditions that are not our own (i.e., not rooted in Christian theology) and a willingness to entertain the insights of science and the images and processes it uses to describe the immensity of the cosmos, that which we call ‘creation.’ Without taking this leap we cannot break free from the ideas that are constraining our imaginations, wrestling with how to explain the actions of a God ‘who’ appears cruel either in intent or unfeeling absence, and in this apparent arbitrariness models for us a form of self-serving power that when expressed in our human systems benefits a few at the expense of the many and is destroying the planet that supports not just us, but all life as we know it. Judeo-Christian ethics have struggled, not unsuccessfully, with the latter part of this, as already noted. The challenge now is to bring along the rest of Christian theology so that new vistas of understanding might be opened that will equip us to overcome the systemic injustices that six centuries of Christian imperialism have unleashed on the planet in the form of the ‘masters of the universe’ mindset and exploitation that has degraded the Earth and established systems that discriminate against and subjugate non-white peoples and nations. As a first step we can imagine that through this virus God, understood as within and wholly part of creation, is calling us to account by revealing how foolish and unknowing we are, calling us to a new humility. Brazenly, our response so far has been to try and demonstrate how we will conquer this curse so that we can get back to life as normal. Ethical frameworks alone cannot tame this mindset, which is why we need larger frames of reference, as offered by our understanding of God, that will help us to reimagine our place within creation and find ways in which we can live in a sustainable harmony with the whole cosmos. Similarly, with racism. All our Christian ethical frameworks show why it is wrong, but we have created a world order based on the idea that God granted white people a place above all other peoples. Only a hierarchical supreme being type of God can do that. Our very idea of God needs to change to overcome this inherent injustice. That idea of God, as we observed in the outworking of the Doctrine of Discovery, also supports the notion of Christian supremacy that took shape within white supremacy, so we have to let go of that as well so that we can realize a more inclusive, expansive, relational theology that speaks to our times. Of course, we can hold on to our old ideas and the ways that go with them, but this virus will not be the last, and the struggle we have still to truly face with climate change will not go away. Ultimately, we can have no

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idea how God works. The very idea and all that flows from it are held in faith and the insights that inform that faith will always be constrained by our knowledge and our imaginations. Those ideas have changed over time and across cultures to help people navigate their world. Even within the Christian tradition ideas around the nature of God have changed and evolved as we have responded to events and circumstances.

Conclusion This virus gives us cause to think again. We are not everything we think we are and we would be helped with some fresh ideas and new ways of talking about God that, rather than setting us apart from creation and each other, bring us together and give us insight into relationality and interdependencies beyond humanity, reaching into the whole created order, the cosmos within and without, so that we have a broader vision that might better equip us to live in equitable, sustainable harmony.

CHAPTER 10

Lockdown and Sexual Exploitation Fulata Lusungu Mbano Moyo

Introduction Lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic and its social and economic impacts have increased the exposure of women to abusive partners and known risk factors, while limiting their access to services. Situation of humanitarian crises and displacement may exacerbate existing violence, such as by intimate partners, as well as non-partner sexual violence, and may also lead to new forms of violence against women.1

The above is a global reflection of the many news coverages that unfortunately confirm that the home has not been a life-giving sanctuary, especially for girls and women. For example, according to Africa News Channel, in Ethiopia’s “capital, Addis Ababa, over 100 girls were raped [in the two 1  https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women (accessed April 30, 2022).

F. L. Mbano Moyo (*) Thimlela-STREAM and AfriAus iLEAC, Geneva, Switzerland © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_10

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months] when schools closed and people are advised to stay at home to reduce the spread of the virus.”2 Yet when governments chose the lockdown’s “stay at home” as a major strategy to slow down the spread of the COVID-19 virus, they were affirming the common assumption that the home is a safe and sacred haven for the indwellers. What most of these decision-makers had forgotten was the fact that over the years, statistics have confirmed that the home is a dangerous battlefield where girls’ and women’s bodies remain major casualties of the gender-based pandemic sometimes referred to as domestic violence. It can be presumed that there was no gender analysis used in the determination of the strategy most appropriate for curbing this viral pandemic. Or probably it can be argued that since it was a kind of “fire-fighting” rush, there was no time to take an intersectionality response to COVID-19 that would take into consideration the experiences of women and girls especially gender-based violence that has been part of the problem for the home front. According to UNWOMEN, violence against women is a shadow pandemic that since the COVID-19 outbreak has intensified. The United Nations (UNWOMEN, UNDP, WHO) in 2021 estimated that to the global known statistics of 243  million women and girls that are subjected to sexual and gender-based violence annually, which is in some contexts as high as one in every three women, the numbers increased at least 25% during the COVID-19 pandemic, with most of these exploitations happening at home and affecting the household.3 According to WCC News, “Under COVID-19 lockdowns, the rise in gender-based violence, particularly against mothers and children, has been documented across the world, so much so that many are calling the scourge of violence “the second pandemic.”4

2  Damilola Ismail, https://www.africanewschannel.org/news/over-100-girls-raped-bytheir-relatives-in-ethiopia-due-to-the-lockdown// (accessed June 4, 2020). 3  https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/in-focus-gender-equality-in-covid19-response/violence-against-women-during-covid-19 (accessed April 19, 2022). 4  WCC News, “With children more vulnerable to violence than ever, WCC moderator reflects on the vital role of churches”, 26 November 2020 (accessed November 27, 2020).

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This chapter uses the feminist ethics of ubuntu5 to unpack the conception of the home as governed by loving and caring relationships. This is aimed at challenging the assumption of the “stay at home for safety” approach. The virtue of love and do no harm are explored as the basis of why home and family are assumed to be an incubator of assured safety. This is to justify the thesis that from the beginning, this (stay at home) was a flawed kyriarchal6 top-bottom strategy that forfeited the experiences of the vulnerable masses. It can be argued that from the statistical evidence of data collected on vulnerability to gender-based violence and loss of means of livelihood, if decision-makers had used community-based approaches involving the voices of the masses, the stay at home would not have been a “one-size” fits all approach to curbing the spread of COVID-19 and its impact. The use of feminist ethics of ubuntu to help analyze this “stay at home” COVID-19 response is based on my own ubuntu roots in the isiNguni communitarian ethos of northern Malawi. Just like Sinentlanhla Sithulisiwe Chisale’s articulation, I grew up in a context where a person embodies ubuntu (humanness) when she or he is welcoming to strangers, respectful of the dignity of others, compassionate, empathetic, and caring. As Chisale, I also trace the origin of the notion of ubuntu to isiNguni motto, Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (in Malawian chiTumbuka: Munthu ni munthu 5  D. Hall, Dirk Louw, and Louise Du Toit, “Feminist ethics of care and Ubuntu,” February 2013, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290952148_Feminist_ethics_of_care_and_ Ubuntu; Laura D’Olimpio, “Ethics Explainer: Ethics of Care”, https://ethics.org.au/ethicsexplainer-ethics-of-care/ (accessed 19 April 2022); Ramathate Dolamo, “Botho/Ubuntu: The Heart of African Ethics”, Scriptura 112 (2013), 1; Sinenhlanhla Sithulisiwe Chisale, “Politics of the body, fear and ubuntu: Proposing an African women’s theology of disability”, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 76(3), (2020), 2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/ 343785187_Politics_of_the_body_fear_and_ubuntu_Proposing_an_African_women’s_theology_of_disability. 6  Kyriarchy is a term that was coined by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza from ancient Greek word for “lord/master” kyrios. It is part of the conversation around intersectional feminism (Kimberlé Crenshaw). As a social system, it extends patriarchy to keep all intersecting oppressions in place. It encompasses and connects structures of oppression and privilege, such as racism, gender inequality, injustice and binary, language preference, religious hegemony, classism, ableism, homophobia, capitalism, ethnicism, and other social markers that become frontiers of oppression, in recognition of the intersectionality of oppression into overlapping, transversing, and complicated power dynamics. See Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Changing Horizons: Explorations in Feminist Interpretation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013), 7; Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Intersectional Feminisms Discussion”, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ROwquxC_Gxc.

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chifukwa cha banyakhe) both translate as: “a person is a person because of other persons.” As an African theologian, I also agree with Ramathate Dolamo’s argument that the notion of ubuntu promotes communal relations and interactions between individuals and their respective communities as an expression of their being interconnected and interdependent. Like Chisale, I reiterate that ubuntu in its very essence promotes equality and justice, as people are not defined according to their gender, race, class, age, different abilities, or any other dichotomy. They have personhood as moral agents as well as dignity as imago Dei. Building on all these positive components of being human, I use the arguments by D. Hall, Dirk Louw, and Louise Du Toit, though they are writing in the context of medical science. Their arguments bear great relevance to why in this article I use the feminist ethics of ubuntu (and care) to analyze the COVID-19 “stay at home” global policy. Unlike Hall, Louw, and Du Toit, I refuse to add “and care” because to have “ubuntu and care” and/or “feminist ethics and care” is an unnecessary redundancy and, therefore, very tautological. The indigenous concept of “ubuntu” itself, as already defined above, has an embedded implication into relational care ethics. To declare that “my well-being is connected to your well-being” is to acknowledge that you and I have a relationship of consideration, and, therefore, I care about your welfare and it has an impact on my welfare. Moreover, I agree with Laura D’Olimpio in her “Ethics Explainer: Ethics of care” that ethics of care is actually a feminist approach to ethics. Therefore, to say “feminist ethics of care” is equally tautological. Hall, Louw, and Du Toit argue for the need for a “feminist ethics of ubuntu and care” as scientifically and socially necessary within the African context for the establishment of relevance and meaning—they seem not to see the redundancy of this compounded combination. So, I choose to use their understanding of why the ethics they suggest but stick to my own naming of “feminist ethics of ubuntu.” This ethics helps to critically address and help to correct what I would call the kyriarchal biases that often privilege the male and Western supremacist approaches even in the “stay at home” COVID-19 response, since this ethics emphasizes relationship, community, and experienced story over individualism and abstract theorizing. This chapter has two major sections. The first section of the chapter captures the understanding of the home, love, and safety. It brings out four components that characterize the home as safe space using the love characterization captured in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-6. Then the second section uses a story of a survivor of incest to critically analyze the home as

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actually a den of robbers for girls and women. In its analysis of the four identified issues, it also provides some existing examples of Christian responses that aim at restoring the safety of the home and the healing of traumatic memories caused by gender-based violence. The use of love as a generally accepted global virtue is deliberately unpacked using Christian interpretation because that is the reality of my experience as the author of this chapter. As an eco-feminist ethicist, I write from my perspective and context with the acknowledgment of the contextuality and translatability of theological imaginations and experience. It is imperative, though, to also mention that despite the popular move to embrace secularism as a more politically correct global reality, the 2015 global statistics projecting up to 2060 still indicate an estimated 84% of the world population as being religious. With Christianity standing as the most popularly adhered to religion with an estimated 2.3 billion people, Islam comes second with 1.8 billion adherents, and the unaffiliated people are estimated at only 1.2 billion globally.7 Moreover, the Christian ethics of care perspective fit into the mandate of this book. While this chapter focuses on gender-based violence as a challenge to the safety of the home, it is important to also spell out the fact that COVID-19 as a global pandemic has brought many more other challenges, especially to the church worldwide that calls it to revisit its own understanding as to the one body of Christ. “The church worldwide has rarely experienced such an identical set of challenges, all at the same time, and thus the need to learn from each other has never been greater,” said Jeremy Weber, director of CT Global. “We spent the past year traveling the globe and researching what a central nervous system for the body of Christ—where every part of the body could know what every other part is doing, at the speed of news and social media—would look like in 2020. This pandemic has forced us to test our findings early. And God is blessing the result.”8 The enormity of the challenges that this pandemic has caused has also triggered reminders of the reality of the doctrine of eschatology and the questions of its imminence. Many Christian denominations, especially those that lean toward the understanding of the spiritual gifts of prophecy 7  https://www.pewforum.org/2017/04/05/the-changing-global-religious-landscape/ (accessed November 20, 2020). 8  https://www.christianitytoday.org/stories/inside-ministry/2020/may/people-inmore-than-175-countries-have-read-christianity-to.html (accessed November 20, 2020).

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as the proclamation of things to come, are caught up in the Pauline era’s anxiety of whether this means that Rapture is soon coming even within these COVID-19  years. While there is a general agreement that Christ Jesus’ promised return is closer now than the time the believers of the Early Church anticipated, for some, COVID-19 is actually the last sign before the Rapture.

The Home, Love, and Safety The alumni define “home” as a place where a person feels safe and has a sense of belonging.9 The bible is full of what can be called “Household Codes” spelling out how members of the household should interact with each other. Jennifer Bird argues that unlike Aristotle’s focus on addressing the roles of the man as husband, father, and master in his paterfamilias, the New Testament has instructions for the household that address every member of the household including children. Does the fact that children and women are mentioned and given specific instructions mean that the New Testament is more gender-just in its approach to the household? Bird critically acknowledges that the New Testament household codes are not gender-just; actually they “also become a vehicle for inscribing a patriarchal (kyriarchal-FLM) structure in ecclesial gatherings and valorizes the suffering of slaves and wives as Christ-like.”10 Bird’s criticism is an important one especially since homes that are governed under Christian principles have often endorsed the kyriarchal understanding that promotes the headship of the man. While it often has been argued by proponents of the importance of the headship of the man for organizational purposes, there is always a thin line between the understanding of male headship and adherence to gender stereotypical roles. Some families and faith communities believe that gender roles are divinely ordained and, therefore, must be upheld. The family is the heart of life. As the primary place where they are socialized into the roles expected of them by society. Young boys are taught to become real men according to their society’s expectations, and the young girls are taught to become ideal women according to their society’s expectations. In the family, roles are 9  https://www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/en/news/contests/tell-us-your-opinionwhat-does-home-mean-for-you (accessed November 20, 2020). 10  Jennifer Bird, “Household Codes”, Daniel Patte, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity (Cambridge: University Press, 2010), 569.

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assigned for fathers, mothers, daughters, and sons. Families are more likely to assign roles to men and women that meet the expectations of their faith community. In some societies, the gender roles in the family, faith community, and larger society’s gender roles are similar.11

Many biblical passages can be explored in identifying the virtues that would characterize a home as a safe space of grace, love, and growth. For this chapter, four passages will be quoted, though without providing an in-depth biblical analysis, so as to bring out four characteristics that are used to qualify the home as an abode of love and safety. Although it should be noted that “the Bible can be used to promote gender imbalances by entrenching separate gender roles in which men are given superior positions and women inferior.”12 However, the texts used are quoted as resources for roles that help protect and allow every member of the family to flourish. Each of these four passages is included under a relevant component of the identified four. Firstly, a home is a haven or sanctuary of meaningful relationships that enable each member to participate in bringing out and using their best to reach their highest potential. “By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding, it is established; through knowledge, its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures” (Prov. 24:3-4). According to this passage, what builds a house and fills it with riches of their family are wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Wisdom, according to Bill Edgar, the father and mother of the family learnt it from their own parents, who apprentice them and pass on to them inherited wisdom from generations—in Africa such is often passed on orally through proverbs and sayings. Knowledge and understanding are built through meaningful channels of communication that the family learns for meaningful loving relating. There is an appeal to avoid violence but adhere to the wisdom that maintains relationships that are right and just so that the household can be a place where every member experience life in all its fullness. Secondly, home is a place of grace and acceptance where members are able to share their stories, raise their fears, and be able to agree or disagree 11  Helen Kunbi Labeodan, Godson Téyi Dogbeda Lawson-Kpavuvu, Ayoko Bahun-Wilson and Ezra Chitando, eds., “Gender Roles in the Family, Faith Community, and Society”, Positive Masculinities and Femininities: Handbook for Adolescents and Young People in Faith Communities in Nigeria (Geneva: WCC, 2018), 25. 12  Jennifer Bird, “Household Codes”, Daniel Patte, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity (Cambridge: University Press, 2010), 569.

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without being judged or victimized. “My people will abide in a peaceable habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places” (Isaiah 32: 18). A Christian home is also a place of God’s presence. Growing up in Malawi in the 1970s, I saw many houses with a wall hanging that bore the message: “Christ is the Head of this House, the Unseen Guest at every meal, the Silent Listener to every Conversation.” As such, every member in that household should be able to experience unconditional love, acceptance, and fullness of participation based on their trust in God, the Protector. Thirdly, a home is an expanse of freedom where freedom of will and meaning of life are explored with the underlying responsibilities so that other members too can embrace their freedom for the liberation of all. “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourself this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you were living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15). According to Joshua, the free choice of his household to trust and serve God is based on their experience of God’s faithfulness in protecting them from their enemies and faithfully bringing them to safety.13 Finally, the home is the incubator of mutual love and respect so that the respect of the older and more powerful does not translate into the silencing of the younger and more vulnerable. But each person’s voice and experience matter in shaping, influencing, and defining the family’s common agenda and interventions. “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in truth” (1 Corinthians 13:4-6). According to Roderick R.  Hewitt, “Real human dignity is linked to owning a home that gives protection to the family.”14 The home is expected to be a safe space for growing, participating, and protection because it is assumed to build the relationships of its members on the 13  Edesio Sánchez Cetina, “Joshua”, William R.  Farmer, ed., The International Bible Commentary: A Catholic and Ecumenical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1998), 545–546. 14  Roderick R. Hewitt, ‘My Mother who Fathered Me: The Road to Justice and Peace is Paved with Positive Masculinities”, Fulata Lusungu Moyo and Sarojini Nadar, “Gendered Perspectives: “God of Life, Lead Us to Justice and Peace”, The Ecumenical Review, 64.3 (Geneva: WCC, 2012), 332 (328–337).

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virtue of love. Love in this case is not conceived as an emotional pursuit of selfish pleasures. In Pauline love letter of 1 Corinthians 13, love is described as: Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. (vv4-8)

Classical Greek tries to unpack the richness of love by using four words to describe its different relational aspects of it. Agape as the unconditional and selfless love of God—well captured in the above verses; Eros as the romantic or sexual love among consenting human beings; Philia as brotherhood/sisterhood and friendship love; and Storge as the affection, especially of parent to offspring and vice versa.15 Feminist theological perspectives to Agape widen the understanding to include human aspects of friendship and desire. Amy Laura Hall argues that the word Agape in the Septuagint “translates to a Hebrew word that conveys various possible disparate facets of love” related to friendship and desire.16 For Hall while Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas conceived Agape as contiguous with passionate love for our Creator, Martin Luther and Soren Kierkegaard viewed it as a willed decision made in response to the Almighty God. C.S. Lewis views Agape, the Gift-love, as the Divine Love through which God gives all God is and has to the Son and in return the Son back to his Father and gives Himself to the world. Lewis distinguishes this gift love from the human need-love, which, to him, is a kind of responsive love which is rooted in the deep intuitive cry from human beings to be loved.17 Amy Laura Hall sees a connection between women’s conception of God’s love and their experiences of love. According to her, she argues for an understanding of Agape in terms of 15  Some of the wording in this paragraph and the following two are an adaptation from my PhD Thesis: Fulata Lusungu Moyo, A Quest for Women’s Sexual Empowerment through Education in an HIV and AIDS Context: The Case of Kukonzekera Chinkhoswe ChaChikhristu (KCC) among AmaNg’anja and AYawo Christians of T/A Mwambo in rural Zomba, Malawi, unpublished PhD Thesis (University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2009), xxix–xxx. 16  Amy Laura Hall, “Love”, in Letty Mandeville Russell and Shannon Clarkson eds., Dictionary of Feminist Theologies (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), 3. 17  C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (London: Geoffrey Bless, 1960), 213.

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God’s active longing for God’s children, which in turn calls women “to an attentive, even passionate agape for God’s daughters and sons.”18 For this chapter, Hall’s conception of agape, as that which informs and is informed by women’s profound love for those they love—children, partners, and community—helps unpack the conception of the home as a place of belonging, acceptance, and safety. Added to the feminist theological unpacking of agape, scholarly and reflective contributions to the meaning of Agape have raised other issues of consideration about the nature of this love. Firstly, agape is categorized as unconditional love rooted in the divine nature itself. Secondly, as God loves passionately the beloved creation of which human beings are a part, this love motivates a reciprocating love mirroring it back to the divine lover but sharing such love with other human beings and the rest of creation in a kinship relational ethics of interconnectedness and interdependence. Whether in the home or larger community, according to Hall, the responsive sense of duty becomes an imperative missio Dei to humanity because otherwise “without a committed resolve to love all, persons will choose to love only (their) own.”19 This component of loving others with this kind of self-giving love can be challenging for humanity that is in general prone to selfishness. Moreover, despite the richness of such Greek categorization into four distinct expressions, it can also very easily end up affirming the patriarchal segmentation that can lead to the subjugation of women. Women have been conceived in some of the patristic articulations as closely connected to the material as emotional beings, while men, on the other hand, have been mainly connected to the mind and, therefore, conceived as mainly rational beings. Hall’s definition of agape as inclusive of God’s love as well as the motivation for inter-human relating brings out the feminist passion that looks at different aspects of love more holistically than the fathers of the church quoted above. Taking Audre Lorde’s watershed womanist discourse of Eros as power,20 in this chapter, love is viewed as the bedrock of the home in ways that acknowledge that women are relationally embodied and interconnected rational beings. Thus, the feminist conception of Eros as encompassing all the other Greek concepts of love captures the

 Hall, “Love,” 3.  Hall, “Love,” 3. 20  Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (New York: The Crossing Press, 1984), 54–56. 18 19

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wholistic understanding of the love that makes the home a haven of acceptance, freedom, and belonging. According to Carter Heyward: The erotic is our most fully embodied experience of the love of God…, the source of our capacity for transcendence…, the divine Spirit’s yearning, through our body-selves, towards mutually empowering relation…This love is agapic, philial, and erotic. It is God’s love and, insofar as we embody and express it, it is ours.21

Yet the rising cases of sexual and gender-based violence during the COVID-19 lockdown bring out the image of a home as a dungeon of robbers. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

The Home Turned into a Dungeon of Robbers Amanda Taub reports, “Movement restrictions aimed to stop the spread of the coronavirus may be making violence in homes more frequent, more severe and more dangerous.”22 According to Marianne Hester, a Bristol University sociologist whose research focuses on abusive relationships, always incidents of domestic violence increase whenever families spend more time together.23 This is true even during holidays like the Christmas and summer vacations. If these findings were readily available before the COVID-19 strategies of “stay at home,” then can it not be argued that policymakers at government and international levels failed to put into consideration the women’s and children’s experiences when they crafted such a policy? Or is it that the systems are so dualistic that such gender-based realities were ignored ending up with policies that confirmed the expendability of women and girls? One might argue for the probability of Marianne Hester’s data not being readily available when policymakers were coming up with their decisions on how to curb the impact of COVID-19. But what about the plethora of other available information about how the home has remained an 21  Carter Heyward, Touching Our Strengths: The Erotic as Power and the Love of God (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1989), 99. 22  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/world/coronavirus-domestic-violence.html (accessed November 10, 2020). 23  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/world/coronavirus-domestic-violence.html (accessed November 10, 2020).

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unsafe haven for women and girls? As already mentioned in the first paragraph of this chapter, the United Nations estimates that over 243 million women and girls of ages 15–49 years have been subjected to sexual and/ or physical violence by 2021 that had been perpetrated by an intimate partner—most of it committed in the “protective” walls of the home. These have been on top of the many existing harmful cultural practices that victimize girls and often involve the knowledge or even the permission of parents and/or guardians. For example, below is an example from Malawi that provides such reality as evidenced even before the COVID-19 era: Malawi is characterized by a high prevalence of violence against women and girls, from traditional practices that harm girls and teenagers (from sexual initiation rituals to child marriage) to sexual and gender-based violence and intimate partner violence.…Malawi also features among the 20 countries with the highest incidence of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), and the prevalence of traditional practices such as child marriage and sexual initiation rituals has basically remained unchanged over the last 15  years, even though those have been falling globally at fast paces (often together with economic development).24

This statistical evidence shows that for the women and girls that survive domestic violence, the home is no longer a sanctuary of loving and protective relationships. Rather, the home has become the reverse of the four identified safety characterizations above. Instead, the home has become the space where unjust relationships are nourished to flourishing; a space of silencing disgrace and exploitation; an expanse of imprisonment and coercion; and a space of hurt and evil. Thirteen-year-old Rose25 had been sexually and physically abused by her father for as long as she could remember. Her mother had left when Rose was very young, leaving her and her father alone in their one-room apartment in a populated suburb of Lagos. Things got worse when the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown in Lagos led to the closure of schools 24  https://www.unicef.org/malawi/sites/unicef.org.malawi/files/2020-07/Spotlight_ Ending_Violence_Against_Women_andGirls_v2_15062020_WEB_0.pdf (accessed November 10, 2020). 25  The name and photo of the child were changed to protect her identity. https://www. unicef.org/nigeria/stories/covid-19-children-suffer-violence-during-lagos-lockdown (accessed November 20, 2020).

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and the implementation of other social distancing measures, as Rose’s father saw this as an opportunity to rape her every night. He would physically abuse her whenever she tried to stop him. Her stifled cries during one of those nights caught her neighbor’s attention, which finally led to Rose’s rescue. The neighbour alerted the owner of the apartment building, who reported the case to Mirabel Centre, a one-stop centre managed by Partnership for Justice, a non-profit organization supported by UNICEF that provides medical and psychosocial services to survivors of sexual violence. The father was taken into custody, while medical examinations carried out on Rose revealed a pregnancy. She is currently receiving medical and psychosocial help and lives with the family of the neighbour that rescued her. Rose’s case is one of many that are currently being handled by the Mirabel Centre since the lockdown began in Lagos. “We are worried. The lockdown led to an over 50 per cent increase in the number of reported cases of sexual violence at our center. Up to 85 per cent of those cases were children,” said Itoro Ezeanaba, Executive Director of Partnership for Justice.26

The Home as an Unsafe Space The story of Rose, like many gender-based violence stories that have been gathered during this COVID-19 period, is a story about a home that has been turned from being a safe haven to become a dungeon of the unjust exploitative relationship of brutality. The father who is supposed to be the protector and provider for his daughter turns into a brutal rapist and robber who deprives his own baby daughter of the healthy process of discovering her sexuality. Instead of experiencing the home as a place where she can grow and flourish into adulthood with the possibility of reaching her highest potential as a member of her community, Rose became a victim of abused power at the cruel hands of her evil and self-serving father. Nothing is said about why the mother left her young daughter in the care of such a hegemonic father, who ended up preying on his own daughter. Could it be that he was also violent to the mother? If one argued that probably it was gender-based violence that drove the mother to leave, then probably the dilemma would be to imagine that she could still find it acceptable to leave her daughter with such an evil man that was dangerous even to her. This girl was violated several times but didn’t confide in any 26  https://mirabelcentre.org/covid-19-children-suffer-violence-during-lagos-lockdownunicef/ (accessed April 20, 2022).

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person. It was only after the neighbors overheard something that the truth of her tortured life was revealed. Was it the usual conspiracy of silence around rape and other forms of gender-based violence that could have contributed to the veiling of such evil? Or could it be the dilemma and confusion of trying to understand her relationship with a man who was otherwise supposed to be her protective father but turned into a rapist— while probably telling her that what he was doing with her was an expression of his love for her? Or could it be more likely that he threatened her to face even worse consequences if she ever broke the silence? Stories of incest often carry with them such confusion and paralyzing fear. The reality that she couldn’t even leave the house to go to school because of the lockdown meant also that her father had easy and continuous access to her in the utter seclusion of the small space they called their home. The latter is reflected in the following argument by Agnes Abuom: With more online activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and with schools closed, children are at an increased risk of sexual exploitation both online and at home. A World Health Organization report on global child abuse noted that schools were closed to 1.5  billion children worldwide because of the pandemic, giving children more time online and exposing children to an increased risk of online sexual exploitation. Many children are also stuck with their abusers, without the safe space that schools normally offer.27 The story of Rose as an unfortunate victim of her evil father brings out several theological dilemmas. Firstly, this abusive father figure causes a theological dilemma since in Christianity one of the most common images of God is the image of a Father. Amy Kalmanofsky reminds the reader that no religion has a monopoly on scriptural texts that depict, incite, and justify sexual violence.28 So, she urges scholars to take responsibility in examining the effect such texts have on students, and I would add, that the examination of such effect should be extended even to children that listen to such texts being used at religious gatherings or even at home. Otherwise, to Rose and many other girls that have abusive fathers, it could have been certain readings of such texts and the accompanied theological imaginings that present God as a male and a father to be 27  Agnes Aboum, “With children more vulnerable to violence than ever, WCC moderator reflects on the vital role of churches”, WCC News, 26 November 2020 (accessed November 27, 2020). 28  Amy Kalmanofsky, ‘Introduction”, Amy Kalmanofsky, ed., Sexual Violence and Sacred Texts (Cambridge: FSR Books, 2017), 1, 3.

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obeyed, that would also have the effect of subjugating them to such demoniac forces, and silencing them or making them believe the lies these perpetrators damp on them. Moreover, if we believe that God is spirit then we should also know that the completeness of God is gender inclusive. In the Chewa conception of God: Leza, as … God …(is) both Creator Mother and Father. God, conceived as both Mother and Father implies that just as God’s created ‘order’ is beyond segmented (understanding of) sexuality, that is, perfection of all sexuality in its wholeness for God, as Creator and Nurturer as the perfection of love, justice and all virtues that characterise being relational.29

Diversely, in some religious contexts where God is still conceived as exclusively masculine, and father, there is a rising number of male scholars that are espousing more gender-just theological articulations of God that help challenge fathers that are abusive of their fatherhood roles: Do the myths and rituals that feature male characters speak to the kinds of masculinities that now define us? What impact does a masculine image of God have for us? Men have tended to ignore these questions because, along with women feminists, we have assumed that the answers are self-evident: The tradition must already speak for us as men because it was made by men and for men. But the fact that it spoke for men of the past does not mean it speaks for men of the present, especially men who have taken the feminist critique seriously. In other words, we must engage the tradition as men, by asking about the ways in which our senses of masculinity find their ­expression in the tradition. If we evoke present notions of masculinity, then we too may want to revise our understanding of the tradition and seek significant changes.30

Secondly, Rose’s silence affirms the negative image of a home, as an unsafe space that is not conducive to the healthy development of 29  Fulata Lusungu Moyo, A Quest for Women’s Sexual Empowerment through Education in an HIV and AIDS Context: The Case of Kukonzekera Chinkhoswe ChaChikhristu (KCC) among AmaNg’anja and AYawo Christians of T/A Mwambo in rural Zomba, Malawi, unpublished PhD Thesis (University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2009), 227. 30  Howard Eilberg-Schwartz, “A Masculine Critique of a Father God,” https://www. questia.com/magazine/1P3-8635334/a-masculine-critique-of-a-father-god (accessed November 10, 2020).

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vulnerable girls like her. Instead of it being a place where girls’ voices also matter, Rose’s home must have been a dungeon of fear and intimidation. While there have been more deliberate efforts to break the silence around gender-­based violence, there is still a need for more effort to help girls to recover their voices, especially in contexts of abuse in the home. The global Thursdays in Black Campaign31 for a world without rape and violence has been a good example of breaking such silence. Thirdly, religious communities need to continue playing important roles that provide holistic responses to ensure that a home is a safe place for all members of the household. Breaking the silence is important, and so is the provision of platforms where abused girls can gain their voices to be able to speak out when they are violated. Tamar Campaign created by the Ujaama Center in the 1990s is one of those responses created by faith academic communities that help provide spaces for such voices. This campaign has done great work in breaking the silence around gender-based violence in Christian communities and in the wider faith-based communities. The use of the Bible read using the contextual Bible studies (CBS) methodologies has affirmed that sacred texts can be both a resource that can provide the basis for abuse and the basis for the search for gender justice. In some cases, Scriptures can contribute to gender stereotypes that perpetuate unjust relationships of domination and unaccountability like the one in the quoted story of Rose and her abusive father. Yet Tamara Campaign offers a kind of reading of scriptures that turns Scripture into a resource for advocacy against gender-based violence. CBS is rooted in liberation theologies including feminist liberation theology. It is formulated from the hermeneutics of suspicion with the acknowledgement that sacred texts are often written from contexts of male privilege. Such patriarchal—or, more appropriately kyriarchal—mindset presents sacred texts from the point of view of those who benefit from such a system and advocates for stereotypical gender roles.32

Fourthly, there is more need for ethics of care in the face of the reality of traumatic memories created by experiences of rape and other forms of 31  https://www.oikoumene.org/what-we-do/thursdays-in-black (accessed November 29, 2020). 32  Fulata Lusungu Moyo, “Gang-Raped and Dis-Membered: Contextual Biblical Study of Judges 19:1-30 to Re-Member the Rwandan Genocide,” Amy Kalmanofsky, ed., Sexual Violence and Sacred Texts (Cambridge: FSR Books, 2017), 128–129.

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gender-based violence suffered by Rose and others. While for the context where healing of traumatic memories has been entrusted to individual medical teams of psychologically trained persons, in the majority of the communitarian-based ethical contexts of the global South, it is not only the fact that such trained personnel are not accessible but also that there is a general preference for community-based group healing processes that has presented a need for more group therapy than individual ones. This preference is partly because healing is conceived as holistically a restoration of the community’s harmony. In response to such a need, the World Council of Churches’ pilgrimage of justice and peace decided to provide a community-based healing to traumatic memories as an important part of the visiting of the communities’ wounds’ part of the pilgrimage. This decision was reached after listening to the stories of survivors of gender-based violence that lived with unhealed traumatic memories. The process of developing Healing Together33 as a facilitators’ resource became such a response. The process of developing such a resource involved the identification of the components of ethics of care,34 leading to working with churches and facilitators of trauma resilience and healing in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan through the key informers’ interviews and consultative and capacity building workshops in 2018–2019. So, in conclusion, this chapter has tried to critique the “stay at home” policy in response to COVID-19 as a very unsafe policy in terms of gender-­ based violence that has become a secondary pandemic (or shadow pandemic) to that of COVID-19. It has problematized the assumptions that a home is a place of safety for the flourishing of its members. This critical analysis of the lack of such safety that makes girls vulnerable has also included suggesting some existing responses that churches and communities can adopt to help restore the safety of the home, with the hope that churches can be the important missing link in the movement that safeguards the home as a real sanctuary of experienced fullness of life for every member.

33  Fulata Lusungu Moyo, Healing Together: A Facilitator’s Resource for Ecumenical Faith and Community-Based Counselling, published online: https://www.oikoumene.org/ resources/publications/healing-together. 34  The identification of the components of ethics of care was part of my research during the Harvard Divinity School’s visiting scholarship in 2016.

CHAPTER 11

Online Sexualization Lizette G. Tapia-Raquel

Introduction I saw different men on the cell phone. Sometimes there were two in one day. I get angry when I have to do it. Also, tired. But there was nothing else to do. We were all told to stay inside the house by the government because of a virus that kills. Inside our small shanty, it was hot, cramped, and suffocating. My brother says what we are doing ensures that we will not be hungry even if Mama could no longer go to work because their store closed shop. They had a long argument the other day about the “different men on the cellphone.” Later, they both talked to me and said they will not let anyone touch me or harm me. The only thing I needed to do was follow what the men on the phone asked me to. After all, there was nothing else to do and nowhere to go. “God is merciful and will protect us,” mother assured me. I was relieved that she was no longer angry at my brother and I was not confused on who I should follow anymore. But I still wish the lockdown would end so that I could do the things I used to do. After all, I am only a child.

L. G. Tapia-Raquel (*) Union Theological Seminary, Manila, Philippines © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_11

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These words will probably never be said out loud. The Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC)1 intensifies the culture of silence because the perpetrators are the parents, the relatives, and close friends of the child and the family. It complicates the prosecution of the crime and criminals as the child does not want the members of their “circle of trust” to be imprisoned and punished. It exposes the child and the family to greater shame and stigma if the crime is made known. But violence in the home is not a new phenomenon. It was present even in biblical times. Sadly, “texts of terror” on children have been interpreted in ways that perpetuate violence against children. Just as many narratives on women in scriptures normalize the oppression of women. Judges 11, verses 29 to 40, tells the story of Jephthah, a warrior and a father, and his vow to offer up as a burnt offering to the Lord whatever comes out of the doors of his house if he defeats his enemies in battle. In the narrative, after he slaughters his enemies and triumphs, he returns home and is met by his one and only child, a daughter. The daughter is not named in the narrative, but it contains what the father and daughter say to each other. Jephthah’s first words to her are, “Alas my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble for me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.”2 Perhaps Jephthah’s daughter should have replied, “But, I am only a child.” How can I bring you high or low? What is it that I have caused when you alone have spoken a vow? I do not speak to the Lord and the Lord has not spoken to me. How have I created trouble when I only meet you, my father, in our own home? Instead, her words in the narrative exhibit submission and self-sacrifice, “My father, if you have opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has given you vengeance against your enemies, the Ammonites.”3 In the text, when the daughter speaks, it is to her own detriment. She honors the words of her father’s mouth and not her own pain. She speaks of her father’s vengeance upon her father’s enemies and not her own 1  The production, for the purpose of online publication or transmission, of visual depictions (e.g., photos, videos, live streaming) of the sexual abuse or exploitation of a minor for a third party who is not in the physical presence of the victim, in exchange for compensation. 2  Judges 11: 35. 3  Judges 11: 36.

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escape. She is the daughter who honors her father even as he denies her life itself. Then, she says, “Let this thing be done for me: Grant me two months, so that I may go and wander on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, my companions and I.” While there is lamentation and fear, there is no resistance. What she exhibits is resolute obedience to her father and her fate. Could she even imagine that she can say “no” to her father who taught her to obey elders? Did she perceive herself as a separate being with inherent value? Why do her companions do nothing at her victimization and sacrifice? Why could she not escape from her own home and father when to remain meant abuse, violence, and death? Why could she not just have responded, “But do you not see, I am only a child?” The same questions can be asked of the victims of the online sexual exploitation of children, or OSEC. The violence against them is layered and multiple. In the time of pandemic and, even now, as we pursue a “new normal” in the way we live together in our societies, do we listen to the voices of the children? And if they do not and cannot speak of the horrors they suffer; can we discern their silent cries?

The Philippines as the “Global Epicenter” of OSEC Sarah Norton Staal, Chief of Child Protection at UNICEF4 Philippines, has pronounced that “child pornography” is a misnomer as it suggests that the exploitation of children is a category in the pornography industry where porn performances are constituted as acting and artistic expressions and are, therefore, legal in some societies. In the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, under no circumstances is it acceptable for children to be used in pornographic materials and performances. Norton-Staal emphasizes, “Any children under the age of 18 who are used for pornographic performances or materials are victims. Any image or video of child abuse is documented evidence of a crime in process. The production and distribution of these child sexual abuse and exploitation materials—whether in print, online, or live-streamed—represent a violation of fundamental human rights, and these children need to

4  The United Nations agency dedicated to providing humanitarian aid to children all over the world.

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be protected.”5 Thus, child pornography which is a billion-dollar business is not a legitimate industry but a crime. As early as 2016, the Philippines has been declared to be “the global epicentre of the livestream sexual abuse trade” by the UNICEF.6 In 2017, the same agency again named the Philippines as “the top global source of child pornography.”7 In the same year, the Department of Justice Office of Cybercrime received 45,645 cybertips8 of sexual images involving Filipino children. In 2018, the number increased by 1000 percent, bringing up the cybertips to at least 600,000.9 In 2020, two months after Rodrigo Duterte, Philippine President, imposed a lockdown on Luzon, the reported cybertips on Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC) was at 279,166. This is a 265 percent increase from the same period the previous year. OSEC has been called the Philippines’ “secret pandemic.”10 OSEC has thrived in the Philippines because of cheap internet and smartphones which enable “operators,” the availability of money remittance centers that allow anonymity for foreign internationals who pay cash, the ability to speak English well, and, ultimately, grinding poverty. Since March 16, 2020, in the Philippines, only one member of the household is allowed to leave home as each household is only given one quarantine pass. Thus, the pandemic has made homebound children more precarious in their home environments as they are not able to seek help. The median age for OSEC survivors is 11, with the youngest below one year old.11 Eighty-six percent of the rescued victims were minors and 46 percent of these were below 12 years old. Data also showed that 71 ­percent 5  Andy Brown, “Safe from harm: Tackling webcam child sexual abuse in the Philippines,” UNICEF, June 3, 2016, https://www.unicef.org/stories/safe-from-harm-tackling-webcam-child-sexual-abuse-philippines. 6  Andy Brown, “Safe from harm.” 7  Patty Pasion, “Philippines top global source of child pornography,” Rappler, December 13, 2017, https://www.rappler.com/nation/philippines-top-global-source-child-pornography-unicef. 8  Refers to online and telephone reports from the public in connection with child pornography. 9  Michelle Abad, “FAST FACTS: Why online sexual exploitation of children happens in the Philippines,” Rappler, February 11, 2020, https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/ things-to-know-online-sexual-exploitation-children-philippines. 10  Tabitha Payne, “Homebound predators and hard-hit families: Filipino child abuse on the rise,” Globe, August 24, 2020, https://southeastasiaglobe.com/philippines-online-sexual-abuse-covid/?pico_new_user=true&pico_ui=login_link. 11  Tabitha Payne, “Homebound predators and hard-hit families.”

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of traffickers were parents and relatives or close friends. In 30 percent of the total cases, traffickers were the parents of the victim.12 However, some adolescent victims were lured by their own friends. For many of the victims, the statement “I am only a child,” does not give full weight to the grave betrayal Filipino children victims have been subjected to. “I am your child” should remind us that these are children of our collective ancestors, our children in our common humanity, and our own people.

Children as Victims of Imperialism and Global Capitalism The victimization of children is always a component of imperialist agenda and tyrannical rule. Our sacred texts narrate the malevolence of rulers even upon innocent children. Two narratives are familiar to us: The Massacre of the Innocents by Herod the Great, King of Judea, which was an order to kill all male children two years old and younger in Bethlehem in the Gospel of Matthew,13 and the order of the King of Egypt to kill all the males born to Hebrew women during childbirth in Exodus 1. Even the killing of every firstborn son of Egypt to serve as “signs and marvels” so that Yahweh can be known to the Pharaoh of Egypt exhibits the depravity done to children.14 In Philippine history, the Manila Massacre or the Rape of Manila in 1945, during the Battle of Manila between American and Japanese forces, is one of the major war crimes of the Imperial Japanese Army against Filipino civilians. One hundred thousand is the number of people estimated to have been killed from February 3 to March 3, but 500,000 are believed to have died as a result of the massacre.15 In the Yamashita war crimes trial, one of the testimonies given was about the rounding up of 400 women and girls from Manila’s wealthy. From this number, 25 were 12  Kristen Owen, Brianna Gehring, and Samson Inocencio Jr., “Online Sexual Exploitation of Children in the Philippines, A Review of the Criminal Justice System’s Response,” International Justice Mission, December 2018, 12, https://www.ijm.org/documents/studies/Philippines-OSEC-Criminal-Justice-System-Baseline-Assessment.pdf. 13  Matthew 2: 16–18. 14  Exodus 11: 4–6. 15  C.  Peter Chen, “Philippines Campaign, Phase 2,” World War II Database, February 2007, https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=27&fbclid=IwAR0_2Mbl5eYKJRJb nlelLctwTKE2BuZ6Idt5jK6ypuUh5Nlk1K0g0_SIq9o.

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chosen as the most beautiful. They were taken to Bayview Hotel, the “rape center,” and the Japanese enlisted men and officers took turns raping them. Many of them were 12–14 years old.16 The Philippines has a long history of colonization: 300 years under Spain, 100 years under America, and three years under the Japanese. However, despite the yearly celebration of Philippine Independence Day every June 12, our nation remains enslaved, our women prostituted, and our children sacrificed in the altars of globalization, capitalism, and imperialism. Every day, before the pandemic, as many as 5000 women and men leave the Philippines to work in jobs tantamount to slavery.17 Filipino women and girls are exported as brides and become victims of forced labor and sex trafficking not just in foreign lands but also locally through sex tourism.18 Finally, the children of the poor are the victims of state negligence and are victimized and commodified by their own families through OSEC. It is a globalized, digitalized, and immortalized victimization of children. Even when the child has been rescued and the traffickers have been imprisoned, the victim’s image remains on the internet and the child is victimized repeatedly and suffers long-term abuse. In the annual report of the Internet Watch Foundation, this repeated and long-term abuse is highlighted, “We see Olivia every day—five years after she was rescued. To show exactly what ‘repeat victimization’ means, we counted the number of times we saw Olivia’s image online during a three-month period. We saw her at least 347 times. On average, that’s five times each and every working day.”19 In previous work, I have researched the sexual abuse and exploitation of women and children and encountered Rosario Baluyot and Liezyl 16  “MANILA RAPE STORY BACK CLOSED-DOOR Reign of Terror with Approval of Yamashita Told War Crime Trial,” Madera Tribune, Volume LIII, Number 206, 1 November 1945, https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MT19451101.2.3&e=%2D%2D%2D%2D%2D%2D-­ en%2D%2D20%2D%2D1%2D%2Dtxt-txIN%2D%2D%2D%2D%2D%2D%2D%2D1. 17  Philippine Statistics Authority, “Philippine International Migration Data,” un.org, 2017, https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/meetings/2017/ bangkok%2D%2Dinternational-migration-data/Session%203/Session%203%20Philippines.pdf. 18  Francis Tom F.  Temprosa, “Violence, Exploitation, and Abuse and Discrimination in Migration Affecting Women and Children in ASEAN: A Baseline Study,” Affecting Women and Children in ASEAN, A Baseline Study, Human Rights Resource Center, Indonesia, 665–794, 2013, http://hrrca.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/08.-WNC-Philippines-­ Report.pdf. 19  Internet Watch Foundation, “Olivia’s Story, A Survivor’s Story,” April 24, 2019, https://www.iwf.org.uk/news/olivia’s-story.

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Margallo. Their stories dramatize the torturous lives of poor Filipino children. This is excerpted from an earlier paper: On October 10, 1986, Rosario Baluyot and Jessie Ramirez, both minors, entered MGM Hotel with Heinrich Stefan Ritter, an Australian national. When Ritter could not penetrate Rosario because she was not even 12 years old, he inserted a vibrator in her vagina. She was paid three hundred pesos or six dollars. Seven months later, she fell unconscious while scavenging trash and later died after a vibrator was removed from her vaginal canal. Ritter was asked to pay the amount of P30,000.00 (USD600.00) by way of moral and exemplary damages to the heirs of Rosario Baluyot. He was acquitted in 1991 because Rosario’s family could not produce public documents to prove that she was below 12 years old and a child, and as the defendant claimed that she was a prostitute, his acts were not considered rape.20

In the “People of the Philippines vs. Heinrich Ritter,”  the judge lamented that the accused had to be acquitted on grounds of reasonable doubt. In the court’s decision, the culpability of the government was given weight. It reports: And finally, the Court deplores the lack of criminal laws which will adequately protect street children from exploitation by pedophiles, pimps, and, perhaps, their own parents or guardians who profit from the sale of young bodies. The provisions on statutory rape and other related offenses were never intended for the relatively recent influx of pedophiles taking advantage of rampant poverty among the forgotten segments of our society. Newspaper and magazine articles, media exposes, college dissertations, and other studies deal at length with this serious social problem but pedophiles like the appellant will continue to enter the Philippines and foreign publications catering to them will continue to advertise the availability of Filipino street children unless the Government acts and acts soon. We have to acquit the appellant because the Bill of Rights commands us to do so. We, h ­ owever, express the Court’s concern about the problem of street children and the evils committed against them. Something must be done about it.21

20  Lizette G. Tapia-Raquel, “The Filipino Woman: Sexual and Sacred.” Term paper, Yonsei University, 2018. 21  The Law Phil Project, “People of the Philippines versus Heinrich S. Ritter,” Philippine Laws and Jurisprudence Databank, March 5, 1991, https://lawphil.net/judjuris/juri1991/ mar1991/gr_88582_1991.html.

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Rosario is the Filipino word for “rosary,” a religious item that is common to Roman Catholics. It is a symbol of a people of faith in a nation that is over 95 percent Christian. But despite our declarations that we are children of God, the children of this nation suffer the perversions of global capitalism and sex tourism which have reduced children’s bodies to commodities that can be subjected to abuse, rape, and torture. In the Philippines, the age of consent is 12 years old, the lowest in Asia.22 Thus, sex with a child as young as 12 is not immediately considered rape. This law compelled the court to acquit a pedophile and a rapist, even when the victim died. Child advocates are currently campaigning to raise the age of consent to help protect children and prosecute rapists and pedophiles. Liezyl Margallo’s life, known to netizens as “Savage Girl,” is more complex.23 Unlike Rosario, she is a survivor of child prostitution. However, she does not escape it but masters it. In 2017, at age 23, Liezyl is convicted of one count of human trafficking and five counts of rape as an accomplice of her boyfriend, Peter Scully, an Australian national. The latter is considered one of the worst pedophiles in the world. His youngest victim was only 12 months old. He sold his videos raping and torturing children for as much as USD10,000 per view.24 Liezyl is filmed torturing children in a video series entitled “Daisy’s Destruction.” Elsewhere, I wrote: She has become savage because she had been treated with savagery and the government, the church, and other institutions who are tasked to safeguard and hold sacred the lives of children have failed many like her. She does not find sexual gratification in her savagery and the quality of her life improves

22  Anne Barker, “In the Philippines, sex with a 12yo is considered legal if it’s consensual. But new laws are set to change that,” ABC News, October 8, 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/ news/2020-10-09/philippines-seeks-to-raise-age-of-consent-from-12-to-16/12740514. 23  Ador Vincent S. Mayol, “‘SAVAGE GIRL’ FALLS,” Cebu Daily News, Inquirer, January 26, 2017, https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/120658/savage-girl-falls. 24  Candace Sutton, “ROT IN HELL World’s worst paedo Peter Scully who filmed baby rapes, tortured kids and made them dig their own graves smirks at life in jail,” The Sun, June 14, 2018, https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6525841/peter-scully-worlds-worst-paedophile-jail-babyrape-dig-graves-philippines/?CMP=spklr-_-­S9SunSocial-_-TWITTER-_-SunNewsdesk_-20150702-_-News-_-203359025.

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little even as Scully is part of a billion-dollar complex organization. She is a ‘savage girl’25 who is as much a ‘sinner’ as she is ‘sinned-against.26

Liezyl Margallo is a diabolical product of global capitalism and neo-­ colonialism which are both grounded in patriarchy. Her savagery against children mimics the savagery done to her when she was a child by foreign men who were pedophiles. Perhaps, in her mind, her only escape is to become like the oppressor. Rosario Baluyot does not survive the attacks on her body by the same systemic evil and is the victim of injustice by an inutile government. She embodies, until her death, cycles of poverty and abuse that continue to kill Filipino children. The narratives on the victims of OSEC seem to be a continuum of the stories of Rosario and Liezyl. The report of the International Justice Mission on OSEC provides a picture of the relationship between global capitalism and the persisting colonial mindset that continues to victimize children and families in a developing country. Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking underlines, “OSEC is a global crime, in which a single OSEC trafficker often engages with multiple OSEC customers from around the world, and in which a single OSEC customer often solicits abuse material from multiple OSEC traffickers.”27 The Filipino OSEC trafficker and the OSEC victim have suffered grinding poverty. The OSEC customer is generally a male foreigner, Caucasian or European, a professional and highly educated; is technologically savvy; and has economic means. He views the OSEC crime as a form of entertainment, a service, and a product that does not hurt the child or anyone because there is no physical contact.28 The child in the photo or video made available online is a commodity to be sold and to be consumed. The OSEC customer to one child is many. These customers will view the photo or video of the child many times. There will be hundreds and thousands of dollars, euros, or whatever currency paid. There will be satisfied 25  Kristin Daniels, “Reason behind ‘Savage Girl’ horrendous crimes revealed!” kami.con. ph, published January 28, 2017, https://kami.com.ph/62129-savage-girl-liezyl-margalloadmits-abused-children.html#62129. 26  Tapia-Raquel, “The Filipino Woman,” 15. 27  Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, “Online Sexual Exploitation of Children in the Philippines,” International Justice Mission, May 20, 2020, https://www.ijm.org/documents/Final-Public-Full-Report-5_20_2020.pdf. 28  Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, “Online Sexual Exploitation of Children in the Philippines.”

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customers and they will repeat the transaction. There will be unsatisfied customers and they will want more sex or more violence. These OSEC customers are in the safety of their homes with their faces glued to the screen for a few minutes. When the transaction is consummated, they will continue with their “decent” lives. But some of them will fly to the Philippines and commit greater crimes of sexual abuse and rape. OSEC is global capitalism, imperialism, and misogyny that penetrate the flesh and destroys the spirit of Filipino children.

“Clothing the Naked” Children In a short story for children, entitled Ang Misteryo sa Pananamit ni Hulyan (The Mystery of the Clothes of Hulyan),29 written by Bernadette Neri, the main character is a victim of online sexual exploitation. In the children’s book, after he is rescued from his own father and lives with his cousin, Tintin, and her parents. The narrative depicts the trauma Hulyan has experienced and how he tries to cope. Tintin saw the huge change in her cousin. He did not want to play anymore. He seemed afraid to even step out of the house. And often, he would stare at nothing. But what Tintin found the most strange was how Hulyan would pile on clothes upon clothes. Even when it was hot. Sometimes, Hulyan would put on as many as three pairs of socks. He would also put on different colored underwears and pants. Then she also saw her cousin wear layers of undershirts, t-shirts, sweaters and other tops. “Is it very cold, Hulyan?,” Tintin asked him with some worry. “Not really,” Hulyan replied quietly. “Then why are you wearing all of that?” Hulyan told Tintin what was happening in a very quiet voice. He told her that he was hiding his body from the monster inside the lighted box. He said that he felt weak whenever the light hit him. And when the monster was peering in from inside the box, it felt like he was shrinking. Hulyan told her that his layers of clothes were his shield/armor against the commanding voice and obscene stare.

Hulyan’s character exhibits the terror a child experiences as a victim of OSEC.  They are silenced, hiding in their own bodies, shrinking, and 29  Bernadette Villanueva-Neri, Ang Misteryo sa Pananamit ni Hulyan (Quezon City: National Council of Churches in the Philippines, 2020).

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disempowered. They have been stripped naked by society’s diseases of poverty, depravity, and apathy. Hulyan, though a fictional character, embodies the deep hunger of children to be clothed, sheltered, and protected. These have been denied to them even before Jesus’ time. The pericope of Matthew 25, 31–46, has been referred to as “The Judgement of the Nations.” It provides the standard which determines who will inherit the kingdom prepared by God and who will receive eternal punishment. While it has been often interpreted by many as a judgment upon individuals, the text explicitly reads that we will be held accountable as “nations” and as “peoples.” More importantly, the demand to clothe the naked is intended for “the least of these who are members of my family.” This speaks to the victims of the online sexual exploitation of children. Throughout history, the naked are not just naked but have been stripped naked, and the least are not created less by God but have been denied life and dignity. Nakedness is not a vulnerability intrinsic to being a human being but a precarity perpetrated by those who dishonor and destroy life. Finally, that Jesus refers to the “least” as “members of my family” is great comfort to the victims of OSEC. Their families may have betrayed and hurt them, but to Jesus, they are family. Our accountability to the victims of OSEC is not just as parents, nor as families, but as a nation and a people. Poverty, depravity, and apathy are not the sin of one trafficker, one family member, or even several. It is systemic evil. Ultimately, the violation of children’s bodies and the corruption of their minds is not theirs alone. As a “home-based business,” it destroys the home, the “circle of trust” of so many poor children. As a religious people with over 95 percent of the population are Christians, the moral fiber of the Filipino society is being eroded for economic survival. As a people, our women and children are sexualized by foreign men who consume them as mail-order brides, prostitutes, and objects for different kinds of perversions. These past few years, children’s rights advocates and state agents are only able to respond and rescue victims in this escalating pandemic that threatens to corrupt and destroy the human spirit. The full impact of OSEC upon children, their families, our society, and the future of Filipino children is still unseen and unimagined. As Filipino Christians, we must engage theological and practical questions to respond to this sickness. How do we reconstruct conceptions of family relations where children are honored and respected as adults are? How do we teach children in our churches and communities that their bodies are sexual and good, while empowering them to discern what relations are abusive and

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dehumanizing? How do we transform our perspectives on morality so that our proclamations of faith do not further victimize and dehumanize the victims of OSEC and other forms of oppression? How do we dismantle the ideologies and systems of patriarchy, global capitalism, and imperialism which dehumanize the children of the world? Finally, we must go beyond philosophical discourses, theological pronouncements, and biblical interpretations to concretely respond to the victims of OSEC, our children. The National Council of Churches in the Philippines enjoins its constituency to support children in need, to be vigilant against traffickers, and to help protect children by building safe and nurturing environments.30 Thousands of years ago, Jesus defended and honored children saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”31 During the pandemic when Filipino children and their families were under a strict and punitive lockdown, children were beyond the reach of pedophiles because foreign travel was restricted. Two years after the countries closed their borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we are re-opening our airports, dismantling our checkpoints in the countrysides, and welcoming tourists anew. Will our children still be untouchable? Or will they become even greater prey as this pandemic wanes and comes to an end?

30  The Statement of the Executive Committee of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, “Let’s create a safer place for children during the pandemic,” May 21, 2020. 31  Matthew 19: 14.

PART III

New Eyes for Rereading the Bible

CHAPTER 12

A Reflection on Psalm 88 Kojo Okyere

Introduction The onset of the coronavirus pandemic ushered in a series of hardships and suffering. First was the physical pain and suffering caused by one’s contraction of the virus. This includes headaches, muscle aches and pains, shortness of breath, fever, and difficulty in breathing. Then, there was the economic hardship, affecting both those who have contracted the virus and the unaffected. Unemployment increased across the globe. Businesses shut down, with workers having no income to survive on. With many workers living on paycheck to paycheck, few had emergency funds for limited days of living expenses. Also manifesting was social suffering; social isolation, self-quarantine, and social distancing have become the norm. It is not surprising that blaming and stigmatizing were on the increase. Some elderly people were abandoned, with the poor and disadvantaged segments of societies severely affected. Added to this cocktail of hardships is mental suffering. Fear, anxiety, and frustration gripped many, and there were reports of an increase in domestic violence due to the lockdown.

K. Okyere (*) Department of Religion and Human Values, Faculty of Arts, College of Humanities and Legal Studies, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_12

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Perhaps concluding the cocktail of hardships is spiritual suffering. Many churches were closed, and religious services were limited to individuals and households—as a result, many people became disillusioned in the search for spiritual answers. Human pain and suffering,1 however, is an age-old problem. Across space and time, humans have experienced suffering and continue to do so. Rape, bullying, torture, and trauma are existential realities of our times. The suffering they cause may be minute and infinitesimal or pronounced and excruciating. Though a nebulous concept and studied from various perspectives including disciplines from the humanities, social sciences, and medicine, suffering evokes ideas of physical pain, hardship, turmoil, and distress.2 Understanding suffering is a quest to understand life itself. Life and suffering are intertwined in a manner in which questions asked about one applies to the other. Such inquiries occupied the minds of ancient Israelites who like others experienced all sorts of hardships and suffering as testified in the Old Testament. In the Psalter, for instance, we see the realities of pain and anguish, distress, and despair when troubled Israelites cried out to God. Located in the third division of the Psalter, Psalm 88, perhaps, is the most somber and poignant among these prayers.3 In Psalm 88, we encounter a prayer that is most despairing: no words of joy or hope. The abruptness of the prayer makes the psalm more intriguing on its portrayal of suffering. H. C. Leupold refers to it as “the gloomiest psalm found in the Scriptures,” adding, “The psalmist is as deeply in trouble when he has concluded his prayer as he was when he began it.”4 But its inclusion in the Psalter invites us to ask these: How does this psalm help us today in understanding suffering? To what extent does the psalmist’s anguish speak to the distress 1  Pain and suffering are often used synonymously. However, some scholars strike a significant difference between the two. While pain is often perceived from the physiological and sensory perspective, suffering is considered as one’s interpretation of the physical sensations. In this essay, however, the two are used synonymously. See Noelia Bueno-Gómez, “Conceptualizing Suffering and Pain,” Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine 12, no. 7 (2017), https://doi.org/10.1186/s13010-017-0049-5; Ronald E.  Anderson, Human Suffering and Quality of Life: Conceptualizing Stories and Statistics (Springer, 2014), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-7669-2_1; R.  Rey, The History of Pain, vol. 2. (Cambridge, Massachusetts, London: Harvard University Press,1995). 2  Anderson, Human Suffering and Quality of Life, 13. 3  Derek Kidner, Psalms 73–150: A Commentary on Books III–V of the Psalms (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1975), 316. 4  H. C. Leupold, Exposition of the Psalms (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1969), 626–27.

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and despair many Christians feel during this pandemic? What can we learn from this despairing soul who continues to hold onto his faith in God?5 Using literary analysis, with attention to the words and the associations they evoke, this chapter explores the dimensions of suffering in human life: physical, mental, spiritual, and social. With this understanding, the chapter reflects on the contextual relevance of Psalm 88 as Christians prayed and reflected on it during the pandemic. The chapter concludes by exploring how Psalm 88 can help us make sense of our sufferings.

Psalm 88 and the Dimensions of Suffering Considered as a lament, Psalm 88 lacks most of the elements C. Westermann outlined for Psalms of lament.6 Apart from the explicitly present elements which are “address to God” and “lament,” all the other elements of the genre such as “confession of trust” and “petition to God” are somehow lacking in this psalm. With no hope and such pervasive unrelieved gloom, Psalm 88 seems to question the value of prayer. Yet the psalmist cries out to God and sees Him as “saviour” (v. 1). Thus, praying serves a purpose even when superficially there is no reason to pray. But the oscillation toward prayer when one is overwhelmed with gloom and despair only heightens suffering as a formidable force to contend with. In modern times, many perceive the condition of pain and suffering from the visible and external, while neglecting the invisible and internal. Emanating from ideas of naturalism and the Cartesian legacy, this approach dichotomizes humans into two entities: the body and the mind.7 Such compartmentalization compromises our ability to achieve a holistic view of pain and suffering. A holistic approach to suffering, however, has the advantage of focusing on the uniqueness of the individual. As Ferrell and Coyle explained, an individual’s suffering is wholistic and “represents a deeply personal state.”8 In what follows below, we take a dimensional approach to Psalm 88 by looking at the physical, psychological, and 5  I purposefully use the masculine pronouns to refer to the petitioner due to the simplicity they offer. This has nothing to do with the exclusive gender of the petitioners in the Psalter. 6  Claus Westermann, Praise and Lament in the Psalms, trans. Keith R. Crim and Richard N. Soulen (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981), 64. 7  Gillian A.  Bendelow and Simon J.  Williams, “Transcending the Dualism: Towards a Sociology of Pain” Sociology of Health & Illness 17, no. 2 (1995), 141–146. 8  B.  Ferrell and N.  Coyle, The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing (Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2008), 16.

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spiritual elements of suffering. As we appreciate these dimensions, we begin to understand the whole picture. Suffice to note, however, that even this may not be enough to capture the pain the psalmist poured out. We need to be mindful of the counsel in Proverbs 14:10, The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.9 Physical Suffering This is the most known form of suffering, perhaps because it is visible and external. According to Anderson, “Physical suffering is the subset of distress resulting from threat or damage to one’s physical being”.10 It is often equated with pain, where pain “is the stimulation of some part of the body which the mind perceives as an injury or threat of that portion of the body or the self as a whole.”11 What this means is that physical suffering is physiological or biological in nature, involving a complex interaction of several parts of the body. It is realized in many forms including a cut on the figure to torment or rape of an individual. Anderson assembles words that are used sometimes as references for physical suffering. They include agony, torture, discomfort, excruciating, acute pain, hurt, torment, and incapacitation. Physical suffering lies at the root of the psalmist’s complaint. The entire lament is rich with vocabulary on the body, the state of the body, bodily responses, and external forces on the body. Four expressions refer to the human body or physical life of the psalmist—nefesh; khay (v. 3) and ‘ayin; kaf (v. 9). In v. 3, where the complaints begin, two references to the psalmist’s life depicts his undesirable position; for my soul is full of troubles; and my life draws near to Sheol. Soul and life (nefesh and khay) refer to that which animates the body and makes it a living human being. Their usage significantly heightens the image and value of life, especially in the context when it is diminishing. In v. 9, the bodily references affirm the image of an individual in pain. Following from v. 8 where the psalmist refers to his debilitating state which has caused his friends to shun him, v. 9 portrays his intense sorrow as discernible from the state of his eye (a synecdoche for 9  All translations are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), unless otherwise stated. 10  Anderson, Human Suffering and Quality of Life, 10. 11  David E.  Boeyink, “Pain and suffering,” The Journal of Religious Ethics 2, no. 1 (1974), 86.

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the entire body). It is the unbearable pain that urges him to spread out his hands—that is to reach out to God for relief. Together, the bodily references highlight the unity of the human person and show their functional interrelatedness in their response to pain. Difficult to miss, however, is the worrying descriptions of the physical state of the psalmist. The overarching image employed is death, precisely one who is at death’s doorstep. Indeed, the psalmist’s situation is somehow a paradox; not dead, but not alive. From vv. 3-6, the heap of words and images depicts the psalmist as weak and close to death. The first is the connection made between the words shava’ (full) and ra’ (troubles). The former is a word normally positive in meaning and connoting satisfaction or abundance, while the latter is a word that conveys all sorts of negativity including evils, misery, and troubles. By their association, the psalmist puts into focus his paradoxical status as well as heightens his pain, even more so because of the use of the plural form of ra’ (misery). The troubles the psalmist talks about are the reality of death. The concentration of terms alluding to death (she’ol—hell; bor—pit; qever—grave; makhshak—dark place; metsolah—depth) indicates how the psalmist perceived his current state of life. In vv. 8-9, the psalmist refers to his physical condition. He is shunned by his friends because he is “a thing of horror” (to‘evot). It appears the psalmist is suffering from a loathsome disease, one so abhorrent that the friends decide to reject him. The physical pain felt as well as the emotional pain of rejection explains the heaviness in his eyes. As Terrin notices, there is a saturation of physical pain from the words and images used in the prayer.12 However, the psalmist’s pain is also clear from his behavior. He cries out and reaches for God on four occasions in the prayer (vv. 1, 9, 13, 14). His prayer is random and disorderly, a behavioral pattern of people experiencing severe pain. Psychological Suffering Unlike physical suffering, psychological suffering or mental pain is not easily detected.13 It focuses on the cognitive (thoughts) and the emotional 12  Samuel Terrien, The Psalms: Strophic Structure and Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003), 627. 13  In the literature, psychological pain, emotional, pain, and metal pain are sometimes used synonymously.

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(feelings/mood).14 Among the several definitions include that of Orbach et  al. who define psychological suffering as “a wide range of subjective experiences characterized as an awareness of negative changes in the self and in its functions accompanied by negative feelings.”15 Anderson also defines it as the “distress perceived as originating in one’s cognitive or affective self-identity.”16 Although these two and others are considered foundational definitions for a concept which is still relatively understudied, one important element that cut across these definitions is the self-­perceived gap between the ideal and the reality.17 Negative appraisal of one’s inability or deficiency of the self leads to unpleasant feelings. Some forms of psychological suffering are anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation. In Psalm 88, we are confronted with an individual who is not only physically pained but also psychologically troubled. As E. S. Gerstenberger notices, the invocation of the divine name which is quickly followed by the appositive description of YHWH as a savior (O LORD, God of my salvation) depicts the psalmist as “an extremely distressed” person.18 Interestingly, this is the only place in the prayer where there is an explicit expression of hope. But this is quickly overshadowed by the dramatic descriptions of a deafening cry (daily I cry- yom-tsa‘aqti and by night before you—ballaylah negdeka)19 coming from someone who has reached the heights of his distress.20 The psalmist’s psychological pain can be determined from the expressions of negative emotions such as fear, frustration, and helplessness. Negative emotional responses emerge when one’s understanding of one’s situation is incongruent with one’s self-meaning or identity standards. With the understanding that he is in death’s grip, the psalmist is overridden with fear and concern over his life; what we may call anxiety disorder. Prolonged worry and a sense of restlessness characterize the  Anderson, Human Suffering and Quality of Life, 10.  Israel Orbach et al., “Mental Pain and Its Relationship to Suicidality and Life Meaning,” Suicide and Life – Threatening Behavior 33, no. 3 (2003): 232. 16  Anderson, Human Suffering and Quality Life, 10. 17  W. G. Joffe and J. Sandler, “On the Concept of Pain with Reference to Depression and Psychogenic Pain,” Journal of Psychosomatic Research 11, no.1 (1967): 69–75. 18  Erhard Gerstenberger, Psalms Part 2, and Lamentations (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001), 142. 19  My own translation. 20  Charles A Briggs and Emilie G. Briggs, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Psalms (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1906–07), 244. 14 15

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psalmist’s prayer. For instance, every day he cries out to God, an indication that his suffering is persistent (cf. v. 1, 9, 15). His life has been a lifetime of sorrows (v. 15). Anxiety leads to frustration as discernible from vv. 10-14. These verses contain an invocation (v. 13) sandwiched between two forms of questions—rhetorical questions (vv. 10-12) and a straight question (v. 14). Calling upon God and continuously being met with divine silence, the psalmist launches series of rhetorical questions which unmask the anger and frustration felt. Through the use of the independent pronoun (’ani), the psalmist emphatically announces his presence in the final invocation (v. 13). It is he who is yet to descend into the pit (bor). He, therefore, marshals a final cry to God and in so doing employs the verb (shawa‘) which “denotes an urgent cry for help in a tense situation.”21 The dead have no business with God as they cannot honor and praise him. Why does God allow him to descend into Sheol? Yearning for answers which the rhetorical questions cannot produce, the psalmist now demands a straight answer from God as he puts up the “why” question. An unanswered request, according to psychologists, leads to frustration. No wonder the psalmist in his self-definition concludes that he is desperate (’aponah—v. 15). Desperation leads to state of hopelessness, the conviction that the future is negative and one is helpless to bring about a change. Thoughts of impending death cloud the future the psalmist envisages. Death is so ever-present that the psalmist cannot escape its claws. Ultimately death will displace him from the world of the living, and usher him into a world where the Lord’s salvation will no longer be accessible (vv. 10-12). The future vision of inevitable death is premised on the present conditions of frailty as a result of a debilitating illness, coupled with the loss of assistance from relatives or friends (vv. 8-9). The feeling of helplessness is intensified by the failure of God to respond. What is worse, the psalmist seems to lack any possible reason for his predicament. Four times the psalmist calls to God; and he does that through the direct personal name of God, YHWH; however, God keeps hiding (v. 14). Any sign of a positive outcome obliterates, including what he could do himself, assistance from his friends and relatives, and even help from God. Life, which the psalmist is struggling to clinch on, ebbs away, while he watches on helplessly. Because the psalmist

21  Robert Davidson, The Vitality of Worship: A Commentary on the Book of Psalms (Grand Rapids, Mich.; Edinburgh: W.B. Eerdmans; Handsel Press, 1998), 292.

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has not given up on life, he only becomes more frustrated and helpless in the face of the irremediable and obstructed goal of clinching on to life. Spiritual Suffering The term “spirituality” is a cliché, with many people using it including non-religious people. I adopt Walter Brueggemann’s perspective on spirituality as discussed in his work on Spirituality of the Psalms. Brueggemann assigns a tripartite division in understanding the spirituality of the Psalter. There is a dialogical movement from orientation to disorientation then to reorientation.22 Psalms of orientation reflect the stable relationship between God and his people. They present a worldview of a faithful people, who believe in a trustworthy God; a God who ensures a well-ordered world. Psalms of disorientation shatter the notion of an ordered society, as they bring to the fore an encounter between faith and suffering.23 Brueggemann explains that there is uneasiness in accepting the reality that the psalms of disorientation portray, even to the extent of being denied. However, these psalms strongly affirmed faith in God during the “dark times” of life. Lastly, reorientation signals a movement from despair to a transformed faith characterized by God’s grace.24 The heart of Brueggemann’s spirituality of the psalms lies in the second stage of disorientation, where the issues of spiritual suffering and theodicy converge. Psalm 88 falls under the psalms of disorientation. The psalmist suffers spiritually because he experiences God’s silence in the midst of suffering. It is as if God has changed from what he had experienced and knew. Severally, he bemoans to Yahweh in this state of confusion; bold and unflinchingly he addresses God, poses questions to God, demands answers from God. Almost half of the prayer is an accusation of God (vv. 6-8 and 14-18); the psalmist dares to point a finger at God as the reason for his plight. Yearning for answers, the psalmist persists in isolating God as the “enemy”; behind his sufferings (vv. 6-8). God’s silence exacerbates the psalmist’s frustration, fear, and vulnerability. Ultimately, the psalmist ends his prayer in a disturbed state of being alone and in darkness (v. 18). The last word makhshak (darkness) pretty sums up his spiritual turmoil. 22  Walter Brueggemann, Spirituality of the Psalms (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002), 8–15. 23  Brueggemann, Spirituality of the Psalms, 24–45. 24  Brueggemann, Spirituality of the Psalms, 46–67.

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Praying Psalm 88 in the Context of COVID-19 The intensity and widespread effects of the pandemic have caused many people to wonder and to make sense of the hardship and suffering that has played out and continues to play out in the world. Millions have died and more continue to die as the virus gradually ebbs away. The rippling effect of the pandemic has touched on every aspect of human life; from education, to business, health care, and entertainment. The pandemic threatened us all; but it has become increasingly obvious that some suffer more than others. For instance, although rich countries have been hardly hit by the pandemic, there is a major concern on the devastative effect of the pandemic on poorer countries where access to social amenities such as portable water is a challenge, coupled with a crippling health system. Even in developed countries, not all suffer equally, with the pandemic revealing the scars of socio-economic inequalities. Similarly, although suffering is a common human experience, it is unique to each individual. Understanding the dimensions of suffering helps us appreciate how an individual suffers holistically. In Psalm 88, for instance, we do see not only how the individual goes through physical, emotional/mental, and spiritual suffering, but also how these dimensions are intricately connected to reveal the impactful nature of suffering on humans. The despair that characterizes our lives today has caused many to ask difficult questions. How do we as Christians hold onto our faith, when there is little hope, and the stench of death spreads across communities? Is the belief in a saving God possible in times of crisis? Resonating with the current hardship caused by COVID-19, Psalm 88 portrays the intense anguish believers go through as they struggle to hold on to their faith in a God who seems to have abandoned them. Praying Psalm 88 during the peak of the pandemic, therefore, was not only apt, but also a great reminder of the uncertainty of life even for believers, and the inevitability of suffering. Many are the lessons we can learn from this somber psalm. First, the psalm reminds us to be open and expressive of our hardships. We see that the petitioner of Psalm 88 does not mince words in describing his sufferings. He is direct in isolating God as the one responsible for his sufferings. This is not to say we are to blame God for the current pandemic. On the contrary, human actions account for many troubles the world faces. However, the emotional response of blaming God is a human thing; it is not to be considered as cynical, but rather a theological spectacle of human frailty in the face of God’s sovereignty.

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As we read Psalm 88, we are called to listen to the voice of suffering. Paying heed to the voice of suffering reveals different perspectives of how and why people suffer. Listening is a dialogical process that reveals something of ourselves and others. Our common humanity is enlivened as we share our stories, and as we become aware of the differences and similarities in our common fate of dealing with suffering. With the coronavirus pandemic exposing our vulnerability, especially through protocols such as social distancing and self-isolation, the need to connect is even more imperative in the face of increasing mental disorders. Even as we open ourselves up to allow other people’s stories to enter us and interact with our own experiences, not only do we demonstrate the love of care profoundly, but we open up a new horizon of exploring our shared humanity expressed through the love of listening to others. Indeed, the coronavirus has exposed our vulnerability as humans, though there have been tremendous achievements in our civilization. An infinitesimal organism has succeeded in wreaking havoc and bringing the world to its knees. Advanced countries with all their technological feats have succumbed to this invincible organism. In the midst of all this, many lives have been lost, many others have been quarantined, and feelings of frustration and desperation like a dark cloud hanging over the heads of millions of people who have lost their jobs. One striking feature of Psalm 88 is the acknowledgment of God as not only the savior, but a just and righteous God. In the midst of the confusion, we need not lose sight of the fact that God is still our savior. There is nowhere we can turn for help as Christians, but to still express trust in the saving power of God. Our continuous prayer in the midst of suffering affirms our belief in our deliverance, though it may tarry. Even more striking is the psalmist’s courage and candidness in asking God a series of questions. At the heart of these queries is the belief that God is righteous and just, and cannot allow his servant to suffer in vain. A demand for a display of these intrinsic qualities of God is met with divine silence. But the values in the psalmist’s outburst perhaps lie in their therapeutic and theological insights. On the former, emotional outbursts first reveal that one is human, and not superhuman. Second, they sometimes allow people who suffer to listen and hear themselves. As we express our emotions during these difficult times, we equally need to say what we feel deep within us. We can understand and manage our emotions only when we openly reveal what lies deep within our hearts. Theologically, our emotional outbursts tainted with questions and doubts about our faith in God

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propel us to new heights of faith and understanding in God. Like Job, the psalmist hobbles in the dark searching for God, a search that ends abruptly with no answer. Yet he holds on to the belief that it is God who can bring about a change. Such incomprehensive expression of faith is what we are called on to emulate as Christians. As we pray Psalm 88 in this time, let us be reminded of our own disorientation. COVID-19 pandemic has moved many away from the life of orientation to disorientation; from the life of order and certainty to one of uncertainty, chaos, and confusion. Like the psalmist, we are surrounded with gloom, terror, and despair. In such a state of desperation, we are permitted to scream at God and ask questions of God. We cannot reorient ourselves and our minds when we fail to go through this important cathartic experience. By opening our hearts and genuinely pouring forth our pains, we arrive at a new understating of ourselves and our faith, and a realization of our frailties and the illusion of being in control. As people of faith, and as we pour out our frustrations to God, we express our fundamental belief of hope, not an empty one, but an unflinching trust in the goodness of God.

Conclusion: Making Sense of Suffering The Coronavirus pandemic awakened us to the reality of suffering as an inevitable fate of humans. With such fate, humanity’s best approach, perhaps, is to make sense of suffering; to explore how suffering adds value to human life. This is more so for Christians who believe in a good God who oversees the universe and dearly loves His creation. Why then does God allow His children to suffer? This is a tension that cannot be easily resolved. Some reason that suffering is underserved of humans, while others think some people do not deserve to suffer, such as a child who suffers from cancer. Yet others think suffering is as a result of human actions. In all this, what many have found unsatisfactory is a simplistic explanation to why suffering is dovetailed into humanity’s fate. In Psalm 88, we are faced with a text that challenges the simplistic answers we assign for reasons why we suffer. From the beginning to the end, the psalmist wallows in pain and suffering, yet he does not come to know why he suffers. Like Job, the psalmist’s pain is accentuated by the failure to understand why he suffers. When we pose the “why” question, we set ourselves on an unwinding long path of unsatisfactory answers. Admittedly, the insatiable quest to unravel mysteries is part of what defines

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our humanity; a trait that has led the human race to unimaginable achievements. In the case of suffering, however, it appears this may not be enough. We may never come to a complete knowledge of why we suffer. Instead of considering this limitation as a problem, as Christians, we need to accept that complete knowledge and understanding lie only with God. What then are we to make of our sufferings? From the perspective of Psalm 88, we are called to accept the fact that suffering is part of our Christian life. As Dereck Kidner intimates, Psalm 88 is a “witness to the possibility of unrelieved suffering as a believer’s lot. The happy ending of most psalms of this kind is seen to be a bonus, not a due.”25 Secondly, the value of suffering is the indication that something may be wrong with ourselves, society, or our relationship with God. The psalmist’s suffering indicated to him the absence of God. He became aware of the reality of death. What is wrong with ourselves, our society, and our relationship with God in this era of the pandemic? As we ponder on this question, we need not delude ourselves into thinking our sufferings today resulted from the emergence of the pandemic. What the pandemic has revealed is a society that is fractured and weak. Thirdly, we need not resign and wallow in self-pity because suffering is an inevitable fate of humans. As the psalmist clamored for salvation, we need to actively seek out ways of eliminating suffering. Though in the text God is the solution to the psalmist’s pain, the passion and fervor with which the psalmist expresses his pain and desire for relief impliedly inform us to actively seek to alleviate suffering. COVID-19 is a reminder that we are all vulnerable and with such a common fate, we all need to help in relieving the world of suffering.

 Kidner, Psalms 73–150, 350.

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CHAPTER 13

Expression of Korean Han Hyun Hee Deborah Park

Introduction Walter Brueggemann calls lament “a wake-up call”1 that lifts up and calls attention to human loss and pain without moral judgment against the sufferer. Psalms of lament are a pained, mournful expression of suffering and loss in the absence of God’s presence. They are poems of complaint helping the lamenting one to engage in suffering and resist it, and thus find resources for resilience. Ultimately lament can implicitly, even if not explicitly, express deep trust in God, an affirmation in the face of despair that goodness goes still deeper and that God’s loving embrace is steadfast and true even in the most difficult of circumstances. As such, the psalms function as expressions of faith in the life of the faith community. In extreme situations, when one is overwhelmed by suffering, one can be rendered speechless, and incapable of any form of communication. In light of this, Dorothee Soelle describes three phases of suffering: 1  Bruce K.  Waltke, James M.  Houston and Erika Moore, eds., The Psalms as Christian Lament: a historical commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.  Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2014), 376–377.

H. H. Deborah Park (*) Fairview United Church, Branford, ON, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_13

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muteness, lament, and transformation. Muteness happens in an extreme form of suffering when one is overwhelmed and cannot communicate at all. This phase of lament occurs when the sufferer articulates suffering in moaning psalmic language that searches for help and liberation. Despair amid extreme pain can be endured when the pain can be expressed. For Soelle, lament enables a transition from isolated pain through communication to transformation.2 To resist suffering’s power, to empower dignity, and to help us move through the suffering require us to seek the language of lament. The expressive gesture of lament begins a process of recovering one’s voice, gaining strength to speak the reality of the situation, and harnessing appropriate individual and communal power for use in fostering the well-being of all God’s creatures.3 In light of psalms of lament, and the need for a communal voice in suffering, Han (한, 恨) in the theological context can be used to help understand the current condition of our world. It describes human suffering concerning God and to human alienation from God, creation, and each other in sin. Han is an important phenomenon rooted in Korean culture and expressed in lament. It is a deep-seated sense of grief and mourning over being wronged by powerful agents of injustice, a deep cry of lament. Han is a source for Korean songs, poems, and novels about the Korean people oppressed by injustice and afflicted by the loss of loved ones or the suffering of unusual circumstances. Han is the expression of “a profound sadness in response to a tragic life…Hearing such music, one feels a tragic beauty touching the heart.”4 The lament that expresses Han honors the voice of protest, and in the process builds community through singing together in partnership. The concept of Han was developed by Minjung theologians. Minjung theology was constructed in the 1970s by Korean theologians focusing on the struggles for social justice in the life of the Korean people. Minjung theology was the first synthesis between the socio-economic, political, and cultural-religious types of contextual theology in the Asian context.5 It interprets the gospel from the Korean perspective on contemporary 2  Dorothee Soelle, Suffering. Transl.Everett R.  Kalin. (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress, 1975), 73–74. 3  Kathleen H.  O’Connor, Lamentations and the Tears of the World (New York: Orbis Books, 2002), 139. 4  I-to Loh. Hymnal companion to Sound the Bamboo: Asian hymns in their cultural and liturgical contexts (Chicago: GIA Publications, 2011), 107. 5  Volker Küster, A Protestant Theology of Passion (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2010), 133.

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religious issues of poverty and oppression. This article will restrict itself to focusing on Han as a way of reimagining lament in congregational worship music without fully engaging its political or theological dimension. Specifically, this article will examine the power of lament to express Han and suffering in the emerging futures of World Christianity in post-­ COVID-­ 19. It will research psalms of lament, drawing on Dorothee Soelle’s articulation of suffering and transformation and focusing on the concept of Han in Minjung theology. It will develop a contextual aesthetic approach that highlights Korean musical forms which communicate the experience of Han. The hope is to provide content of practical value by showing that Korean traditional musical forms can be employed in worship to express Han through psalms of lament, providing support for incorporating Korean local cultural and spiritual heritages.

Toward Recovering Psalms of Lament The significant role of psalms of lament as a response to suffering emerges in four ways. First, these psalms are vehicles for expressing and communicating sorrow, anger, and human struggles. Second, psalms of lament can provide pathways out of the experience of muteness, of being overwhelmed and silenced by suffering, with the accompanying resentment that results. Third, they can build communal motivation toward shared protest, becoming a resource of solidarity in giving voice to pain and struggle in the world. Finally, psalms of lament can bring cathartic emotional release in the context of faith—a prayer that grows from a profound yearning and deep desire for a healing relationship with God. The psalms of lament are the largest class of psalms; more than a third of the Psalter consists of “lament psalms.” Some forty-two are individual laments, and another sixteen are corporate laments. They are poetic hymns sung to God to express sorrow, human struggles, and suffering experienced by the people of Israel when God’s face was hidden. They deal with issues that are central to the life of faith for individuals and the whole community. Waltke concurs with R. W. L. Moberly’s statement that the power of lament lies at the heart of Israel’s prayer, meaning that the problem of grief is not insignificant or unusual, but rather at the center of faith. Moreover, they show that experiencing pain and embarrassment in the life of faith is not a sign of lack of faith, but is inherent in the essence of faith.6 6

 Waltke, et al., eds., The Psalms as Christian Lament, 329–333.

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A psalm of lament, at its most basic, is an address to God in the form of a complaint that is also a request and an expression of trust. Brueggemann helpfully outlines the form of the psalms in his theme of “orientation-­ disorientation-­reorientation.”7 He asserts that human life is not just a statement of the place where we find ourselves. It is also a movement from one situation to another, when we are surprised to be in a new situation we don’t expect, and feel resistance to a new place, desperately longing for an old situation. Disorientation is represented by the psalms of lament and complaint that are painful, agonizing, and harsh expressions of the movement of chaos, and displacement, suffering, and death.8 This season of disorientation reveals robust resistance where the sufferer earnestly petitions God. Westermann has shown that the complaint song expresses the basic moves of faith in God, ranging from deep alienation to profound trust, confidence, and gratitude as plea and praise.9 There are five elements in plea: address and introductory cry; complaint that describes how desperate the situation is; petition that earnestly appeals to God for justice and mercy with the suggestion that unjust situation has risen because of Yahweh’s lack of attention; motivation that provides a reason for God to act; imprecation that utters resentment that will not be satisfied until God retaliates against the wrongdoers.10 In complaint psalms, the petitioner lays the human situation of disorientation at the door of Yahweh. Plea is transformed into praise when one is convinced that the grievance is heard by Yahweh who will free us. The psalms of lament serve to affirm that help can come out of life’s darkness and broken relationships. Thus, the power of the lamenting voice, both individual and communal, attests to our humanity in the face of darkness as it searches for new life. It testifies to resilience that refuses to acquiesce to suffering and despair as the final word. In doing so, it begins to open up possibilities beyond suffering as the defining totality of life, affirming hope and even issuing praise.11 However, expressions like this are seldom included in liturgical psalters or our worship resources. Don E. Saliers notes that the psalms of lament must be recovered among us because they convey a realistic faith that deals  Waltke, et al., eds., The Psalms as Christian Lament, 383–384.  Walter Brueggemann, Spirituality of the Psalms (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002), 502. 9  Brueggemann, Spirituality of the Psalms, 328–342. 10  Brueggemann, Spirituality of the Psalms, 328–342. 11  In conversation with Dr. Tom Reynolds, September 4, 2020. 7 8

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with the extremities of human life and human experience.12 Churches seem to have lost the liturgical language of lamentation and, in doing so, may also have lost some of their capacity to express complaint and anger as forms of faithfulness. The recovery of the Psalter as the Christian’s lament and repentance may thus help us to become more open with God, with ourselves, as well as with each other in progressive relational growth.13 In groups that share certain experiences, this enables some to speak for others whom grief may have rendered mute (Prov. 31: 8). Such liturgy encourages people to care for each other.14 The ministries of the congregation and the ongoing experience of individual and communal suffering must be honestly correlated with the poetry of biblical texts.15 Just as Jesus offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could have saved him from death, Christians can as well. The language of lament needs to be intentionally revived today, especially in a time of the post-COVID-19 pandemic.16

Suffering and Resilience The despair of the poor is different from the despair of the rich. Their specific conditions make it less feasible to be resilient. The conditions of the marginalized and hungry who are dealing with severe economic injustice and are disenfranchised by race, gender, sexual orientation, and so on leave little space for language to express pain. The marginalized bear the additional burden of being kept from the means to name the suffering and the conditions that oppress them. They do not have the powers and opportunities to articulate and critique their situation due to inequalities of education and a social system that largely excludes their voice. Liturgy can serve to create such a voice about people’s fear and pain. The Church can offer solidarity with marginalized populations and be an empowering agent in helping them express themselves.17 Indeed, forms of expressive language are not readily available in cases of great suffering, causing an inability to speak. In this scenario, muteness is a 12  Don E. Saliers, “Psalms in Our Lamentable World,” Yale Journal of Music & Religion: Vol. 1: No. 1, Article 7 (2015): 103. 13  Waltke, et al., eds., The Psalms as Christian Lament, 369–370. 14  Soelle, Suffering, 74. 15  Saliers, “Psalms in Our Lamentable World,” 111. 16  In conversation with Dr. Tom Reynolds, September 4, 2020. 17  Soelle, Suffering, 72.

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factor of oppression. As we have seen, sometimes the intensity of an event can silence, creating an overwhelming sense of being utterly destroyed. This kind of trauma renders one speechless and makes it difficult to find the voice of lament. Finding the voice requires a move from muteness to changing, finding a language or even just an utterance of any kind to vocalize the pain even in groans and cries. Change itself is understood as an inevitable part of the human condition; a passive attitude toward pain can change only where society is prepared to engage it.18 Interestingly, naming it doesn’t necessarily cause the pain to disappear, but it does offer the possibility of bearing it with resilience. Thus avoiding acknowledgment of pain is a denial that can be destructive. This is what makes giving voice to pain so powerful in lament, as it is a constructive way of naming and working through the pain. It invites us to respect both the hidden, often overlooked pain in our own hearts and similar pain in other places in the world. Lament can create a shared framework for working through pain; this makes community important. Communities can help carry someone who is suffering, empowering them into speech, giving voice to a pain that was unable to express itself in other ways. Lament can convey a personal and social truth that can release passion and uplift moral agency. It reminds us that reconciliation in a personal, national, and global realm cannot occur without a clear expression of pain in the face of denial and injustice.19 For centuries, art, narratives, and music in different cultures have reflected pain in human life, as a medium for validating people’s experience of divine absence. The sense of God’s absence forces humans to grieve and despair, articulating their experience of a silent God in different art forms. Lament lingers over pain and gives words to mute suffering. In doing so, it teaches resistance, liberates passions, and gives us prayers for the world’s tears.20

Lament and Han in Minjung Theology and Korean Traditional Music Han is a multidimensional phenomenon in Korea. It is a deep sensibility related to the suffering of the people which is expressed in lamentation, operating on many levels, from social-historical to the interpersonal, psychological, esthetic, and theological. By bringing together the concept of  Soelle, Suffering, 70.  O’Connor, Lamentations and the Tears of the World, 94–95. 20  O’Connor, Lamentations and the Tears of the World, 83–86. 18 19

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Christ’s suffering and the Korean sense of Han in a conducive interaction, Korean theologians gain a new perception of pain in the Korean context. Minjung (민중, 民衆) means the oppressed and marginalized but resistant people in Minjung theology. In the context of poverty and oppression, God is present in the suffering (Han) of the people (Minjung). As Suh Nam-Dong and other Minjung theologians emphasize, we can see the stories of Jesus, his sufferings, cross, and resurrection, reflected in the stories of suffering and Han-ridden people.21 Nam-Dong Suh, one of the founders of Minjung theology, declares the redemptive nature of Han is an unresolved sentiment gained by long suffering of Minjung.22 Christ was present in the hardship of the poor, oppressed, and marginalized people during his lifetime. Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross open the possibility to encounter God’s saving energy in the life of the suffering people. Minjung theology has emphasized suffering in light of salvation and liberation while tracing God’s presence in the suffering people of Korea.23 Suh points out the Messianic character of the suffering people that identifies suffering with Christ’s experience on the cross. He asserts that the cry of Han is the voice of Christ in our age and the Messiah will come to us by riding on the groaning sound of Han. Byung-mu Ahn argues that Christ is not the solution-giver to every problem, but the cry-­ shouter who touches our heart, in which case the sufferer functions like Christ.24 Han is created in the absence of the people’s voice and agency through injustice, unfairness, poverty, and pain. Therefore, in lament, the muteness of Minjung is transformed into speech, changed, such that the cry of Minjung becomes a source of revolutionary power. Our dignity and humanity rely on how we respond in action to the cry of Han: life (salvation) or destruction. Through lamenting, Han can be transformed into a saving power that helps people open themselves to freedom for renewal and aliveness. Suh emphasizes that every member of the community can become the voice for Han-ridden people, helping all carry the sound of Han to amplify it. He invites Christians to be the “priests of Han,” bringing Han into the public realm25 by giving voice to suffering, joining those 21  Jin-Kwan Kwon and Volker Küster, eds., Minjung Theology Today: Contextual and Intercultural Perspectives (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2018), 26, 62. 22  Kwon, et al., eds., Minjung Theology Today, 53 23  Küster, A Protestant Theology of Passion, 132. 24  Kwon, et al., eds., Minjung Theology Today, 54. 25  Kwon, et al., eds., Minjung Theology Today, 115.

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who suffer into a community, bringing a kind of solidarity, and subsequently offering momentum for resistance and social transformation. In this way, lament can become a vehicle of God’s grace, active in the world.26 Suh describes Han and Han-puree (dissolving Han) as Crucifixion and Resurrection. Resurrection implies the releasing of people’s resentment and restoration of God’s damaged justice. Han-puree is ultimately an action that involves both the individual and the community caring for the Han-ridden people.27 Han and Han-puree are often addressed in the literature and literary arts, such as prose fiction, film, mask dance, drama, and opera. Han and Han-puree have bound actors and audiences together especially in Pansori (Korean traditional musical drama) and in mask dances. In music, Pansori is an exemplary genre because of the tales of sorrow and woe that are often related to Han. It is a vocal genre performed by a solo singer and accompanied by a percussionist on a barrel-shaped drum called a puik. The singer recounts a long, dramatic narrative through song (sori), speech (aniri), and gesture (pallim), holding a fan and/or handkerchief while the drummer plays the puik and makes calls of encouragement (chuimsae). The audiences play a significant part by calling out words of encouragement as well.28 In Pansori, text, modes, rhythms, in combination with timbre, contribute to the totality of the sound quality that expresses the underlying sorrow in which tears and ultimately Han are expressed.29 The narratives of Pansori reflect the pains and sorrows of common people. In situations where the text expresses a particularly painful experience, the dramatic vocal quality changes to portray emotions and the normally harsh timbre becomes even more accentuated. This happens specifically at the ends of climactic phrases that culminate in relatively high pitches. It is in these moments that the performer’s voice often “breaks” with increased vibrato, imitating crying, as if a type of ritualized lamentation is taking place.30 There is a particular rhythmic pattern (Changdan) used for the theme of this text that is related to Han. As Willoughby notes, Chinyang (the slowest changdan 6/4) and Chungmori (moderate 12/4) are most often used  In conversation with Dr. Tom Reynolds, September 10, 2020.  Kwon, et al., eds., Minjung Theology Today, 121–122. 28  Loh. Hymnal companion to Sound the Bamboo, 106. 29  Heather Willoughby, “The Sound of Han: P’ansori, timbre and a Korean ethos of pain and suffering,” Yearbook for Traditional Music 32 (2000): 20, 22. 30  Willoughby, “The Sound of Han,” 24. 26 27

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in Pansori during lyrical and sad situations. Chungjungmori is a moderately fast 12/8 rhythm that is used to describe struggles and lamentations. In traditional Korean music, particularly in Pansori, the rhythmic patterns are associated with certain melodic modes (cho/jo) to emphasize emotional implication, mood, character, or a set of actions corresponding to given sound quality. It is the kyemyŏn mode that is commonly used to express melancholy and lament because it evokes soft and sad feelings in the listener. The performer is free to ad-lib gestures as inspired, using a fan and a handkerchief as props in Pansori. In cases of lamentation, the performer might raise arms as if calling out pleas to the heavens. During such moments, singers generally kneel or sit on the ground, and as they cry out in anguish they will often hit the ground.31 Another example of Han in Korean traditional musical forms is the Korean national folk song “Arirang.” It is rooted in deep historical experiences and feelings of Koreans, touches the soul of the people and expresses their grief. “Arirang” is a song of Han that communicates prosaic emotion for lost love and homesickness in the form of a folk ballad, a work song dating from the mid-to-late Choson period (1392–1910). It is a Korean resistance anthem and a symbol of national identity, a vehicle for remembrance in the public culture conveying resilience and resistance to the cultural violence of Japanese imperialism. During Japanese colonization (1910–1945), the Korean language was prohibited in schools and the voice of Koreans was silenced. The Japanese rulers prohibited the singing of “Arirang” when it became a song that constantly resisted life under Japanese colonization. Defiantly, Koreans sang the song in secret to build solidarity, recognizing the communal power of the music. Although it emerged from colonial experience, it has been transformed into a transnational pop song in modern society,32 tying communities together by articulating the suffering of the world, most recently in post-COVID-19. “Arirang” is generally composed of a gentle and lyrical melody, accompanied by the refrain: “Arirang, arirang, arariyo, Over the Arirang hill you go.” It exists in multiple traditional forms that vary according to the lyrics and melody used in different regions. There are thirty-six known versions of “Arirang”, which themselves have also gone through continuous  Willoughby, “The Sound of Han,” 25–27.  Taylor E. Atkins, “The Dual Career of “Arirang”: The Korean resistance anthem that became a Japanese pop hit,” The Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 66, No. 3 (August 2007): 645–687, 646. 31 32

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development.33 The “Arirang” songs have articulated various themes: for example, the sorrow of lovers parting, the injustices of life for common people, the nostalgia for one’s hometown, the disorientation experienced during periods of dramatic change. They are songs of voicing endurance and resistance and hope for the dissolving of Han. Although every version has differences in the tale, dialect, local sensibility, and rhythmic sense, there is one common element to all “Arirang” songs: the unchanging refrain. The lyrics and melodic embellishments can be freely improvised in a call-and-­response structure. As a work song, in “Arirang” an appointed laborer would take the musical lead while fellow workers would respond, individually or collectively, with additional lyrics. The workers in a group would each bring their voice to the collective conversation in the lyrics, followed by a fixed refrain. It is said that “Arirang” began to circulate in a recognizable form among rural laborers from northern Kyonggi-do Province when the government had stolen their fields and exploited their labor to rebuild the Kyongbok royal palace in Seoul in 1868.34 In this context, “Arirang” as work song gives voice, expresses resistance, and builds community toward transformation. Korean traditional music can communicate the experience of Han through text, traditional music elements, and vocal quality, and gestures that enable the emotional release of long-held feelings of sadness, grief, or confusion. It can be employed in worship to express Han through psalms of lament by giving voice to muted suffering and building community toward liberation and salvation through the lamenting act itself.

Lament and Han in Korean Psalm of Lament In terms of expressing Han in Korean sacred music, psalms of lament are an exemplary genre because they utilize poems of sorrow and suffering with traditional music elements. To illustrate, I will show how Han is manifested in a lament psalm of Chai Hoon Park, in which pain, suffering, and resentment are demonstrated both musically and lyrically. The so-­ called Father of Korean church music, a minister, and composer, Chai Hoon Park wrote “As the Deer” in 1970, which was published in the 33  “Arirang folk song in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO, accessed September 16, 2020, https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/ arirang-folk-song-in-the-democratic-peoples-republic-of-korea-00914. 34  Atkins, “The Dual Career of “Arirang,” 651.

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Psalm Anthem Choral Book in 1973. It was a challenging time for him because he was considered a part of the anti-government movement and he and his family had to flee to America. In this setting of Psalm 42, he conveys complex feelings of lament as well as a confession of trust that he relies entirely on God for his life.35 Unlike many typical lament psalms, Psalm 42 features a series of complaints mixed with expressions of trust. This tension-filled quality is part of its theological and spiritual character, for it is from first to last a prayer growing from a deep yearning for God. This is a psalm of searching and lamenting, opening with the image of a thirsty and distressed deer longing for life-giving water. God is the true object of this continual restless mourning, and “thirst” is a central metaphor of the psalm. At the heart of this desire is the theological question, “Where is your God?” There is in this psalm an uneasy contrast, we might even say an emotional oscillation, between despair and hope.36 My psalm in Fig. 13.1, “As the Deer,” is a musical expression of peaceful, but fervent, spiritual yearning. I express Han not only through the words but also through the Korean traditional music elements in this anthem: the melisma, syncopated rhythms (e.g. mm. 12, 14), modified dodeuri jangdan in the piano accompaniment, and the call-and-response style that is used in Korean folk song. In the opening of this psalm of lament, he uses melisma for the word painting on “longs” to express longing and “God” to reveal the true object of the yearning. In the second phase, the melody rises with a crescendo toward the second “longs” to accentuate the depth of the desire for God. The dramatic vocal qualities intensify and the timbre becomes more accentuated in the climax where the text asks plaintively, “I seek for God …where are you?” This is particularly true at the end of the climax in measure 66 which culminates with relatively high pitches. In these moments the performers sing with increased use of vibrato metaphorically representing a crying out in pain. Syncopated rhythms in dodeuri jandan are employed to show grave and strong feelings. This psalm utilizes the Korean form of call-and-response, embodying how Korean people sing folk songs to express their communal situation. In this light, worship music can be a vehicle for both lament and 35  Sung Mo Moon, Jaggogga bagjaehun iyagi [Story of the composer Chai Hoon Park], trans. by myself (Seoul: Hongseongsa, 2013), 171–173. 36  Don Saliers, “Psalms in Our Lamentable World,” Yale Journal of Music & Religion: Vol. 1: No. 1, Article 7. (2015): 106.

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Fig. 13.1  “As the Deer”—Psalm 42 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 8BT5N5jU1s8)

community-building transformation during times of hardship like the pandemic. In this vein, to name and express my own suffering and hardship as an immigrant woman with three children in a difficult and challenging time of isolation, I wrote a psalm of lament, “Your Unfailing Love,” that contains features of lament we have been discussing (see Fig. 13.2). The language of the text is a combination of original and contemporary settings, staying close to the psalmist language of lament. Even though jarring and intense, it witnesses to an experience close to pain. Honesty about God’s missing voice makes this psalm of lamenting a sanctuary for the voice of pain. It is based on Psalms 44 and 130, which spoke to my situation of great distress. The first two verses reference chapter 44:9-26, which convey the psalmist’s perception of Israel’s crisis, with a sense of disappointment and trust in tension. The psalmist’s intense anguish is expressed through jarring language that is not often heard in church worship but

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Fig. 13.2  “Your Unfailing Love”—Psalm 44: 130 (https://soundcloud.com/ user-­480830350/your-­unfailing-­love-­by-­deborah-­park)

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Fig. 13.2  (continued)

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speaks as well of deep hope, juxtaposed with anguish as if to honor the character of each without nullifying the integrity of either.37 I chose to keep the language of feeling God’s rejection, God’s face hidden, God being asleep, and so on, which can be unsettling, because it testifies with honesty to feelings of anguish and despair, and expresses frustration in light of a very real sense of God’s absence. The last verse is based on Psalm 130 where the psalmist discovers God waiting for the prayer of the people, trusting God as he calls upon Israel to put their hope in Yahweh. Although the words are coarse, the melody is deliberately lyrical and peaceful throughout this psalm of lament to convey the longing for spiritual transformation. To bring music and word together, I used word painting: relative minor on “down” to portray the dark feeling, the lowest note on “ground” where the flute has the descending line, and the rising tonic triads on “Rise up and help.” Word painting is a musical composition technique in which the tones, tempos, and dynamics of the notes reflect the subject matter of a given song. The process of composing music with word painting typically involves writing notes that correspond to the feelings that a certain word evokes in listeners. Lyrics describing darkness and death are usually set to low-toned and even dissonant notes. Certain phrases can also be written with long and even notes or with short rapid ones depending on the words’ meanings and connotations.

Concluding Summary Psalms of lament help people face suffering by appealing to God with the sorrow, struggles, and pain that individuals, communities, and nations deal with, and opening up possibilities for resilience in the face of life’s challenges and broken relationships. They invite us to honor and give voice to the muted pain in our hearts which is disregarded in our society and in other parts of the world.38 Minjung theology emphasizes Han (suffering) of marginalized and oppressed people (Minjung). Minjung theologians argue that Han of the Minjung can be understood through dialogue and the story of the Han-ridden people. The Han of Minjung is a motivating force in the creation of narratives and arts, and songs in Korean culture. Lament is expressed in Korean musical forms which communicate the experience of Han. Pansori and “Arirang” show how music  In conversation with Dr. Tom Reynolds, September 16, 2020.  O’Connor, Lamentations and the Tears of the World, 95.

37 38

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intensifies this experience of suffering by singing together. The complexity of the human experience of pain is reflected in psalms of lament in worship. The Korean psalms of lament “As the Deer” and “Your Unfailing Love” demonstrate the complex relationship between complaint and trust in the midst of struggle and hardship as the singers yearn for spiritual transformation. Through lamenting, Han can be transformed and provide new possibilities of resistance and resilience its transcendent quality bringing the people into the very presence of God. Lament opens up possibilities for moving through the suffering, enabling the transition from individual pain through communication to transformation, eventually affirming hope, and issuing praise. Therefore, psalms of lament need to be intentionally revived today, especially in a time of the post-COVID-19 pandemic, as it enables us to become more open with God, with ourselves, and with each other as our relationships are strengthened and grow.

CHAPTER 14

Ghanaian Prosperity Preaching George Ossom-Batsa and Nicoletta Gatti

Introduction The notion that suffering cannot be part of the Christian life has become pervasive in the contemporary Ghanaian Christian landscape. Proponents of the Prosperity Gospel teach that suffering such as poverty, disease, failure, and hardships are not part of God’s plan. Instead, they are signs of a lack of faith and even sin.1 Their preaching re-packages the retributive theology present in many books of the Tanak. However, other writings of the same collection, for example, Psalm 73; Habakkuk, and Job, react to the silence of God in front of unjust suffering to challenge the commonly held theology and any reassuring theology. The present global health, social, and economic crises seem to contradict the Word of God, especially in contexts, such as Ghana, where Christians identify God with prosperity and miracles, success and wealth, absence of pain, disease and death. The

  Nicoletta Gatti and George Ossom-Batsa, “’Feminization’ of Poverty: Prosperity Preaching and Job 24:1-17.” Ghana Journal of Religion and Theology 8.2 (2018): 55-57. 1

G. Ossom-Batsa (*) • N. Gatti Department for the Study of Religions, University of Ghana, Legon, GA, Ghana e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_14

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silence of the churches seems to testify to the failure of their promise of prosperity.2 Against this background, the article proposes an intercultural interpretation of the theological debate between Job and his friends to construct an image of God able to offer hope to Christians in Ghana when the certainties preached by “men of God” are shattered by the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exegesis of Reality The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Ghana gripped many Ghanaians with fear and panic.3 As many sought spiritual answers to why the pandemic,4 some Christian groups went as far as breaking the lockdown restrictions to seek answers and deliverance from God at worship in church.5 This attitude raises the question about the image of God in Ghanaian Christianity, especially in times of crises. A few words about the worldview of Ghanaian Christianity will aid our discussion. Ghanaian Christianity has in the past decade seen exponential growth in numbers. Data from the 2021 Population & Housing Census show that 71.3% of the population are Christians.6 Of these, the majority 2  Joseph Fosu-Ankrah, “Pandemic, Prophets and Policies: Religio-satirical Framing of Fear in the Midst of Corona in Ghana,” Religious Matters (May 25, 2020); https://religiousmatters.nl/pandemic-prophets-and-policies-religio-satirical-framing-of-fear-in-the-midstof-corona-­in-ghana/ 3  On March 12, 2020, Ghana recorded its first two cases. Since then the government of Ghana has taken several steps to contain the spread of the disease. See http://presidency.gov. gh/index.php/briefing-room/speeches; for updates on the health situation, cf. https:// www.ghanahealthservice.org/covid19/. 4  Samuel Aniegye Ntewusu and Samuel N. Nkumbaan, “Fighting COVID-19: Interventions from Ghana’s Traditional Priest, “Religious Matters (March 13, 2020); https://religiousmatters.nl/fighting-COVID-19-interventions-from-ghanas-traditional-priests/ 5  See, for example, Kingsley E.  Hope, “Ghana: Pastor Arrested for Flouting Ban On Church Service,” Ghanaian Times (March 29, 2020); https://www.ghanaiantimes.com. gh/pastor-arrested-for-flouting-ban-on-church-service/; APA News, “COVID-19: Ghana Pastor Jailed for Defying Ban (April 18, 2020); http://apanews.net/en/news/ COVID-19-ghana-pastor-jailed-for-defying-ban-2. 6  Ghana Statistical Service, 2021 Population & Housing Census: General Report—Volume 3C: Background Characteristics (Accra: GSS, 2022), 72; George Ossom-Batsa., “Engaging Religion in a Holistic Development”, in Religion and Sustainable Development. Ghanaian Perspectives, eds. G. Ossom-Batsa, N. Gatti and R.D. Ammah (Rome: Urbaniana University Press, 2018), 14-15.

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belong to the Charismatic/Pentecostal churches or Prophetic ministries (31.6%). Even the 27.4% belonging to the Historic Mission Churches (HMCs) have, to a large extent, adopted charismatic ways of worship or prayer, or have formed charismatic groups within the church.7 For this reason, one can reasonably conclude that contemporary Ghanaian Christianity is Charismatic in character and worldview.8 This affirmation requests a critical assessment of the teaching and praxis of Charismaticism in Ghana, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to social scientists, a peoples’ worldview dictates their behavior; how they conceive the cosmos and the interrelations among the various elements in it.9 In charismatic theology, God is powerful; he is a God of success and prosperity, who grants wealth and well-being to all faithful servants. Therefore, any form of suffering, natural disaster, hardship, and pandemics in a community or the life of individuals are signs of unfaithfulness and sinfulness. Furthermore, the notion that hardship should not be part of the Christian life has become widespread. It reflects the teaching of the proponents of the Prosperity Gospel that a fruitful life is a blessing from God, while a challenging life is God’s chastisement for the lack of faith and even sin.10 No wonder many Ghanaian Christians, especially renowned and influential Charismatic Pentecostal leaders, have interpreted and responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant suffering and hardship around the globe as punishment for disobedience to God.11 7  Cephas N.  Omenyo, Pentecost Outside Pentecostalism. A Study of the Development of Charismatic Renewal in the Mainline Churches in Ghana (Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum, 2006); cf. Joseph Quayesi-Amakye, “Prophetism and Development? Past and Present of Ghanaian Phenomenon”, in Religion and Sustainable Development, 259-262. 8  For an understanding of the origin and development of Pentecostalism in Ghana, see J.  Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, African Charismatics. Current Developments within Independent Indigenous Pentecostalism in Ghana (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 10-18. 9  For a detailed discussion on worldviews, see Ernst Conradie, “Views on Worldviews: An Overview of the Use of the Term Worldview in Selected Theological Discourses,” Scriptura 113 (2014): 1-12; Richard E.  Trull, Jr., “Discerning Worldview: Pedagogical Model for Conceptualising Worldview Distances”, Missiology 43 (2015): 429-441. 10  Paul Gilford, “Prosperity: A New and Foreign Element in African Christianity,” Religion 20 (1990), 375. See also Gatti and Ossom-Batsa, “‘Feminization’ of Poverty,” 50-53. 11  “Researchers must concede that this pandemic is beyond science and that only reformation of attitude in mind about God and his powers as creator and owner of creation in its totality should be the way to go.” Eric K. Amoh, “Coronavirus: Is God Punishing Humanity for Our Iniquities? Joyonline (March 29, 2020); https://www.myjoyonline.com/opinion/ coronavirus-is-god-punishing-humanity-for-our-iniquities/

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To appreciate this mentality in contemporary Ghanaian Christianity, we need to pause and ask a few questions. Are there antecedents to the Ghanaian Christian worldview? What was the Gospel preached by the early missionaries in Ghana? What are the critical elements in the culture of the people who received the Gospel? In other words, how do traditional cultures perceive their cosmos? A search for answers to these questions reveals that the Christian Gospel of the early Christian missionaries focused on the Cross of Christ, namely bearing witness to Christ even if it brings suffering and hardship. The arduous journey of the missionaries to arrive in the Gold Coast—several dying on the journey, others few days, weeks, or months after arrival—vividly tells the story of their faith. Despite this, many men and women opted to go to the missions, knowing very well their lives were in danger.12 Concerning the worldview of Ghanaians and Africans in general, Sackey explains that there is the belief in the constant interaction between the invisible world, inhabited by spiritual beings and the visible world inhabited by human beings and other creatures, to maintain harmony and equilibrium.13 Any disorder—famine, sickness, pandemic, and natural disasters—creates an imbalance in the system and requires restoration, through the pacification of the offended deities. Usually, rituals and sacrifices are the best means of pacification. While Ghanaian cultures see sickness and suffering as part of human life, the metaphysical question of why remains a puzzle.14 With the development and expansion of Christianity in Ghana and the arrival of Pentecostal strands from the United States, characterized by the “Prosperity Gospel,”15 the double belonging of Ghanaian Christians has widened to include not only the African worldview but also the Pentecostal 12  Cf. Hans W. Debrunner, A History of Christianity in Ghana (Accra: Waterville, 1967); Alphonse Elsbernd, The Story of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Accra (Accra: Catholic Book Centre, 2000). 13  Brigid M.  Sackey, “African Worldviews”, in Africa in Cotemporary Perspectives. A Textbook for Undergraduate Students, eds. Takyiwaaa Manuh and Esi Sutherland-Addy (Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2013), 151-154. 14  George Ossom-Batsa, “Ritual as Mechanism for Securing Life and Averting Evil,” Acta Theologica 28.1 (2008), 143-160. 15  For a detailed analysis of the ‘Prosperity Gospel’ and its development in Africa, see A. Heuser, ed., Pastures of Plenty: Tracing Religio-Scapes of Prosperity Gospel in Africa and Beyond (Study in the Intercultural History of Christianity, 161; Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, 2015); Joseph Quayesi-Amakye, Christology and Evil in Ghana. Towards a Pentecostal Public Theology, (Amsterdam: Rodopi B.V, 2013), 35-36.

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worldview in general. Contemporary Ghanaians, therefore, read that reality through a triple lens—the Christian scriptures, the Ghanaian culture, and Pentecostal theology. Unlike the Historical Mission Churches, where there is stress on the centrality of the atonement and redemption of Christ from sin, both spiritual and physical, this new form of Christianity emphasizes deliverance from physical or material evil.16 In fact, many contemporary Ghanaian Christian churches adopt and “Christianize” the traditional understanding of evil and sickness into their thoughts and life through teaching and worship services.17 They institute rituals that approximate traditional remedies, for example, deliverance and healing services, all-night prayer sessions, “seed sowing,” to make it unnecessary for their members to seek answers to their misfortunes elsewhere. Discourses on the COVID-19 from some Ghanaian Christian leaders, politicians, as well as media reports illustrate the point made above. One of the measures the Government of the Republic of Ghana took at the outbreak of the pandemic in Ghana was for the President and Vice President of the Republic to host national breakfast prayer meetings for Christian and Muslim religious leaders, respectively. This was to solicit God’s mercy and intervention for Ghana and Ghanaians.18 Furthermore, during the first Presidential Address (March 22, 2020), Nana Akufo-Addo proclaimed March 25, 2020, a National Day of Prayer and fasting, “to seek the face of the Almighty” and “to pray to God to protect our nation and save us from this pandemic.”19 During the national breakfast prayer meeting, various religious leaders offered prayers for God’s deliverance of Ghana and the world. For example, the Founder and General Overseer of the Action Chapel International  Cf. Quayesi-Amakye, Christology and Evil, 27-63.  Joseph Quayesi-Amakye, “Prophetism in Ghana’s New Prophetic Churches,” Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association 35.2 (2015), 164-165. 18  Getrude Ankah Nyav, “Covid 19: Christians Must Seek God’s Face for Healing— Akufo-­Addo,” Daily Graphic, (March 19, 2020); https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/ politics/ghana-news-COVID-19-christians-must-seek-god-s-face-for-healing-of-ghanaakufo-addo.html; Adom Online, “COVID-19: Bawumia Leads Muslim Leaders In Breakfast Prayer” (March 20, 2020); https://www.adomonline.com/COVID-19-bawumia-leadsmuslim-leaders-in-breakfast-prayer-video/ 19  Ghanaweb, “Coronavirus: Ghana to Observe National Day of Fasting and Prayer” (March 22, 2020); https://www.ghanaweb.com/ghanahomepage/newsarchive/coronavirusghana-to-observe-national-day-of-fasting-and-prayer-900847 16 17

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Ministry, Archbishop Duncan-Williams, declared that no government official will die of COVID-19. He prayed for the President as follows: That you shall preserve, protect and empower them with the necessary capabilities. That which is required of them to perform their duties for which you have made them a government under the leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. May we all be here when this deadly virus disappears from the face of the earth to give you thanks and to celebrate your delivery power, your mercies and goodness that has abound to our government and the people of Ghana.20

Some Church leaders and Prophets used social media to express their views on the pandemic. For example, Prophet Oduro interprets COVID-19 as part of an “unfolding series of events of the apocalypse.” He believes that the pandemic will expose the falsehood, deception, and manipulation of religious and political leaders in Africa, and in the whole world.21 Prophet Oduro Gyebi, popularly known as Eagle Prophet, attributes the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic to the sins of the Chinese; he argues that “the virus was released by some smaller gods in China after it was offended by the Chinese populace.”22 By implication, its spread in other places is due to sin. The conviction that the African continent enjoys divine protection from the virus because it is a religious continent was quite popular at the beginning of the pandemic.23 The sudden outbreak of the pandemic has, furthermore, raised questions about the authenticity of the Ghanaian prophets, over their inability to predict such a great phenomenon.24 As Fosu-Ankrah argues, the public 20  Getrude Ankah Nyavi, “No Government Official Will Die of Coronavirus—Duncan-­ Williams’s Prayer,” Daily Graphic (March 19, 2020); https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/ general-news/no-government-official-will-die-of-coronavirus-duncan-williams-sprayer.html 21  Fosu-Ankrah, “Pandemic, Prophets and Policies.” 22  Nana Yaw, “Eagle Prophet reveals the real cause of the deadly Coronavirus,” Ghanabase (March 17, 2020); https://www.ghbase.com/eagle-prophet-reveals-the-real-cause-of-thedeadly-coronavirus-video/ 23   Legitimization of same-sex marriage and secularization were indicated by many Charismatic/Prophetic Leaders as the main “causes” of high rates of infection and death in Western Countries: see, for example, Amoh, “Coronavirus.” 24  Ghanaweb, “Coronavirus Has Exposed Ghanaian Prophets—Preacher Mocks” (March 25, 2020); https://www.ghanaweb.com/ghanahomepage/newsarchive/coronavirus-has-­ exposed-ghanaian-prophets-preacher-mocks-904213; Fosu-Ankrah, “Pandemic, Prophets And Policies.”

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ridicule is not limited only to the ordinary Ghanaian citizen; prophets and pastors themselves are also mocking one another, while popular Gospel singers give voice to this common feeling: You are all hiding in your rooms. Now Pastors who pride yourselves with cars and material possessions, now African Traditional Religious priests (Akomfo) who boast on TV, coronavirus has come, provide solutions for the entire world to see that you are so powerful. Now pastors who pride yourselves with large congregations, you should all come out and organize church services and let’s see. Due to coronavirus men have turned into women. Due to coronavirus all pastors are silent.25

As a reaction, Owusu Bempah, Founder and leader of Glorious Word Power Ministry International, noted that he foresaw the pandemic but God did not reveal to him the name of the virus: “I stood in my church and stated that a deadly disease will kill a lot of people in 2020 if we do not pray fervently. But I didn’t mention the name ‘coronavirus’ because I had never heard the name.”26 Media reportage, print and broadcast, expanded the discourse further by interpreting the pandemic as a curse for the spirit of ingratitude to God: As a nation, it seems we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. The church and Mosque, as a body, cannot escape blame in this whole enterprise of abomination. It is time to do away with injustice. We believe that together, if we are sincere and show gratitude enough to Him who deserves it (in Luke 17:17, he actually demands it), He will open the Heavens and answer our prayers.27

These statements resonate the belief in the Ghanaian tradition that God is the answer to all evils, both physical and spiritual, that affect creation.28 25  Great Ampong (Isaiah Kwadwo Ampong), “Coronavirus;” https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=EduNrGL5OwE 26  Evans Annang, “I Prophesied About Coronavirus but Couldn’t Pronounce the Name— Owusu Bempah” (May 5, 2020); https://www.pulse.com.gh/news/local/i-prophesiedabout-coronavirus-but-couldnt-pronounce-the-name-owusu-bempah/znrn7cg 27  Donald Ato Dapatem and Chris Nunoo, “This Aren’t Normal Times,” Daily Graphic (March 20, 2020), 3, 7. 28   Cf. J.  Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, “Dealing with a Spiritual Virus: Whither the Prophetic?” Religious Matters (March 13, 2020); https://religiousmatters.nl/dealing-with-aspiritual-virus-whither-the-prophetic/

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The spiritualization of the virus and the search for a spiritual cause for evil are not unique to the contemporary Ghanaian Christian environment, for it is central even in the dialogue between Job and his friend.29 The next section explores the encounter between this pre-­understanding of the contemporary Ghanaian Christian and the book of Job to provide a new way of viewing reality through the lens of God, which brings hope and comfort to a people afflicted with the pain of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exegesis of the Text The book of Job can be considered a lengthy and upsetting dialogue, or perhaps a series of parallel and contrasting monologues: Job and Eliphaz, Job and Bildad, Job and Zophar; Job and God, and, we can add, Job and the reader. It is a drama with little action and lots of pathos, permeated with the passion that a brilliant author, nonconformist and provocateur, has infused in his protagonist. Dissatisfied and unaligned with the traditional doctrine of retribution, he opposed his personal experience, to a narrow theological concept.30 The prophet Habakkuk and Psalm 73 had already contraposed experiential facts to the theory of perfect justice of God. The author of Job takes the situation to the extreme: he mercilessly makes his innocent protagonist suffer, following a “wage” between God and Satan, unknown to Job but revealed to the readers (1:9-12¸2:3-6). After an initial acceptance, his cry “from the deep” (3:3-26) drags the readers for 26 chapters, until the encounter with God (38—41).31 The topic of contention is the conflict between tradition and experience, between a “mechanistic idea of retribution”32 and the concrete life 29  Cf. Nicoletta Gatti and Alexander Salakpi, “The Word of God and the COVID-19: Intercultural Reading of Job’s Questions to God,” in Christianity and COVID-19. Pathways for Faith, eds. Chammah J. Kaunda, Atola Longkumer, Kenneth R. Ross and Esther Mombo, Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies (London— New York: Routledge, 2022), 46-56. 30  L. Alonso Schökel and J.L. Sicre Diaz, Giobbe. Commento teologico e letterario (Roma: Borla, 1995), 13. 31  John J. Collins, “The Friends of Job and the Task of Biblical Theology,” Interpretation 70.3 (2016): 288-289. 32  Joel S. Kaminsky, “Would you Impugn my Justice? A Nuanced Approach to the Hebrew Bible’s Theology of Divine Recompense,” Interpretation 69 (2015): 301

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of a living person.33 Job shared with his friends a traditional theological perception of God and his relationship with the world characterized by a firm belief in the (retributive) justice of God.34 For this reason, he offers sacrifices for his children regularly to prevent defilement (1:5). But when undeserved suffering destroyed the presupposition of his faith, Job starts to ask questions.35 As Gutiérrez claimed, “Job’s determination to seek and find leads him through a battlefield in which the shots come at him from every side.… His personal courage and his trust in God impel him to follow paths that are a challenge to the theology of his day.”36 Against Job’s “passion,” the theological arguments of the three friends befall as crashing waves, repeating with small variations the traditional doctrine, with its reassuring borders of punishment and rewards (Deut. 11:1-32; 28:1-68). Three times Job speaks, and each of his friends answers him; the fourth time Job dialogues with God. The friends defend God’s justice as an impartial judge who rewards the good and chastises the bad. For Job, the justice of God belies his experience. He appeals for a trial against God, with God as his defender, in which a different definition of “justice” will emerge (32:35-37). To obtain this trial and to prove his innocence, Job is not afraid to risk his life (30:20-23). The three friends propose a single theological vision, elucidated against the backdrop of the three sections of the Tanak: Eliphaz of Teman employs a “prophetic” approach (4:12); Bildad of Shuah draws his arguments from the wisdom tradition (8:8-10); while Zophar of Naamath restates the basic Deuteronomistic principles (11:6b).37 The “dialogues” gradually became a series of monologues, where the different opinions are countered with increasing violence. As an example, we would like to summarize the first cycle of dialogue (4:1–14:22). With a carefully crafted captatio benevolentiae (4:1-6),  Gutiérrez, On Job, 27.  See Kaminsky, “Would you Impugn my Justice?” 301-302; Carol A. Newson, The Book of Job: A Context of Moral Imagination (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 90-91. 35  Norman C.  Habel, The Book of Job (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1985), 61; Gutiérrez, On Job, 21-38. 36  Gustavo Gutiérrez, On Job. God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2003), 93. 37  Elaine A.  Phillips, “Speaking Truthfully: Job’s Friends and Job,” Bulletin for Biblical Research 18.1 (2008): 34; Jean Radermakers, Il libro di Giobbe: Dio, l’uomo e la Sapienza (Bologna: EDB, 1999), 50-51. 33 34

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Eliphaz invites Job to remember (4:7) his personal experience and the divine revelation (4:12-21), to accept a fundamental truth: “Is a mortal man righteous before God?” (4:17). These rhetorical questions imply that the impoverishment and sickness of Job are an “educational” punishment for his sins (conscious or unconscious): “Therefore, blessed is the man whom God corrects, so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he also bandages; he strikes, but his hands also heal” (5:17-18). His doctrine reaffirms the “stability of the moral realm: those who are innocent do not perish, and those who are evil reap its fruit,”38 and suggests a simple solution: “If I were you, I should appeal to God and lay my case in front of him” (5:8). The answer of Job is rooted in the same theological presuppositions to arrive at a similar conclusion. Job indeed appeals to God, but not with a confession, as suggested by Eliphaz, but with a lamentation.39 Job contests the basic principle of God’s justice, proportionality; God “tortures” him (6:1-13) with unjustified cruelty: “If I have sinned– what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you set me as your target? Have I become a burden to you? And why do you not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity?” (7:20-21). Furthermore, Job questions the action of the friend (6:15-30). As Gutiérrez rightly asserts, “the reason for Job’s intensifying rebelliousness is not so much his own suffering as the justification his interlocutors give for them.”40 In fact, dragged by the oratory fervor, Eliphaz loses contact with the friend who suffers; in his desire to justify God, he considers Job an argument; he is unable to “look at him” (6:28), to see him in his experience of suffering and need. The words of Bildad are harsh and full of anger, and they aim to silence Job: “How long will you speak these things, seeing that the words of your mouth are like a great wind? Does God pervert justice?” (8:2-3). God is “above” the fray and cannot be questioned.41 The solution is clear; if Job is innocent, his children must be guilty: “If your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their  Phillips, “Speaking Truthfully,” 34.   Cf. Kathleen M.  O’Connor, “Lamenting Back to Life,” Interpretation 62.1 (2008):34-47. 40  Gutiérrez, On Job, 25. 41   Cf. Walter Brueggemann, “A Shape Of Old Testament Theology, I: Structure Legitimation,” CBQ 47 (1985): 29; Tod Linafelt and Timothy K. Beal, God In The Fray: A Tribute To Walter Brueggemann (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998). 38 39

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sin” (8:4). Employing the principle of causality, he illustrates his assertion with examples drawn from the tradition (8:8-22) to convince Job to retract his words and beg the forgiveness of God (8:5). Alonso Schökel indicates a serious corollary of Bildad simplistic view. In his appeal, Bildad duplicates the principle of retribution for evil and for good. While the evils are “drying plant,” the good can “exploit” God’s favor. Consequently, Bildad forces Job on the path of the “interested” religiousness, embracing the view of Satan. In a religiosity of pure retribution, human behaves well to obtain the “blessing” of God, manifested in health, success, and prosperity. Therefore, the traditional doctrine of God’s retributive justice is closer to Satan than to God.42 Job reacts by describing God as a cosmic and violent tyrant, unjust and violent (9:17. 22. 24): Although I am innocent, I could not answer him; I could only plead with my judge for mercy. If I summoned him, and he answered me, I would not believe that he would be listening to my voice—he who crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds for no reason. … Although I am innocent, my mouth would condemn me; although I am blameless, it would declare me perverse. (9:15-20)

In 10:3-5, he challenges God accusing him to think and act as “mortal,” denying his identity as creator and provider (10:8-12). Zophar of Naamath, scandalized by the words of the friend (11:3), rebukes him and accuses him of sinfulness (11:1-6). After proclaiming a hymn to God’s justice (11:7-11), he exhorts Job to repent (11:12-20). In his reply, Job ironically addressed the friends: “Without a doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you” (12:2). He accused them of false testimonies (13:1-19) and declares his intention to speak with God: “But I wish to speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God. But you, however, are inventors of lies; all of you are worthless physicians! If only you would keep completely silent! For you, that would be wisdom” (13:3-5). By the end of the first cycle of “dialogues,” Job has disarmed the three fronts.43 He did not curse, as Satan had bet (1:11; 2:5), but also asked, questioned, and challenged God, in his struggle to understand him. He  Alonso Schökel and Sicre Diaz, Giobbe, 192.  Radermakers, Il libro di Giobbe, 77; Hartley, The Book of Job, 240-241.

42 43

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has not asked for forgiveness and pardons, but for hearing and justice (9:33-34; 16:19-21). If the doctrine of retribution were proved by life experience, it would be advantageous and reassuring. For the friends, the doctrine is true and explains the event; for Job, it should be true, but it is not.44 Finally, although the friends claim to have relied on vision, tradition, and reason, their speeches are irrelevant in Job’s situation. Instead of listening to Job and reflecting on his experience, they have relied on the equation theory and blindly applied it to him. The result is that they have heaped pain upon him rather than healing.45

Engagement: The Perlocutionary Effect The book of Job is a singularly, modern, provocative work, not suitable for conformists. It is hard to listen to it without feeling challenged; to understand it without taking a stand. It requires an audience, initially curious, but ready to be transformed and involved.46 The dialogues provoke in any reader a reaction similar to the limping of Jacob after his fight with God (Gen. 32:31). The meeting with Job uproots conviction, and it challenges common theological thinking. When the book finally ends, it becomes impossible to retain the earlier perception of God and the human-God relationship. Thus, what is the perlocutionary effect of the book on the readers? First, we think that the book invites readers to reflect on the relevance of theological thinking, especially in societies in which religions hold a high value. The friends of Job employ their theological tradition as the interpretative lens. As Collins argues, this becomes problematic when it leads to the denial of reality, events that do not “fit” the preconceived scheme.47 In other words, Job’s interlocutors “prefer to repeat ideas they learned in the past, instead of turning to the concrete lives of living persons, asking questions, to gain a better understanding of God and God’s word.”48  Gatti and Ossom-Batsa, “’Feminization’ of Poverty,” 43-72.  Dickson Chilongani, “Prosperity Gospel in Africa: A Response from the Book of Job,” AICMAR Bulletin 6 (2007): 61; cf. Ying Zhang, “Reading the Book of Job in the Pandemic,” Journal of Biblical Literature 139, no. 3 (2020): 607-612. 46  G. Ravasi, Giobbe (Commenti Biblici; Roma: Borla, 1991), 9-14; W. Iser, Der Akt des Lesens. Theorie ästhetischer Wirkung (UTB 636; München: W. Finch, 1976), 54. 73-78 47  Collins, “The Friends of Job,” 300. 48  Gutiérrez, On Job, 27. 44 45

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Job rejects a “theologizing” that is unable to consider the concrete human situations, the suffering and the hopes of humanity. This form of theology not only silences the cry of the sufferers but also reduces God to an idol that can be manipulated. An ironic description of this attitude is in 11:5-9; Zophar argues that God’s ways are unknown before pretending to speak for God with outstanding clarity!49 Second, to justify God, the friends blamed the victims, Job and his dead children, condemning them as ignorant, sinners, and faithless. As Brueggemann argues, “A theology insensitive to the cry of the victims add pain to their suffering, marginalized the pained and pain-bearers negating them visibility.”50 We can also add that this myopic vision is a form of self-defense against suffering, an attempt to justify it, and to trace a clear demarcation between “they” and “us”: If Job is right and his suffering is undeserved, then it is not only his friends’ conception of God as just that is at stake, but their sense of control over their own lives. If a righteous Job is vulnerable to such suffering, then so are they. If the victim is undeserving, what kind of universe are we living in? If I cannot be certain my own piety, hard work, honesty, and thrift will ­guarantee me a decent life, what is the point? Better to blame the victim and keep my belief in a just world intact.51

Finally, the disregard and censoring of suffering create a community of faith without compassion: “There will be competence without mercy. There will be no need for or the possibility of good news. Where there is only the legitimacy of structure without pain-embrace, there is only the good news that ‘the system is the solution,’ whether the solution is in heaven or on the earth.”52

 J. Gerald Janzen, Job (IBC; Atlanta: John Knox, 1985), 98.  Brueggemann, “A Shape for Old Testament Theology, I,” 44; Chilongani, “Prosperity Gospel in Africa,” 69-70. 51  Roger Bergman, “The Book of Job and Belief in a Just World,” Journal of Religion and Society 10 (2014): 258-264 52  Walter Brueggemann, “A Shape for Old Testament Theology, II: Embrace of Pain,” CBQ 47 (1985): 399 49 50

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Conclusion Our journey with Job and his three friends has revealed that when Job realized that his friends preferred to repeat ideas they learned in the past— instead of turning to the concrete existences of living persons, asking questions, and opening themselves to a better understanding of God and God’s words—he shifted from “retributive theology” to “embracing the pain,” for abstract concepts about who is God and how he should act, to a living encounter with him.53 Journeying with Job in a time of crisis, Ghanaian readers may discover the falsehood of retributive theology and of a “gospel” that limits God to a predictable miracle worker and the goal of life to economic prosperity. They may realize in the unusual silence of churches and prophets, the silence to which retributive theology condemns them and the consequent rampant indifference and corruption that as an invisible virus destroy Ghanaian culture and society. With Job, the readers can learn to break the silence, not only to mock self-proclaimed men of God and “carrier of wisdom” (12:2) but to raise their voices to become “the voice” for the many voiceless (24:1-17), women and men who conceive sickness and poverty as stigma and socio-­ religious alienation. And, perhaps, their voices may challenge and oblige our churches to become centers of presence and education, “field hospitals” that “embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others,”54 and true prophets of hope and social justice.

 Gatti and Ossom-Batsa, “‘Feminization’ of Poverty,” 57-61.  Pope Francis, “Evangelii Gaudium: Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World” (November 24, 2013); http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-­ap_20131124_ evangelii-­gaudium.html#Concern_for_the_vulnerable 53 54

CHAPTER 15

Malawian Christian Suffering Mzee Hermann Yokoniah Mvula

Introduction The book of Job is among those in the Bible that Christians turn to when afflicted. However, at the popular level, it is not easy to discern the purpose of this book. Why is there suffering and why the innocent suffers? This question is looked at in this chapter in relation to Christians in Malawi in the light of the affliction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Whatever happens in this book revolves around the story of a rich, blameless, upright, pietistic man, who feared God (Job 1: 1-5), and who lost everything but his sickly body. This chapter, therefore, discusses the fivefold purpose of Job’s book, which could be used as a response to Malawi’s COVID-19 pandemic situation, thereby demonstrating its implications on suffering in the light of COVID-19 for the Malawian Christians. At the end, the chapter highlights some key practical lessons for Christians in Malawi. Such lessons communicate the theological truths which are pertinent for us today in twenty-first-century, post-modern Malawi, where a lot of suffering, some man-made, some natural, some unidentified, continues to bombard humanity with a lot of questions more than answers. Daniel

M. H. Y. Mvula (*) The University of Malawi, Zomba, Malawi e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_15

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Estes states that “This ancient text, which has no precise literary parallels, has prompted interpreters to look to many different directions as they seek to understand its message.”1

COVID-19 Pandemic Situation in Malawi Just like any other country in the world, Malawi is also hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Malawi is not hit by the pandemic as other countries in the world (like the United States, Italy) or in Africa (South Africa). However, being a poor country—where the average individual barely lives on a dollar per day—the pandemic has just aggravated the situation: poverty and the HIV/AIDS,2 the high rate of unemployment, other diseases such as tuberculosis—all these have been a challenge to the socio-­economic progress of the majority of Malawians. Now COVID-19 is hitting on the already devastated people socially and economically. The situation of COVID-19 in Malawi surged in the cold season between May and July. A summary of the COVID-19 situation as of today, 29 July 2020, was as follows: There were 3738 confirmed cases, 62 new cases, and 103 total deaths.3 The months of June and July experienced a high surge of COVID-19 cases and a rise in deaths related to COVID-19. With socio-economic problems, poor health and medical facilities, persistent health maladies like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and the rising cases of diabetes and cancer, the coming in of COVID-19 adds another layer of problems, challenges, vulnerability, and suffering in Malawi. Therefore, 1  Daniel Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005), 11. Scholarly, opinions differ on the purpose of the book of Job. For instance, see Andersen, Francis I. Job. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 13 (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 1976), 33. William, LaSor Sanford, et  al. Old Testament Survey: The Message, Form and Background of the Old Testament, 2nd ed., (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996), 487. David Clines, J.  A. Job 1-20. Word Biblical Commentary 17. (Dallas: Word, 1989), 36. On the themes of the book, see John Hartley, The Book of Job (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1988), 47-50. 2  For further reference to HIV/AIDS situation in the late 1990s and way into the 2000s, see Fulata Moyo, “The AIDS Crisis: A Challenge to the Integrity of the Church in Malawi” in Faith at the Frontiers of Knowledge, edited by Kenneth Ross, (Zomba: Kachere Series, 1998), 94-110; for a more recent assessment on the spread of HIV and AIDS, see also Hermann Mvula, “HIV/AIDS Dilemma: A Burden to be Removed and Its Contradictions in the World (A Case of Malawi)” in Religion in Malawi, No. 17 (December 2016). 3  See Malawi Ministry of Health-COVID-19 daily info Update in conjunction with Public Health Institute of Malawi (PHIM) (Tuesday 28th July, 2020).

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while it is unwelcomed everywhere, the effect in Malawi is particularly severe. It is thus in such a situation that a chapter like this one drawn from the story of Job becomes a real touch to the souls, spirits, and emotions of many Malawians—both those suffering from COVID-19 and those affected by relating to those suffering from the pandemic. It is therefore in this situation that this chapter is relevant as it deciphers the story of Job and encapsulates its purpose—a relevant purpose: past, present, and future.

The Purpose of the Book of Job This section discusses the fivefold purpose of Job’s book which will have a bearing on Christian suffering in Malawi in the light of COVID-19. It, therefore, analyzes these purposes and extrapolates their theological and practical implications on Christians in Malawi. These are: “Challenging the Mistaken Prevailing Notion that all Suffering is Due to Personal Sin.” According to Estes, the book of Job does not explicitly state its purpose.4 However, “One recognizable purpose for the book is to challenge the mistaken assumption that personal sin is always the cause of suffering.”5 Reading through the book’s dialogues shows that “Job’s friends, holding a rigid theology of retribution, reason from the fundamental premise of practical wisdom that if wisdom leads to life and folly leads to death, then every case of suffering presumes prior personal sin.”6 Larry Water observes that “The traditional wisdom of Job’s day saw the concept of retribution as a fixed systematic formula for judging the condition of the life of an individual. Therefore, it limited God to predetermined actions in dealing with people’s responses to Him.”7 However, Job shows that such a theological perspective is rejected. The prologue and the epilogue clearly show that both Job and the friends had accepted the premise that, although true in general terms, retribution is too limited to account for all of life, for God’s rule of his world cannot be reduced to the tidy formula of rigid retribution theology.8 Consequently, retribution theology is faulty because it does not represent the wholesome nature of God’s operations in the world.  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 23.  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 23. 6  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 23. 7  Larry, Waters, J. “Elihu’s Theology and His View of Suffering,” Bibliotheca Sacra, 156 (1999): 436-451. 8  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 23. 4 5

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Human Limitations in Probing Divine Justice A second purpose for Job is to explore human limitations in probing divine justice.9 One of the striking features of the book is that actions occur simultaneously on two stages. Estes argues, “As Job is living on earth, first in delightful prosperity and then in devastating pain, he is unaware of the parallel events transpiring in heaven…actions by Yahweh and Satan are affecting the experience of humans.”10 Elmer Smick comments, “The reader views the drama from the divine perspective where he learns of God’s secret purpose to expose the falsehood of the Accuser and prove Job’s faith.”11 Consequently, as Job wrestles intellectually, emotionally, and theologically with his condition, he finally places his case in the hands of God (31:35)—a clear admission that his resolution lies outside the limits of human understanding.12 Therefore, what happens in Job shows human finitude. Admittedly, the book of Job shows that God is infinite, transcendent, and impassable—his ways aren’t human ways; humans cannot probe divine justice. Revealing the Sovereignty and Freedom of Yahweh The third purpose for Job is to reveal that as the sovereign ruler of the universe, Yahweh is free to do anything.13 Estes states, “Although practical wisdom theology of retribution accurately summarizes in general terms how God orders the world, the book of Job demonstrates that God’s ways may at times transcend his ‘normal’ pattern of operation.”14 This shows that, as Estes argues, “The sovereign God is not a captive to rigid law of retribution, but rather is free to do what appears mysterious to humans.”15 In fact, Andre Lacocque observes that: The unpredictable intervention of God is an essential aspect of his rule over the world: “‘the universe is no closed system governed by immutable laws’”.  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 23.  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 23. 11  Elmer B. Smick, “Another Look at the Mythological Elements in the Book of Job,” Westminster Theological Journal, 40 (1978): 213-228. 12  Smick, “Another Look at the Mythological Elements in the Book of Job,” 213-228. 13  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms Estes, 23. 14  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 23. See also Whybray, R Norman. Job, Readings, (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), 243. 15  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 23. 9

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In order to survive, the world and each of its elements are in need of the personal intervention of God. Retributive justice assumes by its own deceptive simplicity a universe that is itself simple.16

Lacocque’s observation is right. The universe is not as simple as we think it is. Rather, it is a complex system that only God knows it. Therefore, personal intervention of God is pertinent to each creature. It is for this reason that Estes says, “Here also is demonstrated God’s freedom, which lies behind exceptional cases like that of Job, where suffering afflicts a person who has lived in such a way that he would reasonably expect divine blessing.”17 Therefore, Job reveals the freedom of God to do what pleases Him.18 The Transcendence and Mystery of Yahweh in Governing the Universe by His Wisdom The fourth purpose of Job is closely related to the point above. According to Estes, “A careful reading of the book shows that Yahweh transcends human categories in governing his universe by wisdom. Job and his friends endeavor unsuccessfully to explain Job’s situation in terms of the retribution theology of practical wisdom.”19 But they failed to understand what was going on. Consequently, Estes further argues that The book of Job demonstrates that although practical wisdom is reliable to a certain extent, it must not be taken as the sum total of divine wisdom. The wisdom of Yahweh also includes aspects that are mysterious … Consequently, humans must not confine God to their tidy theological formulas or logical constructs.20

Scriptures and experience show that humans cannot confine God in any way as Brevard Childs comments: The divine response serves to direct the attention of the reader—regardless of the context in which he now stands—back to the person of God himself

 Lacocque, “Job and Religion at Its Best.” Biblical Interpretations 4:131-153. (1996), 139.  Lacocque, “Job and Religion at Its Best,” 139. 18  Gustavo Gutierrez, On Job: God-talk and the Suffering of the Innocent (Maryknoll: NY, 2009), 72-75. 19  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 25. 20  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms 25. 16 17

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whose wisdom is of a different order from all human knowledge. The divine response thus provides the ultimate critical judgment on wisdom.21

God’s questions in Job 38-41 convince Job that there is much in the natural world that is mysterious, so also there is much in the plan of God that transcends human understanding. Divine wisdom is of a different category altogether, hence, Job teaches that the perplexities of life cannot be resolved from a human perspective alone. Clinton McCann rightly argues, “It seems that human beings including those who explicitly identify themselves as God’s people, have an inevitable propensity to want to tame God, to contain God in neat and tidy retribution schemes—in short, to turn theology into anthropology.”22 But there is a mystery and wonder in Yahweh’s world, hence true wisdom must acknowledge and embrace that aspect of reality.23 Hence, the book of Job shows that God is transcendent over all his creatures. Probing the Existential Nature of Divine-Human Relationship The last purpose for Job is one by Bernhard Anderson who remarks appositively that “In addition to the theological and philosophical issues that it addresses, the book of Job probes the existential issue of the nature of the divine-human relationship.”24 He argues, “It is vividly shown in the prologue where Satan cynically charges that Job’s goodness and faithfulness, which has so impressed Yahweh, is merely a ploy to get the divine blessing on his life.”25 Critical reflection shows that Job provides a rare glimpse into the activities of Satan as he endeavors to drive a wedge between God and his people. The prologue shows that Satan is the accuser who calls into question the integrity of Job who is seeking to live in a way that honors God. However, as the case of Job demonstrates, Satan works within 21  Brevard Childs S. Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979), 540. 22  Clinton McCann, J. “Wisdom’s Dilemma: The Book of Job, the Final Form of the Book of Psalms, and the Entire Bible, 18-30, ed., Michael L. Barre. Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 29. (Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1997). 23  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 25. 24  Bernhard Anderson, Understanding the Old Testament, 4th ed., (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986), 594-595. 25  Anderson, Understanding the Old Testament, 594-595. See also Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 24.

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the limits and freedom granted by God. Therefore, “Jobs shows that one source or cause of suffering, is the malicious activity of Satan as he opposes God’s plan by afflicting his people.”26 However, God challenges Satan that Job won’t curse him, while Job, despite his painful predicament, kept his trust in God. The foregoing section has succinctly, albeit adequately, discussed the fivefold purpose of Job, which implicitly alludes to why there is suffering in the world.

Implications of Job on Christian Suffering in Malawi amid COVID-19 This section looks at how Christians in Malawi could respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. This deals with the question of theodicy, that is, a question of reconciling the reality of suffering with the existence of an all-­ loving, all-wise, all-powerful God. The purpose of Job demonstrates that Job has fundamental theological trajectories for the Church in Malawi amid COVID-19. Christians can scarcely have any objection in principle, if God’s purposes for the human life entail suffering, so long as those purposes are so grand and their achievement so glorious that they justify the pain and suffering involved in their attainment (Romans 8:28). Church history shows that the early Christians believed that the sufferings of this present life were not worth comparing with the glories to be enjoyed in the next life (Romans 8:18). The fact that God is the final speaker and that he asks questions rather than giving definitive answers indicates that the focus of the book of Job is on God. According to Norman Habel, this means that “All questions, human problems, challenges and dilemmas find their ultimate answer in God himself. As Job learns, humans can trust God, and they must trust God even when they cannot understand his mysterious ways.”27 In a nutshell, therefore, Job presents the following implications drawn from its purpose. Firstly, Job shows that some suffering falls outside of retribution.28 Job’s friends insisted on double retribution where not only the righteous are rewarded and the wicked punished, but also “Those who are suffering  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 26.  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 26 28  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 27. 26 27

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affliction must be sinners who deserve the suffering.”29 However, Yahweh’s assessment of Job in both the prologue and the epilogue shows that this is not the case in Job’s situation.30 Therefore, Job partially rejects retribution theology by showing us that in some situations there is human suffering that is not caused by personal sin. In our current situation in Malawi amid COVID-19, we might not conclusively say anything affirmatively concerning the pandemic. While some may hold that God is punishing us because of sins, others may hold that it is not because of sin, the only plausible and wise response should be that we do not know because as humans we are finite in our understanding of things that go around in this world. Secondly, Job demonstrates that despite Satan’s malicious attempts to destroy Job’s faith, God uses that very suffering to strengthen Job’s godliness.31 Estes argues, “Just as Joseph recognized in retrospect that what his brothers intended for evil, God meant for good to preserve many people (Genesis 50:20), so also Job through his harrowing experience comes to comprehend the ways of Yahweh more deeply than ever before.”32 Thus, according to Andersen, “Suffering, then, is not always punitive, but rather may be instructive.”33 Therefore, as Christians in Malawi, we must acknowledge that COVID-19, painful as it is, might not be punitive, but instructive, pointing Malawians to God. In the epilogue, Job understands that he, in his finitude, is ignorant of the ways of God (42:1-6). To buttress this, David Daiches accurately notes that In an outburst of spectacular cosmic poetry the voice of God hammers home the point that the goings-on in the universe are far beyond the wit of man to comprehend; that nature was not created for man and has its otherness and its mysteries that man can never penetrate and it is against this background of miracle and mystery which dwarfs man that the problems of human suffering must be set.34

 Norman Habel, The Book of Job (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1985), 61.  Habel, The Book of Job, 61. 31  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms 27. 32  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 27. 33  Francis Andersen, Job. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, 13. (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 1976), 69. 34  David Daiches, “God Under Attack,” 37-61  in The Book of Job. Ed. Harold Bloom, Modern Critical Interpretations, (New York: Chelsea House, 1988), 57. 29 30

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Arguably, refusing to resolve the conundrum of the problem of suffering, for instance, COVID-19 in Malawi, by insisting on rigid retribution as some Christians would, or diminishing God’s goodness, or reducing God’s power, Job leaves this problem squarely in the realm of mysteries of God that cannot be discerned by human minds.35 Consequently, Job directs us Christians in Malawi back to God rather than to philosophical, anthropological, sociological or health solutions. Thirdly, although Job felt that there was something extremely unfair about his suffering, in the end, he was brought to see that the goal of suffering is to train us to trust both the love and the wisdom of God. David Gooding and John Lennox comment, “God will always go beyond our ability to comprehend him. Our eternal peace and mind will arise from the deep-rooted conviction, learned by experience, that ‘to those who love God, God works everything together for good, even to them who are called according to his purpose’” (Romans 8:28).36 Fourthly, atheism, pantheism, and deism have little comfort to offer to Christians [in Malawi] in the face of COVID-19 sufferings. These concepts and belief systems have little to give to those suffering in pain, and no hope at all for the individual after death.37 Gooding and Lennox conclude that atheism and all these other belief systems do not offer any hope and comfort to the people suffering any affliction. It is therefore only biblical faith that has eternal responses and comfort to those suffering any kind of affliction.38 Therefore, amid COVID-19, Christians in Malawi must not turn away from God. They must not despair for they have life in Him who created all things for Himself.39 Christians must not give up faith and hope precisely because the Creator and Redeemer of this universe have his eyes on them all the time. To use Eleonore Stump’s words: It is a mistake, then, to characterize God’s speeches as demonstrating nothing but God’s power over creation. The speeches certainly show God’s power; but, equally important, they show God having personal interaction with all his creatures. He relates to everything he has made on a face-to-face  Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 28.  David Gooding and John Lennox, Suffering Life’s Pain: Facing the Problems or Moral and Natural Evil (Belfast: Myrtlefield House, 2019), 161. 37  Gooding et al., Suffering Life’s Pain, 161. 38  Gooding et al., Suffering Life’s Pain, 161. 39  See Colossians 1: 15-20; Acts 17:16-31. 35 36

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basis, as it were; … God deals materially with his creatures, from the sea and reindeers to the raven and the donkeys and even the monstrous behemoth and leviathan. He brings them out of the womb, swaddles, feeds, and guides them, and even plays with them. Most importantly, he talks with them; and somehow, in some sense or other, they talk to him in return. These speeches show God as personally and intimately involved with his creation; they portray him as having a mother’s care towards all his creatures, even the inanimate ones.40

Fundamentally, Job ultimately shows not only that God is the Creator of all, but also that he is the CEO of the universe’s day-to-day affairs. He has a personal relationship and interaction with every creature—he cares for them one by one at a personal level as well as at a universal level.41 So with COVID-19, God is still God—both transcendent and immanent, and he can bring sanity in his own way and time. Christians in Malawi must be the first to offer hope to the mourning by trusting in God’s leading, love, and wisdom. Therefore, drawing from the foregoing, some of the pertinent theological implications with practical application to Christians in Malawi in the light of COVID-19 situations are enumerated. Bad Things Happen to Faithful People—The book of Job tells us that Job was a blameless, upright man who feared God and turned away from evil. In terms of righteousness, Job had no rival. Chapters 1 and 2 show that Job’s suffering was not because he was a sinner. It was rather because of his unwavering faithfulness in serving Yahweh. Amid Affliction, We Must Not Lose Hope in Yahweh—Job was in great despair and anguish. His whole life was in affliction as he suddenly witnessed the loss of his wealth and his children. His health was also gone. He was deeply frustrated because he could not make sense of his sufferings. Yet, in the midst of his affliction and despair, he spoke one of the most profound confessions of hope in God: “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him” (13:15). As Christians, like Job, we must never lose hope in God. In the Midst of Suffering, God Never Fails Because He Is Present with Us—Job’s wife and friends charged him to have sinned. Job’s ardent response against their accusations is found in Chap. 16: 2 where he referred 40  Eleonore Stump, “Faith and the Problem of Evil,” pp. 497-529 in Seeking Understanding: The Stob Lectures, 1986-1998, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 522. 41  Compare Matthew 6: 25-31.

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to them as “Miserable comforters.” While our friends and family may forsake us when in trials and troubles, God is always with us and will never leave us. Therefore, during COVID-19 suffering in Malawi, we must hold on to the belief that God never fails. It may seem that Job was suffering without any sense of God’s presence to bail him off. But Yahweh is our good shepherd and He never leaves nor forsakes us. He walks with us through the valleys (Psalm 23). Even though God may seem far off, He leads us in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. No Matter the Situation, God Is in Control—The book of Job decisively demonstrates that God is the Creator of the universe and that He is sovereign. In Job’s story as recounted in Chaps. 1 and 2, we learn that while God allowed Satan to afflict Job, He set limits beyond which Satan could not pass. Therefore, when we find ourselves in the midst of affliction, in this case, COVID-19, we must always remember that there may have been a similar “behind-the-scenes” conversation regarding us as God’s children. Experiencing COVID-19 in Malawi may not be by chance. God is in control. We Do Not Have All the Answers to Our Problems and Challenges—Job teaches that we do not have all the answers to our problems. Job’s friends were sure that his sins had caused his suffering, and as a result they charged Job with many things. Unfortunately, they thought they were right in their arguments. But after God intervened, He rebuked Job’s friends for speaking falsely about Him and Job’s situation (Job 42:7). At times we do not know why God allows certain situations to happen. In such a situation, we must remember that we will not always discover the answers—at least not immediately. Indeed, “the secret things belong to the LORD our God” (Deuteronomy 29:29). We Must Comfort Those Who Suffer Afflictions—Job teaches that when he was at the lowest point in his life, what he needed most was not theories on the cause of his suffering. On the contrary, he needed comfort; that is why Job called his comforters “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2) because, instead of comforting him, they accused him of sin. Job needed friends who would increase his faith and hope in God’s providence, friends who would pray with him and for him—those who would encourage him. Therefore, Job demonstrates that when people are in affliction, we must comfort them. The apostle Paul urges us to “rejoice with those who are rejoicing and mourn with those who are mourning” (Romans 12: 15). As Christians we should learn how to “comfort those who are suffering with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” as Paul urges

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us (2 Corinthians 1:4). So, in the midst of COVID-19, the faith community in Malawi must be the comfort to those suffering. God’s Concern Is Not Only Humans but Universal Welfare—One more fundamental theological truth from Job is that God cares for all His creation. God’s speeches and questions to Job show that He is concerned not only about human welfare, but also about the welfare of all creatures. So, when some things do not make sense in this world, our focus must be on God as the Creator of all of the things and that He is caring for everything He has created—working for the good of all his creation, especially his people—those whom he loves and have the good pleasure (Romans 8:28).

Conclusion The book of Job offers encouragement to sufferers. Like Job, we may never receive a rational or theological explanation for our suffering, but we can trust that the CEO of this universe will give us grace enough to bear it. The book of Job communicates theological truths for us in Malawi today—truths about God’s sovereignty and mysteries, truths about our human finitude, truths about the limitations of our so-called knowledge and wisdom, truths about the fact that we cannot possibly know everything that happens in this world. This is why David Gooding and John Lennox conclude: Right from the beginning, we found that God took—and still takes—the initiative to instill living hope into people’s hearts that sin, suffering and death shall not have the last word. There is to be a resurrection… At his second coming, we are told, the dead shall be raised, and those still living shall be transformed. (1 Cor 15:50-58; Phil 3:20-21)42

This is clear, COVID-19 or no COVID-19, Job teaches that God is in control. Just as Job believed, we have everlasting life because our “Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25) and in Him, we shall live. Therefore, for believers in Malawi, suffering from COVID-19, though bad in itself, can serve as training and character-forming for the eternal life to come as Job purposefully teaches us.

 Gooding et al, Suffering Life’s Pain, 151.

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CHAPTER 16

Epidemics and Major Disasters Simon Kossi Dossou

Introduction The final months of the year 2019 saw the emergence of an epidemic which very quickly became a global pandemic, upsetting the balance of those realities we had hitherto taken to be unshakeable. A study of the Bible reveals that the ancient world had experienced epidemics and comparable crises. The African continent is today confronted with these diseases or pandemics which assume proportions that correspond to the level of poverty—in stark contrast to the richness of its soil and to its extensive mineral wealth. The search for appropriate solutions is a challenge for the whole world in general, and for Africa in particular, in order that no human being is left behind. After a brief overview of the disasters, epidemics, and pandemics of history, in the Old Testament and on the African continent, a synoptic table will enable a comparison of similar and dissimilar aspects.

S. K. Dossou (*) Methodist Protestant Church of Benin, Cotonou, Benin © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_16

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Old Testament Epidemics and Disasters: What Does Recent History Have to Say? We cannot embark on a study of Bible references to epidemics without a brief overview of COVID-19 itself—the pandemic now facing our world. COVID-19, the Present-Day Major Crisis Since COVID-19 is such a new disease, a clear and generally accepted scientific definition has not yet been reached. However, for the purposes of this study, we can refer to some ideas that have been put forward by research scientists who claim to be in a position to update their findings as and when appropriate. The Coronaviral Disease 2019 (COVID-19) “is an emergent zoonotic viral infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 strain of coronavirus.”1 It first appeared in Wuhan in China at the end of 2019. It spread swiftly throughout the world becoming a pandemic, causing widespread fear and mobilizing all available resources. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, persistent cough, fatigue, and difficulty breathing. According to the experts, in the most severe cases, acute respiratory disease can occur and may lead to death, especially in people of advanced age and already suffering from chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure. As well as these main symptoms, the disease may also cause loss of sense of smell and taste. Historical Precedents COVID-19, a major crisis for our present generation, has its antecedents in history. We can cite various examples here. First, the Black Death in the fourteenth century and the rise of Western Europe. This epidemic occurred in the 1350s and killed tens of millions of people. Most were serfs in the service of feudal lords. As Europe emerged from the clutches of the Black Death, Europeans turned to the development of an industrial activity, as well as recommencing agriculture. These elements combined to boost the rise of Western Europe. Second, smallpox in America and climate change. This disease made its appearance following the colonization of the Americas at the end of the fifteenth century. Many Europeans migrated northward. This major 1

 https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maladie_%C3%A0_coronavirus_2019 du 18/5/2020

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population movement triggered the arrival of some diseases, the most dangerous of which was smallpox, and others, although less severe, could nevertheless easily prove fatal: measles, influenza, bubonic plague, malaria, diphtheria, typhoid, and cholera.2 The impact on humans was dramatic, but to a certain extent, it benefited the ecology. Since so many lives were lost, there was no longer sufficient manpower to cultivate land and destroy forests on any great scale. So, the natural environment had an opportunity for self-renewal. Third, yellow fever and Haiti’s revolt against France. In order to put an end to the Haiti slaves’ revolt against the French, France dispatched more than 50,000 soldiers to quash the rebellion. They succeeded in their task, but before withdrawing from the country, they were struck down by yellow fever which decimated their number by more than 47,000. So, a mere 3000 were able to return to France. This massive loss of lives led France to review its global colonization strategy—particularly with regard to the Americas. In short, the world has witnessed many other epidemics—for example, bovine disease, swine fever, and avian influenza inflicting a huge death toll worldwide. Likewise, there are numerous examples globally of major disasters linked to drought conditions or to plagues of insects causing large-scale famine and death. Major world and regional wars are by their very nature different types of crisis to those presently under consideration but still destroy on a massive scale. environment.

Some of the Major Epidemics and Crises of the Old Testament For Christianity, the Old Testament is the first part of the written record of its faith. From the Old Testament, it gleans the essential foundations that lead to the reality of being able to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Whereas the New Testament constitutes “the Bible, which is the Word of God, … but which is also a collection of the words of men.”3 It is this very recorded history that informs us about the epidemics, crises, and other scourges humankind suffered throughout the centuries and in

 https://www.bbc.com/afrique/monde-52076467 du 15/05/2020  Alexandre Westphal, Article Ancien Testament in Dictionnaire Encyclopédique de la Bible, Imprimeries Réunies, Valence-sur-Rhône, 1973, p.49 2 3

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so many real-life circumstances. Let us look at just a few of the many of those disaster situations related to the Old Testament. The Flood is one of the best-known natural cataclysms of the Old Testament: the consequences impacted widely on the whole of humankind we learn from the biblical story. Genesis ch.6 v.5 to ch.9 v.17 explains the reasons for the Flood’s occurrence, lists the precise instructions given by God to attenuate the consequences before, during, and after the event. The drought and famine—just one of the disastrous consequences linked to extreme weather phenomena—result from disobedience to the voice of God. So, it is that in an antithesis of blessing and malediction, a state of drought becomes an element that counteracts the joy God promises to those who obey Him. We see this in the following passages: Lev 26: 14—39, and Deut 28:22. The drought of course means a lack of rain for sowing seeds and harvesting. The ensuing famine develops into a scourge that ravages a whole region, as was the case at the time when Joseph was “the prime minister to Pharaoh” in Egypt (Gen 41: 56).4 The plagues that ravaged Egypt are seen as “a series of scourges by which Yahweh broke Pharaoh’s resistance to letting the Hebrew tribes leave Egypt.”5 We shall give particular attention to the tenth plague which involved the striking down or “carnage” of every firstborn of the Egyptians, animals as well as humans (Exodus 12:12, 13, and 29). This is going to be a major catastrophe for the whole of Egypt. The firstborn of the Hebrew tribes were spared this fate. But this was conditional on all of Jacob’s descendants being “locked down,” every family staying under their own roof, the lintel above each door being marked with as a distinctive sign in blood, and everyone is ready to leave the moment the signal was given. The venomous snakes—on the journey to the Promised Land, Moses had to face the murmurs of dissatisfaction or revolt from the Hebrews. The reason was that in order to avoid confrontation with a “kindred” tribe, they were obliged to make a long detour around the land of Edom. They grew impatient, wearied by hunger and thirst, and began grumbling among each other and against Moses, their natural leader. God 4  If drought, famine, and other disasters represent the fruits ensuing from disobedience to God, this is not stated in respect of the great famine that struck Egypt and predicted by Joseph much earlier. However, we should certainly find an explanation in the blessings linked to Joseph’s life story whereby Jacob and his family were enabled to survive the widespread famine which raged at that time. 5  Ant- J. B in A/ Westphal: Les plaies d’Egypte; op.cit. p 404

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came to the defense of Moses and “sent venomous snakes among them.” They bit the people and many Israelites died (Num 21: v6). The number of those killed on this occasion is not given but appears to have been considerable (1 Col 10:.9). It is these same venomous snakes—also referred to as bronze serpents—which are to become the life-saving remedy. The whole process—from the suffering of disease through to healing and recovery—requires a monumental effort on the part of individuals as well as of the community as a whole. The Hebrews embraced this reality, with success. The Plague in David’s time was one of the crises or disasters we know of from the Bible. The episode most recalled from that story is the truly Cornelian decision David was faced with. Following the census, we read about in 2 Sam 24, the wrath of God fell on David with all its consequences. Three choices of punishment were proposed to David, who, after weighing up what each would entail, opted for three days of plague. Unfortunately, this resulted in 70,000 deaths in that very short space of time. While acknowledging that this figure possibly has a symbolic significance—based on what we know about the values assigned to numbers in the Old Testament—we have to say it is extremely high considering the plague’s duration. In terms of crisis, this plague, like others known throughout the history of mankind, leaves a message we need to decipher.6 By putting side by side the different epidemics and crises considered here, we can see the causes linked to each situation, the time of its unfolding, how the crises have been brought under control, and the outcome. Table 16.1 presents a synoptic chart of major disasters in the Old Testament and in Africa seen from the perspective of COVID-19. The synoptic table reveals some similarities and differences to COVID-19, as well as between the other crises, epidemics, or pandemics pinpointed here. We shall make a global analysis.

6  The great prayer of Solomon during the dedication of the first temple shows that the latter asks God to forgive his people when famine, pestilence, rust, blasting, mildew, locusts will occur in the country and that the latter comes to invoke in this place (temple) 1king 8 vv 22 to 52

Causes currently subject to research

COVID-­19

Faced with the Pharaoh’s adamant refusal to let His people go, God inflicts an ultimate plague on Egypt

Murmurings from the Hebrews against Moses in the desert. God gets angry and decides to crackdown

2. The tenth plague in Egypt

3. The venomous snakes in the desert

Counter measures

Initial detection in a *Confinement or lockdown single locality, then rapid *Social distancing transmission worldwide *Facial protection *Frequent handwashing

Manifestation

* Sheltering of each species of created life * Provision of enough food to ensure the survival of all living things on the Ark * Strict confinement of those species saved. All of Egypt’s firstborn * Strict confinement of the Hebrews destined to die—humans in their houses which were marked as well as animals with the sign in blood. A veritable carnage * Spiritual and physical preparation for a swift release after the Passover celebration The children of Israel Therapy: after being bitten, having are poisoned by snake the strength of will and courage to bites and a considerable fix their eyes on the bronze serpent number of lives are lost erected in midst of their desert camp

Old Testament 1. The flood * Mankind’s deviant behavior * Ark manufacturing patterns * Rain for 40 days *God’s decision to wipe out all * Flood that covers the living creatures at the time of whole earth up to the Noah tops of large trees

Prime causes

Disasters

Table 16.1  A synoptic chart of major disasters in the Old Testament and Africa

*Freedom from the period of slavery *Assurance of salvation *Paradigm of a guaranteed release from all global oppression Self-isolation led to the desired healing

Revival of humankind and all animal life from the species confined new humanity, a new covenant with God: a sign of healing—the rainbow

Many have avoided catching the virus. Others have survived the illness, although many deaths have been recorded in a great many countries

Outcome or survival achieved

Ebola

In Africa Malaria

* The proliferation of mosquitoes due to illmaintained environmental infrastructure, and housing subsequently surrounded by pools of stagnant water * Failure to protect young children, pregnant women, and vulnerable people late in seeking treatment It is believed to be transmitted to humans through the eating animal flesh carrying the virus As a result, every infected person is contagious, whether living or dead Curative treatment therapy *Preventive measure—use of impregnated mosquito nets. *Environmental cleansing *Search for a long-awaited vaccine

Ebola is a serious illness *Avoidance of zones where the the first signs of which disease is rife resemble those *Avoidance of all contact with an associated with malaria, infected person or the corpse of an cholera, food poisoning, Ebola victim etc. *Use of appropriate protective It is passed on through equipment when treating Ebola human contact and patients bodily fluids

Millions of deaths each year from malaria caused by mosquito bites— particularly among children and pregnant women

(continued)

A complete cure is possible using a treatment not yet licensed by WHO Every patient who has recovered to self-isolate for 3 weeks to ensure he can safely re-integrate with the community and not pose a risk to others. A constant state of alertness is essential

Many recover but there is frequently recurring relapse. This explains why the Africans have learnt to live with malaria while trying to observe preventive measures

In Africa, cultural illnesses are those conditions or diseases linked to non-rational causes, such as bewitchments caused by enemies

“Cultural” illnesses

The victim develops symptoms of “sickness” recognized by everyone but impossible to cure

Manifestation Avoid the breaking of tribal taboos. Similarly avoid provoking either the wrath of the gods or the anger of malevolent

Counter measures

Rites of purification Avoidance of any action that could be seen as a ritual taboo or dangerous behavior

Outcome or survival achieved

In an article titled “The Ministry of Healing in the Churches of Africa,” Simon K. Dossou believes that so-called cultural diseases are those that are thought to be caused by a malicious enemy. Thus, a bewitched person can give off a bad smell despite all the care he gives himself and the treatment he receives from modern medicine. Then one day, someone comes to confess that he is the author of the evil and gives the patient the antidote to cure him. Similarly, there are diseases “caused by deities” when one has transgressed the taboos of the clan. Cf. Dossou, S.K. MA FOI JE PARTAGE, Réflexions du Sud. Editions Croix du Salut, 2017, pp. 4 and 5.

Under the same rubric as Ebola, we can also quote pandemics such as HIV and AIDS—consequences of indecent behavior on the part of human beings. They can be avoided simply by abstinence from risky sexual practices.

Distancing is the fact that everyone in public space must stand at least one meter from their neighbor. The immediate consequence of all this is the prohibition of any gathering for worship, political rallies, market, and so on.

Prime causes

Disasters

Table 16.1 (continued)

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Causes At the time of writing, the precise cause of COVID-19 is not known. However, it is highly probable that sooner or later a link to human responsibility will be brought to light. In just the same way it was man’s deviant behavior that was a cause of the great flood. And, in almost the same way in Africa, one can say that man’s negligent behavior is a reason for so much stagnant water which produces the mosquitoes—the prime killers of Africans, especially of children and the vulnerable. Similarly, in the case of Ebola, the general acceptance is that consuming the meat of certain wild animals (bushmeat) transmits the virus. Likewise, we can make the same observation about the link between human sexual behaviors and the infection by and spread of HIV and AIDS. Avoidance of the disease requires abstention from risky sexual contact. From another angle, Pharaoh’s adamant resistance in response to the different signs made by Moses led to the death of Egypt’s firstborn before Pharaoh would let the Hebrew people go. In the same way, the Hebrews’ murmurings against Moses, God’s anointed one, are the reason for God’s wrath being inflamed against them, the camp being infested by snakes and the people dying. Under the category of “cultural illnesses,” the main cause does not always originate in the person affected but comes from malicious individuals who use the virtues of the spoken word, and of the inextricably linked life forces for evil ends.7 In summing up, we discover that in the majority of cases, it is human beings themselves who are the root cause of the disasters that befall them and that changes in their behavior, or the words of the Bible their repentance, must be seen as the starting point for their healing and recovery. How the Different Crises Unfold Just as COVID-19 started as a localized infection and flared into a pandemic, so it was in the case of the Flood which emerged first of all in the region where Noah lived, and then the Bible later reveals that it had spread throughout the earth in order to create all things new. The HIV/AIDS virus followed a similar path, in that there now is no part of the world unaffected by it. 7  When referring to evil people of cultural illness in Africa, one thinks of sorcerers, charlatans, and those involved in dark and mystic practices to harm a victim.

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In contrast, the tenth plague, the plague of venomous snakes, malaria, Ebola, and cultural illnesses are circumscribed by geographical limits, despite other parts of the world experiencing the same diseases through transmission by travelers in particular. Malaria and cultural illnesses, for example, are almost unknown in some parts of the world. All the time such illnesses were raging in a community or region, every person would be anxious and concerned directly or indirectly, since the negative aftereffects of such a crisis can often be far greater than one imagines. Curbing and Diffusion of Major Crises In the case of COVID-19, solutions include confinement (“lockdown”), social distancing, and protective measures obligatory for all in many countries. This applied also to the Flood, which required the confinement of every living creature in the Ark for a considerable period and the provision of sufficient sustenance for the total period of their lockdown. In contrast, in the case of Ebola, it is the patients who are kept in isolation, as happened with the lepers in the ancient Jewish religion. Formerly those suffering from “cultural disease” has had a curse placed upon them and were also placed in isolation similar to lockdown. This was done to avoid the curse being intensified by its instigator, or so that he or she would not contaminate those of his household. And in this particular illness too, the sick person in isolation must confess his sins in the event he might come to recognize that he is the author of the ill that had befallen him. As we consider the tenth plague, the imposition of confinement was very strict on the night of the Passover. And in the case of the plague of venomous snakes, the person who’d been poisoned had to be able to cast his eyes on the bronze serpent erected in the middle of their camp. So also, in the case of malaria, as well as using the appropriate medication, we need to pay attention to environmental health as well as the use of mosquito nets. None of these simple precautions should be neglected as we hope for a long-term cure. The same applies in the case of AIDS sufferers for whom regular use of medication and the avoidance of unprotected sex are essential. Outcomes Every illness, epidemic, or pandemic carries with it the hope for and expectation of a total recovery or an outcome that accommodates all concerned.

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So, it is interesting to review the crises studied to discover the outcomes in each case. As COVID-19 is still a newly emerging virus, no one can predict its eventual outcome. Some of the world’s decision-makers believe it is far from over, and that we shall have to learn to live with it—as is the case with influenza, malaria, and diseases such as Ebola and HIV-AIDS in Africa and across the world. Regarding the Flood, after the period of confinement life gradually returned to normal. The fact that the dove released from the Ark did not return shows how the world was able to sustain healthy life again. Today we are able to capture the magnitude of the phenomenon of “returning to normal” in the joy seen in those parts of the world when confinement was lifted after weeks or even months of lockdown. Much fear surrounds the prospect of how things will be when the world is eventually totally freed from malaria, Ebola fever, HIV, and AIDS, and especially cultural illness where people of ill intent—or sorcerers as they tend to be called in Africa—are still prevalent in many areas.8 When a sufferer is finally cured, it is customary for a ritual celebration to mark his or her reinsertion into society and his return to full health.

An Attempt to Define Humankind’s Response to Suffering due to Epidemics COVID-19 has engendered enormous degrees of suffering right across the world comparable to the sufferings described in the Old Testament and in Africa. Having looked at these, it’s good to look forward and have a glimpse of possible solutions for bringing about “making all things new” in the world of today. Suffering due to Disasters and Pandemic-Scale Diseases COVID-19 has produced situations of a degree of severity unknown to most people in their lifetime. And this applied too to those crises mentioned above. Indeed, several Asiatic and European countries as well as the American continent have seen thousands of deaths in the space of a few weeks or 8  In many African villages, young intellectuals and the elite who reside in towns have a fear of visiting their families because of the presence of sorcerers capable of inflicting evil.

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months. A number of these countries known for the high quality of their health systems have experienced massive rates of mortality among their citizens through being unable to provide immediate appropriate treatment. Apart from medical care, protective measures have been imposed on whole towns or entire regions to halt the spread of the virus. Then total or partial confinement was imposed for weeks or even months, paralyzing much economic activity. In larger countries, planes were grounded, train services severely reduced, and only cargo haulers were authorized to continue trading. In Africa, many activities that generate important income for the development of countries were slowed down. The informal sectors of economic activity involving large numbers of women and young people were slowed down. In a space of a few weeks, countries were becoming impoverished and economies on the verge of collapse. Hardship was evident virtually everywhere. Schools and other educational, cultural, and religious institutions were closed. Sufferings undergone by human beings during the major crises quoted in the Bible are not so different from what we are all experiencing with COVID-19. Indeed, no one can deny the inescapable suffering of those locked down for so long in the Ark with Noah. In no way would it have been possible for human beings to cohabit with animals and fodder without huge problems. Feeding and watering so many people and so much animal life would have been far from simple. It would have been the same stress facing those confined during Egypt’s tenth Plague. And likewise, those people poisoned by snake bites in the desert must have known indescribable fear, as each wondered “Who next?” One can readily understand the level of worry of those living with the threat of drought and famine evoked in Lev 26: 14-39. And equally of those who endured the plague when David was king. No one could fail to be struck by the multitude of misery of every possible kind endured by the populations of areas hit by the Ebola virus. Quite apart from the fact that families are not allowed to give a deceased family member a proper burial, everyone is at risk of sudden death. We can compare those in areas and environments where malaria is endemic. Then there is the underlying fear of sorcerers, who can exploit that fear to prevent those members of the community who are relatively wealthy from investing in their own village to enhance and improve the neighborhood. Poverty and impoverishment render many people’s lives virtually devoid of joy or well-being, day after day.

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Some Solutions in the Search for Closure Each time a crisis occurs on the scale of those pinpointed in this analysis, one can observe short-term, medium-term, and long-term solutions. These can take various forms: On the human level, every serious crisis, epidemic, and pandemic that affects the whole world or just one part of the earth has a greater or lesser impact on the human race.9 According to the Bible story of the Flood, the world was totally submerged by floodwater, destroying almost every living thing, apart from those human beings, animals, birds, and natural resources which were privileged to enter the Ark with Noah. As far as human life was concerned, the antediluvian man was virtually wiped out, leading God to renew the world’s population, as we see in Gen 10. This text becomes a more or less precise statistic about the repopulation of the earth in verses 5, 20, and 31, finishing in verse 32 with “These are the clans of Noah’s sons … From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.”10 In the same way, we can attempt to quantify the heavy loss of human life with all the above pandemics. If we make an overall total, we can say that millions of human beings lost their lives in the course of the tenth Egyptian plague, the venomous snakes, various plagues of disease, the drought, and other famines, including malaria which is virtually endemic, Ebola fever, cultural illnesses—plus the present COVID-19 for which we do not yet have the final toll. Every single death is a loss to society, although we accept that these different phenomena occur to regulate the volume and distribution of human life on our planet. On the socio-economic level, COVID-19, in the space of just a few months, resulted in huge global losses. All around the world, business executives, the self-employed, and people engaged in a variety of small businesses have been unable to trade, due to periods of obligatory confinement. As happened at the time of the Flood, the whole world economy has suffered severe disruption. Millions of people employed in the informal sector have been forced to stop working altogether. Many business sectors have been put on hold. Large gatherings have been strictly reduced, and subject to strict regulations. Places of worship have been closed, 9  In Africa, when one speaks about evil or bad, people, this is usually a reference to sorcerers, charlatans, and those who engage in dark and mystic practice with the intention of inflicting harm on a victim. 10  We did not want to enter into scientific debates proving or not the historical veracity of these words. We accept the etiological approach of the biblical story.

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leading to a rediscovery of family worship for practicing Christians. Following some tentative easing of lockdown, social distancing measures, and the wearing of face masks create a different ambiance around social interaction—where people have difficulty in recognizing each other, are unable to touch, and live as though fearful of each other—not knowing who a carrier of the virus might be. Little by little life begins to return to normal and we see the sufferings gradually subside. However, everyone has to remain alert after every such “plague” to avoid a further flare-up. These experiences would have been typically known in the aftermath of the Flood, the venomous snakes, the plagues, and the droughts which have punctuated history. We see them too in the case of malaria, which causes millions of deaths a year. And it is the same with Ebola. In the particular case of the cultural illnesses, the fear of sorcerers means that villages are not properly developed by city-dwellers despite their having the means to do so. The world will always know epidemics and pandemics: as humans, we must learn to live with that reality, by relying on God, but also by doing everything in our power to avoid falling victim to disaster again and again.

PART IV

(Un)Rethinking Traditions

CHAPTER 17

Zambian Pentecostalism and Traditional Healing Chammah J. Kaunda

Introduction Pentecostalism1 has been described as a movement in transition. It is a movement that functions with fluid and dynamic beliefs and practices which are always subjected to experimentations and further refinement or some are abandoned altogether. Nimi Wariboko observes that the Pentecostal beliefs are “put into play every day and [are] either confirmed  African Pentecostalism describes varieties of Christian communities who attribute their daily life experiences and interactions with the world to the work of the Holy Spirit in keeping with the socio-historical and cultural contexts of Africa. See Nimi Wariboko, “Pentecostalism in Africa,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History (2017), http://africanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/ (Accessed 24 Jul. 2018), see also J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, “‘From Every Nation under Heaven’: Africa in World Pentecostalism,” in Global Renewal Christianity, vol. 3, Spirit Empowered Movements: Past, Present, and Future, edited by Vinson Synan, Amos Yong, and J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2016), xxxi. 1

C. J. Kaunda (*) Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_17

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or disconfirmed, reinforced or corrected. The beliefs Pentecostals hold about the world are tested daily, and they are always making adjustments to how to pragmatically apply them to the worlds they inhabit.”2 Most African Pentecostal religious beliefs about the world are not fixed. The quest of many African Pentecostals is to make sense of how God interacts with the material world in an ever-changing modern scientific landscape. African Pentecostal models of expressions and interpretations of the divine are not monolithic and fixed; rather, they are fluid, dynamic, and adjusted from time to time through new encounters. Thus, African Pentecostals are relentlessly inculturating, and reinculturating; deconstructing and reconstructing, defining and redefining; appropriating, and reappropriating; and accommodating, and re-accommodating their belief systems to the vagaries of the present. In this religious system of thought, worshippers often give their meanings and interpretations of both their congregation’s beliefs and the teaching/preaching from their pastors to make them relevant and applicable to their particular circumstances. It is only God who is eternal; everything else is temporal and bound in time and place including human understandings and interactions with God. And everything that has to do with temporality and time is subject to change and acquiring new meaning. It follows that the Pentecostal believers are not regarded as objects of their idiosyncratic religious beliefs; rather, they are subjects of these dogmas and can reinterpret them as perceived appropriate for the circumstances and in line with the Scriptures. Nimi Wariboko describes this as the “Pentecostal principle”3—the capacity to “ever-change as means of enduring, ever-becoming as a mode of being, and continuous conversion of beliefs and practices as a way of life.”4 The continuous beginning principle is intrinsic to African religiocultural heritages, and as Devanka Premawardhana argues, “Pentecostalism does less to introduce natality than reinforcing a preexistent capacity for it.”5 There is an inherent capacity in African Pentecostalism to continuously give birth to new religious imaginations and expressions. In this religious view, the human and all creation are perceived as an unfinished divine project that endlessly progresses toward Genesis 1:31—“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”

2  Nimi Wariboko, The Pentecostal Hypothesis: Christ Talks, They Decide (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2020),2. 3   Nimi Wariboko, The Pentecostal Principle: Ethical Methodology in New Spirit (Pentecostal Manifestos -PM) (Grand Rapids, MI, Eerdmans, 2012). 4  Devaka Premawardhana, Faith in Flux: Pentecostalism and Mobility in Rural Mozambique (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), 3. 5  Premawardhana, Faith in Flux, 3.

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Wariboko observes that this capacity for endless beginning constitutes “alternate ways of knowing” and being in the world which gives Pentecostals the ability to easily adapt their beliefs to new situations. He considers this as “the way by which Pentecostals engage the world (their social realities) and the depths of their religious existence.”6 He adds that “It is a form of interpretation that enables Pentecostals, amid multiple options, to know what is the most fitting decision (action) relative to their interest and commitment to Christ.”7 As demonstrated from interviews below, “embedded in Pentecostal practice is a worldview—or better, a social imaginary—whose ontology is one of radical openness and thus resistant to closed, immanentist system of the sort that emerges from reductionistic metaphysical naturalism.”8 The God of African Pentecostals is a God of new things, is the God who continues to reveal secrets or God’s mind to God’s people. In this system of thought, healing can only be understood in what Gwa Cikala Musharhamina (formerly Vincent) Mulago describes as “African vital participation ontology,”9 “an enchanted naturalism,” which “resists closed imaginations”10 as James Smith qualifies. The vital participation practices are an understanding of and interaction with the world that eschews the dualistic opposition of physical and spiritual, human and nature, and so on. This chapter aims to demonstrate how Zambian Pentecostals have quickly adapted their theology of miracles and healing in the context of COVID-19. The focus of the chapter is on the traditional ritual of healing called ukufutikila which Pentecostals had initially rejected and classified as demonic. Ukufutikila is a traditional healing ritual that involves steaming in the vapor of boiling water mixed with specific herbs such as Lwena (Basilicum polystachyon) or sitting in the smoke of burning herbs while covered completely with a blanket or some form of sheet. According to Elias Munshya, “Typically, ukufutikila or steaming was a prevalent remedy in African homes. Elders would prepare traditional herbs, roots, and  Wariboko, The Pentecostal Hypothesis, 2.  Wariboko, The Pentecostal Hypothesis, 2. 8  James K.  A. Smith, Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 88. 9   Gwa Cikala Musharhamina (formerly Vincent) Mulago, “Vital Participation: The Cohesive Principle of the Bantu Community,” in Biblical Revelation and African Beliefs edited by Kwesi A.  Dickson and Paul Ellingworth, 137-158 (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1969). 10  Smith, Thinking in Tongues. 6 7

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leaves and boil them. This boiled remedy would then be used to steam the sick. This practice of ukufutikila was considered demonic by many Pentecostals. The leaves, roots, and herbs used by the elders were considered to be carrying bad omens and evil spirits. It was not encouraged at all.”11 Ukufutikila is embedded in almost all Zambian healing traditions. Specifically, in the Bemba system of thought, it is embedded in the ancient healing sagacity described as “Kwimba Kati Kusansha na Lesa” (God is a critical presence found in all medicines. Therefore, before using the herbs, one must recognize God’s presence in them). As Munshya underlines most Zambian Pentecostals rejected this healing sagacity, arguing that God and traditional medicine could “never work together” as Bishop Norman Silumbwe, founder and overseer of Father of All Nations Ministries, emphasizes.12 The sections that follow provide some literature review on the intersection between Pentecostalism and African traditional medicines, Pentecostal initial response to COVID-19, and outline the research methodology that informed the study, before presenting and discussing the findings.

Pentecostalism and African Traditional Medicine Pentecostalism is increasingly perceived as one of the most significant phenomena in the history of Christianity in Africa.13 African Pentecostalism is described as “the most visible and profound aspect of religious change in Africa and as a social force that straddles cultural, economic, and political spheres.”14 Scholars argue that not only has the movement radically altered  Elias Munshya, “Ukufutikila: Towards a Pentecostal Theology of Healing during Zambia’s COVID-19 Pandemic,” https://eliasmunshya.org/2021/01/26/ukufutikilatowards-a-pentecostal-theology-of-healing-during-zambias-COVID-19-­pandemic/ 12  Chanda Mwenya, “Bishop Silumbwe: Satanist turned God’s servant,” (September 23, 2018) http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/bishop-silumbwe-satanist-turned-gods-servant/ 13  Paul Gifford, African Christianity: Its Public Role (London: Hurst and Company, 1998); Birgit Meyer, Translating the Devil: Religion and Modernity among the Ewe in Ghana (Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 1999); Ogbo Kalu, African Pentecostalism: An Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008); Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, African Charismatics: Current Developments within Independent Indigenous Pentecostalism in Ghana (Leiden: Brill, 2005). 14  Asonzeh Ukah, “The Deregulation of Piety in the Context of Neoliberal Globalization: African Pentecostalisms in the Twenty-First Century,” in Global Renewal Christianity: Spirit-­ Empowered Movements Past, Present, and Future, vol. III: Africa edited by Vinson Synan, J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu and Amos Yong, 378-379 (Lake Mary, Fla.: Charisma House Publishers, 2016), 362-369. 11

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its members’ beliefs, practices, values, and morality,15 but has also created a charismatic public culture that shapes both other religious spheres and the general life of many Africans outside the movement.16 Scholars argue that the movement has resisted “discontinuity of continuities” with traditional African religiocultural heritages.17 For example, Ogbu Kalu believes the movement has flourished in Africa “by mining primal worldview, reproducing an identifiable character, and regaining a pneumatic and charismatic religiosity that existed in traditional society.”18 The traditional religious world is “the common font of inheritance or the environmental air that African Pentecostals breathe.”19 However, Pentecostalism is also known to be hostile to African traditional healing methods that have been used by Africans for the prevention and treatment of illnesses and diseases. Scholars such as Birgit Meyer had earlier argued that this is partly due to their belief in “making a complete break with the past.”20 Meyer later revised her thesis arguing that there is “Africanization from below” among grassroots Pentecostals.21 Pentecostalism has a paradoxical relationship with African religiocultural heritages.22 Pentecostals regard African traditional healing practices

15  Dena Freeman (ed.), Pentecostalism and Development: Churches, NGOs and Social Change in Africa (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). 16  Marleen De Witte, “Pentecostal forms across religious divides: Media, publicity, and the limits of an anthropology of global Pentecostalism.” Religions 9, no. 7 (2018): 217; https:// doi.org/10.3390/rel9070217. 17  Premawardhana, Faith in Flux. 18  Kalu, African Pentecostalism, 186. 19  Nimi Wariboko, The Split God: Pentecostalism and Critical Theory (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2018), 47. 20  Birgit Meyer, “‘Make a Complete Break with the Past’: Memory and Post-colonial Modernity in Ghanaian Pentecostalist Discourse.” Journal of religion in Africa 28, no. Fasc. 3 (1998): 316-349. 21  Birgit Meyer, “‘If you are a Devil you are a Witch and if you are a Witch, you are a Devil’: The Integration of ‘Pagan’ Ideas into the Conceptual Universe of Ewe Christians in Southeastern Ghana,” Journal of Religion in Africa 22, no, 2 (1992.): 98–132; Birgit Meyer, “‘Delivered from the Powers of Darkness’: Confessions of Satanic Riches in Christian Ghana.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 65, no, 2 (1995.): 236–255; Meyer, “‘Make a Complete Break with the Past’”; Birgit Meyer, “The Power of Money: Politics, Occult Forces and Pentecostalism in Ghana.” Africa Studies Review 41, no, 3 (1998):15–37; Meyer, Translating the Devil. 22   Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, “Mediating Power and Salvation: Pentecostalism and Religious Mediation in an African Context.” Journal of World Christianity 5.1 (2012): 43-61.

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and methods as demonic.23 As Meyer demonstrates in Ghana, Pentecostals have deployed “images of the devil and demons [as] means by which to address the attractive and destructive aspects of their encounter” with African cultures.24 In Zambia, Munshya demonstrates how Pentecostalism was incubated in the womb of destructive condemnation of traditional healing methods. He writes that Pentecostals in Zambia regarded “traditional medicines” as “demonic” and “were believed to be carriers of evil spirits.”25 An authentic born-again Pentecostal would never agree to use African herbs for medicine. The prevalent system of traditional healing among Bemba of Zambia called ukwimba kati kusansha na Lesa, as mentioned above, was condemned and classified as “the devil’s deception.” Munshya observes that for many Pentecostals, “There is no way God was going to be associated with traditional African medicines. First, you cannot mix God, at least not the Christian God, with traditional medicinal plants which were believed to be demonic. Second, trust in the medium of medicinal plants for healing meant that one did not have enough faith to believe in direct divine healing.”26 Yet, Pentecostals have appropriated the same system they demonized in their spiritual approaches. Contrary to the popular argument that African Pentecostalism claims “cultural discontinuity,”27 empirical evidence demonstrates the creation of “a culture of dis/continuity.”28 To some degree, 23  See discussions in Clifton R. Clarke (ed.), Pentecostal Theology in Africa (California: Pickwick Publications, 2014); Adeshina Afolayan, Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso and Toyin Falola (eds.), Pentecostalism and Politics in Africa (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018); Chammah J.  Kaunda (ed.), ‘Your Body Is A Temple of The Holy Spirit’: African Pentecostalism, Genders, Sexualities and Spirituality (Cham: Macmillan, 2020). 24  Meyer, Translating the Devil, xxii. 25  Munshya, “Ukufutikila.” 26  Munshya, “Ukufutikila.” 27  David Maxwell, “’Delivered from the Spirit of Poverty?’: Pentecostalism, Prosperity and Modernity in Zimbabwe,” Journal of Religion in Africa, 28/3 (1998):350–73; Meyer, “’Make a Complete Break with the Past’”; Rijk Van Dijk, “Pentecostalism, Cultural Memory and the State: Contested Representations of Time in Postcolonial Malawi,” In Memory and the Postcolony: African Anthropology and the Critique of Power, edited by Richard Werbner (London/New York: Zed Books, 1998), 155–181; Matthew Engelke, “Discontinuity and the Discourse of Conversion,” Journal of Religion in Africa, 34/1(2004):82–109. 28  Kalu, African Pentecostalism, 186. See also Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004); Chammah J. Kaunda, ‘The Nation That Fears God Prospers’: A Zambian Pentecostal Theology of Nations (Minneapolis: Fortress Publications, 2018).

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African Pentecostalism promotes a “discontinuity through continuity” with African religiocultural heritages in varying degrees.29 The Pentecostal struggle for distinctive religious identity consciousness in postcolonialneo-colonial Africa is apparent in the fundamental paradoxes, disruptive diversity, and tensions within and their contradictory interactions with African religiocultural heritages.30 There are indications that traditional African religiocultural heritages dis/continue to play a critical role in the lives of many African Pentecostal converts. In this case, the recent Pentecostal notions of healing should be viewed as part of an ongoing and continuous African search for viable approaches to promoting human flourishing within the postcolonial-neo-colonial socio-political, economic, and historical contexts. The foregoing studies show the ambivalence of Pentecostal encounter with African cultural traditional medicines and methods of healing which are both utilized as a resource for engaging the spiritual realm and at the same time condemned as originating from the demonic realm.31 The question is, how did this interaction with traditional medicine affect Pentecostal response to COVID-19 in the absence of a Western medical cure?

Pentecostalism and COVID-19 The COVID-19 virus that originated in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, began very slowly in many African countries, but many governments took quick drastic measures to slow down the spread of the virus. The initial response to COVID-19 by many African Pentecostals was as could be expected from a religion that maintains a total commitment to the epistemic priority of faith healing and miracles at the expense of scientific informed and traditional-based methods of healing. Hence, some scholars have blamed African Pentecostal cosmologies for restraining scientific rationality regarded as essential for effective functioning in modern

29  For a detailed discussion on the nature continuity and discontinuity see Martin Lindhardt (ed.), Pentecostalism in Africa: Presence and Impact of Pneumatic Christianity in Postcolonial Societies (Leiden: Brill, 2015); Allan H.  Anderson, Spirit-Filled World Religious Dis/ Continuity in African Pentecostalism (Cham: Macmillan, 2018). 30  Kalu, African Pentecostalism, 194. 31  Marleen De Witte, “Pentecostal forms across religious divides: Media, publicity, and the limits of an anthropology of global Pentecostalism,” Religions 9, no. 7 (2018): 217.

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society.32 The Pentecostals quickly spiritualized the COVID-19 pandemic as punishment from God for corruption and homosexuality. Regarding a pandemic as a judgment from God for ubiquitous evil in the world is consistent with African Pentecostalism. HIV and AIDS33 and Ebola in West Africa were characterized as divine punishment for sinners.34 Since COVID-19 was a punishment for evil, the disease was spiritual, and a cure was found only by engaging earnest prayers for supernatural intervention. These spiritualized interpretations of COVID-19 were easily accepted by their congregants. For example, Enoch Adeboye, senior pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Nigeria, wrote, “no plague is coming near you; you can take the Word of God from me.”35 In Zimbabwe, Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa assured his congregants that they will be “spared” from the virus. This will happen through prayer and divine protection. “You will not die, because the Son is involved in what we are doing,” he says, calling it “the freedom that no medication can offer.”36 The spiritualization of COVID-19 was explained in diverse ways. Other Pentecostals argued that it was a pervasive demonic attack in the world. Such arguments were also embraced by some Pentecostal-oriented African leaders such as the Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli. Magufuli 32  Gifford, African Christianity; Paul Gifford, “The Primal Pentecostal Imagination: Variants, Origins and Importance,” Suomen Antropologi, 34, no. 2 (2009), 44-52; Paul Gifford, Christianity, Development and Modernity in Africa (London: Hurst and Company, 2015); Opoku Onyinah, “Akan Witchcraft and the Concept of Exorcism in the Church of Pentecost,” PhD Thesis, (The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, 2002b); Opoku Onyinah, “Deliverance as a Way of Confronting Witchcraft in Modern Africa: Ghana as a Case,” History Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies, 5, no. 1 (January 2002a): 109-136. 33   HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). 34  Misha Hussain and Maria Caspani, “Gay community under attack in Liberia over Ebola outbreak,” Health News (October 23, 2014), https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-­ foundation-­ebola-liberia-gay/gay-community-under-attack-in-liberia-over-ebola-outbreak-­ idUKKCN0IC1GV20141023; Andy Featherstone, Keeping the Faith: The Role of Faith Leaders in the Ebola Response (London: CAFOD Joint Publication, 2015); Joseph Bosco Bangura, “Hope in the midst of death: Charismatic spirituality, healing evangelists and the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone,” Missionalia 44, no. 1 (2016): 2-18. 35  Pastor E A Adeboye, “Coronavirus Update: Pastor E A Adeboye Message,” https:// rccgonline.org/coronavirus-update-pastor-e-a-adeboye-message/ 36  Benjamin Kirby, Josiah Taru and Tinashe Chimbidzikai, “Pentecostals and the spiritual war against coronavirus in Africa,” https://theconversation.com/pentecostals-and-thespiritual-war-against-coronavirus-in-africa-137424

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“described COVID-19 as a demon (shetani) and declared all places of worship to be open because this is where God and ‘true healing’ (uponyaji wa kweli in Kiswahili) are found.”37 In keeping with the Pentecostal spiritual warfare approach, Magufuli argues that COVID-19 “cannot survive in the Body of Jesus (and) will be burned away.”38 The spiritual warfare method of prevention and cure was invoked by most Pentecostals across the continent. For instance, a Pentecostal prophetess in Ethiopia declared, “The coronavirus is revoked, in Jesus’ name, it is revoked!!”39 The famous Nigerian prophet TB Joshua, leader of the Synagogue Church of all Nations (SCOAN), “prophesied” that the coronavirus would disappear on March 27, 2020.40 He predicted, “This month, 27th, it will be all over. By the end of this month, whether we like it or not, no matter the medicine, they might have produced the cure or whatever, it will go the way it came.”41 However, despite all the predictions, and spiritual warfare prayers for a breakthrough, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to spread in Africa. In Zambia, a new variant of COVID-19 similar to the one in South Africa broke out in December 2020. The country experienced a sharp increase in the number of infections and death. Besides, several Pentecostal pastors died of COVID-19. The Pentecostal theology of divine healing and miracles came under acute criticism in the nation. In response, Zambian Pentecostals appealed to traditional wisdom as a resource to re-examine their view of prevention and healing in the context of COVID-19. As Asonzeh Ukah argues, COVID-19 has presented African Pentecostalism a “perfect opportunity to demonstrate its theological and doctrinal refinement and

37  Rabson Kondowe, “Tanzania’s president is under pressure after three MPs die in 11 days and COVID-19 cases spike,” Quartz Africa (2 May 2020), https://qz.com/africa/1849684/ tanzanias-magufuli-panned-as-COVID-19-cases-jump-three-mps-die/ 38  Kirby, Taru, and Chimbidzikai, “Pentecostals and the spiritual war against coronavirus in Africa.” 39  Jörg Haustein, “COVID-19 and Pentecostals in Africa,” Religion and Diplomacy (March 30, 2020), https://religionanddiplomacy.org.uk/2020/03/30/COVID-19-andpentecostals-in-africa/ 40  Tinashe Chimbidzikai, “Virus, curse or prophecy? African Pentecostals making sense of the COVID-19 pandemic,” https://www.ascleiden.nl/content/ascl-blogs/virus-curse-orprophecy-african-pentecostals-making-sense-COVID-19-pandemic 41  Staff reporter, “Will coronavirus ‘disappear’ as TB Joshua predicted?: Twitter weighs in,” (Mar 27, 2020), https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/will-coronavirusdisappear-as-tb-joshua-predicted-twitter-weighs-in-45655731

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articulation relative to this unprecedented demographic tragedy.”42 The Zambian Pentecostals admonished their members to use traditional medicines and methods for prevention and healing in the context of COVID-19.

Research Approach The research was prompted by the chairperson of Ndola Pastors’ Fellowship Chairperson and the Senior Pastor of the Rock of Hope -Ndola City Chapel, Bishop Chilekwa Mulenga. Bishop Chilekwa exhorted pastors on the blog, “Deaths of Clergy Amidst the COVID-19” “ensuring that we prevail on ourselves and those we lead to strictly adhere to the 5 golden rules on COVID-19 prevention including on a serious note steaming which I find to be helpful.” I was curious to hear the views and the religious meaning that Pentecostal clergies had attached to the issue of steaming (ukufutikila) which most of them discouraged as demonic. The data for this chapter emerges from both WhatsApp blog discussions and WhatsApp interviews which were conducted using the purposeful/ opportunistic sampling technique.43 WhatsApp is increasingly recognized as a significant medium for communication44; examples have emerged of the platform being used for qualitative data collection.45 WhatsApp as a tool for data collection was also an effective method in the context of COVID-19 as it allowed flexibility, heterogeneity, and generated rich qualitative data. I targeted Pentecostal pastors on WhatsApp Blog under the group name “One nation under Christ.” The blog was started in 2017 as a Pentecostal ecumenical space for intercession and framing strategies for coordinated evangelization of Zambia. The bloggers on this group who are mostly Pentecostal clergy describe themselves as spiritual sentinels for the declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation. The blog consists of over 85 42  Asonzeh Ukah, “Prosperity, Prophecy and the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Healing Economy of African Pentecostalism.” Pneuma 42.3-4 (2020): 430-459, 458 43  Kerry Gibson, “Bridging the digital divide: Reflections on using WhatsApp instant messenger interviews in youth research.” Qualitative Research in Psychology (2020): 1-21. 44  Avi Rosenfeld, Sigal Sina, David Sarne, Or Avidov, and Sarit Kraus. “WhatsApp usage patterns and prediction of demographic characteristics without access to message content.” Demographic Research 39 (2018): 647-670. 45  Barbara Singer, Caitlin M. Walsh, Lucky Gondwe, Katie Reynolds, Emily Lawrence, and Alinafe Kasiya, “WhatsApp as a medium to collect qualitative data among adolescents: lessons learned and considerations for future use.” Gates Open Research 4, no. 130 (2020): 130. https://doi.org/10.12688/gatesopenres.13169.1

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participants across the nation and some from the diaspora. I targeted 10 clergies who consisted of both men and women. The recruiting criteria were based on the following: an active and regular contributor to the discussions on the blog especially on the subject at hand, a recognized pastor with a congregation, and connecting to the internet not only via Wi-Fi but also via mobile data. Some of the participants selected are personally known and have interacted with me; others are not known.46 The WhatsApp data was interrogated employing the thematic analysis method. The analysis was based on the six-step guidelines for qualitative thematic analysis offered by Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, which involves getting acquainted with the collected data; generating initial codes; identifying the themes; reviewing, defining, and classifying the themes; and writing the research.47 As indicated above, the inquiry was informed by vital participation theory that offers an understanding of Pentecostal meaning-making and approach to the world. The collected data were inductively analyzed using the general data analysis in the thematic analysis including the evaluation of themes for understanding the complexities and subliminal meanings. The research also followed Braun and Clarke’s suggestion to apply codes to the data for easy identification and reporting of patterns.48 Participants were coded with numerical numbers from one to ten. This analytic lens helps to rationalize the new religious meaning Pentecostals have attached to ukufutikila.

Ukufutikila: Traditional Healing and Pentecostalism For a long time, scholars have called for the intentional Africanization of Christianity in Africa to make the faith relevant to the postcolonial and cultural struggles of African people. The call had fallen on the deaf ears. As already demonstrated, the rise of Pentecostalism which has functioned with indigenous imaginations, rather in an unintentional way, has perpetuated classical European demonization and paganization of African 46  Katja Kaufmann and Corinna Peil, “The mobile instant messaging interview (MIMI): Using WhatsApp to enhance self-reporting and explore media usage in situ.” Mobile Media & Communication 8.2 (2020): 229-246. doi:10.1177/2050157919852392. 47  For a detailed discussion of the six-step guideline see Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, “Using thematic analysis in psychology.” Qualitative research in psychology 3, no. 2 (2006): 77-101. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa 48  Braun and Clarke, “Using thematic analysis in psychology.”

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indigenous knowledge systems. However, COVID-19 has helped Zambian Pentecostals to reawaken to the inherent value of African indigenous healing sagacity. This section presents the perspectives of Pentecostalism about the healing ritual called ukufutikila. “Missionaries Deceived Us” During the WhatsApp interview, it became clear that most of the participants believe that ideas of healing and health are rooted within specific historical and cultural contexts. It was contended that the dichotomy between supernatural and natural is a classical Western view of reality that was imposed on African converts to Christianity. The participants believe that this interpretation of reality is at odds with the African non-­dichotomist views of the universe. Most of the participants, therefore, blamed classical Western missionaries for distorting African understanding of reality among African Pentecostals. Africans have always turned to the material world to experience wholeness. However, as participant ten laments, “The white came and made everything we were doing to be demonic. Africans must rise and do everything which will please God. Kwimba Kati kusankanya na Lesa is what we do every time even when we go to the hospital. But they said that it is mixing God with umuti [traditional herbs], it is superstition.” Participant seven affirms that “white Christians condemned everything that was our tradition and gave early African Pentecostals or Charismatics (as I like to call us) a mentality which was not right about African medicines.” This participant’s view reflects Frantz Fanon’s view of classical Western missionaries. Fanon maintains that the Western missionaries “did not call the local people to God’s ways, but the ways of European, of the master, of the oppressor.”49 Participant five captures a worldview that was at work among the missionaries. She argues “for the white, God was transcendent and distinctive from the natural world.” The Western missionary paradigm was characterized by pietism which was informed by Aristotle’s legacy of dichotomizing reality into matter and form, spirit and body, sacred and profane, spiritual and physical, and so on. This epistemology functioned with a paradigm of hierarchies of being in which one is higher than the other and forms binary dualism. Material is temporal and form is eternal. The introduction of this  Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press, 1961), 40-42.

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worldview, as participant seven argues, distorted African interactions with the world in which “human beings are not only part of the natural world but the whole reality including God.” Participant eight affirms, “God spoke to our ancestors through nature because they believed that God was present in nature. But the missionaries rejected this, that it was animism. The Pentecostals inherited a language of the missionaries that made God supernatural and far from us and the only way to experience God was through his supernatural intervention.” Therefore, as participant four argues, “the missionaries deceived us. They made us forget that Lesa abombela mubunfisolo ngefyo abaBemba batila [God’s work is concealed in creation as the Bemba people say]. This is a similar view that Amos Yong holds of creation. Yong argues that it is the work of the Spirit to remain “hidden” within the natural process of the world.50 The Western missionaries could not conceive the possibility of a non-dichotomist and non-interventionist human interaction in the world in those that were regarded as primitive and non-scientific societies. Classical Western Pentecostalism functioned with a spiritualized interpretation of the natural world partly because it emerged as a reactionary movement against liberalism and modernism.51 Hence, as participant four laments, “embracing Western informed Pentecostalism made us think our traditions are evil. Even now, many Pentecostals reject intambi shesu abaleti fyakale, kabili fyabusenshi [traditions are primitive and sinful/heathen]. Leo bambi nabatampa ukwiluka ukuti mufyo baponsa emwaba icishika [some have started awakening to the fact that in what they have abandoned is found the truth].” Participant one questions, “is kwimba Kati kusanshya na Lesa wrong? Is it wrong to use lwena ukufutikila?” Participant one believes “these questions border on how the Western [missionaries] presented the gospel to Africa. The demonization of African practices even those which were progressive … the whites came, they attached conversion to Christianity to denouncing everything African and embracing Western culture.” The predicament Pentecostals faced in the context of COVID-19 was laid at the feet of the Western missionaries’ de-inculturated approach which demonized and sought to completely delink African Christian 50  Amos Yong, The Spirit of Creation: Modern Science and Divine Action in the Pentecostal-Charismatic Imagination (Grand Rapids: William B.  Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2011), 23. 51  Yong, The Spirit of Creation, 9.

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converts from their religiocultural roots. This blame was significant as it served as an opiate to a trouble conscience in the process of reclaiming that which was violently condemned and relegated to a demonic realm. COVID-19 as Revealer of the Truth Therefore, many participants describe COVID-19 as a revealer relation to traditional healing. Globally, COVID-19 has been described among Christian leaders as an apocalyptic pandemic.52 This is not about the end times or in an eschatological sense as a revelation of the ultimate history, but rather in the sense of unfolding, unveiling, and uncovering the reality that seems to be hidden and concealed from view. It is in a sense of pulling back the curtain to reveal or expose reality as it is. It has unmasked and exposed the problem of human interpretations and definitions of reality. According to Munshya, COVID-19 has made most Zambian Pentecostals reawakened to the fact that “herbs and traditional medicines could be the cure against COVID-19. Pentecostals whose theology had already been challenged by the government’s decisions to close the churches could no longer resist looking to other sources of healing. Pentecostals were willing therefore to try out various cures—including traditional African methods of healing. Ukufutikila is one such traditional method of healing.”53 Participant eight admits, “We have been awakened to ukufutikila, even though it been happening in many traditional homes, it has only been considered a compromise among Pentecostal believers who saw it as sin … Maybe this season is a reality check on Pentecostal extremism.” Participant eight believes that “the recent happening in many Pentecostal churches shows that, they have embraced the things they criticized in the mainline churches. For example, participant one recognizes, “corona has challenged our belief systems. It has left us with more questions than answers. It has challenged the mindset that sees things in black and white. There’s no such stance on this issue. It has left such a big room to question the norm.” He explains that COVID-19 “is teaching us that many African practices that we rejected as evil are actually relevant to our wellbeing. And COVID has actually taught us that what we abandoned may actually be our lifeline in these uncertain times.” He reveals, “I also understand that 52  Ecumenical Chronicle, “Calling for an Economy of Life in a Time of Pandemic.” The Ecumenical Review 72, no. 3 (2020): 503-506. 53  Munshya, “Ukufutikila.”

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all drugs come from trees and roots. Through the extraction process, we end up with tablets. But African herbs are seen as evil. Which is very wrong.” Participant seven argues, “No one saw it coming, everyone gave the positive prophetic word for 2020. But the story ended up being the opposite. Churches were closed. In short, the theology of healings and miracles will actually become the most significant theology in these uncertain times. But what kind of theology of healing and miracles are talking about?” This question appears to have been answered by participant three. He cites John 8: 32 (“you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”) to argue that the truth revealed through corona is that herbs are not evil, ukufutikila is not demonic, and African traditions are not primitive. But there is a difference between herbs and charms.” For participant seven, “Those [Pentecostals] who thought African medicine was evil, have come to the truth that it’s not evil just like paracetamol is not evil.” Citing Revelation 22: 1-2 participant seven correlates that “the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations,” demonstrating that herbs are a divine source for the healing of the nations. He concludes that “Through COVID-19 God is revealing a particular truth to us that traditional medicines are not evil in themselves. No one can prove from the word of God that ukufutikila is wrong.” God Is the Source and the Healing Energy in Creation The participants emphasized the need for wisdom in understanding the work of God in the natural world. Participant six underlies, “The Lord has given us the wisdom we cannot always be using stuff with chemicals. Ukufutikila helps to open your poles to release unwanted energies from your body. I use lemons leaves and mango leaves which all are things we eat from the fruits. All healing even the ones in the herbs is from God. The enemy only mimics.” Similarly, participant five stresses, “we must understand that God is the source of all wisdom and many Africans possessed knowledge that enabled them to survive adversity in the absence of modern-­day science and medication. Through practice, they discovered that certain elements of creation contained medicinal properties which help heal certain diseases.” It is the very presence of healing power in these herbs and trees that they recognized as the presence of God in creation. They recognized such powers as God’s pervasive vital energy in creation. That God was present in creation for all healing coming from God. The

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herbs and other creations imbued with vital energies of healing could be what Smith refers to as “sites”54 and elements that manifest more intense divine vital energy in which those who participate in them “increase their vital force” (healing) as Mulago underlines. Mulago describes sites of high intensities of vital energies as symbols of the divine which are the principal means of spiritual contact and union which promote abundant life.55 For participant one, “what is wrong is invoking spirits and adding charms to the medicine, that is where the problem comes. But when we use [herbs] in their natural form there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Now is this kwimba Kati concept, I believe everything comes from God. It is God who gave humanity wisdom to use herbs for health, healing and wholeness.” And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you, it shall be for food (Genesis 1:29). Using herbs for our benefits have the blessings of God.” In this context, “the concept of kwimba kati kusansha na Lesa, carries the idea that God is the source of all healing. That human beings need God to be healed because God is the creator and God has put the secrets of healing in creation.” This also demonstrates that “God works miraculously in and through creation. Creation itself is an act of miracle. Our world is not a merely natural one rather manifests the presence of God and miracles are those aspects that surprise us as we encounter the God in the everyday ordinary life.” This is similar to Smith’s argument that the “phenomena that might be described as ‘miraculous’ are not instances of God ‘breaking into’ the world as if God were outside it prior to such events; rather, they are instances of a unique and special mode of participation that always already characterizes creation.”56 While Smith’s might not correspond to contextual realities of Western Pentecostalism, is reflected only in abstraction, in the traditional African spiritual system, vital participation is the condition of all creation. This is the view that most participants are cautiously utilizing to make sense of the contemporary reality of COVID-19 and reconceptualize their Pentecostal spirituality. For example, participants two reminds, “God gave all plants to humans for food and healing. God is the source of medicine. Making use of plants for food and medicine is within human’s God-given responsibility. But this does not include medicine from witchdoctors.  Smith, Thinking in Tongues, 102.  Mulago, “Vital Participation,” 137. 56  Smith, Thinking in Tongues, 102. 54 55

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Using medicine is not a sign of unbelief. God has many ways of getting us well.” There is a clear rejection of demonization and paganization of African traditional medicine and healing methods. For example, participant three responds, “When it comes to steaming, it’s not wrong for a Christian to do … Herbs are not demonic.” These Pentecostals are recognizing medicinal herbs not only for COVID-19 prevention but for any disease just “like we use medicine from the Hospital.” They are arguing that using traditional herbs does not conflict with faith healing and miracles. Most miraculous healing requires contact, the laying of hands, or partaking in the holy communion. The site of healing is a site of intercourse, interaction, of exchange of vital energy between the sick and the healing elements which can be an anointed person or nature. The participants regarded healing and wholeness as a form of participation in the divine life. The participants also cautioned, as participant three urges, “we should not encourage believers to visit the witchdoctors because their source of power is not God. When herbs get in the hands of a witch doctor and he puts them on his evil shrine and invokes demonic power on them then using that is satanic.” The participants believe that healing powers in herbs can be manipulated by the witchdoctors for demonic purposes. So, “the one who uses herbs is what matters.” This view falls in what Harold Turner categorized as primal worldviews or primal imaginations according to Kwame Bediako. Turner argues that Africans live with “a conviction” that human beings are not alone in the universe, for they participate in “spiritual world of powers which are ambivalent.”57 He argues that “Not only is there a hierarchy of benevolent ancestors, and of spirits, divinities and high gods, but there are also the range of evil spirits, demons, and malevolent divinities and the lesser, more earth-born occult and witches.”58 Zambian Pentecostals like many Africans believe that human beings “can enter into a relationship with the benevolent spirit-world and so share in its powers and blessings and receive protection from evil forces.”59 Therefore, African Pentecostals tend to be notoriously suspicious of the sources of power. For example, participant four caveats, “traditional steaming should be 57  Turner cited in Kwame Bediako, Christianity in Africa Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press and Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1995), 94 58  Turner cited in Bediako, Christianity in Africa Christianity in Africa, 94. 59  Turner cited Bediako, Christianity in Africa Christianity in Africa, 94.

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practiced with great restraint to avoid extremes which conflict with our Christian faith. We must be aware of the use of charms and other secretly concocted traditional medicines used to cure sickness.” This is the same view that all participants hold. They underline that herbal remedies are a blessing from God but can be manipulated by evil spirits as well. If the medicinal properties come from plants, according to the participant, there is no need for additional conditions or charms from the shing’anga (traditional diviners). As participant six argues, “herbal medicine without ukubuka imipashi nga’nga (divining spirits of traditional diviners) and divination is okay.… Never get instructions from witchdoctors or practice divination as these conflict with God’s plan for creation.”

Conclusion: Emerging Pentecostal Theology of Healing and Miracles The data shows that COVID-19 has forced Zambian Pentecostalism to look backward to the past, make sense of it, and draw valuable wisdom for rethinking their spirituality for critical and wise engagement in the present. There are selectively reclaiming the past because not everything in African cultures gives life. The findings show that they reclaim “non-­ interventionist supernaturalism” by refuting interventionist supernaturalism as un-African. However, as already argued, the enchanted ontologies they are reclaiming appear to be grounded on what Mulago describes as “vital participation ontology,”60 “an enchanted naturalism,” which “resists to closed imaginations”61 as Smith underlines. As the data shows, vital participation in ontological practices is an understanding of and interaction with the world that eschews the dualistic opposition of physical and spiritual, human and nature, and so on. Enchanted imaginations are a way of life, a way of knowing, a way of interpreting, and a way of interacting with the world in which spiritual dimensions of life are regarded as ordinary aspects of every day. Mulago observes that vital participation is the “vital bond” that consistently unifies all being (God, spirits/divinities, the living dead, living humanity, yet-to-be-born, and nonhuman creation). This system of thought, as participants underline, attests to a strong sense of the immanence of God’s presence and action in the world.

 Mulago, “Vital Participation”  Smith, Thinking in Tongues.

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This argument is confirmed by scholars who argue that “African understanding of reality can, in fact, only be described in terms of the phenomena of this world.”62 Gabriel Setiloane maintains the world is filled with a mysterious “power which cannot be seen and is not fully understood, but which is at work in the world.”63 Setiloane reminds that God in many African societies “was understood to be something intangible, invisible, a natural phenomenon able to penetrate and percolate into things.”64 The mystery of healing in the herbs and other parts of creation does not point to itself but reveals the presence of God in creation. The All-permeating vital energy is incomprehensibly present in all creation. God fills everything but nothing fills God.65 African spirituality, therefore, does not understand divine reality as something lying beyond the material world, but as one which reveals itself in the natural world without being subsumed in the world. For many Africans, the wellspring of life lies in the vital participation of all forces within the material world. Vital participatory is underpinned by the belief that there are “varying intensities”66 of the divine energy in creation which is recognizable by humanity as they actively participate and respond to and orient their lives toward the reality of God in creation.67 This view is in agreement with James Smith’s ­argument that “nature is always already suspended in and inhabited by the Spirit such that it is always already primed for the”68 manifestation of healing and wholeness. As such, by reclaiming vital participation ontology, Zambian Pentecostalism resisted “dualistic or Deistic supernaturalisms and as well as naturalisms of various stripes, both reductionist and non-reductionist.”69 In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in Zambia, Pentecostals refused to distinguish between medicinal properties in plants and divine power. In 62  Theo Sundermeier, The Individual and Community in African Traditional Religions (Hamburg: LIT Verlag, 1998), 9. 63  Mogomme Alpheus Masoga, “A critical dialogue with Gabriel Molehe Setiloane: The unfinished business of the African divinity question,” Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 38 (2012): 323-344, 330. 64  Gabriel M.  Setiloane, African Theology: An Introduction (Braamfontein: Skotaville Publishers, 1986), 27. 65  John S.  Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy (London: Heinemann, 1969); John S. Mbiti, Concepts of God in Africa (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970). 66  The concept of intensities is inspired by Smith. See his, Thinking in Tongues. 67  Mulago, “Vital Participation.” 68  Smith, Thinking in Tongues, 101. 69  Smith, Thinking in Tongues, 88.

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so doing have refused to take a reductionistic naturalist approach to heal. What these Pentecostals have rejected is to regard miracles as coming from transcendent spheres; rather, they see God as already inherently present within the natural world as the healing energies in creation. Vital participation ontology is a complex way of making sense of and structuring concrete patterns of the complex natural world plausibly using symbolisms. The participants seem to suggest that the starting point in interpreting reality is not the spiritual but the natural entities which color human constructions and interpretations of God. In so doing, the mysteriousness of God’s action in creation is returned but also given a more plausible explanation, thereby overcoming the spiritualization of miracles and healing. For many of the participants above, traditional and scientific approaches to healing are “not self-sufficient or self-referential, but always points beyond [themselves] or redirects”70 human understanding of physical healing to the reality of God in creation or nature. In keeping with the African worldview, the participants utilized symbolism to make sense of complex issues of divine action by using natural aspects that are explainable even in scientific terms. This confirms Setiloane’s claim that African people do not search for explanations from invisible realities as they believe that all reality is discoverable within the symbolisms of a plausible world.71 In short, their explanations for both the natural and supernatural; physical and spiritual entities are drawn from natural symbolisms.72 In this way, the spiritual reality was not used to explain the African medicines, but the medicinal powers in plants embed the ideological meaning of spirituality. It has been argued that symbols can be replaced by factual explanations. Paul Tillich argues that symbols have inherent values which cannot be replaced by scientific explanations. He clarifies that human’s “ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate.”73 Tillich noted that both signs and symbols have one thing in common—they both point beyond themselves. But the difference is that signs do not participate in the reality they point to, while symbols do. Second, symbols inherently participate in the phenomenon to which they  Wariboko, The Pentecostal Hypothesis, xi.  Gabriel M. Setiloane, “Towards a Biocentric theology and Ethic—via Africa,” in Faith, Science & African Culture: African Cosmology and Africa’s Contribution to Science edited by C.W. du Toit, 73-84 (Pretoria: UNISA, 1998), 65-72. 72  Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy; Mbiti, Concepts of God in Africa; Setiloane, African Theology. 73  Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith (New York: Harper & Row, 1957), 41. 70 71

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refer. Third, they have the potential to open up levels of the phenomenon which otherwise were thought unexplainable. Tillich argues, “there are within [creation] dimensions of which we cannot become aware of except through symbols.”74 Fourth, they unlock dimensions and elements of the human soul which correspond to the dimensions and elements of reality. Fifth, symbols cannot be “intentionally” created or invented as they grow out of collective unconsciously. The argument here is that Zambian Pentecostalism has enriched the meaning of miracles and healing by appealing to African symbolism, which is plausible, expresses and communicates meaning, but also carries transcendent, the latent meaning behind the obvious ones. Zambians are perceiving “creation is (and nature is) insofar as it participates in and is indwelled by God, in whom we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28)”75 as a site of the manifestation of God’s presence. The Zambian Pentecostalism has demonstrated that enchanted imaginations are not primitive worldviews but have a lot to offer African Christianity in its search to maintain equilibrium in the context of scientific modernity. In the words of Munshya: The COVID-19 Pandemic may have caused some re-evaluation of Pentecostal theology towards health, healing, and in the context of Zambia, the use of traditional muti remedies. For sure, ukufutikila using leaves, and herbs is being used as a health remedy. And with the use of all this ukufutikila gives new meaning to ukwimba kati kusansha na Lesa, for God can use traditional African remedies as a remedy for symptoms of COVID-19 infections.76

 Tillich, Dynamics of Faith, 43.  James K. A. Smith, “Is the Universe Open for Surprise? Pentecostal Ontology and the Spirit of Naturalism,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 43 (2008): 879–96. 76  Munshya, “Ukufutikila.” 74 75

CHAPTER 18

Kerala Pentecostalism and Mental Health Crisis Allan Varghese Meloottu

Introduction In general circumstances, Pentecostals and isolation may not have been imagined together, as Pentecostals are known for their exuberant communal gatherings. However, the suffering and isolating experiences of COVID-19 have left the Pentecostals, like other Christians, to imagine ways to embrace spiritual practices in isolation. This chapter takes on such

A. Varghese Meloottu (*) Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, KY, USA © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_18

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a theological reflection from the context of Indian (Kerala) Pentecostalism1 and presents lament as an apt Pentecostal spiritual posture for the season of suffering. Furthermore, as a speculative proposal, the chapter makes a case to see Expressive Writing as a Pentecostal practice of lament in suffering.2 To put forth the case, from the Kerala Pentecostal context, first, the chapter briefly explores the ensuing impact of COVID-19 on mental health and analyzes how it has restricted Pentecostal worship practices. Second, the chapter presents lament as an apt spiritual posture for Pentecostals in times of mental distress, challenging the popular Pentecostal attitude to keep lament at bay. Third, Expressive Writing is proposed as a practice of lament through a brief literary analysis of the book of Lamentations and finally, argues for Expressive Writing as a Pentecostal spiritual practice of lament, which is in congruence with the long-held Pentecostal teachings of the Holy Spirit, eschatological hope, and the practice of testimony. In short, considering the COVID-19 crisis,  from the cultural context of Kerala Pentecostalism, the chapter provides a speculative theological reflection that puts forth Expressive Writing as a practice of lament for Pentecostals who face mental health sufferings.

Kerala Pentecostalism, COVID-19, and Mental Distress Pentecostals are known for their vibrant corporate worship expressions. Such corporate worships serve as, in the words of Martina Prosén, “a window into the very heart of Pentecostalism.”3 These worship services are 1  Kerala is the Southern Coastal State of India, which saw the emergence of Pentecostalism as an ongoing ecclesial reformation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In this chapter, I use the term Pentecostals in the broader sense to incorporate both the classical and non-classical Pentecostals. For more details on the historical development of Pentecostalism in Kerala, see A.C.  George,  “Pentecostal Beginnings in Travancore,” Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies 4:2 (2001): 215–37. Allan Varghese, “The Reformative and Indigenous Face of the Indian Pentecostal Movement,” International Journal for Indian Studies 4, no. 2 (2019): 1-20. 2  Sincere thanks to my colleagues, Thomas Hampton and Lisa Fowler, for reading and providing helpful suggestion on the earlier version of this manuscript. The faults that remain are my own. 3  Martina Prosén, “Worship: A Window into Pentecostal Theology,” Svensk Missionstidskrift 102, no. 1 (2014): 87.

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“quite celebrative and invites an array of spontaneous and tangible expressions, including the variety of manifestations of spiritual gifts (for example, prophecy, tongues healings and so on).”4 Although such an expressive nature of spirituality sets Pentecostals apart from other Christian denominations, from the outside, it can also be readily perceived as “noisiness.”5 This is true of the Kerala Pentecostals as well. In Kerala and broadly in India, the sound factor or the “noisiness” has also resulted in non-­ Christians lodging police complaints against the Pentecostals and even propagating harassment.6 However, the “noisiness” that characterizes Pentecostalism was brought to a halt during COVID-19 as churches complied with the government’s lockdown policies. For Kerala Pentecostals, the restrictions began early, as the State government took precautions sooner  compared to the rest of India. Kerala reported the first case of Coronavirus on January 30, 2020, which was soon followed by gathering restrictions, lockdowns, and public campaigns to raise awareness.7 Subsequently, as Jaideep C.  Menon and colleagues noted, “using the five components of trace, quarantine, test, isolate and treat, by 10 June 2020, Kerala managed to keep the basic reproduction number at 0.45 against the India and world averages of 1.22 and 3, respectively” (Menon et al., 2020, 1). Although Kerala’s proactive step to “flatten the curve” was successful early on, which was lauded by the World Health Organization,8 the infection rates and death rates

  Peter D.  Neumann, “Spirituality,” in Adam Stewart, ed, Handbook of Pentecostal Christianity. (Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 2012), 198. 5  Andrae Grant, “Pentecostal sounds and silences in Rwanda,” The Immanent Frame (2019) https://tif.ssrc.org/2019/06/04/pentecostal-sounds-and-silences-in-rwanda/ accessed on August 31, 2020. 6  For a discussion on noise among Indian Pentecostals, see. Chad M. Bauman, Pentecostals, Proselytization, and Anti-Christian Violence in Contemporary India. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 87-89. 7  Public health researchers and medical practitioners have lauded the Kerala response to COVID-19 as proactive. For a brief analysis of the Kerala response, see, Menon J.C., Rakesh P.S., John D., et al. What was right about Kerala’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic? BMJ Global Health 2020;5:e003212. doi:10.1136/ bmjgh-2020-003212 8  For the WHO analysis of Kerala response to COVID-19, see; “Responding to COVID-19learnings from Kerala” (July 2020). https://www.who.int/india/news/feature-stories/ detail/responding-to-COVID-19%2D%2D-learnings-from-kerala, Accessed on April 19, 2022. 4

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increased eventually, contributing to the prolonged social gathering restrictions and quarantine requirements.9 Following the State government protocols, Kerala Pentecostals transitioned to online Zoom worship services. Prominent local Pentecostal television channels like PowerVision TV10 introduced Veetil Sabayogham [church service at home] on Sundays, specifically for people who do not have internet services to attend the Zoom worship. However, along with other Christians, Kerala Pentecostals remained in isolation, even with the online and television options. Although the Kerala government lifted the total ban for religious gatherings in June 2020 and allowed to gather with certain restrictions, most churches remained cautious due to the fluctuating rate of virus transmissions and intermittent governmental orders to restrict public gatherings. Subsequently, people remain isolated without regular in-person church gatherings or visitations from friends, co-­ believers, or pastors, contributing to the mental health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like the rest of the world, Kerala did not anticipate such an ensuing mental toll. The mental health crisis that ensued during COVID-19 is recognized as “the common tragedy,” “causing a new collective form of trauma,”11as The Economist puts it. It is also noted that “no single event since the second world war has left so many people in so many places traumatized at once.”12 In addition to the fear of contracting the virus and social isolation, the distinctive nature of mental distress among Keralites was about their loved ones who resided outside Kerala.13 Therefore fear mounted 9  As of April 19, 2022, the State of Kerala has reported that 68,197 people died from COVID since January 2020, while 6534,352 were confirmed and 6462,811 recovered. For all the COVID-19 related state data, see “Kerala: COVID-19 Battle,” https://dashboard. kerala.gov.in/covid/, accessed on April 19, 2022. 10  Since its launch on February 6, 2006 (was granted permission by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India on December 9, 2005), PowerVision TV has become a go to TV channel for the Pentecostals in the Malayalam speaking world (inside and out of Kerala). 11  “Worldwide COVID-19 is causing a new form of collective trauma,” The Economist (August 2020). https://www.economist.com/international/2020/08/29/worldwide-covid-19-is-causing-a-new-form-of-collective-trauma, accessed on September 15, 2020. 12  The Economist, “Worldwide COVID-19 is causing a new form of collective trauma.” 13  Kerala has a higher amount of emigrant household members. For a detailed report on non-residents in Kerala, see, “Non-Resident Keralites,” Economic Review 2016, https://spb. kerala.gov.in/economic-review/ER2016/chapter06_03.php, accessed on July 12, 2020.

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when people saw the dire situations of non-resident Keralites struggling alone abroad through social media. Varughese Mathew, who is currently serving as the North Nilambur center minister for the Indian Pentecostal Church of God (IPC), shared such an experience of isolation as his wife, who had gone to the Middle East to visit their daughter, extended her stay in the Gulf due to stay-at-home orders. Although a lonely life added uncertainty and emotional distress, for Pastor Mathew, the sight of funerals of Keralites abroad brought deeper pain. He said, “Often, these Keralites left home in Kerala to get a better life. But now, their end has been tragic, dying alone, not even getting a final goodbye from their loved ones.”14 Besides, for the expatriates who returned to Kerala, the economic and job uncertainties added to their mental stress.15 In summation, the news of deaths, social isolation, fear of contracting the virus, concern for their families nearby and overseas, and the economic uncertainties contributed to mental health distress. Perhaps the pain and suffering people experienced due to COVID-19 lockdowns and isolations are similar to the silent scream the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch portrayed in his famous picture, The Scream (1893). Though there is a desire to scream aloud, in the midst of COVID-19, the sufferer struggles to find the right tone to present the unimaginable pain. In this situation, in the words of Leslie C. Allen, “a release, rather than bottling up of our inarticulate emotion, can be a valuable first aid to be applied over to the raw wounds of grief.”16 Therefore, this chapter’s reflection is ultimately a pursuit within Pentecostal spirituality to identify a practice that enables such a “release” of the inarticulate emotion bottled up due to various mental health stresses of COVID-19.

Lament as Pentecostal Spirituality in Isolation Generally, in the wake of COVID-19, Kerala Pentecostals have geared spiritual practices with a renewed apocalyptic tone. There has been a renewed call for prayer in expectation of end times. However, more  Interview conducted through Zoom on April 8, 2020.  For an analysis of the economic impact of COVID-19 on Kerala, see Boby Ghosh, “COVID-19 hurting Kerala, economies dependent on money from abroad: Bloomberg,” The Times of India (July 2020), https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/foreignmedia/COVID-19-hurting-kerala-economies-dependent-on-money-from-abroadbloomberg/, accessed on September 7, 2020. 16  Leslie C. Allen, A Liturgy of Grief (Michigan: Baker Books, 2011), 2. 14 15

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importantly, considering how COVID-19 has impacted individuals’ physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, the practice of lament becomes crucial, which theologian N. T. Wright calls a “vital initial Christian response to this pandemic.”17 Wright writes further: In a time of acute crisis, when death sneaks into houses and shops, when you may feel healthy yourself but you may be carrying the virus without knowing it, when every stranger on the street is a threat, when we go around in masks, when churches are shut and people are dying with nobody to pray by their bedside—this is a time for lament. For admitting we don’t have easy answers.…for weeping at the tomb of our friends, for the inarticulate groaning of the Spirit.18

When the future seems bleak and uncertainties prevail all around, a Christian believer who has a relationship with God has the right to lament, which Daniel Hays defines as “a sad, agony-filled cry of mourning.”19 Biblical laments often raise honest remarks (such as “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?”—Psalm 22:1) against God’s hiddenness in the troublesome situation. However, our discussion needs to steer towards exploring how Pentecostals may practice lament during this mid (or post) COVID-19 season of suffering. Pentecostals and Lament Although Pentecostal spirituality is experience-based, the emphasis on praise and the Holy Spirit’s in-breaking often overlooks the possibility of lament as a spiritual practice amid continuous suffering. Scholars like Leonard P Maré20 and Scott Ellington21 note a general lack of space for lament in Pentecostal churches. Maré notes, “It is a fact that someone  N. T. Wright, God and the Pandemic (Michigan: Zondervan Reflective, 2020), 52.  Wright, God and the Pandemic, 53. 19  J. Daniel Hays, Jeremiah, and Lamentations (Michigan: Baker Books, 2016), 325. 20  Leonard P.  Maré, “A Pentecostal Perspective on the Use of Psalms of Lament in Worship.” Verbum et Ecclesia, 29, no. 1 (2008): 91–109. 21  Scott A. Ellington, “The Costly Loss of Testimony.” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 8, no. 16 (2000): 48–59. 17 18

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might attend a Pentecostal service and leave thinking that Pentecostal lives are free from any kind of negativity or disharmony. Pentecostals tend to reject any expression of feelings of negativity, anger, revenge and complaint as a legitimate part of worship.”22 In other words, there is a lack of vocabulary among Pentecostals to deal with “experiences of God’s silence and hiddenness in times of need.”23 Even in times of testimonies, which is still prevalent among the classical Pentecostals of Kerala, as Jean-Daniel Pluss puts it, “there is no sense of the tragic.”24 It almost always has a happy ending. In summation, Pentecostals have not given much attention to the practice of lament in their spirituality. Therefore, the trend continues during COVID-19, exposing the need to recover25 the practice of lament. Among Kerala Pentecostals, although there have been a few occasions where pastors emphasized the severe emotional nature of suffering,26 the attention has been to stay focused on the eschatological hope, sidestepping the importance of lament amid COVID-19 suffering. However, while affirming that God is in control, it is equally important to speak of remaining in the tragic. Lament provides a space and vocabulary to remain in times of catastrophe. Although oral prayers can be one way of engaging in the practice of lament, in what follows, I introduce Expressive Writing as a lament practice, primarily taking the clue from the psychological studies and  the literary makeup of the book of Lamentations.

 Maré, “A Pentecostal Perspective on the Use of Psalms of Lament in Worship,” 95.  Ellington, “The Costly Loss of Testimony,” 52. 24  Jean-Daniel Pluss quoted in Ellington, “The Costly Loss of Testimony,” 53. 25  The term “recover” is used as practices of lament were prevalent among certain early Pentecostals. For example, see, Narelle Jane Melton, “Lessons of Lament: Reflections on the Correspondence between the Lament Psalms and Early Australian Pentecostal Prayer.” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 20:1 (2011). During our conversation, Pastor Varughese Mathew also recalled how old Malayalam Pentecostal songs written by early Pentecostals in Kerala capture the heart of lament. 26  For example, Pastor Prince Matthew preached a sermon titled “God who weighs your sadness” [Malayalam] on the PowerVision TV Sunday service expounding various sufferings and concluded with the Malayalam song ‘Yesuve en prana nayaka’ that illustrates the loving nature of Jesus Christ, who continues to bring life and relief by wiping our tears in times of suffering. For the full sermon, see, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COiQ6Kdj2ek&lis t=PLciS62AjGU1MvmKloNIX63C_sv6rY9_0L&index=4 accessed on September 4, 2020. 22 23

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Expressive Writing as a Practice of Lament in Isolation Among mental health practitioners, since 1986,27 Expressive Writing has been understood as a therapeutic method that can be practiced for 15–20 minutes daily,28 where the individual writes their very deepest thoughts and feelings about the most traumatic or emotionally heavy experience of their life.29 There is no specific layout to follow, and they do not have to worry about spelling, grammar, or sentence structure. They may simply write until the scheduled time is up. Various experiments have explored the positive impact of Writing “on physical and/or psychological health.”30 Therefore, Expressive Writing is recommended by psychologists (during the COVID-19 season) as a way to cope with mental health stress.31 Although Christians may approach Expressive Writing as a psychological coping tool, it can also be seen as a spiritual practice where our lament towards God during the pandemic is expressed without hesitation. Even though the phrase “Expressive Writing” is not mentioned as a spiritual practice, Christian writers have identified the idea of such Writing under the rubric of journaling. While discussing various benefits of journaling, Ron Klug writes of what we call Expressive Writing. He writes, “A journal can help us handle our emotions … bottling up emotions, especially negative ones like anger or depression, only makes them worse. If we try to ignore them because we think, ‘Christians shouldn’t feel that way,’ we may be 27  James W. Pennebaker, and Sandra K. Beall. “Confronting a Traumatic Event: Toward an Understanding of Inhibition and Disease.” Journal of Abnormal Psychology 95, no. 3 (1986): 274–81. 28  Psychologists have also noted that it is not necessary to see 15 minutes as a requirement for the exercise. A 2008 study revealed that there are health benefits from just two minutes of Expressive Writing. For further details, see Chad M. Burton and Laura A. King, “Effects of (Very) Brief Writing on Health: The Two-Minute Miracle.” British Journal of Health Psychology 13, no. 1 (2008): 13. 29  Writing about both the event and the feeling is vital. As Baikie and Wilhelm note, “Writing only about the emotions associated with a trauma is not as beneficial as writing about both the event and the emotions” (Karen A. Baikie and Kay Wilhelm. “Emotional and Physical Health Benefits of Expressive Writing.” Advances in Psychiatric Treatment 11, no. 5 (2005): 341. 30   Baikie and Wilhelm, “Emotional and Physical Health Benefits of Expressive Writing,” 341. 31  The Pandemic Project is an example that provides an online platform for people to practice Expressive Writing. For further details, see, “Feeling overwhelmed by the Pandemic? Expressive Writing can Help,” Pandemic Project, http://exw.utpsyc.org/index.php, accessed on September 4, 2020.

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setting ourselves up for a major emotional crisis.”32 Helen Ceperp also notes that Christians, by writing down their negative emotions, are in company with Psalm writers, who “wrote letters of praise and joy but also of worry and sadness, lament and anger.”33 Subsequently, one can approach Expressive Writing as a spiritual practice in times of suffering. However, three features of Expressive Writing should be highlighted here, specifically in conversation with the book of Lamentations, to consider it a lament practice.34 Scriptural Pointers for Expressive Writing First, in understanding Expressive Writing as a lament practice, it is crucial to see the act of writing as a presentation rather than a rational pursuit of interpreting the nature of suffering. The “lyric” nature of the poems in the book of Lamentations provides a rationale for such a mode of expression. In arguing Lamentations as lyric poetry, F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp points out that the poems lack a plot or argumentative structure. He writes, “neither are there any fully realized and compelling characters …to stimulate interest in the part of the audience, but only speaking voices or personae.”35 Therefore, in its style of lyricism, Lamentations discloses the purpose of presenting the pain and grief that occurred due to Jerusalem’s destruction rather than providing an interpretation of the disaster. Second, by presenting the pain and suffering, one should not feel obliged to figure out a solution for the problem at hand or to end the Writing on a positive note. Lamentations five serves as an example of such a writing approach, where the final poem, the climax, does not have a happy ending. Instead, it ends in a “minor key,” as Soong-Chan Rah puts it, equating it to the “musical pieces that end in a minor key often signal that issues have not quite been resolved.”36 As a result, Lamentations leave the reader hanging with the ongoing suffering as the writer remains with the lament. Similarly, Expressive Writing may follow such a pattern in presenting the pain and not feel obliged to end every writing session positively.  Ron Klug, How to Keep a Spiritual Journal (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 2002), 18.  Helen Ceperp, Journaling as a Spiritual Practice: Encountering God Through Attentive Writing (Illinois: InterVasity Press, 2008), 29. 34  Extracts from the following section can be found in my previously published article and used in this chapter with the permission of Crucible. For the full article, see, Allan Varghese M, “Lamentations—A Language to Present Our Speechless Suffering,” Crucible 9:1(2018) www.crucibleonline.net, accessed on September 17, 2020. 35  F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, Lamentations (Louisville: John Knox Press, 2002), 13. 36  Soon-Chan Rah, Prophetic Lament. (Illinois: InterVarsity Press 2015), 190. 32 33

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Three, Expressive Writing as a lament practice presupposes a personal relationship with God. The laments in the book of Lamentations imply a covenantal relationship between Israel and God. It is within such a covenantal context we see the language of Lamentations, the “language of personal intimacy and relationship,”37 as Eugene Peterson terms it. Similarly, one’s relationship with God prompts them to use language that “is personal, direct and desperate”38 in Expressive Writing. Within the relational framework, we are free to express rage towards God for the pain that has come upon us while informing God that the pain is too much to bear, and we need God’s help. In summation, in response to the COVID-19 mental distress, Christians may focus on Expressive Writing by a) presenting the nature of suffering rather than providing a rational interpretation, b) not requiring to resolve the tension but being realistic about the unknowns, and c) be intimate in the language which presupposes a prior relationship with God. Ultimately, such Expressive Writing provides an emotional release and leads to a deepened relationship with God. However, for this chapter’s interest, in the following final section, we will also explore how such a lament practice can be seen as a Pentecostal practice.

Expressive Writing of Lament as a Pentecostal Spiritual Practice For Pentecostals, Expressive Writing may not be an easily envisioned spiritual practice. One of the main reasons for this dissociation could be the emphasis on orality in the Pentecostal tradition. It is commonly understood that the astonishing success of Pentecostals in the global south and its success in the nonliterate cultures “can in large part be attributed to a shared reliance on the spoken word.”39 Such reliance on orality (spoken word) can be attributed to the expansion of Pentecostalism in Kerala in its early days, relying exclusively on an oral liturgy of worship. V. V. Thomas, writing from the Indian Pentecostal context, states, “Pentecostals do not have a written liturgy in their church worship. … They are against an established and organized form of worship and prefer an oral form of

 Eugene H. Peterson, Answering God. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989), 37.  Peterson, Answering God, 35. 39  Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee (Ed), Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (Michigan: Zondervan, 1988), 805. 37 38

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liturgy because everyone can participate in it, both the educated and the uneducated.”40 However, such a widely used oral liturgy does not negate the possibility of a literary-based spiritual practice of Expressive Writing. In fact, since the early years of Pentecostal expansion in Kerala, in addition to the oral methods, the Pentecostal leaders also relied on literary methods to promote their teachings. One example is the well-known book “Parishudathma Snannem”41 [Holy Spirit Baptism] written by K.  E. Abraham in 1923. Almost a century later, today, as Kerala prides on being the highest literate state in India with a 96.2% literacy rate, there has also been an increase in Malayalam Pentecostal periodicals such as Good News, Sworgeeya Dwoni, Kristhava Chintha, Maruppacha, and Hallelujah, that are specifically aimed at serving Kerala Pentecostals offering theological reflections regularly. Therefore, the sole reliance of Pentecostal spirituality on oral methods (spoken word) may be seen as a “myth,” as Scott A. Ellington puts it.42 Although Ellington’s observation of the fading oral expression of Pentecostalism is from a western and northern church context, such a statement should also be considered in other parts of the world where literary expressions are rising due to education reforms. Such a transition from oral to literary is envisaged by some early theologians as they noted, “as classical Pentecostalism moves from a sect to a church, the subculture will, of course, become more literary.”43 However, such a transition does not mean that one has to replace the uniqueness of Pentecostal oral liturgy, which distinguishes it from other Christian traditions.44 Instead, it  V. V. Thomas, “Pentecostalism in Post Modern Era: Potentials/Possibilities, Problems and Challenges” in Rajeevan Matthew Thomas and Josfin Raj, Eds, Pentecostalism: Polyphonic Discourses (Delhi: ISPCK, 2019), 76. 41  K. E. Abraham, Parishudathma Snannem, (Kerala: K. E. Abraham Foundation, 1991). 42  Scott A. Ellington, “‘Can I Get a Witness’: The Myth of Pentecostal Orality and the Process of Traditioning in the Psalms,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 20, no. 1 (2011): 54–67. 43  Burgees and McGee, Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, 805. 44  While oral liturgy of Pentecostalism continues to resonate with the poor and the marginalized, from a global perspective, Pentecostalism has both “poor” and “elites,” to use W. J. Hollenweger’s terminology, where “the Pentecostal poor are oral nonconceptual peoples who are often masters of the story. … [On the other end] Pentecostal elites are literary conceptual people who pride themselves on speaking the language of science and technology” (W.  J. Hollenweger “The Pentecostal Elites and the Pentecostal Poor: A Missed Dialogue?” in Karla Poewe, ed, Charismatic Christianity as a global culture (Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina, 1994), 213. Therefore, Hollenweger’s call is to have a genuine dialogue between these groups and not let the growing ‘elites’ forget the concerns of the poor or replace orality from Pentecostal spirituality. 40

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calls for a combined Pentecostal spirituality that considers both oral and literary methods of spiritual expression. As societies become more literary-based, Pentecostals need to include literary-based spiritual practices. Therefore, in what follows, we will briefly explore three unique Pentecostal teachings that will help us see Expressive Writing, a literary-based exercise, as a Pentecostal practice of lament, which may be an apt practice for communities like Kerala that embrace both oral and literary distinctiveness. First, Expressive Writing as a Pentecostal spiritual practice finds its rationale in the emphasis on the Holy Spirit. From Romans 8:18-30, as we understand the nature of the Spirit, who groans in times of sorrow and pain, we can also situate a rationale for lament practice. In such a scriptural context, one may think of stages of experiencing the Spirit in suffering, where the practice of Expressive Writing comes in at the second stage of grieving. In her book Suffering, Dorothee Soelle speaks of the first stage as “mute suffering,”45 where “we are stripped of the autonomy to think, speak, and act.”46 Words do not aid in this stage of grief. It is in this stage that the Spirit “intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Romans 8: 26). However, in the second stage, one is capable of expressions but not necessarily on a rational level, therefore, practices such as—“lament, petition, expression of hope”47 become crucial. In this stage, the Spirit can use the lament practice of Expressive Writing to bring healing and hope.48 Second, given that the Pentecostals are already accustomed to the practice of testimony where individuals orally reflect on their lives and express their prayers and praise, writing personal thoughts of lament may not be an altogether new undertaking. However, it should be noted that Pentecostal testimonies, although at times contain narrations of suffering and pain, they have been commonly “glossing over the problem of theodicy.”49 Contrarily by the practice of Expressive Writing, the existence of evil, pain, and sorrow that are part of life are acknowledged in the  Dorothee Soelle, Suffering (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975), 68.  Soelle, Suffering, 69. 47  Soelle, Suffering, 72. 48  It is also important to note that scholars have recognized Glossolalia’s role in the process of lament. Torr using Soelle’s framework, sees Glossolalia as “an aid to help the suffer transition from phase one to phase two as it could be used as an expression of emotion.” See Stephen C.  Torr, “Lamenting in Tongues: Glossolalia as a Pneumatic Aid to Lament,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology, 26, no. 1 (2017): 44. 49  Ellington, “Can I Get a Witness,” 61. 45 46

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presence of God without having to negate them in search of a happy ending. In fact, writing down about the occasions of suffering and pain, the practice of Expressive Writing also can affect the understanding of testimony in a more vibrant manner. As Ellington puts it, “the inclusion of ‘testimonies of defeat’… would render the ‘testimonies of victory’ more credible and diminish a trivial rendition of existence.”50 In other words, the inclusion of lament in Expressive Writing can enhance the definition of testimony. Subsequently, testimony finds its origin “at home in the midst of lament, when God is still silent and the outcome is uncertain. We do not wait for the end of the story to testify, but we offer testimonies …[as] an ongoing experience” of pain and suffering.51 Third, Expressive Writing as a Pentecostal lament practice is built upon the Pentecostal eschatological hope awaiting Christians. Peter Althouse notes, “The already-but-not-yet tension of the coming consummation of the eschatological kingdom is more in keeping with the charismatic center of Pentecostalism.”52 This means, that the charismatic giftings are seen as the foretaste of the return of Jesus Christ and God’s coming kingdom. With the COVID-19 crisis, such an eschatological hope has received renewed attention from Pentecostals worldwide. At the same time, such an eschatological urgency calls for the practice of lament. As Scott Ellington puts it, “As we await the return of Christ, lament cries out impatiently, urging that someday would become this day. As long as we live in the now-but-not-yet of this life, we can and should cry out to God for the suffering of the innocent and protest God’s silence in the face of need.”53 Expressive Writing provides an avenue for the Pentecostals to lament and voice their urgency for eschatological presence to God. In fact, some of the songs that are sung in Pentecostal churches in Kerala are examples of such Expressive Writing, which encompasses the eschatological urgency. One such is the song “kannuner enne marrumo” [when will the sorrows pass by] written by Sam T. Mukhathala, which blends both lament and the eschatological hope. The stanzas narrate the following:54

 Ellington, “Can I Get a Witness,” 61.  Ellington, “Can I Get a Witness,” 62. 52   Peter Althouse, “Eschatology,” in Adam Stewart (ed), Handbook of Pentecostal Christianity. (Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 2012), 74–75. 53  Scott Ellington, Risking Truth, (Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2008), 181. 54  The lyrics of the song are originally written and sung in Malayalam. The translation presented in this chapter is the author’s own. 50 51

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When will the sorrows pass by, When will the pain come to an end? In times of misery, Please come by as salvation…. Savior, I await for the restful home. I long for that arrival Please don’t be delayed My strength is waning.

Similar songs and poems stand as an example of poetic Expressive Writing that enables Pentecostal believers to imagine writing as a spiritual practice for lament.

Conclusion As we conclude, it is essential to note that this chapter’s main intention was to propose Expressive Writing as a Pentecostal practice of lament in light of the mental health crisis ensuing COVID-19 (and post-COVID-19) season. From the context of Kerala Pentecostalism, the chapter briefly noted how COVID-19 halted the exuberant nature of corporate worship, adding to the mental distress of Pentecostal adherents. Subsequently, the chapter presented a speculative analysis identifying lament and Expressive Writing as the appropriate response to the season of mental distress that is still ensuing from COVID-19. Hence, through a brief literary analysis of the book of Lamentations and the Pentecostal teachings of the Holy Spirit, the eschatology, and the already existing practice of testimony, the case was made to consider Expressive Writing as an apt Pentecostal practice of Lament. By proposing such a literary mode of Pentecostal spirituality, the chapter also speculates an emergence of a new dawn in Pentecostal Spirituality where both—oral and literary—forms of spiritual practices are envisioned to meet the spiritual appetite of a globalized, orally or literarily acclimated Pentecostal populace.

CHAPTER 19

Marian Pentecostalism and Environmentalism Sanna Pauliina Urvas

Introduction Human experiences and observations have generated various perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic ever since the spring and summer months of the year 2020. These include unprecedented phases of suffering caused by the coronavirus and various variants, which have materialized in lost lives; friends and family members.1 Additionally, the pandemic has negatively affected the global economy, as many countries, or the whole world economy has experienced a drop in GDP and general growth expectations. However, many governments have acted efficiently and the worst-case

 I include myself to this group having lost my step-father and the beloved grandfather of my family because of COVID-19. 1

S. P. Urvas (*) Theological School of Finland, Tampere, Finland © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_19

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scenarios were avoided.2 Even if societies have found ways to cope with the pandemic, private homes still face many challenges. These challenges can be observed in the increased domestic violence and other forms of hostilities.3 Furthermore, religious persecution of Christians has escalated and religious freedom has been threatened.4 However, during the halt of the global economy and air traffic, something happened. For a brief moment, there were clearer skies and cleaner rivers.5

2  Nurul Mohammad Zayed, Sunjida Khan, Shahiduzzaman Khan Shahi, Mithila Afrin “Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the World Economy, 2020: A Conceptual Analysis,” Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, 5. no. 1 (2021): 1–5. DOI: 10.26855/jhass.2021.01.001; “The Global Economic Outlook During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Changed World,” The Feature story. The World Bank (June 8, 2020), https:// www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2020/06/08/the-global-economic-outlook-during-the-COVID-19-pandemic-a-changed-world (accessed, September 8, 2020); Alan Rappeport and Jeanna Smialek, “I.M.F.  Predicts Worst Downturn Since the Great Depression”, The New  York Times, (June 24, 2020) https://www.nytimes. com/2020/04/14/us/politics/coronavirus-economy-recession-depression.html, (accessed September 21, 2020), (accessed, April 18, 2022), Szmigiera, M. “Impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the global economy—Statistics & Facts”, Statista (Feb. 21, 2022) https:// www.statista.com/topics/6139/COVID-19-impact-on-the-global-economy/ #topicHeader__wrapper (accessed, April 18, 2022). 3  Piquero, Alex R., Wesley G.  Jennings, Erin Jemison, Catherine Kaukinen and Felicia Marie Knaul, “Domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic—Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis”, Journal of Criminal Justice 74 (2021), https://www. sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-criminal-justice, (accessed, April 18, 2022), “COVID-19 and Ending Violence Against Women and Girls.” UN Women, https://www. unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2020/ issue-brief-COVID-19-and-ending-violence-against-women-and-girls-en.pdf?la=en&vs= 5006 (accessed, September 8, 2020). 4  Madera, Adelaide. 2021. “The Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Religious Exercise: Preliminary Remarks” Laws 10, no. 2 (2021), 44. https://doi.org/10.3390/ laws10020044 (accessed, April 18, 2022); John L.  Allen Jr., Inés San Martín, et  al. “COVID-19 crisis in Africa increasing levels of Christian persecution, charity says,” Crux, (August 13, 2020), https://cruxnow.com/church-in-africa/2020/08/COVID-19crisis-in-africa-increasing-levels-of-christian-persecution-charity-says/ (accessed, September 8, 2020). 5  Soutik Biswas, “India coronavirus: Can the COVID-19 lockdown spark a clean air movement?” BBC News, (April 20, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asiaindia-52313972 (accessed, September 8, 2020).

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This poses the question of whether we need to care for our environment when there is human suffering weighing down the communities?6 The theological reflection which listens to the voices of the past, and experiences of the present, and seeks wisdom for the future encourages a perspective that suggests that we need to and can have both. This is possible through the Marian-inspired Pentecostal perspective, which observes and attends to the Patristic authors from the first centuries of Christianity. The aim is to tie together the notion of humanity as part of the grand plan of redemption which is not separate from taking care of the creation. The Marian approach as a method to construct theology is my personal choice to search for a model from Bible narratives, which would motivate Pentecostal women to embrace their spirituality and active agency within Christian communities, and as citizens of our nations. The intention is to encourage women to work for the welfare of their Christian communities as well as the environment. I write as a woman affiliated with Charismatic Pentecostal Christianity, and as a scholar, who regards the tradition of theology as an important source for reflection, especially in the Patristic era before the division of the Church. Therefore, I do not comment on the later development of Marian doctrines or the liturgical traditions of either East or West to avoid possible ecumenical challenges of contemporary Mariology. Instead, I have built my hermeneutical perspective with three observations on the person of Mary. First, as the mother of God and the God-bearer, as Theotokos who carried the Cosmic Christ in her womb. Secondly, Mary was an active agent in a scheme that enabled the redemption to take place, and thirdly, most importantly, as a prophet. The theological sources from the Patristic era are Pseudo-Macarius and primarily, Irenaeus of Lyon, which are introduced below.

6  The themes of climate change, pollution, pandemic are interrelated with mental health. See Donatella Marazziti, Paolo Cianconi, Federico Mucci, Lara Foresi, Ilaria Chiarantini, Alessandra Della Vecchia, “Climate change, environment pollution, COVID-19 pandemic and mental health”, Science of The Total Environment 773, (2021) www.elsewier.com. (accessed, April 18, 2022).

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Sin and Indifference Towards the Suffering of the Other The University of Oregon reported a study that examined “how story form influences reader reaction to news accounts of mass violence in Africa”7. The result showed how the manner of telling the story affected the emotional response. Story personification had the strongest influence.8 This can be turned upside down and as such, it becomes a piece of common knowledge. If someone’s suffering does not touch us, we remain indifferent. Suffering is a personal experience, but a Christian community is called to bear one another’s burdens. (Gal. 6:2) If we fail to look after the weakest ones, it is not a pleasing sight to the Lord. (Is. 58:9–10). This indifferent attitude is typical for humans and directly and indirectly a characteristic of the sinful nature of humanity. It breeds reports like the above-­ mentioned effects of COVID-19, especially regarding the violence and neglect of those who are the weakest in our societies. Human sinful behavior affects individuals, but sin has a collective nature, which should be recognized when we are searching for a remedy for the suffering of humankind.9 If sin is collective, even if suffered by individuals, the cure needs to be collective as well. But the sinful neglect extends even further. The declining condition of the climate cannot be ignored. We cannot remain indifferent regarding the suffering of our environment, because there are reports available that indicate that the deprived condition of the ecosystem is possibly among the reasons behind this pandemic.10 Therefore, the solace for the current COVID-19 situation could be those clearer skies and rivers, but a theologically grounded argument is needed to understand our responsibility to take care of our environment. This is the reason I turn now to Mary, 7  Scott R. Maier, Paul Slovic, Marcus Mayorga, “Reader reaction to news of mass suffering: Assessing the influence of story form and emotional response,” Journalism, (August 11, 2016) https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916663597, (accessed September 9, 2020). 8  Maier, Slovic and Mayorga. “Reader reaction to news of mass suffering.” 9  See more, Sanna Urvas, “Theology of sin and evil in Classical Pentecostalism. Two case studies,” (PhD diss., University of Helsinki, 2020), f. ex. ch. 5. 10  M.  Fernanda Gebara, Peter H.  May, Gunars Platais, “Pandemics, conservation, and human-nature relations” Climate Change Ecology 2 (2021) www. elsewier.com (accessed, April 18, 2022); WWF, “Covid 19: Urgent call to protect people and nature,” (June, 2020), https://wwfeu.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_covid19_urgent_call_to_protect_ people_and_nature_1.pdf, (accessed September 9, 2020).

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Irenaeus, and Pseudo-Macarius to build an argument that unites an individual experience of suffering and the need for global and collective concern for the future of our environment and climate.

The Personhood of Mary Mary as a woman, and a mother, is presented through the Gospel narratives, but the tradition carried further to symbolize her in such a way that the person of Mary often seems to withdraw and disappear to the background. However, especially Luke introduces to his readers a young woman, who is willing to take part in the plan of redemption prepared for humanity. Mary is also acting as a prophet,11 who pronounces the favor of God for the poor, the weak, and the needy. (Luke 1:46–55) That is the first example we need to embrace from her. Mary acted as filled with the Holy Spirit. She was not a passive victim in a cosmic plan, but an active agent and an actor who submitted her life for the greater good. She experienced one of the greatest pains that can strike a mother, losing her child to a cruel death. The tradition when interpreted assumes that she would have remained with the newly born Christian community, even if the message of salvation was what ultimately killed her son.12 Mary’s actions and decisions were possible because she was filled with the Spirit and did not need to act according to her own human strength. Mary’s experience is an important notion for Pentecostals because we long to be baptized by the Holy Spirit, and to live a life filled with the Spirit. The experiences of joy and grief allowed Mary to generate the prophetic words which remind the world of the need for collective responsibility. Thus, she became a model of how to endure one’s circumstances with the power of God for the good of others. The lowly and unpleasant conditions did not make her passive; she dared to proclaim God’s just order, which is based on the idea that monetary possession could never justify the value of a person.

11  See especially Serafim Seppälä, “Is the Virgin Mary a prophetess? Patristic, Syriac and Islamic views.” Parole de l’Orient 36 (2011): 367–373. 12  Andrew Louth, “Mary in Patristics,” Oxford Handbook of Mary, edited by Chris Maunder (September 2019), https://www-oxfordhandbooks-com.libproxy.helsinki.fi/ view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198792550.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780198792550-e-19, (accessed September 20, 2020).

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This attitude is part of creating a community, which is attentive to its suffering members. Simon Chan writes about the challenges of suffering community and the need for intimacy which is more than mere words. But intimacy is more talked about than experienced because it is a painful process. It involves risks, possible misunderstanding, vulnerability, perhaps even losing something of oneself to the other person. Relating to the other person means giving him or her space, to be truly a person. It means foregoing the temptation to impose our own will on the other. There is joy in personal relationship, but the joy comes by the way of death to self.13

During the time of collective and global distress, it is even more imperative that we act as Mary, by looking beyond ourselves, aided by the power of the Holy Spirit. There is a need to overcome the tendencies of our sinful nature, the temptation of self-centeredness. This is possible with God. The second lesson from Mary is her title as Theotokos.14 She carried the incarnated Christ, God himself, in her womb. She gave her flesh to be wrapped around logos so that Christ could be revealed as fully human and fully God. Her willingness and active choice to be part of this redemptive event built a link to the creation of the world. Logos was present and an active agent in creation.  This causality can also be seen vice versa  and therefore, the creation of the universe can be seen as the first act of redemption. This notion and perspective of the divine act of creation is adopted from Irenaeus of Lyon, a church father and a bishop from the second century of Christianity.15 My argument to defend the necessity to care for our environment follows the ideas of Irenaeus’ theology of creation and the way he combines the redemption of humanity within that framework.

13  Simon Chan, Spiritual Theology: A Systematic Study of the Christian Life (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 113. 14  Richard Price, “The Virgin as Theotokos at Ephesus (ad 431) and Earlier,” Oxford Handbook of Mary, edited by Chris Maunder (September 2019), https://www-oxfordhandbooks-com.libproxy.helsinki.fi/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198792550.001.0001/ oxfordhb-9780198792550-e-27, (accessed September 14, 2020) 15  See Paul Parvis, “Who was Irenaeus? An Introduction to the Man and His Work,” Irenaeus. Life, Scripture, Legacy, edited by Sara Parvis and Paul Foster, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012), 13–24.

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Irenaeus’ Theology of Creation and Redemption Irenaeus interpreted the creation of the world as a manifestation of divine benevolence in which the creation is an extension of God’s love.16 Intentionality was one important aspect of creation for him and M.C. Steenberg describes his views by explaining that “Creation is commenced intentionally by God, with the express purpose of its progression toward the eventual salvation of Israel and, through Israel, all humankind.”17 Another view that unites creation to redemption is Irenaeus’ vision of progressive soteriology. Irenaeus thought that the salvific ultimate telos followed the path of growth of humans towards God; which in turn, commenced in creation. Incarnation is naturally part of this plan, and Irenaeus saw that human growth and the aim for maturity found their full definition in Jesus Christ.18 Therefore, the stages of creation, incarnation, and redemption are linear but simultaneously overlap in the plan towards the final goal, but ultimately Christ is the crux of all. Thus, the plan of salvation was intentionally present before the beginning of time. Irenaeus wrote regarding Christ. “Since he had pre-existence as a saving being, it was necessary that what might be saved should also be called into existence, in order that the being who saves should not exist in vain.”19 This was before the existence of time in eternity, before the existence of any form of matter or substance, and this Cosmic Christ had a concealed redemptive nature woven in his pre-incarnate being. In other words, this “before the time” scenery could be understood with the intentionality of God to create that He could reveal himself as the Savior for humanity, which in turn has been created for love. Therefore, there were no demands or requirements for the act of creation, but the pure expression of God’s own loving and saving character. The incarnation is a metaphysical key to the understanding of how Mary ties to the story. Mary participated to this act, and this has been interpreted as her being the first disciple and a follower of Christ in salvation. The argument for this view is built with the careful exegetical interpretation of the Luke 1:28 from the Greek word κεχαριτωμένη which indicates that Mary had already 16  Matthew C.  Steenberg, Irenaeus on Creation. The Cosmic Christ and the Saga of Redemption. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae Vol. 91 (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2008), 22. 17  Steenberg, Irenaeus on Creation, 30. 18  Steenberg, Irenaeus on Creation, 6. 19  Irenaeus, Epideixis. 3.22.3. In Steenberg, Irenaeus on Creation, 34.

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been transformed by grace.20 This can be interpreted with various denominational connotations, but the emphasis used here is her role as a believer, as a person who was transformed to faith and with faith, as it is commonly understood in Pentecostal ethos. Chris Maunder points out how Mary is the heroine of the nativity scene and how her prophetic vocation in Luke’s text is well established through her speeches. Later development combined these notions with an ecclesiological tone indicating Mary as a prototype and an image of the church, and in her role as the first disciple.21 Therefore, Mary is the one who carried this message of salvation in her body but equally with her words. The womanhood of Mary is not seen here from the perspective of submission, but through participation in a personal manner, which becomes collective in nature. Women have a reproductive capacity far beyond anything a man could experience. But this is also a fair reminder to us, of how close we are to the natural cycles of life. Every woman who has gone through labor can identify with the power of the process when a child is ready to be born, and no mother-to­be can escape the situation.22 The joy and relief follow the pain, and the wonder of a new life is magnificent. We are part of the creation and every newborn baby proclaims that breathtakingly. Identification, fellowship, and participation in the creation should encourage us to share the burden of nature, our environment, and the concern of the slow destruction of our natural ecosystem. Therefore, all women are now called to follow Mary’s example, and to be prophetic voices on behalf of our natural world as well as our suffering communities.

Eschatological Vision and an Ecological Concern Pentecostal ethos has not been famous of its concern for our environment. Classical Pentecostal view of the future, and our preaching of eschatology, used to be mixed with scenes of fear and destruction regarding the tribulation, rapture and the Second coming of Jesus. Walter Hollenweger wrote some decades ago how “in most [Pentecostal] churches—officially at 20  Chris Maunder, “Mary and the Gospel Narratives,” Oxford Handbook of Mary, edited by Chris Maunder (September 2019), https://www-oxfordhandbooks-com.libproxy.helsinki. fi/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198792550.001.0001/oxfordhb9780198792550-e-39, (accessed September 16, 2020) 21  Maunder, “Mary and the Gospel Narratives,” 31. 22  I have given birth to five children, so I can easily identify in this with all mothers in the world.

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least—the expectation of the second coming of Jesus still predominates.”23 This has gradually changed and for example, contemporary Pentecostal theological reflection is more multifaceted. Amos Yong writes a renewal theology in which one perspective for eschatology is generated through exegetical observation of Lukan writings. Yong writes. “The key, however, is that eschatological redemption is conceived of more in terms of a this-worldly (resurrected and embodied; Luke 14:14; 20;35–36) messianic day of the Lord (Luke 4:19; Acts 2:20) involving Jews and Gentiles than in otherworldly terms.”24 Yong emphasizes the transformative nature of the eschaton and how this eschatological vision is not a fear for the future but something broader. “It is to say that living in light of the resurrection not only brings hope for the life to come but also participates in God’s salvific work in the present.”25 This eschatological paradigm became more prominent through several writers during the twentieth century, for example, Jürgen Moltmann. He wrote. “The eschatological is not one element of Christianity, but it is the medium of Christian faith as such, the key in which everything in it is set, the glow that suffuses everything here in the dawn of an expected day.”26 Since Moltmann, eschatology has gained more momentum in the academic theological literature. Moltmann emphasizes the essence of hope in his view of eschatological millennialism which is “a necessary picture of hope in resistance, in suffering, and in exiles of this world.”27 Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen reminds us of the roles of the humanity and God in the eschatological vision and its multi-dimensional nature in which there is a

23  Walter J. Hollenweger, The Pentecostals (London: Hendrickson Publishers, 1972), 415. See also Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Hope and Community. A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World Vol. 5. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2017), 215. 24  Amos Yong, Renewing Christian Theology. Systematics for a Global Christianity (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2014), 48. 25  Yong, Renewing Christian Theology, 49. 26  Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope. On the Ground and the Implications of a Christian Eschatology (London: SCM Press, 1967), 39. See more of the development of eschatological theology Yong, Renewing Christian Theology, 34–37; Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Hope and Community, 205–219. 27  Jürgen Moltmann, The Coming of God. Christian Eschatology. Translated by Margareth Kohl (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), 192. Quoted in Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Hope and Community, 218.

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dynamic tension between “the human-initiative and God-centered activity as well as this-globe-centered and cosmic expectations.”28 This view in eschatology is not an entirely new invention in theology, because Irenaeus already created this link in his writings. During the age of Irenaeus, it was common to connect things of the beginning and the things in the end in a presupposed aesthetic parallelism.29 However, the bridge between the beginning and the end was also a soteriological factor for Irenaeus, that everything, in the beginning, was established in light of the expected end. Therefore, the six days of creation was followed by the Sabbath rest, in which everything would be renewed. Irenaeus wrote about the inheritance of the earth, made for Adam and Eve.30 Irenaeus interpreted the millennial time, or the chiliastic kingdom, through the prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel. It was assumed to be a time of restoration and renewal, a clear continuity of this present existence, not a view in which the old is destroyed and the new world is created. Steenberg points out, how it was important for Irenaeus to underline the restoration of creation because Christ in his resurrection body was a message of the restoration of matter, not the destruction of fleshly reality.31 The metaphysical significance of the incarnation with the tight connection to the created existence and the natural world is important. Irenaeus wrote also regarding the future of the righteous people of God. It needs to be reminded that Irenaeus lived during the age of persecution. It is necessary that the just, when they rise at the Lord’s appearance, first receive the inheritance, promised by God to the forefathers, in this creation which is being renewed, and to reign in it. After that will be the judgement for all men. For it is just that they receive the fruits of their suffering in the creation in which they laboured […], to be brought to life in which they were killed for the sake of God; and to reign in the creation in which they endured servitude. […] It is proper that the creation itself, after being restored to its pristine state, be of unhindered service to the just.32

Therefore, with these views of Irenaeus and the restoration of creation in mind, we do not have the right to remain indifferent towards the  Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Hope and Community, 219. Italics original.  Steenberg, Irenaeus on Creation, 52. 30  Steenberg, Irenaeus on Creation, 52. See. Irenaeus, Against Heresies. 5.33.1. 31  Steenberg, Irenaeus on Creation, 54. Also Kärkkäinen, Hope and Community, 215. 32  Irenaeus, Against Heresies. 5.32.1. In Steenberg, Irenaeus on Creation, 55. 28 29

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destruction and neglect of the environment as much as we need to be attentive to the suffering of humankind. If God is about to renew and restore, it should not be humanity who overuses and abuses nature. Instead, we ought to be participants in the hoping and expecting of the coming renewal. There is a need for humanity to look after nature as it anguishes due to our sinful and destructive behavior. (Romans 8:19–23).33

Another Lesson from the Past We return to the sinful and wavering character of humanity and to another writer from the Patristic era. The reason to use and select these old authorities is defended by the need for Pentecostals to find their roots from the heritage of the shared theological foundation with the rest of the Christian world. Additionally, these old sources have wisdom that can be utilized in our contemporary communities. Irenaeus and the other source, Pseudo-­ Macarius are both voices from the past but were members of worshiping communities that took spiritual gifts and the charismatic lifestyle seriously.34 Furthermore, Irenaeus was a Biblicist whose argument was tightly based on Scriptures.35 Still, Pseudo-Macarius was an important inspiration to John Wesley, who in turn was a central figure in the historic lineage of the Pentecostal revival.36 Little is known about the person or life of Pseudo-Macarius. The milieu of his writings is Syria, around 380. There is a link to the charismatic movement known as Messalianism. That movement was condemned as heretical by the series of synods. However, the studies commonly agree that Macarius remains orthodox in his writings and he did not include or

33  See Harry Alan Hahne, “The Whole Creation Has Been Groaning,” Apocalyptic Vision. A Christian Reflection, (Waco, Texas: Center for Christian Ethics, Baylor University, 2010), 19–28. https://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/106702.pdf (accessed September 20, 2020) 34  Robert M.  Grant, Irenaeus of Lyons. The Early Church Fathers (London: Routledge, 1997), 6; George A.  Maloney, S.J. “Introduction”, Pseudo-Macarius. The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter (New York: Paulist Press, 1992), 19, 25. 35  Steenberg, Irenaeus on Creation, 2. 36  See, for example, Henry Knight, “From Aldersgate to Azusa: Wesley and the Renewal of Pentecostal Spirituality” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 4 Iss.8. (1996): 82–98. https://doi. org/10.1177/096673699600400807

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incline towards any notions of heresy.37 Therefore, he is an important voice of the past to the Pentecostals and needs to be heard. Macarius utilized a holistic notion of humanity in his writings, in which a human heart is a central concept. Macarius believed the heart can designate the human person as a whole, which is understood to be a spiritual subject. The heart is the place from where life springs forth or where death emerges. Macarius wrote. And the heart itself is but a small vessel, yet there also are dragons, and there are lions; there are poisonous beasts and all the treasures of evil. And there are rough and uneven roads; there are precipices. But there is also God, also the angels, the life and the kingdom, the light and the apostles, the treasures of grace—there are all things. Just as a fog hangs over the whole earth, so that one does not see his fellow man, so is the darkness of this world covering all creation and humanity.38

This reminds us about the fallibility of the fallen humankind and the wavering nature of our will and strength. We need to fix our eyes to Jesus to be able to remain steadfast and choose good for our neighbor and the created world around us. I hope Mary’s life could inspire us all, both women and men. However, we need the grace of God and the Spirit of Jesus to accomplish this.

The Way Forward At the time of this writing, the COVID-19 pandemic has yet to end. The global community of Christians must remain alert to help those in need regardless of their religious affiliation. But let us not neglect the nature around us. Therefore, I turn back to the scientists and hear their voices. Professor Markku Kulmala and his colleagues explain the importance of the brief moment during the spring and the summer of 2020; a brief relief from pollution and haze which people observed at the skies. That moment appeared to be a God-given window for scientists to understand what is really going on between the layers of the atmosphere. Kulmala writes how “The present strict measures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic 37  Kallistos Ware, “Preface,” Pseudo-Macarius. The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter (New York: Paulist Press, 1992), xi–xii. 38  Pseudo-Macarius, Homily 43.7. In Pseudo-Macarius. The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter (New York: Paulist Press, 1992), 222.

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provide a unique opportunity to study, in a real-world atmospheric laboratory, the direct and indirect effects on air pollution of reduced primary particle emissions as well as the molecular-scale mechanisms of secondary processes in Chinese megacities.” The studies revealed a highly complex web of harmful chemical reactions which did not decrease despite the reduced production of new pollution during the spring 2020. The most crucial observation was that the emission reduction during the lockdown period was far from being sufficient enough to eliminate the problem of our polluted sky and climate. Kulmala calls for stricter emission controls to gain sustained pollution mitigation.39 I hope that the global community of Christians, Pentecostals included, can find new strength to turn around this disastrous development observed in our polluted skies and rivers. I make a plea to the women of the world to look to Mary in hopes to obtain the courage to make a change that will allow our children to find solace in the sweetness of the natural environment in the decades to come.

39  Markku Kulmala et al., “The effect of COVID-19 restrictions on the atmospheric chemical cocktail and new particle formation in China,” Science, AAAS.  Submitted manuscript (2020), 3, 9. See also Markku Kulmala, “Atmospheric chemistry: China’s choking cocktail,” Nature (October 21, 2015) https://www.nature.com/news/atmospheric-chemistry-chinas-choking-cocktail-1.18586 (accessed September 12, 2020).

CHAPTER 20

Death Rituals in Western Kenya Esther Moraa Mombo and Aloo Osotsi Mojola

Introduction The decade of 2020 began with a word of a novel version of a virus, with flu-like symptoms, wreaking havoc in Wuhan, China. COVID-19 was quickly understood to be an insidious respiratory ailment, which spread in multiple ways—through contact with others, especially through breathing. Initially, it seemed to be contained within the Wuhan province; but soon after, the virus began to spread rapidly, to the extent that in approximately three months, the virus, named COVID-19, or the novel had become a global pandemic. In this chapter, we propose to discuss various aspects and themes related to death, funerals and burial as conducted among selected sub-groups of

E. M. Mombo • A. O. Mojola (*) St. Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_20

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the larger Luyia ethnic community of Western Kenya.1 The study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on invented traditions and everyday life that have been the focus of our research. The focus of the chapter is on the situation before and after COVID-19 and includes a discussion of how COVID-19 has disrupted and upended normal life, including death and funeral rituals at the heart of the social fabric and the healing of the bereaved in the communities examined. The pre-COVID-19 data are drawn from research on selected Luyia communities in Western Kenya, conducted earlier on how the rituals had persisted despite the many years of Christian and modern influence in the same region.2 Observations based on the findings of that study are compared with the current COVID-19 situation. The rituals act as a source of comfort, healing and restoration of wholeness, for the family and community of the deceased. The rituals also act as a means for the bereaved to find meaning in dealing with the mystery of death. The death of a loved one is normally followed by—among other events—the public announcement of the death on various media, various meetings to plan for burial arrangements, the choice of coffin, the transfer of the deceased for burial to their respective ancestral or established home, the site of burial, the digging of the grave, the death procession from the mortuary to the home and place of burial, the procession to the grave for interment, a church service if the deceased is active in a church, or alternative location for those who are not, dressing of the corpse for burial, internment, subsequent rituals, including an expectation of communication with the deceased by close family members, inheritance and re-­marriage rituals, among others. With COVID-19 the ceremonies examined have been in one way or another disrupted and upended. The upheavals caused by COVID-19 1  Gideon S.  Were, A History of Abaluyia of Western of Kenya 1500-1930 (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1967); Shadrack A. Bulimo, Luyia of Kenya: A Cultural Profile (Bloomington, Indiana: Trafford Publishing, 2013); Shadrack A.  Bulimo, Luyia Nation: Origins, Clans and Taboos (Bloomington, Indiana: Trafford Publishing, 2013); John Osogo, A History of the Baluyia (Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1966); G. Wagner, The Bantu of North Kavirondo  (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1958); JD.  Otiende, Habari za Abaluyia, Nairobi: East Africa Literature Bureau, 1950). 2  Developing a contemporary African Christian response to some current beliefs, customs and practices that surround death, funerals and burials: the case of the Luyia ethnic group in western Kenya. The research was funded by the Nagel institute as part of the Templeton project.

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have posed difficult questions and challenges. Social media has been inundated with clips on death-related issues, some of them satirical through which people try to cope with death. Some of the news on national television has helped to bring to light some of the issues around the conduct of death. One such report tells of “professional mourners mourning the loss of their source of livelihood due to the official requirement limiting the number of people who could attend funerals or participate in the various related rites, rituals or ceremonies.”3 This has already resulted among other things, of various groups of mourners losing various benefits from funeral activities, including their source of funding and livelihood. Families and society at large are grappling with the realities of the new normal, including how this pertains to funeral rites. Dying alone is viewed as a sad state of affairs, but to be buried at night or with a few people in attendance, as has commonly been reported and observed, is even harder to contemplate.

Funeral Rites and Practices In songs with such titles as “Kifo” (meaning death), the artists ask questions about the origin of death and observe that death robs the society of all people and it affects all people.4 The subject of death is not new, but it is mostly discussed especially when there is a pandemic such as COVID-19 currently being experienced. Philosophers, theologians, anthropologists and others have written widely on the subject and how society makes sense of it. Arnold van Gennep, in his book The Rites of Passage, saw death as one of the numerous “life crises” which bring about major changes in the status of the individual undergoing them. Hence as he notes: “Transitions from group to group and from one social institution to the next are looked on as implicit in the very fact of existence, so that a man’s life comes to be made up of a succession of stages with similar ends and beginnings” which he divides into three major phases, beginning with rites of separation which sever the individual from his previous status. These are followed by an intermediate period, and they are concluded by a period of incorporation (aggregation) utilizing which the person is installed into a new

3 4

 NTV May 2, 2020  Remmy Ongala- “Kifo Hakina Huruma” (tr. Death has no Mercy)

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status.5 In the same vein, A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, in The Andaman Islanders pointed out that death constitutes partial destruction of social cohesion in which the normal social life is disorganized, and the social equilibrium disturbed. After the death, the society has to organize itself anew and reach a new condition of equilibrium.6 Similarly Bronislaw Malinowski, in his Magic, Science and Religion, sees death as “the most disruptive of life crises” (other such crises being birth, puberty and marriage) and argues that “the existence of strong personal attachments and the fact of death which of all human events is the most upsetting and disorganising to man’s calculations, are perhaps the main sources of religious beliefs.”7 Religion, he posits, deals with the problem of death in the following manner: A funeral ceremony expresses the belief in immortality, which as he argues, denies the fact of death, and so comforts the bereaved by their presence at the funeral. This comfort and support, he argues, check the emotions that death produces and controls the stress and anxiety which might disrupt society. Like previous authors, he too maintains that death is “socially disruptive” since it removes a member of society. In the same vein, John Mbiti writing on African Religions has observed that death is something that concerns everybody. He also notes that there are many, and often complicated, ceremonies connected with death, burials, funerals inheritance, the living-dead, the world of the departed, the visit of their human families.8

Luyia’s Ways of Death Death is a key and central rite of passage in most societies. Among the Abaluyia of Western Kenya as elsewhere in Africa, other rites of passage observed include pregnancy and birthing rites; naming rights; initiation rites such as circumcision, betrothal and marriage rites; initiation into elderhood rites and finally funeral and death rites, among others.9 Each of these rites of passage is accompanied by varied associated rituals and 5  Arnold. Van Gennep, The Rites of Passage. Trans. by Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1960). 6  AR  Radcliffe-Brown, The Andaman Islanders (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922), 35. 7   Alfred Bronislaw Malinowski, Magic, Science and Religion (New York: Doubleday, 1954), 54. 8  John Mbiti, Introduction to African Traditional Religion (London: Heinemann, 1975), 149. 9  Ezekiel  Alembi, The Construction of the Abanyole Perceptions on Death Through Oral Funeral Poetry, PhD Dissertation, (University of Helsinki, Finland, 2002).

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ceremonies. These rites and rituals are central to the evolution and formation of the changing identities of members, and include associated processes of socialization and sharing of privileged or secret knowledge for the initiated. A rite of passage facilitates access to the rights and privileges of that stage in life. One is also expected to act and meet all the obligations of that stage in life. Death is the last rite of passage for human beings and it is one in which the complexities of joy and sadness connect. It is a celebration of one’s life despite the loss, as the deceased is not there to celebrate, and the family has to deal and comes to terms with the loss. The rituals concerning the dead are performed by those who remain behind and appear to re-­enact the life of the deceased and also imagine what the next life will be for the deceased. The rituals for the dead are therefore meant to usher the dead to their new abode and to contribute to their welfare in the next life. COVID-19 has called into question the efficacy and significance of some of these practices—that were the norm before COVID-19 but could no longer be performed as a result of COVID-19. Interestingly some of the practices and rituals tended to undermine or go counter to Christian teaching or belief. The church was apparently unable to prevent her members from participating and involvement in these supposed counter-­Christian rites and practices. It has been surprising to note that COVID-19 has been successful in bringing to a standstill instances where the church was unable to discourage or prevent the unChristian or counter-Christian rites and practices, even though this could be just a short-lived or momentary happening.

Burial Preparations Depending on where the death has taken place, different forms of announcements are used. In the home, there is a form of wailing that tells the community that a death has occurred. The notices about death are made by word of mouth, cell phone and the use of social media. As soon as the death has occurred, neighbors, close relatives and friends meet to console, comfort and encourage the bereaved, including all close family members. Under normal circumstances, small and even large numbers of people gather in the home of the deceased, and in the case of urban areas a location is identified and agreed upon where meetings can take place. These meetings are used to plan and organize the various details relating to the funeral arrangements. Fundraising to meet funeral expenses forms a major part of these meetings. In preparation for the burial event notices

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about the deceased are put on radio, in the newspapers as well as on social media. The number of these notices and their size (in color or in black and white) in the newspapers indicate the status of the person and the economic capacity of the family and friends. In the COVID-19 era, the size of the gatherings has been drastically reduced at all large gatherings, and various safety precautions or prescriptions put in place.

COVID-19 Safety Protocols In the early stages of COVID-19, there were countrywide lockdowns. For example, in the case of Kenya, the major cities of Nairobi and Mombasa were under total lockdown. No one was allowed to come in or get out of these metropolitan areas without official permission or in some special emergency. Moreover, within these huge urban areas, night curfews have been declared and forcefully, even brutally enforced by the police. These no doubt drastically affected life locally and nationally, as the usual movements to and from these big cities to the rural areas was disrupted, impacting all the activities that normally bind them together. Even the usual transfer of dead bodies for burial and the associated processions, from these urban areas to ancestral areas in the villages, were severely affected. Moreover, the handling of dead bodies had to satisfy strict public health protocols. Several insensitive scandals in the treatment of dead bodies have been reported in the press, shocking the populace. One notable example was a gentleman from Western Kenya who died in Mombasa presumably due to COVID-19. The usual death rites, rituals and ceremonies were ignored. Relatives were denied an opportunity to pay their usual respects. Government officials forcefully transported the body to the dead man’s village in Western Kenya and literally buried him like a dog. They dug a grave in his village in the middle of the night and threw the man in it. They buried him without the usual rites, rituals, ceremonies or the participation of his close relatives and neighbors. A real scandal occasioned by COVID-19! Equally scandalous and reported in the national news were the night burials by the authorities of well-known Benga and Ohangla musicians, Eric Omondi Odit (aka Omondi Long Lilo) and Benard Onyango (aka Abeny Jachiga).10 Their controversial burials at night without the participation of their close kin or the performance of traditional 10  https://www.kenyatalk.com/index.php?threads/what-is-killing-these-luomusicians-hiv-or-corona.155161/

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rites and rituals kicked up a storm and led to crowds of mourners violently protesting against the police and the authorities. The crowd attempted to exhume or unearth the body of the popular musician from the grave, but the mother of the musician prevented them by lying prostrate on the grave, supported by some family members, challenging the protesting mob to kill her.11 A real cultural scandal! These high-profile cases are an illustration of the authoritarian and somewhat autocratic and heartless manner in which the authorities enforced the COVID-19 safety protocols.

Commercialization and Monetization of Funerals The preparation and planning for funerals are conducted by committees comprising of close family, friends and representatives from the different parts of the community. The committees are responsible for drawing the budget of the funeral expenses. The budget would include costs of a coffin, purchase of clothes for the diseased and close family members during the funeral, catering expenses during the planning period and during the day of burial itself, the mortuary expenses, the cost of printing the program, the cost of tents and seats for those who will attend, transport to ferry people to and from the funeral, the cost of the hearse and the equipment for lowering the body to the grave among other things. During the COVID-19 era the safety protocols have discouraged crowding, feasting and festivities, opportunities for overspending and throwing money around using death as a pretext. Death and funerals have been commercialized and made a terribly expensive affair. This compares well with the heavy expenses for weddings, under normal circumstances, but due to COVID-19 many of these exorbitant expenses have been disregarded, perhaps only during this period of crisis. If the deceased died in hospital and there were medical bills to be paid, the committee plans to fundraise to support the family pay the bills. Funeral budgets vary and they are dependent upon the needs, status of the deceased and how the family, friends and community wish to show respect and honor to them. When all the plans have been completed and the date is set for the funeral, plans to move the body from the mortuary to the home are concluded. The funeral procession from the mortuary to the home is an occasion for pomp and color. The procession is led by bicycles, 11  https://www.kahawatungu.com/drama-as-late-jachigas-mother-sits-on-grave-to-stopfans-from-exhuming-his-remains/

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motorbikes, cars, minibuses as well buses in some cases. As the procession approaches the home of the deceased it is met with people on foot, some decorated with flowers and fresh tree branches. Photographers and videographers usually accompany the group to record these events for future reference. The size and pomp of the funeral processions reflect the status of the deceased in the community, especially in terms of prestige, power and position. Associated activities call for impossible budgets which often leave the bereaved penniless and bankrupt. This has forced the bereaved to engage in fundraising to obtain the funds necessary to conduct a “decent” funeral and burial, and the money needed is usually colossal. The COVID-19 safety protocols have minimized the need and opportunities for capitalizing on the many guests, crowds and unnecessary ceremonies, feasting, processions and other exorbitantly priced accessories.

The Deceased in their Homesteads—Space and Memory On entering the home, there is a variation in the way the body of the deceased is brought into their compound. Among the Tiriki, Isukha and Idakho, the deceased is brought into the home using the main gate, but according to the Kisa, Marama and Wanga as well as Bunyole, a temporary entrance known as “shivanga.”12 is cut by the side of a fence for the deceased to be passed through as observed in the following narrations. Narration A: My husband died away from home but we had built a house in our farm with its own entrance. When we arrived from the mortuary with the body, it was said that the deceased cannot enter our home through the main gate. A temporary entrance “shivanga” would be opened for his body to enter the compound. I came out of the vehicle and protested to the people that my husband himself opened this gate when he was alive. Why should we open a different entrance when he is dead? They started abusing me claiming that the church has spoiled me. But no new entrance was opened. We just used the normal gate into the home but some of my family members and friends thought I did not act well as it is the custom.13 12  Alembi, The Construction of the Abanyole Perceptions on Death Through Oral Funeral Poetry. 13  Focus group discussion with widows Butere October 5, 2016

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Narration B: My husband had been sick for a long time and it was a big challenge to me. I received little support for his medical bills and any other care that he needed. When he died his family came in and I went through all the rituals that some of my fellow widows managed to avoid. I did everything I was asked to do. There is nothing I missed to do, even shaving, I was shaved. I was shaved using a razor blade something I had never done since I was born. I did not know what I know now because I had not started going to church.14

The above narrations A and B highlight some of the challenges that widows undergo, including being required to acquiesce to traditions they may not support, for example, the tradition that requires a dead husband who dies away from the home entry into the homestead using a freshly prepared gate. The women in the above quotes show the pressure exerted to keep up with the traditions of dealing with the deceased that have been discussed especially by scholars.15 From our discussions with them, we learnt that there are widows who have managed to resist adherence to the tradition of the side gate. These widows tended to be those who had education and wider exposure. They tended to be members and leaders of the church. They invoked the power of their education, Christian tradition and appeals to the social institutions of power—such as the police, though not always successfully. They appear to have taken this stand and protested through a voice of both vulnerability and power. Widows who failed to resist or object to bringing in the deceased to their homestead though a side gate, opened the way for all manner of rituals to be performed on them. These women were overpowered by the community and forcefully exposed to abuse and ill-treatment even when they may have had some form of education. They seem not to have had any available agency to appeal to in their time of vulnerability.16 COVID-19 safety protocols may have minimized some incidents such as those above, when strict adherence to these was observed.

 Focus group discussion with widows Butere October 5, 2016  Constance R.A Shisanya, “Death Rituals, the case of Abaluyia of Western Kenya,” in Groaning in Faith African Women in the Household of God Eds. Musimbi Kanyoro and Nyambura Njoroge (Nairobi: Acton, 1996), 186–194. 16  Shisanya, “Death Rituals,” 189. 14 15

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Burial Sites and Types of Graves and their Preparation Preparation for burial includes choosing a site for burial and digging the grave which is done by the male members of the family. Women are not included in choosing the site of burial because they are considered outsiders as they came into the family through marriage. After the selection of the site, the pastor is asked to pray both for the site and the gravediggers. The grave is considered a final home for the body of the deceased. The grave for a male is dug on the right side of the compound from the main house and the female is dug on the left side. The gravediggers prepare the grave according to the preferences of the families. Some families use cement to prepare the inside of the grave while others use cement on the exterior. Some families put a tombstone on the grave after the funeral while others take a while before they put one. Other families who do not wish to cement the grave usually plant a special tree to mark the grave. The practice of cementing graves is considered a modern and new cultural “invention,” from about the 1950s and is now widely accepted and practiced. In some homes, the front part of the homestead looks like a cemetery because of the number of graves in it. This raises questions relating to matters of land use and other environmental issues. As well as cementing the grave, some families build houses for the graves of the deceased. For some, it is a custom carried over from some traditional practices where some prominent people were buried in houses. For others, it is the belief that the deceased has made a request through dreams to be accorded this practice. Yet for others, it is usually a prestige or status symbol. In all this, it is clear that the belief that the deceased is somehow still living and able to influence events in this life contributes greatly in determining most of the practices around funerals. The specific details regarding how the above rituals and practices are performed or realized, are now subject to the COVID-19 safety protocols.

The Funeral Service and Dressing of the Deceased before Interment The funeral service is conducted in the home of the deceased or the church where the family worshipped. The liturgy is conducted according to the tradition of the church. Family and friends are given opportunity to eulogize the deceased. The life story of the deceased is read or narrated by a

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member of the family or close friend. The story is structured usually inclusive of the following topics relating to the deceased: birth and family, baptism, confirmation (where practiced), schooling, circumcision (for men), marriage, work or professional life, illness and death. It is structured around the rites of passage showing that the deceased lived according to what was expected in life. The story also shows what the community emphasizes and what is considered important. After the service there is a procession to the grave, but before the deceased is laid in the grave a dressing rite is conducted. This rite goes counter to COVID-19 safety protocols. As a result of a strong government enforcement of COVID-19 safety restrictions, this is strongly not supported and is strictly forbidden. Where the enforcement officers are compromised through corruption and bribery, this is probably still secretly and covertly being violated! Before the burial day, the corpse is dressed in new clothes where possible. If it is male it is dressed in a new suit, tie, watch and new shoes, again where possible. The female is dressed in new clothes, sometimes a gown similar to the one she wore or would have worn on her wedding day. However, before lowering the deceased in the grave, someone “inspects” the body. Males are “inspected” by fellow males while females are “inspected” by fellow females. For males the following are removed, the underpants, the shoes, the tie, belt, socks and shoes. Additionally, the zip on the trouser is opened and loosened, and the buttons of his shirt are also opened. For women, the following are taken off—underpants, brassiere, petticoat and jewelry. The reasons for these preparations are multifaceted. The explanation that the deceased person has to be free and not restricted in his or her clothing, is usually offered in support of this practice and traditional belief. The rite of dressing the deceased raises further questions, for example why in the first place the family purchases new clothes and accessories for the deceased only to remove them before burial. One is perhaps reminded of the scripture—“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart…” (Job 1:21) might be related to this custom. However, the reasons given were not at all related to this text, but in accordance with the spiritual beliefs of the people. As would be expected in the present circumstances, the above is subject to current official COVID-19 rules, where the authorities have not been compromised by or have succumbed to monetary incentives. Where this illegally takes place, the COVID-19 rules are violated covertly and secretly.

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Funerals for Victims of Murder or Suicide— Non-public Funerals Non-public funerals are those funerals that are not open to everyone in the community. Such funerals include those of people who are murdered or those who commit suicide. Funerals for these groups are carried out at night and attended only by a few people. Moreover, their graves are unmarked. Victims of murder are buried at night by a few people including the gravediggers as well as elders from the family. There is no procession for them, and when they are brought home, they do not pass through the main gate, a space is made by the side of the main gate and closed immediately. During the interment, the elders speak sternly to the deceased commanding them to haunt those who killed them. It is not clear how the COVID-19 protocols apply to these covert, non-public burials since they are done without public participation or announcements. The application of the obvious protocols of social distancing, wearing masks, other PPEs or washing of hands is most likely at the discretion of the participants. Nonetheless, they do this in fear of the authorities of being found out and most probably by them turning a blind eye or being compromised. Since burials and ceremonies falling in this class are done discreetly and covertly, the public are usually kept in the dark. They remain a secret of the affected family. Application of COVID-19 rules in such cases remains dependent on the bereaved family and their understanding or respect for the safety rules and practices.

Celebration of the Deceased Using Food, Song and Dance In all rites of passage, the community gathers and participates in the various celebrations of the deceased’s life, by means of music, dance and partaking or sharing in common meals or food. Food, song and dance are inseparable and all-inclusive in the celebration of life in death, as a rite of passage. The mourners participate in this rite on behalf of the deceased. Song and dance is a way of coping with the loss. Food is part of hospitality but also a way of appeasing the deceased. The dead person is said to be watching how the rituals are being performed, including that of hospitality and sharing of meals or food. The dead person is believed to possess superior supernatural powers in his new life after death than when he was alive on earth.

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It is very expensive and a tedious exercise to prepare meals for all the mourners. However, it is made easier these days with the many catering services available that offer services at an affordable and reasonable fee, and in some cases at exorbitant fees. However, this can be beyond the reach of many, and may not be available in some rural areas, such as those covered in this research. The aspect of hospitality and communal sharing is key in feeding those who come to the funeral. It is engraved in the Luyia worldview. In line with this is the notion of supporting one another in acts of giving. While the family may bear the cost of feeding, the contribution and support of the community is expected to minimize the family burden. This aspect of funeral rituals and practice is heavily affected by the COVID-19 safety protocols, as it involves crowding, feasting and group activities. It has been much affected and created much sadness and stress to bereaved families. Interestingly it has lowered funeral expenses, especially those related to feasting, financing the group activities, the group music and dances during the funeral. It has left many bereaved without the expected traditional social and emotional support.

Some Emerging Themes from the Above Narratives In the preceding, we have presented the Luyia rituals relating to death, funeral ceremonies and burial, in view of providing respect for the dead. While the rites have been impacted by the coming and planting of Christianity in African soil as well as the promotion and establishment of Western education and cultural ways, it is evident that the Luyia people adapted to the new ways and changes but did not abandon their traditional conceptions, customs, institutions and values of old. It appears that what has been abandoned are some inhuman aspects of the culture which did not conform to Christianity. Others remain. On the whole, the Luyia as other communities continues to uphold parts of their indigenous worldview and way of life which are in harmony with the new faith as well as others not in line with the new faith. This is where cognitive dissonance sets in. By investigating the rites that surround death and burial among the chosen Luyia groups one encounters several paradoxes that may be better understood as cases of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance happens when someone holds contradictory beliefs, ideas or even values. It is a case of holding two irreconcilable beliefs or participating in inconsistent actions, as when people who confess Christian faith participate in activities

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that are inconsistent with their faith. It is holding such inconsistent beliefs or actions in tension. A paradox is both a strange and a difficult thing to understand. It has an air of irrationality about it. The funeral rites studied can be described as paradoxes in the above sense. All the basic elements in these rites cannot be communicated in a way that makes them consistent with the other beliefs and practices common in these communities. For example, why do people give generously at the time of death but not in the same way for the living? For example, a close relative may readily contribute heavily towards the funeral expenses of a relative who dies, but not be willing to contribute even a tenth of that figure to cover the medical bills of the same relative when they are alive. Why are family members willing to contribute more to the dead than to the living? Is it because they value death more than life or is it because they fear death more than life? A related paradox is an aspect of dressing the deceased in expensive clothes and accessories, and later removing them before internment, the paradoxes or cases of cognitive dissonance that are apparent in the carrying out of these rites are difficult to logically reconcile. However, death is a mystery, and these rites help to deal with the mystery. Economically the cost of funerals has attracted comments in the public domain such as the saying that “Funerals have now been reduced to putting up a ‘show’ and spectacle with nothing spared to impress.” Why are Kenyans spending millions on burying loved ones? Our research findings revealed that funeral expenses have skyrocketed partly because of genuine costs such as transport costs for the deceased to the place of burial, the mortuary costs, the clothing for the dead and the family, funeral announcements, printing of programs, the cost of using some churches for the funeral service, the hiring of tents and chairs, the cost of feeding the mourners or those who come to attend the funeral. Many of these costs are however inflated as noted for prestige and show-off. As one author observed: The economics of funerals is mindboggling and complicated, some middle-­ income families spend as much as Kshs 2.5 million on funerals. This money comes from fundraisers, family savings and sometimes loans. Most of the time it is not money that they have but have to solicit from people.17

 Wefa: Daily Nation, August 16, 2015

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A report in the Journal of Human Development in 2013 found that many families in the rural areas had slipped into poverty, and funeral costs were given as one of the reasons that contributed to the impoverishment. The irony of funeral expenses is that while people may not pay for medical bills, they contribute generously for funerals. It appears that the dead are loved, respected and honored more than the living—and hence obligations towards the dead are a source and reason for the rituals and ceremonies, including those irrational and mindboggling. The funeral rites are communal both in rural areas as well as in urbanized areas, where there emerge new communities for support during funerals. These communities vary in social class, denominational identity, ethnicity, clan or family. These new communities appear to be doing more for the deceased than for the living relatives. Theologically, the rites bring to the fore questions about death that have not received much attention or research from the church in this region. At funerals, there are daily prayers until the deceased is buried. The prayers include singing and Bible exposition to encourage and strengthen the family. The time included for prayers does not provide space for theological exposition about death because of the nature of the texts themselves, but also probably because the priests and pastors themselves avoid engaging these sensitive and difficult issues. Yet this could provide an excellent opportunity for educational and pastoral intervention and cultural transformation. From an eschatological point of view, how does a reading of Jesus’ teachings on the end times and judgment (Mathew 24: 1–51) or Paul’s writings on the dead and the resurrection (2 Corinthians 15) explain the rituals that accompany death and funerals for Christians? Are Christian rituals compatible with traditional practices and rituals surrounding death? These are serious questions that we felt the church is not addressing or engaging. In this regard, one observes that: Before God, whether you are buried in a diamond or gold casket, or in a simple cypress coffin, what matters is your soul. Heavy spending cannot forgive your sins or hasten your journey to heaven…but our traditions do not understand this fact at all.18

 Pesa D. Daily Nation 16 November 2015

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Traditions cannot be held responsible for this, for it is not the traditions themselves, it is the people who practice the traditions. It is clear that these traditions are not cast in stone. They are continually changing and being adapted to changing times and circumstances. They are in effect continually in flux and being invented and reinvented. One can refer to our current traditions as basically, invented traditions. Christian belief in the resurrection provides a basis for challenging some of these rituals— but it appears the church has not yet done so, and does not seem to be attempting to address these issues and challenges. Could it be that in the rites of death the paradoxes in the Luyia worldview and the Christian worldview meet, live alongside each other but for some reason are totally blind to the fundamental absence of synergies? This is still an area of exploration since the issue is not the paradoxical nature of the rituals but the burdensome aspects of some of the rituals. In trying to cope with the mystery of death, each community has devised ways of coping and the Luyia are not exceptional. COVID-19 in bringing some of the practices and rituals to a standstill has upended social custom and traditional convention and led to questioning and rethinking of some associated irrational practices, where death is used as a pretext.

Concluding Remarks Funerals are a big deal in many cultures and especially among the Luyia people. They are big occasions and relatives, and friends give some of their time and material resources to funerals. There is so much fear attached to the ways of treating the dead as it is believed “the dead hear, and the dead see.” As noted at the beginning of this article, COVID-19 has disrupted and upended the ways of mourning the dead. What is going to happen to all that stifled grief, in this time of COVID-19? Counselors and pastors should brace for a tsunami of emotional problems resulting from displaced grief that will strike once the pandemic is over. COVID-19 brought with it challenges both to the traditional practices and rituals as described above, and also to Christian beliefs and pastoral practices in terms of giving support and encouragement to the bereaved. The upheavals and disruption brought about by COVID-19 have caused much stress and pain by making it most difficult if not impossible to engage in age-old practices and expectations. COVID-19 is not only upending and disrupting both Christian and traditional practices and rituals but also stifling their performance or bringing to a halt their

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enactment. If as some have predicted COVID-19 is going to be with us for a long time, it will undoubtedly bring with it major changes in the performance of some long-held traditional practices and rituals as well as some Christian liturgical practices and rituals. In addition as COVID-19 has had an impact on funeral costs, those who provide services for funerals have lost in terms of business. COVID-19 has further offered to the church opportunity to rethink its mission and practice vis-a-vis traditional practices that challenge its core beliefs and practices. In the light of the COVID-19 challenge, the church was left with no alternative but to rethink its light and salt message with respect to its outreach and effectiveness in the light of some of the paradoxes and situations that give rise to concerns of cognitive dissonance in communities where the church is active. This has further implications for the church’s own rites, rituals and ceremonies, in addition to key issues regarding matters of social re-­ engineering, social restructuring and community, without ignoring approaches relating to social change, social transformation and the culture wars.

PART V

Mobilizing Subversive Spiritualities

CHAPTER 21

Animal Suffering Dietrich Werner

Introduction: Wake-Up Call In a highly provocative article in The Guardian, the chief of UN Environment, Mrs. Inger Andersen, in March 2020 has warned the community of nations:1 “Nature is sending us a message with the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing climate crisis”. Humanity is placing too much pressure on the natural world with damaging consequences. Failing to take care of the planet means not sufficiently taking care of ourselves. Seventy-five percent of all emerging infectious diseases come from wildlife. In many cases, in former centuries, the spread of diseases was hindered by mountains, rivers and natural boundaries between different species. At this new pandemic, the virus has infected the most 1  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/coronavirus-nature-is-sendingus-a-message-says-un-environment-chief

D. Werner (*) Bread for the World, Berlin, Germany University of Applied Sciences for Intercultural Theology Hermannsburg, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_21

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cosmopolitan, extremely individualized and highly interconnected species that has emerged on earth, the human species—exposing its vulnerability in an unprecedented manner. This implies the Coronavirus Crisis might not be just a one-time event, similar zoonosis-based diseases have occurred before (Ebola, Nile Virus) and might reoccur more often in a globalized and highly intrusive human industrialized culture in the future than many currently would like to believe. “A comprehensive literature review identifies 1415 species of infectious organism known to be pathogenic to humans, including 217 viruses and prions, 538 bacteria and rickettsia, 307 fungi, 66 protozoa, and 287 helminths. Out of these, 868 (61%) are zoonotic, that is, they can be transmitted between humans and animals, and 175 pathogenic species are associated with diseases considered to be ‘emerging’”.2 Why are pathogens apparently more easily crossing over and causing harm like this? Many scientists are arguing that this has to do with the arrogant and presumptuous relationship between humankind and nature.3 One example: The overfishing of oceans before West Africa by big industrialized fishing from West European countries is forcing African populations to still their hunger not anymore by fish, but by entering into the wildlife resorts and to bring bushmeat on the table—with the result of cases and the likelihood of zoonosis rapidly increasing. Another example: Continued erosion of wild spaces and rain forests in Central Africa and in Latin America has brought human populations uncomfortably close to animals and plants that harbor diseases that can jump over to humans. Thus, it was not just a tragic coincidence or fate or even God’s intentional punishment which brought this catastrophe over humanity, but it was the repercussions of human behavior which caused dangerous diseases to spill over into humans. It is the intrusive style of human industrialized agriculture and animal breeding in combination with a heavily meat-oriented culture of nutrition that has multiplied the opportunities which exist for pathogens to pass from wild and domestic animals to people. Humans are

2   Risk factors for human disease emergence, in: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed/11516376 3  Johannes Vogel, Dieser Virus ist auch der Preis unserer Ausbeutung der Natur, in: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/artensterben-und-naturzerstoerung-dieses-virus-istauch-der-preis-unserer-ausbeutung-der-natur/25676216.html; vgl. auch: https://www. zdf.de/dokumentation/planet-e/planet-e-welt-der-viren-100.html

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at war with nature, they are at war with the realm of animals in many aspects.4 The Corona Pandemic is sending a message to us. This was the key provocation that the chief of UN Environment articulated. It is in the same direction that Leonardo Boff, famous liberation and eco-theologian from Latin America, has recently interpreted the Corona Crisis as a sign and signal of the suffering of Mother Earth.5 The crisis affirms insights into the intricate relationship between humans and the earth: “That which wounds the Earth also wounds the sons and daughters of the Earth. It was not a man who knit the web of life: man is merely a tread of the web of life. Everything that man does against that web, is also done to man himself”. This is to say, there is an intimate connection between the Earth and the human being. If we hurt the Earth, we also hurt ourselves, and vice versa.6 As he is quoting (and criticizing) James Lovelock’s book “Gaias revenge”7 he has been easily caricatured as now becoming esoteric8 and taking up Gaia’s theories one should be careful not to easily dismiss the substantial question he is addressing for all Christian churches and beyond: Solving the short-term consequences in disaster relief, medical aid and economic recuperation programs—necessary as these are—will not address the more substantial and deeper challenges we have to face in rethinking our attitude towards the earth and our interwovenness with our planetary and biological system. “I would not say, as Lovelock does, that it is all “the revenge of Gaia”, because she, as the Great Mother she is, does not take revenge, but gives us great signals that she is ill, (typhoons, melting of the polar ice, droughts and flooding, etc.); and, in the end, because we do not learn the lesson, she takes reprisals, such as the aforementioned diseases … But the Earth will not be satisfied with these small compensations (i.e. economic and 4  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/07/11/humans-are-at-­ war-with-nature-and-zoo-animals-are-the-refugees/; also: Derek D. Tuner; Are humans at war with nature?, in: https://www.jstor.org/stable/30302052?seq=1 5  https://leonardoboff.org/2020/04/16/coronavirus-gaias-reaction-and-revenge-2/; https://aterraeredonda.com.br/coronavirus-uma-reacao-e-represalia-de-gaia/ 6  https://leonardoboff.org/2020/04/16/coronavirus-gaias-reaction-and-revenge-2/ 7  See: https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/james-lovelock-i-would-not-wastemy-fortune-on-colonizing-mars-a-322a80e0-f768-45f5-­b426-f8f32e6e9002 8  See for instance in a Basler new magazine: https://www.bazonline.ch/leben/gesellschaft/der-gerechte-preis-fuer-unsere-grausamkeit/story/29234175

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medical interventions). She pleads for a different attitude towards her: of respect for her rhythms and limits, of caring for her sustainability, and of us feeling more like the sons and daughters of Mother Earth, the Earth herself who feels, thinks, loves, venerates and cares.”9

The Need for a New Global Commitment There is a need for a new global commitment for the protection of diversity, wildlife and animals as an urgent consequence of the COVID-19. The whole of creation is in an unfinished stage, God is suffering from his suffering creation. The church should give witness both to the beauty as well as to the groaning of creation. There are not only human beings who are suffering as a result of the Pandemic, there are also animals that have suffered for a long prior to the Pandemic but resulted in the Pandemic. Whoever has seen the cages on the wet markets in China or on other countries will get a glimpse of the suffering of animals which is going on for decades for wildlife being captured to support the billion profits industry of the wet markets in many countries of both the global South as well as in the North. Wildlife animals are not per se dangerous in terms of the viruses they carry. This is because in normal circumstances other species of viruses can survive in them without causing any harm, neither to themselves nor to other animals or human beings. It is the cruel treatment these animals experience which made them spread viruses contained in their bodies in all kinds of fluids and secretes in ways which then are really highly contagious and dangerous both for other animals as well as for human beings. It has been scientifically proven that viruses cross boundaries of species (often via bats) and might develop dangerous mutation processes, particularly in cases in which natural habitats have been damaged by erosion of rain forests territories, by methods of hunting and storing living wildlife, and by aggressive extension of human civilization thereby threatening wildlife and their virus populations to transgress their traditional environments.10 It is

 https://leonardoboff.org/2020/04/16/coronavirus-gaias-reaction-and-revenge-2/  Sonia Shah, “Woher kommt das Coronavirus? In: Monde Diplomatique?” (März 2020), in: https://www.monde-diplomatique.de/Woher-kommt-das-Coronavirus/!5668094 9

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not bats per se which are dangerous, but it is bats under stress which increase the likelihood of zoonosis.11 We have had the learning lessons of SARS epidemy and Ebola as well as Nile fever some years ago but consequences were not drawn on a global level. To forbid wet markets as has been done in China (nobody knows exactly how this can be controlled) is one measure that certainly is highly needed and advisory, but it is not enough. We need to change the very attitude of humankind and its relation to nature and to animals in particular. We also should have learned for long that the high density of animal breeding in highly industrialized farming and the pressing together into very small spaces of many animals together in transport facilities or slaughterhouses provide even additional chances for dangerous viruses to spread in animal life even if it is not transmitting to humankind (examples are avian flu and Escherichia coli bacteria). The modern patterns of factory farming which is increasing all kinds of pressures on farm animals and livestock are an ideal environment for increasing the dangerous spread of deadly diseases. But the learning lessons which Bob Wallace has indicated already 2016 to the scientific community about the interrelatedness between industrialized farming and the spread of the virus have not reached the headquarters yet of policy circles, government, and the UN:12 “Thanks to breakthroughs in production and food science, agribusiness has been able to devise new ways to grow more food and get it more places more quickly. There is no shortage of news items on hundreds of thousands of hybrid poultry—each animal genetically identical to the next—packed together in mega barns, grown out in a matter of months, then slaughtered, processed, and shipped to the other side of the globe. Less well known are the deadly pathogens mutating in, and emerging out of, these specialized agro-environments. In fact, many of the most dangerous new diseases in humans can be traced back to such food systems, among them Campylobacter, Nipah virus, Q fever, hepatitis E, and a variety of novel influenza variants. Agrobusiness has known for decades that packing thousands of birds or livestock together results in a monoculture 11  Andrew Cunningham, Wildlife Epidemiologue at the Zoological Society in London, in: https://science.orf.at/stories/3200448?fbclid=IwAR0MTFpGZBZiTUBSQ6JAHARjqm 6Dp-­MA9l1i-­pHLfoEM1WyPN3xHFBiOJDI 12  Bob Wallace, Big Farms Make Big Flu, in: Dispatches on Influenza, Agribusiness, and the Nature of Science. In: https://nyupress.org/9781583675892/big-farms-make-big-flu/

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that selects for such disease. But market economics doesn’t punish the companies for growing Big Flu—it punishes animals, the environment, consumers, and contract farmers. Alongside growing profits, diseases are permitted to emerge, evolve, and spread with a little check. That is, it pays to produce a pathogen that could kill a billion people.”13

Rereading Biblical Traditions There is a need to reread biblical traditions about the suffering and dignity of animals: Traces of an Ethics of Respect for our Fellow Creatures in Biblical Tradition. “Humans have no advantage over the animals” (Eccl 3,19). It was only within the upsurge in creation theology and creation ethics in the second half of the twentieth century, within the context of the environmental movement and the conciliar process of commitment to justice, peace and the integrity of creation,14 that traditional images of the “Dominium Terrae,”—in which, following the traditions of Gen 1:28 and Psalm 8:1–10, human beings are considered to be the “crown of creation”15 and animals merely subjects that need to be dominated—were critically examined and integrated into a further biblical context.16 However in biblical tradition, there is, as yet, certainly no fully developed animal ethics in doctrinal form, but rather, some traces and the beginnings of ethics of

13   Quoted from the introduction into: https://nyupress.org/9781583675892/ big-farms-make-big-flu/ 14  Cf. For example, the early ecumenical declaration which was adopted in Stuttgart in 1988: “Gottes Gaben—Unsere Aufgabe”, which deduced, from the perspective of theology and ethics of reason, a Christian commitment to the protection of species and animals, as seen in paragraph 4.35: Deutsche Bischofskonferenz ed., Gottes Gaben—Unsere Aufgabe. (Die Erklärung von Stuttgart, Bonn 1988). 15  On the problematic nature of this commonly used term, which cannot be found in the Bible itself, cf.: Barbara Schmitz, “Der Mensch als ‘Krone der Schöpfung’. Anthropologische Konzepte im Spannungsfeld von alttestamentlicher Theologie und moderner Rezeption,” in: Kirche und Israel 27 (2012): 18–32. 16  A major part of the following biblical reflections is taken from a recent EKD study paper on livestock ethics, nutrition ethics and sustainability ethics which the author co-authored and chaired: Livestock and Fellow Creatures! Animal welfare, Animal ethics, sustainability and ethics of nutrition, in: https://www.ekd.de/ekd_en/ds_doc/ekd_texte_133_ en_2020.pdf

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respect for animals as fellow creatures.17 In the philosophical currents of our modern-day, the relationship between mankind and animals has long been influenced by the idea that animals are senseless objects, meant only for exploitation by people. It was, in particular, Immanuel Kant who exclusively attributed an intrinsic purpose to humans; whilst, according to him, non-human beings were only valuable to the extent that they could be useful to humans. However, according to Kant, mankind also should “handle animals in a humane way”—albeit not for the animals’ sake, but merely for reasons of his own mortality.18 The more recent philosophical discussion has radically challenged such objectifying images of animals— first and foremost, due to the reception of more recent academic insights into animals’ capacity to suffer and think.19 The more recent, philosophical and biological approaches have long overcome an objectifying-mechanistic view of animals, according to which the latter are stimulus-response machines incapable of feeling pain and whose internal life is irrelevant.20 Remarkably, we are now re-approaching old, biblical epistemological traditions: In the oldest biblical tradition, 17  For an overview of the more recent debate within the EKD: Stefan Schleißing, Herwig Grimm, “Tierethik als Thema der Theologie und des kirchlichen Handelns,” in Karl-Heinz Fix ed. Dokumente zum Kirchlichen Zeitgeschehen, (Gütersloh, 2012), 45–86; cf. also the magazine on animal ethics, which was only established in this century—Zeitschrift zur Mensch-Tier-Beziehung: http://www.tierethik.net/resources/Tierethik_20111.pdf 18  Cf. Immanuel Kant, Metaphysik der Sitten, Tugendlehre, VI, AA § 17, p. 443; https:// korpora.zim.uni-duisburg-essen.de/kant/aa06/443.html; Michael Rosenberger summarizes Kant’s teachings as follows: “All human beings have their own purpose and are to be respected for their own sake. All non-human beings, however merely have a price, i.e. a use value, inasmuch as they seem useful and valuable to humankind.”; cf. for the controversial interpretation of Kant’s teachings, pointing out that there is no mention of the animals’ intrinsic value in the philosophical discussion: Ludwig Trepl, Kant und der Tierschutz. Die Unterteilung der Naturethiker in Anthropozentriker und Biozentriker ist irreführend (2012), http://www.moraltheologie.uni-wuppertal.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/ Ludwig-Trepl-%E2%80%93-Kant-und-der-Tierschutz.pdf 19  Cf. Richard David Precht: Tiere denken: Vom Recht der Tiere und den Grenzen des Menschen, München 2018; cf. also: Interview Richard David Precht über Fleisch: Diese Tiere sind wie Menschen; http://www.taz.de/!5361916/; similar hypotheses in: Richard David Precht: Noahs Erbe. (Vom Recht der Tiere und den Grenzen des Menschen, Hamburg 2000). 20  Cf. On several aspects of the more recently developed science-oriented revolution regarding the image of animals, especially: Norbert Sachser: Der Mensch im Tier. Warum Tiere uns im Denken, Fühlen und Verhalten oft so ähnlich sind, 2018. On the entire debate, cf. also: Themenheft Mensch und Tier, in: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 62nd year, 8–9/2012, (February 2012).

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animals are doubtlessly our fellow creatures, as stressed in today’s Evangelical,21 as well as Catholic,22 theology. According to the narrative of the first creation account, animals were created on the 6th day of creation (Gen 1:24–27), on the same day as mankind, with only the exception of aquatic animals and birds, which were created just one creation-day before humans (Gen 1: 20–23). Therefore, animals are closest to people in terms of rank. In the Bible, it is possible to recognize the beginnings of biblical zoology23 that stretches back to the oldest sources of the creation accounts in the Old Testament, which provides a structure for the animal world, even if it does not directly correlate to a complete zoological classification or hierarchy of all animals. Naturally, animals would belong to the living environment of the Bible; about 130 species are mentioned in biblical accounts.24 Of course, humans occupy a special position in and towards nature—only mankind is said to be made in the image of God, Imago Dei (Gen 1:26); however, like mankind, animals have also been given God’s breath of life. In the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, complementary traditions can be found that closely associate animals with mankind because they were created by God and depend upon his life-giving spirit: “For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity.” (Eccl 3:19). On the other hand, animals are neither idealized nor romanticized in biblical tradition: The Bible refers to stinging mosquitos, plagues of locusts, and, famously, the snake, that maliciously leads people into temptation (Gen 3:1ff). In addition, following the wisdom of the Old Testament, there is no strict distinction between wild animals, farm animals and pets. The attitude of the individual towards an animal should, however, be characterized by fairness and compassion: “The righteous know the needs of their animals, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel” (Prov 12:10). The Psalms of the Old Testament are full of praise that God has wonderfully created all the  Cf. Rainer Hagencord, Gott und die Tiere. (Ein Perspektivenwechsel, Regensburg 2018).  Cf. Simone Horstmann et al: Alles, was atmet. Eine Theologie der Tiere, Regensburg 2018; also: Michael Rosenberger: Der Traum vom Frieden zwischen Menschen und Tier: Eine christliche Tierethik, München 2015. 23  Cf. Ideas from the work undertaken at the Institute of Theological Zoology: http:// www.theologische-zoologie.de/; cf. also: Rainer Hagencord, “Theologische Zoologie und Laudato Si,” in: Michael Biehl, Bernd Kappes, Bärbel Wartenberg-Potter ed, Grüne Reformation und Ökologische Theologie, (Hamburg 2017), 109–123. 24  Cf. An overview of “animal” within the biblical tradition: https://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/wibilex/das-bibellexikon/lexikon/sachwort/anzeigen/details/tier/ch/449511 6a5b09da5d734c45d5062338df/ 21 22

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animals and birds of the field, that he has placed food and all the necessities of life within reach, even for the animals, sustaining them with the gifts of creation, and that God’s breath of life also dwells within them (Ps 104:10–18 and 27–30). Therefore, it is appropriate to speak of a specific “dignity of animals” as mankind’s fellow creatures, even if a detailed doctrine of “animal dignity” cannot be found within the Bible and the characteristic of being made in the ‘image of God’ remains reserved for mankind.25 A review of our modern relationship with animals, influenced by industrialization, is therefore not only necessary within the context of the debate surrounding livestock ethics in the field of agriculture, but it is also imperative within the context of the broader global ecological crisis. This urgent situation is associated with the “disappearance of the animals”—which is a term used to describe a frequently unrecognized, dramatic reality: “The acceleration of the loss of species is so substantial that between 10 and 38% of all existing species at the beginning of the 21st century will have disappeared by the year 2020. It is clear that we are currently dealing with the sixth greatest disaster of its kind and, at the same time, it is the first to be caused by humankind.”26 It is, in particular, the biblical testimony of the Old Testament that reflects an awareness of the constant co-existence of humans and animals in the context of an agrarian society. Following on from many more testimonies, the Old Testament considers the “fact that, for about three billion years, life on this planet developed without humankind and that there is no place on earth which had not been accessed by animals before we came.”27 Therefore, it is not only human beings with whom God, the creator, is well pleased, but the entire created world which consists of people, plants and animals (in Genesis 1:24–25, following the creation of the animal world, we read: “And God saw that it was good”). Between the complete objectification of animals, as propagated in the modern era, for example, by René Descartes,28 and a reminder that they 25  An actionable term such as the “dignity of animals,” as laid down in the Swiss Animal Welfare Act in Art. 1, does not, as yet, exist within the biblical tradition, but its emergence would be very much akin to the meaning behind biblical creation theology. 26  Rainer Hagencord, “Theologische Zoologie und Laudato Si,” in: Michael Biehl, Bernd Kappes, Bärbel Wartenberg-Potter ed, Grüne Reformation und Ökologische Theologie, (Hamburg 2017), 110. 27  Cf. ibid, p. 111. 28  René Descartes coined the phrase which describes animals as mere machines: “Animals are mere machines. Their cries of pain are no more than the squeak of an unlubricated wheel”, in: http://www.tierrechte-tv.de/Themen/Philosophie/Descartes/descartes.html

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are our fellow creatures, as highlighted, for example, by Francis of Assisi,29 there has been a great divide for many years. The theological discovery of animals being our “fellow creatures” as human beings has been discovered only in fairly recent periods. The question as to whether—and how—to reconcile this theological category with the use of the economically dominant definition of “livestock” (or rather, whether and how the discrepancy between these two different stipulations can be resolved and outworked in practice) is the subject of an ongoing debate, which—despite its enormous relevance for ecological, developmental and agricultural perspectives—has, so far, been pursued mainly in Western European countries.30 Protestant contributions to this debate have been enriched and challenged by the changing perspectives in Roman-Catholic creation theology and environmental ethics, as portrayed in the encyclical “Laudato Si.” In this encyclical, Pope Francis emphatically called for a renunciation of unrestricted anthropocentrism and expressly underlined the intrinsic value of animals, as well as the protection of their dignity: We are not God. … We must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures. … In our time, the church does not simply state that other creatures are completely subordinated to the good of human beings, as if they have no worth in themselves and can be treated as we wish. … Moreover, when our hearts are authentically open to universal communion, this sense of fraternity excludes nothing and no one. It follows

29  The statement that all living creatures feel as we do, is attributed to Francis of Assisi: “All earth creatures feel as we do, all creatures strive for happiness as we do. All earth creatures love, suffer and die as we do, and so they are our equals in the work of the Almighty Creator—our brothers”, in: https://www.aphorismen.de/zitat/3442; cf. Anton Rotzetter, Die Freigelassenen. (Franz von Assisi und die Tiere, 2011). 30  Cf. Epd news of 17.5.2002: Tierschutz ins Grundgesetz aufgenommen; http://archiv. ekd.de/aktuell_presse/news_2002_05_17_1_tierschutz_gg.html

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that our indifference or cruelty towards fellow creatures of this world sooner or later affects the treatment we mete out to other human beings.31

Animals as Third Party in God’s Covenant In God’s Covenant, animals are the third party: “… but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor […] your animals” (Ex 20:10; NIV). The biblical tradition does not offer ready-made livestock ethics, especially since today’s challenges, within the context of industrialized meat production and intensive livestock farming, lie beyond the horizon of ancient agricultural conditions.32 At the same time, however, it is remarkable that, even in the Old Testament tradition, animals are not excluded from the legal order of the covenant with God: In principle, animals share in the Shabbat order, which is to limit the exploitation and utilization of labor and time (Ex 20:8–11f), as well as to release praise to the creator that has meaning but no purpose: “But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.” (Ex 20:10)—The sabbath order, which is to bring relaxation, recovery and a welcome interruption to routine, is also designed for the animals. Animals share in the Noachian covenant, which entails sustaining and preserving the entire creation from disastrous forces and a global flood, as well as experiencing the blessing of 31  Pope Francis, Encyclical Laudato Si. On Care for Our Common Home, Paragraphs 67, 69, 92; http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-­ francesco_20150524_enciclica-­laudato-si.html; cf. ibid also: “We have only one heart, and the same wretchedness which leads us to mistreat an animal will not be long in showing itself in our relationships with other people. Every act of cruelty towards any creature is ‘contrary to human dignity’”. (Paragr. 92). Against the background of the “tyrannical anthropocentrism” (Paragr. 68) that dominated church history for centuries, Pope Francis sets the conviction that God’s life-giving spirit dwells in all his creatures (Paragr. 88), that the ultimate purpose of other creatures is not to be found in their relationship with humans, but with God, “in that transcendent fullness where the risen Christ embraces and illumines all things”. (Paragr. 83). German: https://www.dbk.de/fileadmin/redaktion/diverse_downloads/ presse_2015/2015-06-18-Enzyklika-Laudato-si-DE.pdf. 32  Although the Bible recognizes large animal stocks, which were certainly not considered to be objectionable in and of themselves, (e.g. it says at the end of the Book of Job, that Job was blessed with fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys (Job 42:12)), the technical-industrialized intensive farming, such as we have today, was certainly not found during biblical times.

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the continuous rhythm of seedtime and harvest. Animals are the third and often forgotten party in God’s covenant.33 The Noachian covenant applies to “every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” (Gen 9:16). Since animals are living beings, they share in God’s life-giving spirit (Ps 104:30). Later strata of the Old Testament tradition even presume that, in encountering animals, one may learn more about the goodness of God in creation, as well as about his work in every living being: But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being (Job 12:7–10).

On the other hand, the bodies of law in the Old Testament do not contain a specific “charter of animal rights.” The biblical collection of laws does not seem to be aware of any particular “rights of the animal” over and against human beings. Even the oft-quoted reference “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain” (Dtn 25:4) is insufficient proof for the existence of an animal rights ethics within the biblical tradition; simply because it is not a focus of the ancient, oriental societies, but rather became a discussion point during modern times.34 In addition, the biblical tradition knows that, in our “fallen world,” the relationship between mankind and animals, as well as the relationship between different kinds of animals, is marked by violence (“the earth is filled with violence” (Gen 6:13)). The old Jewish tradition is acquainted with a tradition of animal slaughter, which, however, was cultically regulated, monitored and controlled according to the ancient priestly tradition of animal sacrifice (the entire first chapter of Lev. 1 is dedicated to this issue): God is the Lord of all life; even gifts of animal life are to be sacrificed to him (Lev 1:17). At the same time, a closer look at the Old Testament tradition reveals a substantial concern for the reduction of violence and suffering, even within the relationship between humankind and animals in the faith 33  See also, Bernd Kappes, The Third Party in the Covenant: a Theology of Animals, in: Kairos for Creation, Confessing Hope for the Earth. The “Wuppertal Call”—Contributions and Recommendations from an International Conference on Eco-Theology and Ethics of Sustainability, June 2019, (Wuppertal 2020), 203–212. 34  Cf. I.a. The works of Andrew Linzey at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, in: http:// www.oxfordanimalethics.com/

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of the Bible. A decrease in the level of wickedness and acts of violence is an element of many prophetic promises (Is 60:18). The question as to whether or not the power relations between humankind and animals (i.e. those forms of relationships with livestock that are marked by exploitation, pain, suffering and a type of husbandry which is inappropriate for the species) should be limited, checked or even abolished in principle is not addressed in the biblical tradition. Today, it remains controversial within the history of the church,35 where diverse levels and traditions of ethical radicalism develop. In the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland’s (EKD’s) discussion paper of 1991, the common Christian consensus is expressed as follows: The special position of the human being amongst his fellow creatures includes the task to recognise his own responsibility in an appropriate manner. It is solely the individual who can identify the consequences of his actions towards fellow human beings and fellow creatures, and draw conclusions from these; it is solely the individual therefore, who may be blamed for problems in creation. … The relationships between animals themselves are marked by violence and can often seem alarming to the human observer given their cruelty and brutality. … Still, this is no justification for the thoughtless, unrestricted utilitarisation or even exploitation of animals by humankind. The legitimisation to use the service and life of animals will have to remain bound by the commission to exercise dominion through loving care and a nurturing kind of preservation.36

Biblical Dietary Regulations The dietary regulations in biblical traditions forbids humans to eat everything—“I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth” (Gen 1:29). Questions of nutrition, dietary laws and table fellowship are central themes across all biblical traditions. From the perspective of the Bible, animal ethics and nutritional ethics for humans are closely interlinked and cannot be separated. There is a central awareness in 35   Cf. Hans-Eberhard Dietrich, Die Tiere als Mitgeschöpfe. Eine kritische Auseinandersetzung mit kirchlichen Verlautbarungen zum Verhältnis Mensch-Tier aus den Jahren 1980 bis 2003, Deutsches Pfarrerblatt 8 (2013). 36  Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, Zur Verantwortung des Menschen für das Tier als Mitgeschöpf, (Ein Diskussionsbeitrag des Wissenschaftlichen Beirats des Beauftragten für Umweltfragen des Rates der EKD, 1991)2, Paragr. 9–11; https://www.ekd.de/tier_1991_ tier2.html

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all parts of biblical traditions that humans belonging to the people of God should not eat all indiscriminately but should make distinctions. The central significance of nourishment is underlined by the first chapter of the Old Testament, where it is said that God gives humans and animals their respective food (Gen 1:29): “God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.” Whilst here, in the first (historically later) priestly creation account and also in the second (historically earlier) account, plant products (Gen 2:16: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden”) were provided for human beings, (fruit, crops and grains, nuts and pulses), there is also a second biblical traditions stemming from the context of the Flood narrative after the Fall, according to which animals were commended to humankind for consumption (“Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.” (Gen 9:3)). The Bible retains its delicate knowledge that meat consumption by human beings is part of the Noachian covenant between God and humankind after the Flood, but not part of the original goodness and peaceful order of creation. Meat consumption is, after all, an expression of the violent thoughts and actions that entered creation through the Fall and the first fratricide. So, may humankind kill animals in order to survive and feed themselves? This question is, by no means, as easy to answer as a large majority assumes. On the one hand, one may argue, from an evolutionary point of view (based on the knowledge preserved and passed on in the account of creation after the Fall) that humankind survived by domesticating animals and benefitting from their produce (eggs, milk), as well as killing these same animals and eating their flesh. Only 150 years ago, people in colder climates would have starved to death had they denied themselves meat, since plant products could not be sufficiently preserved. Humankind can and must reduce this element of violence in their relationships with animals, and attempt to survive with a minimum level of cruelty, but will not be able to evade the question in principle.37 These forms of violence, in respect to the relationship between humankind and animals, should, in no way, be downplayed, made light of nor given too easily a religious justification: The killing of animals cannot be neutralized, in an ethical sense, by 37  Michael Rosenberger, Mäßigung der Lust auf Fleisch  (Zeitzeichen 2014), in: Cf.: https://zeitzeichen.net/geschichte-politik-gesellschaft/2014/christen-undfleischkonsum/

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any routinization, implementation en masse, confinement to places which are largely invisible to the public, or ensuring that it is tolerated by society. The repression of the fact that we have to slaughter animals if we wish to eat meat helps neither consumers nor producers. On the other hand, with its reminders of a vision of peace for the human-animal relationship, the biblical traditions places us in a position of continuous tension with respect to the omnipresence of this violent relationship. It therefore also lays the foundation for the opportunity to ask (within the respective historical and social conditions of the present): What is most likely to aid a reduction of violence within the relationship between humankind and animals, and which links between ethics and law, and between animal ethics and animal protection laws, will most serve the reduction of violence today?38 The Bible does not provide a blanket answer to the ideological dispute between vegetarianism and meat consumption of today;39 however, it does convey some important and unambiguous guidance towards a form of nutrition that is very economical in regard to its use of meat and/or vegetarian food. Clearly, neither a rash, sweeping hypothesis “Jesus was no vegetarian and that is why it does not matter what Christians eat today” (with reference to, for instance, the feeding of the 5000: Lk 9:12-17 or Dtn 12:15f) nor the opposite, equally sweeping hypothesis “The Jewish-­ Christian tradition was altogether vegetarian” (with reference to Gen 1:29) is historically adequate and appropriate in terms of the complexity and diversity of the 2000-year-old biblical testimony regarding the understanding of nutrition and the human-animal relationship. Certainly, an important and relevant tradition regarding Christian vegetarianism40 can already be found in apostolic times. The Eastern-­ Orthodox and Oriental-Orthodox churches regularly abandon all meat consumption during periods of fasting, in order to suspend all that pertains to violence within our lives.41 By creating a rhythm to the regular pattern of fasting and feasting, these ancient Christian traditions can help us to intensify and re-discover a spirituality of nutrition today; one which 38  Cf. Almuth Hirt, Christoph Maisack, Johanna Moritz, Tierschutzgesetz  (TierSchG, Kommentar, 3rd edition, 2016). 39  Cf. Konrad Hilpert, “Müßten wir alle Vegetarier werden? Fleischliche Nahrung und neuere Tierethik,” Religionsunterricht an höheren Schulen, (1993), 297ff. 40  Cf. Carl Anders Skriver, Die Lebensweise Jesu und der ersten Christen, (Lübeck 1973). 41  Cf. Further to the broader context of the Abrahamitic religions, see also: Fasten in den abrahamischen Religionen, (Abrahamisches Forum Deutschland, Darmstadt 2013), http:// www.interkultureller-rat.de/wp-content/uploads/Fastenpapier-web4.pdf

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does not aim to “always” have “everything” at its disposal, but which proves itself to be a wholesome culture of self-restraint in order to feel and physically experience that which is currently helpful, and that which is not, with regard to nutrition. Within the context of a Western culture which is oriented towards consumption and superabundance, the ascetic tradition of the ancient church seems all but forgotten. This tradition not only applied to individuals with a particular calling (such as the Desert Fathers), but was spread across Christendom: Already within Judaism, the triplet of “praying—fasting— giving of alms” was considered to be the most important identifier of a spiritual person. In the first century, all Christians fasted twice a week (on Wednesdays and on Fridays42) as a matter of principle. Alongside these, the whole of Christendom knew about not only the 40 days of fasting during Passiontide (Lent—the “fasting period”) but also the special two days of fasting in preparation for Easter (Good Friday and Holy Saturday). Each fasting period indicated and instigated an interlinking of spirituality, an alternative diet, formation and diaconia. (It “was an independent time of repentance and inner purification. Ascesis, prayer and the giving of alms were recommended during these times. They were also a time for extended sermons.”)43 The interlinking of spirituality, diaconia, formation and an alternative—or even vegetarian—diet were thereby the root and origin of the early, culturally influential and educating power of Christianity in Antiquity. With regard to the relations between humankind, animals and nutrition, the core of the biblical faith, firstly and most importantly, ascribes wonder and gratitude for the grace of God who gives food to all people in abundance (Ps 104:10–13). According to the Old Testament, faith is full of praise for the God who brought his people into a good land, a land of abundance, in which there is more than enough to eat: “a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees and pomegranates (Dtn 8:8). Of course, milk is a part of that diet (cf. Is 55:1; Prov 27:27; Sir 39:26), since it was highly esteemed in ancient Israel, which was “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:8; Ex 13:5) and was drunk as goat’s milk (Ex 23:19; Prov 27:27) or 42  Fasting on Wednesdays reminded Christians of the gathering of the Sanhedrin, into which Jesus—the traitor—was brought. Fasting on Fridays was associated with Jesus’ crucifixion. 43  Cf. Anselm Grün, “Die Fastenpraxis der frühen Kirche und was daraus geworden ist. Heutige Möglichkeiten,” Religionsunterricht an höheren Schulen, Heft 5 (1993): 291–296.

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as sheep’s and cow’s milk (Dtn 32:14). Far beyond its ability to alleviate hunger, food also contributes to human beings’ joy and happiness (Ps 104:15; Joel 2:21–24). It is not only people for whom God provides food, but also animals (Ps 104:14–15; 21). It is precise because food is an expression of the infinite goodness of the creator that the way in which individuals deal with food, in every stratum of the Bible, is a spiritual, as well as an ethical, issue. The question regarding the kind of relationship that is expressed by the connection between mankind, animals, and the natural living environment is more closely related to the question concerning the right way to conform to the will of the Creator, holiness in every-day-life (Lev 19:2) and, ultimately, to the first and second commandment (Ex 20:1–3). In the Jewish tradition, respect and love for the God of life require that any matter relating to food and nourishment is embedded within a set of rules that ensure that God alone is given the glory and that Israel continues to be recognized as the people of God. Israel is to conform to its election as the covenant partner of the God who desires freedom and justice, thereby remaining visibly differentiated from other people groups, religious identities and political or cultic loyalties. Historically, the ritualized version of this requirement took the shape of Jewish dietary rules, the main element of which was the renunciation of all that was—in Antiquity—considered to be the core component of every living being: “Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood” (Gen 9:4), and which is still adhered to today, forming part of the Jewish regulations for a kosher kitchen (or rather, it was further developed as a part of the Muslim determinations for a halal diet).44 The “blood-taboo is an expression of awe and deep respect for God, who gives life to animals and therefore possesses all discretionary power over their lives”45; it is a sign of a religious tradition that aims to reduce the use of violence against the animal world, our fellow creatures. 44  It is impossible, at this point, to discuss the particular issue of Jewish kosher slaughter. From a historical point of view, this tradition of animal slaughter must be considered to be progress, since animals were meant to be slaughtered in a preferably pain-free and quick way, and this was to be embedded in a ritual and thereby supervised. Whether or not kosher slaughter, which forbids stunning, can be considered to be ethically responsible, according to today’s modern veterinary insights, is disputable. Cf. Box 11 “Kosher Slaughter”. 45  Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland: Zur Verantwortung des Menschen für das Tier als Mitgeschöpf, Ein Diskussionsbeitrag des Wissenschaftlichen Beirats des Beauftragten für Umweltfragen des Rates der EKD, 1991,2 Paragr. 11; https://www.ekd.de/tier_1991_ tier2.html

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Included in the purity laws for the priesthood, the consumption of meat was subject to precise regulation (cf. the lists of clean and unclean animals; Lev 11 and Dtn 14), in which archaic, ceremonial, sanitary and possibly early medicinal wisdom from nomadic cultures is connected with the specifically religious tradition of respect for God as the creator of all living beings (abstaining from the consumption of pork was always attributed to reasons of health and hygiene). From a historical perspective, one must assume that the great majority of the Jewish population in biblical times had a predominately plant-based diet; that is, they lived on the fruits of the field, since, for various reasons, the majority of the poor were unable to afford meat and only specific animals were allowed to be eaten (Dtn 14:4–6, amongst them oxen, goats, sheep; fish only gained a more important role in New Testament times). For most contemporaries in antiquity, meat consumption was a rarity, for example, it might be eaten as part of a sacrificial feast in favor of a deity. Today’s extreme excess of meat consumption, both in terms of quantity and frequency, would have been entirely inconceivable throughout the entirety of biblical times. Until New Testament times, a paterfamilias did not slaughter a fattened calf every day, but only on that very special day when the prodigal son came home (Lk 15:23). The eating habits of the few affluent people at the king’s court in ancient Israel contrast sharply with the predominant, meat-deficient lifestyle of the majority of the people of Israel (1 Kings 5:3: ten fat oxen and twenty cattle …) and were criticized by the prophets: The “revelry of the loungers shall pass away” (cf. Amos 6:7b). Even if it is not possible to directly transfer the historical and ceremonial aspects of the Jewish dietary rules into today’s context, this basic thought remains important: One should think about what one wishes to consume since it affects our relationship with God, our fellow creatures and our neighbor. The definitive proposition of the biblical tradition is the statement that the eating habits of mankind are subject to the categorical command to significantly reduce the use of violence against creation and all living creatures, as well as to minimize injustice within all human relationships.

Eschatological Vision of Peace The vision for an eschatological kingdom of peace embodies hope for the alleviation of violence in human-animal relationships: “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid” (Is 11:6a). The

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perspective offered by the combination of respect for all living beings, gratitude for all gifts of creation, inclusion of animals within the understanding of God’s law and covenant order, as well as a concern for the reduction of violence in human-animal relationships, culminates in the biblical-theological perspective of an eschatological peace, which is often depicted, in the prophetic tradition, through images of the animal world that include animals: Following the biblical tradition, all assertions about mankind and animals should typically be regarded within the context of the expectation of a new, different world that is at peace with and within creation. The creation story (Gen 1:29f) is a constant reminder that this world, which has been extremely well crafted, did not have any experience of bloodshed between the animals and humankind, since both were pointed to plant-based food. It is this comprehensive peace within creation that then becomes associated with the promises of the new world that is coming: “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid …” (Is 11:6–9; cf. Is 65:17ff). The biblical vision of a reduction in violence within human-animal relationships, however, stands in stark contrast to the unprecedented magnitude of violence and suffering that exists within the relationships between humankind and the animal world that spread as a result of the industrialized, modern age.46 Even in the New Testament, the promise of the “glory which shall be revealed in us” (KJV) is not exclusively associated with the world of humankind but is distinctly related to “the whole creation,” which “has been groaning in labour pains until now” (Rom 8:18–22). Whilst the end of all pain and all suffering, as seen in the vision found in the Revelation of John, does not expressly involve the animal world, the cosmic and comprehensive imagery of the promise seems to include animals, when it claims that: God “will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” (Rev 21:4) The Christian Church is called not only to preach the gospel amongst all peoples of the world, but to “the whole 46  In modern social sciences, it is only in the past 10–15 years that there has been a greater awareness of this within the framework of Human-Animal Studies: Sonja Buschka, Julia Gutjahr, Marcel Sebastian: Gesellschaft und Tiere: Grundlagen und Perspektiven der Human-Animal Studies, in: Bundeszentrale der Politischen Bildung (2012), http://www. bpb.de/apuz/75812/gesellschaft-und-tiere-grundlagen-und-perspektiven-der-human-­ animal-­studies?p=all; in addition, the philosopher Yuval Noah Harari has addressed the violent relationship between the industrialized modern age and the animal world: https:// www.ynharari.com/de/topic/oekologie/

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creation” (Mk 16:15).47 The need to spread comprehensive peace of creation that is shared by all fellow creatures, is one of World Christian’s daily supplications in the Lord’s Prayer, in which we plead: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10)—and this includes the animal world. The gifts and signs of faith wrought by the spirit, and portrayed in the apostolic letters (love, peace, kindness, faithfulness, generosity and justice, cf. Gal 5:22f; Eph 5:9), should also be evident in our dealings with all living creatures. The Jewish-Christian tradition regularly reminds believers of this vision of a comprehensive kingdom of peace that includes the animals: as part of the regular weekly rhythm which starts with a “day of peace”—the Sunday or Sabbath day—believers are also connected with times of fasting and feasting throughout the ecclesiastical year which reminds Christians of certain salvatory events and thereby the disruption of historical relationships of power. In his remarkable work “Resonance: A Sociology of our Relationship to the World”, the sociologist Hartmut Rosa recently referred to the resilience of the Abrahamic religions and, in particular, their resistance to the totalizing dynamics of acceleration and dynamization found in the industrialized modern world. In his opinion, an essential factor of this resilience towards the permanent pressure of acceleration and an increase of consumption, that is found in the modern world, is rooted in the ancient traditions of fasting and the disruption of routine that is found in the Jewish-Christian, as well as in the Muslim, traditions. The “temporal orders of religious beliefs, … the conception of a saving event and a time of salvation or a sacred time, the seasonal cycle of an ecclesiastical year—all of these prove to be generally resilient towards the imperatives of innovation, acceleration or constant enhancement. Therefore, the religions which were handed down to us, certainly in their Jewish-Christian or Islamic form, seem to function—either primarily or as an ancillary—as a potentially indispensable antithesis to the modern logic of constant improvement and dynamisation.”48 With regards to the relationships between humans and animals, this is a valuable indication that, in modern times, we have lost touch with the basic rhythms of life on many diverse levels, and have thus lost culture of moderation and intermittent periods of respite. Therefore, as the churches 47  Ulrich Seidel, “… verkündet das Evangelium aller Kreatur” Mensch und Tier in der Verkündigung, Jahrbuch für theologische Zoologie, 1 (2014): 103–125. 48  Hartmut Rosa, Resonanz (Eine Soziologie der Weltbeziehung, 2016), 688.

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remember the promise of an eschatological kingdom of peace, it is an essential task to remember that a structure of rhythmization is needed, and one which incorporates the times of year, the life cycle and creation. At the same time, this reminder needs to explain—plausibly and without exacting moral challenges—why our consumption does not always need to reach an ever-increased level. Here, the churches’ specific contribution towards a different kind of fulfillment and sustainable lifestyle becomes visible: It is to argue against the dictate of acceleration and increase, as well as against the total commercialization of goods, animals and time; with the result that it will have immediate consequences in several areas, including that of nutritional and consumption behavior.

Rethinking and Widening our Sustainability Concepts Therefore, our hope can only be that the sustainability discourses globally are going to make a quantum forward leap now in terms of responding to the Corona Crisis. Humankind and animal life on earth are not completely independent. The earth can live without humanity, but humanity cannot survive without nature and without animal life. Humans share almost all of their DNA (80%) with cats, cattle and mice and many chunks of our genome perform similar functions across the animal kingdom. When genomic regions are compared between chimpanzees and humans, they share even about 98.5% of their sequence identity. However, humankind is behaving as if it is the sole race on earth and everything else just given to them for exploitation, consumption and violation. In the beginning discourses about economic rebuilding strategies which have started everywhere we therefore cannot just follow “business as usual” approaches perpetuating our life model which destroys biodiversity on earth. Instead, we need a serious rethinking and redesigning of our systems according to standards of sustainability which also take seriously the needs of wildlife and animals. Otherwise, the weeks or even months of complete lockdown will be transformed into “cognitive lock-ins,” which often occur after long periods of total seclusion when people are not able anymore to stabilize themselves apart from returning back and seeking refuges in patterns of life that are long passed and only provide a superficial sense of security. We need to plea as churches for an integrated conceptualization of sustainability taking together issues and requirements of

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health policies, biodiversity protection with international development cooperation for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Agenda as well as the need for humanity to strengthen resilience over against such global health crisis and appropriate ways of strengthening health and sustainable nutrition systems globally. It is not sufficiently known and publicly shared yet that climate change is presenting the single most important health threat in the twenty-first century to the survival of humankind and top future generations to come.49 The generations of our children unfortunately will have to live with much greater risks for their health concerning more frequent possibilities of pandemics, respiratory diseases due to smog and air pollution, lack of good and healthy nutrition, heat waves and bush fires as well as increasing scarcity of water which all have an immense health effect if we continue with the known models of industrialized high fossil-based models of consumption, production and mobility like up to now. What human civilization has done to the eco-system destabilizes some of the inner balances and complex regulatory frameworks embedded in nature. As human civilization has transgressed planetary boundaries in several dimensions this affects also carefully maintained balances of micro-­ biotic milieus and the relationship between humankind and the world of animals and bio-organisms. The rigorous deforestation and expansion of industrialized zones of agriculture have pushed back the areas in which wildlife can unfold without too close interaction with the milieus in which humankind can grow and survive. The phenomenon of zoonosis, the springing over of viruses from the animal realm to the human realm is also a result of the protracted human violation of creation, the destruction of natural habitats and the excessive overuse of animals for human consumption and industrialized exploitation. Protecting the biodiversity and a sufficient number of zones for wildlife which are not used by humans is one of the essential consequences of this global pandemic. We will have to rethink our model of relating to natural resources and to animal life. We see the churches challenged to voice new avenues of imaging such relationships based on the rich biblical tradition and the wisdom indigenous peoples bring to the table. We also see an urgent need for a more deliberate integration between health policies, developmental policies and 49  See one of the very substantial studies about the interrelation between climate crisis and health crisis, “The 2019 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change,” https://www.thelancet.com/climate-and-health

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protection of biodiversity policies, which all need to influence by the new one health approach, in which health security and food security are seen as complementing each other.50

Revising Bad Human Habits and Cultural Roots of Capturing and Eating Wild Animals It is very unfortunate that the discourses about the most appropriate responses to the pandemic for some nations has degenerated into an unhelpful ideological competition shifting the guilt and trying to identify a major scapegoat for the crisis. This in effect helps very little and proves to serve the interest-only of a few politicians rather than to boldly and honestly look into the root causes together in each country and commonly identify most appropriate remedies which is a common challenge for all nations. Sadly, many governments and businesses seem just eager to get out of lockdowns and return to “business as usual” because for them, the GDP numbers and stock indices are the main concern. While the economic shutdown of factories and businesses certainly has brought economic pain, this Kairos should be used to rethink our patterns of life, of consumption and of production more thoroughly than just to repeat traditional patterns of exploitative and unjust, and unsustainable modes of production and consumption which in part have caused this global crisis. For this honesty, readiness to be self-critical, as well as sober dialogue with the best insights of modern ecological and health-related sciences, are a requirement for all sides. Concerning the habit of eating wild animals that can transmit health hazards, churches should officially endorse recent policies of some governments to ban this practice for all. However, this should be implemented and accompanied by a thorough review of our eating habits and ethical attitudes towards animals in general. Church members could start or support an awareness-raising movement on this in Asia (China in particular) as well in other countries. In China, in the old days, wild animals were 50  See: There is not only the One Health—Statement of FAO 2018, in: http://www.fao. org/europe/news/detail-news/en/c/1170251/; but see also:  One Health Approach. Strategic Action Plan of FAO, in: http://www.fao.org/3/al868e/al868e00.pdf; see also: “Taking a Multisectoral, One Health Approach: A Tripartite Guide to Addressing Zoonotic Diseases in Countries,” http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/resources/en/publications/ TZG/TZG.htm

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eaten because of poverty but also because some animals were considered as providing “natural” boosts to health, potency and longevity. In China, there is a close relationship between these beliefs to some practices of traditional Chinese medicine and Daoism. Issues of animal ethics, nutrition habits, and traditional beliefs, on where life energy comes from should be increased in multi-faith forums not only in China but elsewhere in Asia and much beyond. At the same time, churches need to reconsider how the mass, commercial farming/breeding of animals for food (chickens, pigs, cows) has led to various and major diseases in the past (Mad Cow disease, Avian Flu, Swine flu), which also have spread as global epidemics, leading to mass culling of animals and negative effects on humans, can be transformed into life-­ enhancing ways of farming which are in line with our planetary boundaries and requirements for integral and sustainable development.51 The highly cruel and unsustainable patterns in which the mass commercialization of agriculture/livestock breeding as a mode of production has become in many countries of this world is an additional factor that can spread diseases also to humankind. This crisis proves the thesis that in the long run, animal well-being, human well-being and ecological well-being cannot be dissociated from each other. If animals suffer, humanity in turn will suffer from the consequences. In our rush to produce food for mass consumption faster, more efficiently, and more technologically accelerated, we have abused and poisoned the very natural resources we have inherited, and we are dependent on them as humanity on this earth. The global UN conference on biodiversity which paradoxically had been planned to take place in China, Kunming, originally in October 2020, now presents the single most important global occasion to address issues of protection of biodiversity and related health implications for the whole of humanity.52 Strikingly enough it originally had the title: “Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth,” but due to the Corona outbreak in China, it has been preponed for a few months only to take place in New York on 20–23 September 2020, now under the title: “Urgent Action for Biodiversity for Sustainable

51  See “FAO Strategic action plan for local family farming,” http://www.fao.org/3/ ca4672en/ca4672en.pdf 52  See: https://www.un.org/esa/forests/events/cop15-of-the-un-convention-on-biologicaldiversity/index.html

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Development.”53 Civil society organizations as well as ecumenical church networks such as World Council of Churches (WCC) and development agencies, brought together by Action of Churches Together (ACT) Alliance, should urgently bring together a group to mainstream lobbying and accompanying work for this major international occasion as new regulations must be built into the SDG framework and the post-2020 Biodiversity UN Framework.54

 https://www.cbd.int/  See also: https://www.iucn.org/theme/global-policy/our-work/convention-­biological-­ diversity-cbd/post-2020-global-biodiversity-framework 53 54

CHAPTER 22

Possibilities of Resurrection Cláudio Carvalhaes

Introduction The Holy Week starts like every birth should start: with exclamations of joy and shouts of Hosanna! The utopia of a new time has arrived! We are preparing the way with palm leaves for what is coming. As a song in Latin America written by Jaci Maraschin says: “God calls us to a new moment… alone, isolated nobody can move.” And yet, here we are: alone, isolated, not being able to move. The Holy Week presented here was written during the pandemic and as such, it serves as a way to think with COVID-19 and what it means to be Christians during pandemics. Scientists are saying that new pandemics will arrive because capitalism is devouring the earth. The ways we are dealing with animals, as beings that don’t matter, taking away their refugia and mixing them in ways they cannot be mixed. Surely new pandemics will come and with it, Holy Week will need to take on new understandings of new ends of the world and necessary new forms of living together on earth. As humanity, and we can only think in terms of humans, it seems that we have entered in the weeks/years of our last days. The eco-systems are

C. Carvalhaes (*) Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_22

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becoming deregulated and their many forms of balance are being destroyed. How the virus is accelerating, shifting, hiding, creating strange effects and throwing us into a loop, clearly shows how little we can control it. The presence of COVID-19 is like Palm Sunday but with two different outcomes: One that can signal resurrection and the other that will prepare us for a calamity without redemption. Should we ask: is this infestation a way into life, or like Bruno Latour, we should ask “is this a dress rehearsal?” The difference is that if we don’t stop our collective death, what is coming is worse, frightening, unprecedented and totally unknown. Just like COVID-19, the disarray of the eco-systems will be uncontrolled and we will have to cope with Fridays and Saturdays without end, without a Sunday. This holy infested week can be a parable of our time right now. In the gospel story, holy week starts with people preparing the way for Jesus to come, then Jesus gathers with his friends, washes their feet and share a full meal. Then something starts to go really wrong. Jesus goes to Gethsemane and is scared literally to death, of death. The story goes into a spiral of death and decomposition of dreams, social threads. Jesus is betrayed, given to the State who mercilessly kills him. He goes to hell, but then things start to get back to a different form of life. He resurrects people, angels appear to the women who went to take care of his body, he appears to some disciples and then resurrects. The rest, as we know, is in us under the power of the Holy Spirit. Our present Holy Week is fully infested with Corona virus, what Phillipe Sansonetti called “the sickness of the Anthropocene.”1 But why on earth did this happen to us? We thought that we were just celebrating life as always. Nothing was going that wrong until everything went wrong. We were thrown out of our tracks and we are now in amazing disarray. The social filaments of our life together started to dismantle, the decomposition of what held our society together is now clearly in on our sight and the limitations of our power is luminous. Political systems are collapsing, the economic structure was hit at its heart, the expansion of unlimited credits screeched to a halt, extractivism must be stopped, and fossil fuel not drank by the gallons. The world pattern of life is sick, its forms of production rotten, its machinery of killing fish and other animals putrefied. It has always been this way but now we cannot avoid seeing it. We can 1  Phillipe Sansonetti, cited by Jérôme Baschet in COVID-19:O século XXI Começa Agora, https://n-1edicoes.org/017

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even smell it. We can feel it. We are realizing that we have betrayed our own selves by destroying the earth. The political apparatus of death cannot hide anymore. We are meeting with a pain we did not know, a numbness we cannot control a lot not knowing why all of this is happening. The main theological idea for this infested week is that the earth was put on the cross, the animals were placed on the cross, and the vegetable and mineral world were all placed on the cross. Along with the bodies taken away by COVID-19, especially the marginalized communities, the poorest ones. The one part of this infested holy week that is different, is that we are not assured of resurrection anymore. We might all descend into hell without the hope of seeing the light of the day. Unless we rise up early in the day like the women and prepare the way to see a new life, we will miss the possibility of resurrection and will not be able to listen to the angel announcing to us that a new way of life is possible. Otherwise it will be a perfunctory repetition of rituals without justice. Should we put our rituals on permanent suspension until there is justice. Jewish theologian once asked: “should we put our rituals on permanent suspension until there is justice? Or will we hold on to a piety that does not relate to the pain of the world?” So here we go.

Palm Sunday The Palm branches should be the sign and signal of the inbreak of the love of God into the world, the perennial flowering plants announcing that the realm of plants is there for us if we live in reciprocity: they give us what we need to live and we give them space, care, freedom. On Palm Sunday we must process, walk outside of churches and see that what is outside is not detached from the inside and if we want a new world to happen we can’t just stay inside. As we process, we enter with Jesus into a new Jerusalem, a place where Palestinians also flourish like the Palm trees. The problem is that we never know what to do when we are in Jerusalem. We stop short. We celebrate the idea of it, we even move towards it but then, we are still so attached to the old Jerusalem of our thoughts, of the ethnical cleansing of the Palestinians that we can’t imagine a new world and its demands. If we are to keep going, we will need to be break open so we can find the ideas and means to actually live in a new Jerusalem. This new world as a utopia, a new time comes to us disguised by those who come from below. Not a Messiah full of power but a poor prophet trying to tell us that we must turn our ways: “You heard what was said but I now say this to you…”

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Perhaps the story of Jesus needs to be recounted with the stories of indigenous people and their multiple stories of relations with the earth. Nonetheless, we fall short: we imagine a new world, but then we cannot muster the demands of change that we need to comply with the demands of a new time. For Jesus’ demands are way too high. Who would give everything away to actually be a Christian? Jesus demands puts us into a double bind: either Jesus’ sayings are mere platitudes or our ways of living our Christianity are fake discipleship, sugar-coated religion, empty rituals, psychologized messages and rationalized beliefs crafted to our demands and possibilities. To follow Jesus is to hold on to the Palm trees and break with what we can in order and go with what we must, giving up the old worlds we lived in and the former ways of being. Otherwise, any utopia will mostly be a projection of what we want and a mirror to our desires. Palm Sunday should be the announcement of the outbreak of what we truly need, even if painful. Palm Sunday is a call to think about our happiness. Not the entitlement of personal happiness, happiness captured in the forms of individual expansiveness demanded by the constitution. Palm Sunday is about how we will live our happiness when we get down to Jerusalem where everybody lives. Happiness as a way of accommodating our desires to a collective sense of responsibility where everyone has the right to a life with dignity, in a democracy that takes into account not only human beings but the worlds of vegetable, mineral and animal beings. Even if infested, can we come down to this new world?

Tenebrae As we go down it seems that we have this special ability for destruction and sabotage of our own hopes and dreams. Since we are so confused with who we are and what we truly really want, we end up disguising our desires with forms of social demands. These forms of social demand are organized around neo-liberal politics and economics that are shaping our feelings and affections and we are already realizing that it is not working. We are all getting sick, depressed, half employed, unemployed, anxious by the gallons, dying without health care. Besides, in our total confusion, we have never known the limits between the human and the non-human or other-human worlds and that is the sources of our plagues: the entering of a world that doesn’t belong to us. COVID-19 is yet another sign of our moving way beyond our limit for consumption, control and domain. We are descending into a heavy darkness. Not the luminous darkness that

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Howard Thurman talks about and that is glorious, but to a space where the light that shines doesn’t produce darkness but rather a thickness of loss, fear and confusion. So, we arrive at Tenebrae Service. At that day, the ritual signals that something is going awry. A mixture of light, darkness and something else is falling upon us and we don’t know fully what it is. This Tenebrae service says that we are in a place of descent that we can’t quite figure out. We listen, some of us stay home, some of us will work. Some of us will be hit hard and will die. Some others will survive. But the wind of life is now filled with something we can’t quite know. The indigenous people say that the skies are different, the trees are responding in weird ways and the animals are receding. In the service of trevas, we are overwhelmed by a thousand laments that we don’t exactly know. In the service, we read Bruno Latour who points us to a certain why of this time: “Is this a dress rehearsal?”2 Are we getting ready for what is coming? A global warming catastrophic series of events already happening everywhere? Will we still be slaves of extractivist Corporations everywhere who eat up everything that is earth: mountains, rivers, soil, underground soil, even the moon? Can we hear it? It could be that the earth is telling us: you either go into silence and slowness or I am about to spit you out of my mouth as God said to the to the church in Laodicea in Revelations 3:16. Perhaps… so we read the Lamentations of Jeremiah and his offers of consolation without redemption. The lights go dim and the candles are blown out. At the end of the ritual, there is only one candlelight which is taken away. Silence. A long silence. An extremely long pause. Perhaps, if we can hear the silence, we might be able to listen to the luminous darkness within us. We might be able to leave our houses when is still dark to wait for the first rays of the sun. The darkness within us is brightened by the light that also lives within us. The light within us also darkened by the darkness of who we are. So, we go to a place where the thickness of the unknown will show up and we will have no idea of the where or who or how of anything So we will learn that we cannot control anything. And from there, a beam of responsibility, light and darkness leads the way into the night/light.

2  Bruno Latour, “Is This a Dress Rehearsal?,” https://critinq.wordpress.com/2020/03/26/ is-this-a-dress-rehearsal/

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Maundy Thursday The next day we gather, carrying the thickness of this time within us. All we know now is that we need to help those who are suffering, those who are caught in the vortex of demands and exploitations of landlords and CEOs. The poorer ones who cannot hide in their homes, the ones who are suffering domestic violence by partners enraged by their own violence and the violence of this time, health workers putting their lives on line for somebody else, fast food workers who are demanded by upper classes to serve them even though they are exposed every day, farmer workers exposed to COVID-19 without any protection harvesting the fields for our nutrition, elderly people who are afraid of being alone and dying alone. All we know today is that we must turn on the siren of our inner ambulances and go serve somebody. Today is the day we learn from Jesus that the main symbol of Christianity might not be the cross but the towel, the towel of service, of care for somebody. When Jesus washes the feet of his disciples, he is taking the position of the slave who used to wash the feet of the guests at the door before they entered into the house for dinner. Today we must serve those who were not invited to dinner. We serve those who do not belong to the list of invitees. Today we move on to hold on somebody’s heart filled with anxiety and consumed by fear. Some churches will strip the altar and with that we learn that our lives are already striped, that which was there before was just an illusion of a protection, of an order, of a certain security. No, we are stripped bare naked and our soul is pumping outside of our body, feeling all of the elements and afraid of what is coming. The dinner with Jesus disciples was already a place where somebody was going to betray him. Like our humanity betraying endlessly the love of plants, animals, oceans, fish, rocks, fields and soil. We are constantly betraying the love of the earth by 30 coins for full economic progress and sustainability. We say we love the earth as Judas loved Jesus. The same way that Judas didn’t actually want to betray Jesus we also do not want to betray the earth. And yet, this is what we do. Judas went to kill himself and we say a prayer for him, as we must say a prayer for all of us destroying our home, our planet. We must change before we also commit a collective suicidal act with our ways of living. We must turn away from our betrayal and say no more! We don’t want to give away Jesus, nor the poor, or the earth. We must not! But we should expect that the State police will come after us and say: “Go buy! Keep working! Keep the economy going or else! You will regret it! We will take away your jobs, we will

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crush your families, you will be desperate and you will die! We control you! Go now and do what we are telling you! Go kiss the earth goodbye! We will take care of the earth later!” So, we leave the service torn between our faithfulness to God who created the earth and demanded us to care for it and the demand of the politicians and the economic corporations who says they will come after us. Before we leave we hear Eliane Brum admonishing us: “Capitalism has already stolen our present, it cannot steal our future.”3 As we ponder, still infested, we will continue to serve those infested and in need.

Holy Friday We failed. Miserably! We couldn’t do it. Our fear of losing the immediate prevented us from caring for the future. Our future was over-consumed by the fear of scarcity. We had to betray Jesus for the police was breathing heavily on our neck. The police state had their boots on our face. It was either Jesus or us. We just couldn’t. It was not our fault. The power system knew too well he was too dangerous and had to use us, those that knew him, to do it. Jesus also knew too well our ways of being and said: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Indeed, we are so confused and so far from what grounds ourselves, that we couldn’t do any different. The violent State also knew our weaknesses and also what Jesus could do to us and they had to stop him altogether. People started to believe, they were getting ready to change and to change too much, too many things. We could actually break into a new life! So, the spectacle of his death was a necessary and merciless show of pain and violence. Time and again, time and again, time and again. Jesus’ death points to our death. It was a clear message of the State alerting people: “See this? If you do this, if you don’t follow the demands of our economy and the rules of order and progress, this is what is going to happen to you. You have to believe we will care for you. Don’t be foolish!” And the feeling of shame, embarrassment, defeat, ruin and disaster. The cross of Jesus is the death of all of the wretched put on the cross. All of the ones discarded as trash, all of those who had to work for others to live, all of the ones bringing fear just by existing, to the upper-class ones, the ones have chosen to live well. The cross of Jesus is the jails and walls that are everywhere, the stealing of 3  Eliane Brum, “O Futuro Pós-Coronavírus Já Está Em Disputa,” https://brasil.elpais. com/opiniao/2020-04-08/o-futuro-pos-coronavirus-ja-esta-em-disputa.html

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common resources, sick people dying without access to profiting health systems, students without access to education and students gaining massive debts due to the profiting of educational systems, the expansive treatment only given to some by the profitable pharmaceutical companies. Everybody who was abandoned was there with Jesus, and everything that came upon Jesus for his death is the death of the world. Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Abandoned by God, he died. Nothing was left untouched. Jesus’ death was the victory of death, the infestation of the worse forms of the human soul. We were left alone. The same way, the earth is on the cross right now! We are mercilessly killing the earth in all its possible forms of life! We brutalize animals for consumption, we empty the oceans for our consumerist taste, we thrown gallons of pesticides into the soil killing the earth slowly so we can eat whatever we want at any time of the year, we plant monocultures of soy and corn to feed animals, we turn forests into pasture for animals and all of it for our consumption, we poison the air until we cannot breathe anymore, we pollute the rivers with trash from factories, we pour tons of plastic into the ocean, we actually kill the oceans, we decimate wild life, we extinguish 300 species every single day, we poison grass for our manicured pleasure, we need, we want, we desire, we demand! And then, all is dead and in the path of dying. Nothing will be left for us humans. But the earth will come back with a revenge. Politicians and economic corporations couldn’t care less. They are building bankers for themselves and even thinking about how to create conditions of life in Mars when what we have here is extinguished. There is no hope whatsoever. Everything is dead. Everything is going to die as a ripple effect. We are truly infested, more than we ever imagined! It is finished Jesus said. So are we!

The Great Vigil of Easter We go home to what we don’t know. Our lives seem to be done. Everything we had was taken away. The world we though we so pristinely had, is gone. Fully gone. We can’t hear the birds of the earth breathing. The animals have gone away from us. We are left bereft, alone, isolated, like a plague that demands us to stay within. And within is the most difficult place to stay. Jesus our North, South, East and West is dead and there is no compass to measure our loss, our grief, our displacement. We don’t anticipate anything anymore besides the lingering of death in its bitterness and emptiness within us. We lean on our numbness. Perhaps our task now

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is to find a place where we can be Comfortably Numb. We compose a symphony of crashed dreams, empty pockets, a drawer filled with torn cloths, a bare kitchen sink and some leftovers in the fridge that don’t go cold anymore. Imagine that not long ago we were coming down to a new world holding palm leaves for new beginnings. Our future, we felt, was such a given. We even believed that we could change the ways of the world starting with ourselves. But should have known better. The revolution only comes from where we don’t imagine. Where did it begin? All we know is that it ended and there is nothing on the horizon. We now spend the nights and days not knowing what to do or where to go. Everything we say to each other is canceled as if we must shut down anything that doesn’t look like us. We fear. What is it coming our way? An even worse catastrophe? Our fear now universalized, even though the politicians are saying “you lost nothing, we are here for you. We will globalize our safety and no pandemic can defeat us. Don’t worry we have more power to destroy the world than a tiny arrogant virus. Fear not my flock, fear not. Your president is here for you. I just need a little bit more of power for a time of crisis and we will go back to normal. I promise you! What do you have to lose? The world is already in such a mess that we didn’t create. We can’t be responsible for that. But now we are here for you. Trust us! There will be a glorious future for us, one that nobody has ever seen, I promise you.” While this proclamation is enticing, and it feels like we either go there or we assume our abandonment, we are again very confused. Perhaps, it is at that juncture where possibility lies our possibility, our resurrection. Not to trust any government but to demand a new way for our lives to find pathways to a new life. We can’t solve problems but we can create patterns for alterations of productivity, transforming behaviors and altercations that hold together the paradoxes of our time. But how can we muster the energy to get up, seize our enemies and go after them without fear? How do we conquer our fear of the enemy if the fear of death is a sting still infesting our hearts? We sit down and light a fire for the evening for is cold, very cold. Rubem Alves said once that religion is about lighting a fire to keep us warm. With the hope that it won’t burn us, I’d say. Instead, it will just keep us warm, so we find the strength to change what needs to be changed. At night the demons come out, fears run loose, and we are afraid of the creatures of night. We are alone and when somebody who can warm our hearts get closer, in fear we say: “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” And in the midst of the warmth, something can always happen. That is the beautiful thing about

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our collectivity, the human spirit, that there is always somebody who can lead the way towards life, even amidst those who push us towards death upon death upon death. Thank God there were the women: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. They were consumed by the emptiness of their loss, but they had to do what they had to do: care for the body of the diseased. “On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.” They had prepared the spices for Jesus’ body, and off they went. What they didn’t know is that they would find an empty tomb and an angel saying something like “what are you looking for? Your precious Jesus is alive.” They go back and tell everyone else about the news of a new world, but they couldn’t believe. This news was too much happiness to bare. It is the way of our times right now. We are in the midst of death, who would believe that a new form of life is possible out of a world drenched in many forms of death and dying? But perhaps, this virus might be an earth-sent, where God’s angel telling us we are destroying ourselves, that we are going beyond our limits, that we are breaking the balance that took millions of years to happen. The angel is telling us that COVID-19 can be a new way into our future if we pay attention and change our ways. The angel is trying to tell us that COVID-19 is teaching us that we can live as a community in different ways, that we power to stop the huge engine of death, productivity and progress that keeps us going. Perhaps COVID-19 is also telling us that if we pay attention and care, there might be a new way of being that is possible. If we have already destroyed our present through our capitalistic ways of living and religious detachment from these implications, perhaps COVID-19 will teach us to save our future. By changing now! If we look at the earth on the cross in our collective death, may we can find an opportunity of resurrection given to us. We are still infected. Can we hear the angel of life and death?

Easter Sunday Sunday morning comes and Jesus appears to the disciples. Thomas, like most of us doubts, and instead of being thrown away, he is invited to get closer to Jesus, intimately closer. Thomas is invited to touch the woundedness of Jesus, the place of pain and healing, vulnerability and strength. Such a touch, such intimacy transforms him. Now everyone is paying attention. The unthought gave a way to new thinking, the dead gave way to life. A miracle in transformation is transforming everyone in that room. What was death is not life! With Mercedes Sosa, we sing: “so many times

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we were killed, so many times we resurrected and we went on singing under the sun like a butterfly.” The resurrection of Jesus is not a given! And that is perhaps our disaster. Understanding is a promise only if we attend to the ways of life and death. For our time with COVID, if we don’t pay close attention to the ways we are killing ourselves collectively, we will not be able to resurrect. For those who didn’t mourn together the death of Jesus, there won’t be the miracle of seeing Jesus resurrected. That means that we have to mourn all of the earthlings dying. Every tree, every river, every fish, every bird, and every human being. Only those who can mourn the earth will be able to see its resurrection. Only those who died will understand the song of the butterfly. That is grace, the attending to our dying and our resurrecting. That means we need to go against Christian theologies of grace that state that we are nothing and we cannot do anything but God. On the contrary, grace will only exist if we do work for our collective resurrection. And work very hard. Grace will wake us up and empower us to do the healing work of restoration, but God has given us the wisdom to do that. We can rely on ourselves and each other for a pearl of collective wisdom that can bring upon the resurrection of many parts of the earth who has already died. Today we are called to be transformers of our own ways of being, calling forth the arrival of a new time when a new form of economic organizing can be very, very different. Economies that organize themselves around the gifts and laws of the natural world that need to be kept and not extracted for profit. An economy that sees the “resources” of the earth as a living organism that sustains entire communities and not as profit for a few people. A resurrected economy where people can see values of earthlings as intrinsic values and not as money value. Never with big corporations but around community exchanges. To find the resurrection of Jesus will entail our collective taking care of the land, breaking down private property, making sure everyone has access to health universal care, and have a universal salary. We will not allow anyone to become extremely rich as we will all share our gifts. Moreover, like the women who went to visit Jesus, we must prepare for this new miracle, even if we can’t see one coming yet. We will carry both the spices to honor what is dead but also spices for what can be restored, these spices are other forms of thinking, feeling, organizing and relating to the earth. With and against religion. If we hear the angels of the earth that God is sending to us right now, we will be able touch the woundedness of the earth and will begin to heal our hurts and restore and restitute the earth. We will gain an intimacy with the earth to the point of realizing that we are wounded as the earth is wounded.

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Conclusion We are living in an in-between time. COVID-19 is still here but we are all living as if it isn’t anymore. What the future will be we don’t know. As said in the beginning, new pandemics will arrive. We don’t seem to have learned much with COVID. We are living in the same way. However, we must change our ways of living. As we move forward, may our Holy Week be a daily event with all of these moments, feelings, relations and transformations with God and the earth accompanying us. So, we go back to singing the song of the beginning: “God calls us to a new moment… alone, isolated nobody can move.” This living together means engaging the patch of land we are living in. Right there at what we might call a village, a neighborhood, a town. We must engage ALL forms of living beings in order to understand the whole system we are living in. For only collectives of humans and more than humans can attend, together, to our situation. Only with more connections and relations we can attend to those who are dying. Only if we pay attention to people dying, but also all of roadkill animals, the vegetation, the insects, the rivers and so on is that resurrection will visit us. To pay attention to those dying around us IS to attend to Jesus death. It is our work of closely attending to the cries of the earth, attending those who are dying and have died that we can see Jesus visiting us alive! Only becoming intimate with the wounds of the earth, who is the body of God, like Thomas, that we will be able to see the resurrection of Jesus, and the earth. If we do that, we will become what Tyson Yunkaporta calls “custodians of the earth,”4 and what Bruno Latour calls interrupters of globalization,5 We will slow time and walk at the pace of the earth. We will create gestures and forms of living that will eliminate modes of being that are deadly to our present and our future. How can we give the earth space and time to resurrect herself? How can the advent of COVID-19 help us create new rituals that envisage new forms of life in reciprocity with the earth? Rituals that can give us awareness of our ­condition in a more expansive way, in deep relationality with the earth? Rituals that can help us mend our destruction, restore what we have devastated, and help us restitute our desire towards death? 4  Tyson Yunkaporta, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (New York: HarperOne, 2021). 5  Bruno Latour, “Imaginar Gestos Que Barrem O Retorno Da Produção Pré-Crise,” https://n-1edicoes.org/008-1

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If we continue with our religion and local economies the way we are going, we will continue to produce a form of hope that will only be there to help us breath the dirty air we already have. We need a different form of hope, one akin to what writer Franz Kafka who said: “There is plenty of hope. But not for us.” We must work towards understanding what the earth is and needs, and how we can honor the earth and work in reciprocity. Not in extractivism! Then, we will come to know that the earth in all its complexities and diversity is always a sacrament. If Jesus is not resurrecting in and through the earth, the seeds, the oceans and the trees, is Jesus resurrecting anywhere? If we want to start our work as resurrection people, we need to think and decide what we will do. As we finish this infested Holy Week, let us pause and think about the inventory Bruno Latour6 gave us. He asks us to think about it first individually and then collectively. After engaging these questions add your own. 1. What currently suspended activities would you like to not return to normal? 2. Describe why this activity seems harmful/superfluous/dangerous/ senseless, and in what way would its disappearance/suspension/ substitution would make other activities that you prefer, easier or more pertinent. (Make a separate paragraph for each of the answers listed in question number 1). 3. Given the suspension of activities that you are suggesting, what measures would you suggest to facilitate the transition to new activities that would have to be made by workers, employees, business owners and so on? 4. Which activities that are currently suspended would you like to see start over, grow or even be totally recreated from zero? 5. Describe why this activity seems positive to you and how it would make other activities that you prefer easier or more pertinent, and why it helps combat those which you consider unfavorable (Make a separate paragraph for each of the answers listed in question 4). 6. What measures would you suggest to help workers/employees/ business owners acquire the skills/means/tools to restart/develop or create this activity?

6

 Latour, “Imaginar Gestos Que Barrem O Retorno Da Produção Pré-Crise.”

CHAPTER 23

Imago Dei Ecclesiology Lisa Joy Fowler

Introduction Although the term “empowerment” is common in missiological parlance, it has been popularized in western culture beyond the term’s biblical intent.1 This deserves theological reflection. The historic inculturation of imago Dei into popular American Christian culture is enmeshed with wider empowerment narratives, further marginalizing older adults during the health crisis of Covid-19.2 This accentuates the need to critique cultural values that could preclude American churches from deep-rooted  This paper defines the American cultural use of the term “empowerment” as the autonomous expression of personal rights. 2  This paper defines “older adults” as aged 85 and older, coinciding with the Center for Disease Control’s age designation of those most vulnerable to coronavirus-related complication and fatality. It is important to note that older adults aged 85 and older do not represent a homogenous population in the United States. 1

L. J. Fowler (*) Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, KY, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_23

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renewal in the midst of suffering. The purpose of this paper is to identify the need for a contextual ecclesiology for the American church that engages the questions: What is the character of the church? and are American empowerment narratives (with their emphases on autonomy and human rights) bridges or barriers to a renewed understanding of biblical empowerment?3 In contrast to the Americanized understanding of empowerment in dominant American culture, I argue that God the Father as the Source of life, the church as the embodiment of the incarnate Christ, and the character-­ forming ecclesial implications of the Holy Spirit’s presence empower the church to live in the likeness of God. I do this by first reflecting historically on the Americanized inculturation of imago Dei and its implications for older Americans during the pandemic that began in 2019. Second, I reflect theologically on biblical imago Dei in contrast to its Americanized distortion. Third, I use a trinitarian frame to encourage character formation for American churches as they engage in both worship and suffering. I do this in dialogue with Mercy Amba Oduyoye’s interpretation of a “household of God” model for the church, Antonio Gonzãlez’s articulation that “God is Jesus,” and C. René Padilla’s emphasis on misíon integral. I conclude with a practical call for an imago Dei ecclesiology that considers the implications of virtual and in-person church gatherings for older adults during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. These implications are evaluated as cultural clues, illustrative of the wider issue at hand: the Americanized malformation of imago Dei.

The Americanized Inculturation of Imago Dei In American popular Christian culture, it is often projected that the individual rights of every person ought to be upheld because each person has been made in the image of God. Whereas this may be true, if the gospel is to be revitalized in the American church, it begs additional theological reflection.4 The western human rights narrative, particularly in the United States, originated from the liberalism school of philosophy from seventeenth-­ century European ideals through the philosophy of John 3  This paper defines the church as a worshiping community of redeemed people who seek life in our triune God. 4  I thank Matthew Maresco for bringing the complexities of human rights and the imago Deito my attention, Fall 2020.

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Locke.5 Locke sets forth a philosophy of personal freedoms framed within Christian materialism and religiosity, exemplifying the Enlightenment-­ influenced spiritual-material divide of the reason-oriented west. The spiritual-­material divide most relevant to the purpose of this paper is found within Locke’s interpretation that humans are (by their very nature) the property of God.6 This sets his philosophy within an ethos of contractual obligation, dramatically contradicting the dynamic relationality of biblical imago Dei. Eventually, Thomas Jefferson incorporated Lockean philosophy into the Declaration of Independence famously writing: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”7 This important influence on the inculturation of imago Dei into the human rights narrative indoctrinated American society with an optimistic belief in the moral progress of the ideal man.8 I affirm that all people are inherently valuable and deserving of both dignity and rights, celebrating the goodness of God’s creation and the promises of Galatians 3:26–29. And yet, to equate the imago Dei with Locke’s notion of natural rights and social contract theory presents a woefully deficient picture of what it means to belong in Christ. In contemporary society, the Americanized imago Dei is exemplified by the polarized response to Covid-19 church closures and mandatory face coverings, disproportionately affecting those most vulnerable to the complex effects of the disease. The polarized responses stem from the belief that the temporary closures of in-person church gatherings impinge on Christian Americans’ religious freedoms and that mandatory face 5  Gregg L.  Frazer, The Religious Beliefs of America’s Founders: Reason, Revelation, and Revolution (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2012). 6  https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/locke1689a.pdf. Accessed on April 10, 2020. 7  https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript. Accessed on August 17, 2020. 8  The scope of this chapter will not allow for a robust historical exploration of the inculturation of imago Dei into U.S.  American society. Like most historic processes, there are numerous factors involved, only one of which is the United States’ historic roots in Lockean philosophy. For further reading on this topic see: Gregg L. Frazer in The Religious Beliefs of America’s Founders: Reason, Revelation, and Revolution. (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2012); Thomas S.  Engeman and Michael P.  Zuckert in Protestantism and the American Founding. (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame, 2004); and the research of Thomas L. Pangle, Claude M. Newlin, and Alice M. Baldwin.

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coverings threaten American individuality. To be American, according to popular culture, is to be a free individual. And yet, a survey of U.S. Supreme Court cases involving individual freedoms versus concerns of public health demonstrate that the ideals surrounding individual freedoms are complex, especially in regard to the public threat of communicable diseases.9 Put simply, freedom for some people may mean putting others at risk. To complicate matters further, a belief according to popularized Christian culture promulgates that every person should have the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” because all people are created in the image of God. Inevitably, erroneous theological contradictions regarding what it means to be made in the image of God abound when imago Dei is absorbed into the already-complex American ideology of individual freedoms. In the case of Covid-19, disregard for the aging community is evidenced in many ways, one of which is by the celebratory response to the technological advance of the virtual church. This is undergirded by a U.S. American empowerment narrative with its emphasis on human and scientific advancement, often at the neglect of those who remain outside popular definitions of autonomy and progress. Whereas meeting virtually during the height of the pandemic perhaps was a creative alternative to large church gatherings, older Americans are less likely than younger Americans to draw meaningful connections from virtual interactions.10 This “technology gap” goes beyond a simple generational divide. Unless technology (including the virtual expression of church) is engineered and designed in partnership with gerontologists, its efficacy among older adults will remain low.11 Further, many churches that encouraged responsible in-person gatherings adhered to Center for Disease Control guidelines. These guidelines suggested that “at risk” communities should remain at home when possible, encouraging the use of virtual forms of social engagement as the safest options during the pandemic.12 This means that both expressions of church—whether virtual or in-person—isolated the elderly from their faith communities at the height of the Covid-19 9  Ronald Bayer. “The continuing tensions between individual rights and public health. Talking Point on public health versus civil liberties.” EMBO reports 8,  no.12 (2007): 1099–1103. 10  Sunkyo Kwon ed., Gerontechnology: Research, Practice, and Principles in the Field of Technology and Aging (New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2017). 11  Rachel Pruchno. “Technology and Aging: An Evolving Partnership.” The Gerontologist 59, no.1 (2019): 1–5. 12  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/older-adults. html. Accessed on August 21, 2020.

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health crisis. Under other circumstances, these faith communities would have helped them cope during times of stress.13 Clinician Ipsit V. Vahia, M. D. summarizes well the daunting task of those in the geriatric medical community prior to the development and dissemination of Covid-19 vaccines: While the initial focus has been on understanding the impact of the virus itself on infected older adults, clinicians and researchers around the world have recognized that there are also major challenges arising from the resulting lockdown and quarantine measures.14

Social isolation and disconnectedness increases the risk of anxiety and depression, particularly among older adults.15 Prior to the unique complexities of Covid-19, suicide among older adults was 27% higher than among the general population.16 Additionally, the United States is experiencing a major shift in its aging demographics as a large generational cohort (the “baby boomers”) are entering older adulthood.17 In other words, Covid-19 presents unique challenges for a growing number of older Americans regarding faith community connectivity. What is the character of the American church under such circumstances? The American church needs a recovery of a biblical imago Dei by critically reflecting on its cultural empowerment narratives in dialogue with Scripture. It is not my intent to conceptualize a better reflection of the imago Dei within U.S. politics, but rather to reframe the Americanized imago Dei away from its enmeshment to dominant cultural empowerment

13  Harold G. Koenig, “Ways of Protecting Religious Older Adults from the Consequences of COVID-19,” The American journal of geriatric psychiatry: official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry 28.7 (2020): 776–779. 14  Ipsit V.  Vahia, “COVID-19, Aging, and Mental Health: Lessons from the First Six Months,” The American journal of geriatric psychiatry: official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry 28.7 (2020): 691–694. 15  Ziggi Ivan Santini, et  al, Social disconnectedness, perceived isolation, and symptoms of depression and anxiety among older Americans (NSHAP): a longitudinal mediation analysis (Copenhagen, Denmark: Elsevier Ltd, 2019). 16  Sanae El Ibrahimi, Yunyu Xiao, Matthew L.  Smith, “Suicide Trends and Disparities Among Older Adults in the United States, 2008–2017,” Innovation in Aging 3, no.1 (2019): S692. 17  Yeates Conwell et al., “Suicide in older adults,” The Psychiatric clinics of North America 34, no.2 (2011): 451–68.

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narratives, inviting a return to its rightful place within the missional intent of God.

The Imago Dei and the Character of God In order to theologically explore a contextual ecclesiology for the American church in this post-Christendom, Covid-19 generation, it is important to consider God’s own character, in whose image we bear. It is the divine community, the perichoresis, that moves outward with missional intent, creating humans as inherently relational with a capacity for Spirit-­ empowered love so that we can likewise move outward with creative authority in the cosmic kingdom of God. Put simply, the imago Dei is God’s expression of Himself in us.18 In order to rightly participate in God’s active presence in the world, the people of God need to live into our created purpose as an eikon (image) of God—a holy, just, and sacrificially loving community. I propose that Matthew 12:33–37 provides a picture of God’s cosmic design for those who are redeemed into His image. It is out from the abundance of God’s character that His Word flows, joining us as an imago Dei community through Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. After Jesus heals the blind, mute, and demon-possessed man, the Pharisees accuse Jesus of healing in the power of Beelzebul. Jesus responds to this accusation by comparing these religious leaders to a brood of vipers.19 Craig Keener writes that “an ancient tradition suggested that some kinds of vipers ate their way out of their mothers (see, e.g., Herodotus, Plutarch). It was bad enough to be called a viper, but to be called a viper’s child was even worse—killing one’s mother or father was the most hideous crime conceivable in antiquity.”20 In other words, Jesus publicly accused the religious leaders of being wicked and capable enough to kill their own source of life. Jesus’ preface to this unfavorable comparison was an image of a good tree and a bad tree, both identifiable by its fruit. It is from this definitive contrast that Matthew recounts Jesus’ accusation:  See Genesis 1:26–30.  See Matthew 12:34. Jesus later accuses the Pharisees and Sadducees as a “brood of vipers” in Matthew 23:33. John the Baptist also speaks against them in Matthew 3:7 using similar terms. 20  Craig S.  Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 52. 18 19

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You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.21

Of course, for the first century Jewish listener, the word “heart” in this passage is rich in meaning: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your levav and with all your soul and with all your might.”22 For Jesus’ listeners, the levav, or heart, was the center of human thought, feeling, will, and desire.23 In Proverbs 4:20–25 we read: My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your levav. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. Keep your levav with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.24

In Matthew, that which flowed out from the human heart had the ability to bring acquittal or condemnation. In Proverbs, the intimate words of a father fill the levav of his offspring with life. Like the father of Proverbs 4, Jesus approaches the Samaritan woman at the well, speaking words to her that could bring her eternal life. He tells her that He has the authority to give her the “gift of God,” living water that eradicates thirst from whomever accepts the drink. According to the gospel of John, Jesus says to the woman, “but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”25 This image of living water uniquely connects Ezekiel’s and Zechariah’s visions of the eschatological temple26 with the levav of the believer.27  Matthew 12:34–37 (ESV).  Deuteronomy 6:4–5 (ESV). 23  See Genesis 6:5–6, 8:21; Exodus 4:14, 21; Exodus 28:29–30; 1 Samuel 2:1; Ezra 7:27; Psalm 15:2; Jeremiah 4:14. 18–19, among others. 24  Proverbs 4:20–25 (ESV). 25  John 4:14 (NRSV). 26  See Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8–12; Zechariah 14:8-9. Of course, John is given a similar vision we read in Revelation 22. 27  See John 7:37–38. 21 22

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The account we have in Matthew 12:33–37 compares the religious leaders as the offspring of evil, evidenced by their words against both the Spirit and Jesus’ authoritative identity given by the Father. Their words reveal their levav as wicked. They are not like a tree planted by streams of water.28 They do not taste from the tree of life.29 Their hearts are not flesh, but stone.30 As we move toward an imago Dei ecclesiology for the American church for a post-Christendom, Covid-19 generation, Matthew 12:33–37 provides a picture of profound importance regarding the character of the people of God: We are designed to be intimately connected to our Source. This is possible because of the creative intent of the triune God, designing humans in His image, breathing into them the heartcapacity for a future renewal in Christ. We are redeemed when we flow out from our Source of life, God the Father.31 In order to explore the implications that a biblical imago Dei has for American churches in the midst of various complexities that are still emerging from the recent global health crisis, let us situate the church within the already/not-yet Kingdom context of both worship and suffering.

Worship, Suffering, and Spirit-Empowered Life Mission flows from a posture of worship and has as its ultimate end an eternal state of worship.32 In fact, it is from this posture of worship that human participation in the life of God can flow.33 In John 20:19–23 the resurrected Jesus empowers His disciples to be like Him by breathing into them the Holy Spirit. This authoritative, sending characteristic of God is the basis for the human understanding of “mission as being derived from the very nature of God.”34 But what did Jesus mean by “Peace be with you” followed by the gift of the life-creating breath of God; 35 and what  See Psalm 1.  See Proverbs 3:18; Psalm 34:8; John 6:53-58; Revelation 22:1–4, 14–17. 30  See Ezekiel 11:19–21 and exemplified by Pharaoh’s hard(ened) heart in Exodus 4:21, 7:3, 7:22, 8:15, 8:19, 8:32, 9:7, 9:12, 9:34, 10:1, 10:20, 10:27, 11:10. 31  See 1 John 4:13–17. 32  Craig Ott, Stephen J. Strauss, & Timothy C. Tennent, Encountering Theology of Mission: Biblical Foundations,  Historical Developments, and Contemporary Issues  (Grand Rapids, MI.: Baker Academic, 2010), 84. 33  I thank Dr. Stephen Offutt (Asbury Theological Seminary) for connecting holistic mission to worship in MD955 Integral Mission, Spring 2020. 34  David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2011), 399. 35  See John 20:19–23. 28 29

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does this mean for the church in the midst of the complexities stemming from Covid-19 global suffering? Is the church merely “privileged to ­participate” in the missio Dei, whether it be through proclamation, transformation, or shalom-bearing presence? Through Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit, the disciples are miraculously joined to God’s authority and character, while yet remaining distinctly (and fallibly) human. If the missio Dei church is understood primarily in terms of the economy of God, then we lose sight of the wider miracle of John 20:19–23—not only are we “yet chosen and precious in God’s sight” as “living stones” being “built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood,”36 we are also dynamically joined to Christ as the “household of God.”37 Jennifer Buck affirms Mercy Amba Oduyoye’s engagement with the metaphor of the church as the oikonomia (household) of God by extending it to western evangelicalism’s communal need to become a “church in the round.” The “church in the round” is one that displays mutuality, connectedness, and nonhierarchical expressions of our communal identities in Christ.38 The abiding presence of God among His people speaks of God’s own generosity; an intimate sharing of Himself that should implore us into a state of worship.39 John Jefferson Davis writes, “The Christian who participates in worship can and should see himself or herself as a trinitarian-ecclesial self, not a consumerist or therapeutic self of modernity or postmodernity, or a sovereign and independent self-disconnected from the body and the triune God.”40 In order for American churches to become a better expression of a worshiping “church in the round” community, we need to better understand the biblical imagery of ourselves as the body of Christ and temple of God’s Holy presence.41 Antonio Gonzãlez critiques pursuits of merely speculating about God’s character, imploring the practical necessity of considering first the character of Jesus.42 By emphasizing the ways in which “God is Jesus,” Gonzãlez  See 1 Peter 2:4–5.  See Ephesians 2:17–22. 38  Jennifer M. Buck. Reframing the House: Constructive Feminist Global Ecclesiology for the Western Evangelical Church. (Pickwick Publications, 2016). 39  See Revelation 3:20–22. 40  John Jefferson David, Worship and the Reality of God, 34. 41  See 1 Corinthians 6:19–20; 12:12–31; Romans 12:4–5; Colossians 1:17–18; Ephesians 2:19–22; 1 Peter 2:4–5. 42  Gene L. Green, Stephen T. Pardue, and Yeo K. K. eds., The Trinity Among the Nations: The Doctrine of God in the Majority World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), 70. 36 37

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rightly reconnects the immanent Trinity with the economic Trinity as a unified whole, theologizing that God is “the pure act of love.”43 Jesus’ life, suffering, and death indicate the kind of love that Christ calls His people to reflect. Jesus touched the leper, liberated the oppressed, approached the woman.44 Jesus’ body was broken; His blood was poured out.45 Jesus washed his disciples’ feet before his arrest, torture, and death, reminding His disciples that no servant (or messenger) is greater than his master (or the one who sent him).46 Jesus was robed, crowned, displayed on a cross, and suffered a gruesome death.47 During crises of suffering, such as the recent global health crisis, the people of God can choose to stand on the periphery of prevailing cultural values,48 embodying the holy, just, and sacrificial love of Christ. This is possible because the people of God have been grafted into the love of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit to display a character in the likeness of the very character of God. Thus far, the identity of the church has been defined as a “church in the round” worshiping community, joined to Christ in his sufferings as His body. I will now explore what it means for the church to be the temple of God. G. K. Beale suggests that the Garden of Eden and Old Testament temples are “microcosmic symbolic structures” that were “designed to point to a worldwide eschatological temple that perfectly reflects God’s glory.”49 In Genesis 1:28, God invites humans to expand the goodness of creation over the entire earth. In the Garden, God walked among them; He was intimately present and intended for His goodness to be shared with the entire creation. Beale describes the garden-like depiction of the eschatological city in Revelation 21–22, connecting it with the cosmic-­ intent of Genesis 1:28. God’s presence within the Holy of Holies expanded through the true Temple of God—the Incarnate Christ—and His Spirit has now made it possible for His people to be a “royal priesthood,” a sign and instrument of the eschatological, garden-like city to come. In other  Green, Pardue, and Yeo ed., The Trinity Among the Nations, 84.  See Matthew 8:1–3; Luke 9:16–17; John 4:7–9. 45  See Matthew 26:26–27. 46  See John 13:3–18. 47  See Mark 15:16–20. 48  Timothy Tennent writes, “We have to learn how to occupy the cultural periphery with prophetic authenticity” in Invitation to World Missions: A Trinitarian Missiology for the Twenty-first Century (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2010), 23. 49  G.  K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 26. 43 44

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words, the inbreaking of the Kingdom through Jesus is extended by His Spirit-empowered people. Ott, Strauss, with Tennent write that we are living in the “age of the Spirit,” a worldwide, decentralized expansion of God’s reign.50 The people of God have been incorporated into God’s Kingdom, liberated to live as Jesus lived—touching the leper, liberating the oppressed, approaching the woman—displaying Christ-like sacrifice in the power of the Holy Spirit. And yet, the American church has been shaped (in part and in various degrees) by its surrounding cultural commitments to American empowerment narratives that value autonomy over interdependence or communal articulations of identity. For example, despite various U.S. communities mandating face coverings as a requirement of entrance into certain public places, such as grocery stores, many people choose to not wear one or wore it incorrectly, such as covering only their chin.51 This illustrates that for some Americans, personal freedom is held at a higher value than the health and wellbeing of those most vulnerable to the fatal effects of the disease. In contrast, biblical empowerment depicts the Spirit as God’s empowering presence enabling us to live like Christ. I am calling for an imago Dei ecclesiology for the American church that untangles the American-bound usage of the term “empowerment” towards a more robust theological understanding of the Spirit’s act of renewal among His people to live as Jesus lived. The Holy Spirit is a liberating presence in and among the people of God that frees the church to love as Christ loved.

An Imago Dei Ecclesiology C. René Padilla provides an important holistic model that is relevant for the American church as we respond to widespread Covid-related suffering within our own communities, especially among older adults. For Padilla, God’s purpose for humankind is more than empowering us for mission but empowering us “to confess Jesus Christ as the Lord of the totality of

50  Craig Ott, Stephen J. Strauss, & Timothy C. Tennent, Encountering Theology of Mission: Biblical Foundations, Historical Developments, and Contemporary Issues (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010). 51  https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/23/most-americans-say-theyregularly-­­wore-a-mask-in-stores-in-the-past-month-fewer-see-others-doing-it/ Accessed on August 20, 2020.

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life and to experience the kingdom of God as a present reality.”52 Covid-19 certainly heightened our communal longing for Christ’s return. But we do not wait for His return in passivity or disdain of the pain in our world. In the power of the Holy Spirit, the redeemed people have become a dwelling place with renewed value and a surprising capacity for growth.53 Padilla writes, “Power for life and hope are made possible by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Christian experience of people living in a world deeply affected by powerlessness and hopelessness.”54 We are created to be God’s dwelling place, permeating into the “totality of life” of the wider culture with the hope and life of Christ. In practice, a holistic imago Dei ecclesiology for the American church considers implications of virtual and in-person church gatherings for “at risk” populations; it reflects theologically on why “intuitive” technological innovations for the virtual church are designed primarily for younger consumers; it considers its own faith community’s response to the curious polarization regarding face coverings; and it evaluates these as cultural clues, illustrative of the wider inculturation of imago Dei into American empowerment narratives. If the American church is to experience a deep-­ rooted renewal as a “church in the round” worshiping community in the midst of suffering, an imago Dei ecclesiology for the American church will need to recover a biblical understanding of Spirit-empowered life in God. It is in both worship and suffering that the “levav” of the American church can move out with compassion into its own broken communities, engaging the questions: from whom is our Source, unto whom are we formed, and in what way are we empowered? I’ve argued that God the Father as the Source of life, the church as the embodiment of the incarnate Christ, and the character-forming ecclesial implications of the Holy Spirit rightly empower the church to live in the likeness of God. The Father’s generous love compels us to worship Him. Christ’s sacrificial love challenges us to display love in His likeness. So then, what of the empowering gift of God, His own Spirit? Can the Spirit move among a people with hearts of stone, cavalier in the face of suffering, and self-conscious in the presence of God? An imago Dei ecclesiology for 52  C. René Padilla, “The Holy Spirit: Power for Life and Hope” in Gene L. Green, Stephen T. Pardue, and K. K. Yeo eds., The Spirit over the Earth: Pneumatology in the Majority World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), 183. 53  See Matthew 13:31–34. 54  Green, Pardue, and Yeo  eds., The Spirit over the Earth: Pneumatology in the Majority World, 166.

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the American church in this post-Christendom, Covid-19 generation is one that is emboldened by the Spirit through worship and suffering to live like Christ. It is my hope that the tone of this paper is one that truthfully engages the (sometimes painful) necessity of cultural critique in a way that is invitational to further dialogue.

CHAPTER 24

Filipino Family Eucharist Alexeis Emmanuel F. Gelverio

Introduction COVID-19 Pandemic has spread throughout the world. It has caused economic havoc, numerous lockdowns that paralyzes the daily life of every citizen, and resulted in the so-called “new normal”—a global virus ethic of social distancing, wearing of face masks, face shields, and boosting immune systems. The Catholic Church in the Philippines was not excused in this pandemic. All churches within the country were obligated close, dispensed the faithful of their Sunday obligations, and even cancellation of parochial celebrations of fiestas, activities, and even the holiest season of the church, the Paschal Triduum. Nevertheless, different parishes improvised in order to broadcast their liturgical celebrations through different social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and even Instagram. Thus, the Catholic Church still provides spiritual nourishment for the faithful.

A. E. F. Gelverio (*) Religious Education Department, San Beda College Alabang, Muntinlupa, Metro Manila, Philippines © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_24

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When will this pandemic end in order that everyone may go back to their daily regular lives? This could possibly a question that could be raised by someone who asks. In line of religious people, when will we come back to our local parishes to serve once again and to join in the Eucharistic celebrations? But here is the thing, one could still participate in the Eucharistic celebrations even if he or she is at home. This paper doesn’t intend to substitute the highest form of worship, which is the Holy Mass, but it tends to affirm its sacredness in the sense that the essence of the liturgical celebrations could be also done at every family home, most especially in the context of the Filipino family’s salo-salo sa hapag. Re-echoing the early Christian’s concept of Domus Ecclesiae, this could be applied in our current situation as we are now experiencing the pandemic that hinders us to eat sacramentally the body of Christ. Our salo-salo sa hapag could be a manifestation of the Filipino Family Eucharist that could be nurtured and developed even after the pandemic.

The Eucharist and Family in Domus Ecclesiae Jesus, at the night he was betrayed, told his disciples to eat and drink in remembrance of Him. This is the moment we call “communion” or sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, as it represents Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross— as well as our new life and our new relationship with Him. The Early Christians, in their houses, up until today, the followers of Jesus observe “communion” in obedience to Him.1 Domus Ecclesiae or house churches is a term that has been applied to the earliest Christian places of worship, churches that existed in private homes.2 Thus, this could be said that the presence of the house churches were present in the mind of the early church. The Didache mentioned that these Domus Ecclesiae meet every Lord’s Day to gather together, break bread and give thanks after confession of one’s transgression. Didache or the Teachings of the Twelve Apostles says, “Let no one who has a quarrel with his neighbor join you until he is reconciled, lest your sacrifice be

1  Steve Murrell & Rice Broocks, “Holy Communion,” in The Purple Book: Establish in the Word (Makati City: Every Nation Production, 2015), 75. 2  Domus Ecclesiae, Boundless.com, http://kolibri.teacherinabox.org.au/modules/en-­ boundless/www.boundless.com/definition/domus-ecclesiae/index.html, (Accessed Date: August 10, 2020, 8:42 PM).

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defiled.”3 This statement of the Didache is a direct reference on how the Eucharist should be done in every house churches: confession of one’s transgressions, gathering around the table, breaking the bread, and ­reconciliation with one another. These ancient forms are still manifested in the celebrations of the Eucharist: the confession of one’s transgressions happened during the Penitential Rite, the breaking of the bread happened during the Eucharistic Prayer and the Communion Rite in the Holy Mass. The Eucharist has been and will always be the center of all Christian Worship because it is instituted by Christ himself. Stephen Lake argues that the Eucharist has been the main act of worship that has brought Christians together to recognize the living presence of Christ in their lives, celebrated by first Christians in one another’s homes often in secret to pray for all cares and concerns, to be joyful and sorrowful and to offer in praise and thanksgiving as Christ makes us one body.4 It has been the gathering of every family and Christians down from all ages. This celebration is familial in nature since it unites according to the Book of Acts (4:32) “the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.”5 Furthermore, when the Christians had been large in number and has become an official state religion of the Roman Empire, the basilicas, large churches, chapels and oratories where deemed as places of worship where the congregation gathers and worship together, bringing their concerns and prayers before God, proclaiming the appointed lection for the liturgical service, bringing offertory, confession of one’s sins, breaking the bread in the Eucharist, and sending-off to become witnesses of Christ’s love for all people. In those events, they have become one family, becoming a “bread” for everyone that is blessed by the Lord, broken to be shared as one family and community. Fr. Marivoet, CICM, in his Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM) composed Prayer Over the Gifts for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Year A), mentioned this beautiful relationship between a family meal and the Eucharist, a perfect example of the Domus Ecclesiae and its relationship with meal: 3  “Didache or the Teachings of the Twelve Apostles,” in Faith of the Early Fathers Vol. 1 (Bangalore: Theological Publications in India, 1984), 4, 18. 4  Stephen Lake, “The Eucharist,” in Prayer Book for Lay People (Great Britain: SPCK, 2008), 7. 5  Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced employ the English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008).

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Lord Jesus Christ, as a meal brings a family together and expresses the unity of its members, we are gathered here around your table. Bind us together as the people of your covenant, in unity, peace and friendship in a common love and concern for each other. Let your self-giving become flesh and blood in us, that you may be our Lord for ever.6

Thus, family is always an important part of Christian development and even integral in its worship, most especially in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. God considers us as part of his family, his chosen ones, and his beloved. The Eucharistic Prayer I, also known as the Roman Canon, stated a perfect relationship of how we pray to the God who considers us as his beloved ones: Therefore, Lord, we pray: graciously accept this oblation of our service, that of your whole family; order our days in your peace, and command that we be delivered from eternal damnation and counted among the flock of those you have chosen.7

In that sense, it can be said that God considers us as his adopted sons and daughters and invites us to participate in the divine meal, the Eucharist, with him. The Domus Ecclesiae is a reminder for everyone to continuously participate in accomplishing the will of God here on earth. As the family of God, we remember the death of Jesus through Holy Communion, we celebrate our newly found relationship with him in the breaking of the bread and drinking of the cup in obedience to the words of Jesus in the Last Supper, “do this in remembrance of me.”8 Family are given importance by the church for all ages. A minister once acclaimed that the family is a divine institution ordained of God from the beginning of time. Sons and daughters are heritage from the Lord committed by Him to their parents for care, protection, and training for His glory. It is significant that all families recognized this holy obligation and responsibility to God in

6  Camilo J. Marivoet, CICM, “Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (A),” in Liturgy Alive: Models for Celebration for Sundays (Quezon City: Claretian Publications, 2003), 186. 7  International Commission on English in the Liturgy, “Eucharistic Prayer I,” in The Roman Missal for use in the Dioceses of the United States of America (Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2011), 638. 8  Luke 22:19.

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that matter.9 Thus, it is to say that the family has also been the center of communion of love and life since this is where life springs forth, God is manifested in the love of the Father and of the Mother together with their offspring as central and integral in the sense of mutual respect and understanding. As a matter fact, one could find in the Catholic Liturgical calendar the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph celebrated every First Sunday after Christmas, or if Christmas falls on Sunday, every December 30. In that sense, family as Domus Ecclesiae is being highly regarded by the church by viewing the perfect model of a Holy Family: the family of Nazareth. The family of Nazareth is what the early Christians and even the current followers of Christ do aim to be and to hold as a model of “communion” where love and faith is nourished. Their houses become homes that fosters mutual understanding, respect, fellowship, confession of one’s transgression, acceptance of love, and even “breaking of the bread.” These social aspects of the family could be also found in the social dimension of the Eucharistic theology where one’s faith is being nourished by the community through “communion” in the breaking of the bread. Families, specifically, Filipino families, have their own concept of family meal where these values and dimension could be found and continuously nourished by each member. Salo-salo sa hapag was, is, and will always be integral for a typical Filipino family setting even in times of tempest seas, that even COVID-19 pandemic could not hinder nor prevent from happening on.

The Filipino Salo-Salo sa Hapag The Filipinos are well known for the following values: adaptability, creativity, and flexibility. In a newspaper article, the Filipinos could be proud of these values as it shows a unique character where we are renowned all over the world as it brings pride to the country. The family has been and will always be an important part of these Filipino values, “Our innate humanity is very much apparent in the caring ways we interact with those close to us [family] including others outside our kin circle. In fact, this trait is one of the distinct assets of millions of Filipino doctors, nurses, caregivers, and 9  William B.  Girao, “Dedication of Children,” in Celebrating Life’s Special Moments: Ceremonies & Messages for Special Occasions (Mandaluyong City: OMF Literature Inc., 1998), 32.

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nannies who work abroad.”10 Thus, interaction is significant for Filipino people. The adaptability attitude has manifested in order to make children have and find pleasure in the small yet significant things. Filipinos adapt well in tough circumstances that likewise showcase resilience as a nation. Filipinos do have creativity that are expressed through artistry, expressiveness, spontaneity, and humor. Furthermore, Filipinos have also flexibility which makes us compatible with other cultures and nationalities. Hospitality, the Filipino way, has been a unique identity that even other nations do admire. For Filipinos, it is a pleasure and the country’s honor to accept foreigners as visitors and build genuine relationships and friendships with them. Whenever a visitor stays in a Filipino home, there will be a feast or a grand celebration as it is somehow a tradition for us to prepare bountiful Filipino cuisine for guests to have a taste of our culture through food. In addition, a cheerful family would typically be ready to accommodate and spend time with the visitors. To add to that, Filipino families are often more than willing to share not only their meals but their entire home as well. As a matter of fact, Filipinos would usually greet their visitors with the phrase “Feel at home!” to ensure that they are at ease during their stay.11

This is to say that the Filipino’s willingness to accept a visitor in one’s home is a way of showing their affection for the one who go their home. Filipino families are known to prepare bountiful and delicious foods for their guests, thus making relevant the Salo-Salo sa Hapag not only a blood-­ related event, but also a communitarian event. This communitarian event is also a kind of experience where one experiences unity with the other, assurance of support, the fellowship of stories and relationship building that will last for a lifetime. Filipino family mealtime or the event “Salo-Salo sa Hapag” has a deeper meaning for the Filipinos, most especially for the elders, as it entails a kind of dialogue and communion where every 10  Andrea Chloe Wong, “What Filipinos can be proud of”, in Inquirer.net, https://globalnation.inquirer.net/45875/what-filipinos-can-be-proud-of, (Accessed Date: August 19, 2020, 6:00 PM). 11  Kyra Ong, “Hospitality- A Trademark of Filipinos”, in World Youth Alliance, https:// www.wya.net/op-ed/hospitality-a-trademark-of-filipinos/#:~:text=Hospitality.,tourists%20 w h o % 2 0 v i s i t % 2 0 t h e % 2 0 c o u n t r y. & t e x t = F o r % 2 0 F i l i p i n o s % 2 C % 2 0 i t % 2 0 i s % 2 0 a,relationships%20and%20friendship%20with%20them., (Accessed Date: August 19, 2020, 9:39 PM).

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member of the family does share their insights on certain point of things. One insight about family’s salo-salo sa hapag is where one opens up whatever they encounter as a reflection from a member of a family: One day, our children will grow up. They will not remember the food they ate nor the topics of conversation. But I hope that from these meals together, they will gather lessons and values every day to strengthen them and get them through their daily challenges. I look forward to watching them grow from across the table into strong, compassionate adults, secure in the love of their family… In a perfect world, eating together regularly would be enough to guarantee a life free of addictions for our children. All parents would also be home from work every day at an early enough hour to spend time with their children. Unfortunately, we live in an era when families are forced apart primarily due to economic reasons… But we are also fortunate to live in an era when there are alternatives and solutions to the modern family’s plight. I’ve never been a big fan of high-technology gadgets and programs but seeing how applications such as Skype can bring families together, despite distances and time differences, has made me see technology in a different light. For families on opposite ends of the world, regular and frequent Skype dates have become their regular Sunday family lunch or dinner.12

Thus, this Salo-Salo sa Hapag could not only mean the regular meal where food is served, but also transcends a deeper meaning within what the sense of taste could understand, the longing for companionship, fellowship, and for every member of the family. Technologies do bring and actualize Salo-Salo sa Hapag in a way that it connects the different hemispheres of the world. Filipinos have acquired the value of being adaptable in the signs of the times, by the constant usage of different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, and the point is even the elders do use these tools to communicate with their far-­ away loved ones. Filipinos in this part are also flexible as it adjusts to the situations that the “traditional” form of Salo-Salo sa Hapag as a family mealtime could also be done via online media platforms where one could have a dialogue with his or her relatives. Filipinos are also creative in using tools properly and wisely through various platforms and techniques to convene one’s love and affection even in an online sphere. 12  Audrey Tan-Zubiri, “Why it’s important for families to share meals,” in Lifestyle. Inquirer.net, https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/67322/why-its-important-for-families-to-share-­ meals/., (Accessed Date: August 21, 2020, 10:17 PM).

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Aside from that, the Salo-Salo sa Hapag is a moment for instruction to the young members of the family by the elders. It is a moment where the youth are informed by the elders of how they are supposed to act, to obey rules, to stand on their ground with what is right, and to be a law-abiding citizen as well a responsible person. It is a moment for reminding them of what is good and what is true. But in this current time, most especially before the pandemic epoch, family meals do happen only when every member are present. Somewhat, it has been impossible since most members, especially the working people, have their own different schedules to perform some for work, some for study, some for other different things. In this time of the pandemic, when most people are having their work from home, academic studies from home, and other activities at home due to the lockdown, family meals or the salo-salo sa hapag are the perfect opportunity to be once again revived and reignited with zeal, as a Eucharistic social response.

Filipino Family Eucharist in Time of COVID-19 Pandemic How do the Salo-Salo sa Hapag happen? These could be some of the questions that could circle on one’s mind who are not familiar with this Filipino Family meal value setting. These are the instance where the Salo-Salo sa Hapag happens in the author’s family. The first thing that happened is the preparation of one’s food which is usually done by the mother or the girl of the family. In these recent times, it could be anyone who loves to cook and to share his or her talents in tasting that is assigned to cook. In most cases, mothers do cook their children’s or husbands’ favorite food in order to be eaten during the meal. Then comes the preparation of the table in which the children arrange the table for the meal. Then, the head of the family, the elder or in most cases the owner of the house, calls everyone from their rooms to gather around and to take their seat at the table (Hapag) in order to begin the meal (Salo-Salo). The head of the family will begin the prayer of blessing the food or sometimes he or she will assign from anyone to lead in the blessing. After the prayer, begins the mealtime proper where the food is served with delight to everyone. Sometimes, a child will ask the mother why she cooks the same food again, but the father or the head of the family will say to the child to be contended with what one could provide. Time for discussions and open

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stories do happen as the meal is ongoing, it could be a major decision, a story of what did happen at school or at work the entire day, a time of advising for the young about the current situation and how could one act upon it rightly, or it could be a re-echoing of the family’s history and its impact both on the present and future posterity. When everything is settled, the family meal concludes with a prayer and the children once again augment the table and wash the chores. This event of bonding among families during the Salo-Salo sa Hapag is a sign to the development of a child as a responsible person: Eating meals together is a good chance for family conversation. It allows for healthy communication between parents and children. It is important, however, that there are no distractions during family meals—no smartphones, no television etc. During mealtime conversation, parents teach the kids how to listen and provide them with a chance to express their own opinions. This allows children to have an active voice within the family. Family meals allow every family member to discuss his or her day and share any exciting news. Family meals provide a sense of security and togetherness which helps nurture children into healthy, well-rounded adults. These have a positive impact on children’s values, motivation, personal identity, and self-esteem. Children who eat dinner with their family are more likely to understand, acknowledge, and follow the boundaries and expectations set by their parents.13

Such was, is, and will always be the importance of Salo-Salo sa Hapag. Whenever family meals happen, everyone expresses their own desires and opinion on certain things. It provides a sense of secrecy that whatever is discussed on the family table (Hapag), it will remain among its four corners. It provides a sense of sacredness where everything begins and ends with a prayer, a way of thanking God for all the blessings received by everyone throughout the whole day, a confession of one’s fault, mistake, lapses, wrongdoings, and a way of acknowledging God as Lord who provides and gives everything to his beloved children, and a way to supplicate and ask him for whatever we need in the name of his son Jesus as he has promised in the Gospels.14

13  The Freeman, “The family together at meal,” in Cebu Lifestyle, https://www.philstar. com/the-freeman/cebu-lifestyle/2017/09/01/1735093/family-together-meal, (Accessed Date: August 22, 2020, 8:14 PM). 14  John 16:23

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Child development and sense of God as a Loving Father could be manifested in the image of the Father, the head and the priest of the family as he establishes the family altar for daily family worship which could also happen during the Salo-Salo sa Hapag. As the priest of the family, the father has the chief duty to supervise the TV and its effect, the internet, and its influence, as well as the books and magazines that enter the home. A father nurtures moral virtue within the home first and foremost by action “walk the talk.”15 The mother is the one that teaches the children to be obedient to their father and to the elders. They represent the virtues of God’s compassion as a mother who healed his people, lead them in cords of kindness with the bonds of love, the one who eases the jaws of the yokes and bends down to his people to feed them up.16 The mother provides spiritual training, cultural opportunities, and creative outlets appropriate to the children. They gave significance in each child as an individual because God made each one so wonderfully different. They are proud when their kids put forth the effort—whether or not they excel. They don’t compare and they help their children understand the different seasons of life in different needs.17 The children are the ones who obey their parents and do the household chores. They have the responsibility to study well and to honor their fathers and mothers in a way that is pleasing by doing simple but significant things for them. Hugging or kissing them could be an act of showing affection for them. Thus, the different roles and responsibilities portrayed by the parents are both representations of what and who God is and how he works in the family of humankind. God, according to Paul, is the source of every name of a family in heaven and on earth.18 God who sent his Son Jesus to be our salvation is the same Jesus who enters the human history through a family: The Family of Nazareth. The God that has become a part of humanity’s salvation by giving up his body on the cross for man’s sake has also shown himself and asked humanity to remember this Radical love through the celebration of the Eucharist, the Paschal mystery of the salvation by 15  Wade Menezes, “The Ten Commandments for a Husband and Father: Fathers are the Priests of the Home,” in Courageous Priest, http://www.courageouspriest.com/ten-­ commandments-­husband-father, (Accessed Date: August 22, 2020, 8:43 PM). 16  Hosea 11:3-4. 17  Joe and Cindi Ferrini, “A Wife and Mother’s Role,” in Focus on the Family, https:// www.focusonthefamily.com/marriage/a-wife-and-mothers-role/, (Accessed Date: August 22, 2020, 9:10 PM). 18  Ephesians 3:15.

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celebrating the acclaimed text in the Eucharistic liturgy: Christ has died: Christ is risen, Christ will come again. In that sense, Salo-Salo sa Hapag is a kind of Eucharistic liturgy, a foreshadow of what is happening in the celebration of the Eucharist, Communion, or Lord’s Supper as a way to remember the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus and its impact in one’s family and Christian community. As we serve the table of Christ’s communion each week, we are calling the church to a different kind of community. The kind of community that cannot be dissolved by petty conflict or disagreement. As we eat together around the table of Christ, we’re called to a recognition that we are at the table of a kingdom. And we are called there to recognize the presence of the King—not so much in the elements themselves or in our individual spiritual reflection but in the body, he has called together, a body of sinners like us. Only then will we really get what the Scriptures mean when they call us to ‘fellowship.’19

In saying this, allegories of the Eucharist do happen in the Salo-Salo sa Hapag. The elder or the head of the family is a representation of Christ who invited his disciples to come to the table to partake of his body and blood in the form of bread and wine in the Last Supper. In the contemporary liturgy, it is still Christ who invites us to come to the feast. Salo-Salo begins with the prayer presided by the head of the family. In the Last Supper, it was Christ who pronounced the words of blessings (Berakah) and the institution of his body and blood. In the contemporary liturgy, it is the priest, who represents Christ, who blessed the offerings to become the body and the blood of Christ by invoking the Holy Spirit to transform it (epiclesis). During the Salo-Salo sa Hapag, the family remembers (anamnesis) their concerns, worries, difficulties, joys, and sorrows of the day. In the Last Supper, it is the priestly prayer of Jesus to the Father to unite all believers into one in him as stated in the Gospels “so that the world may know that you send me.”20 In the contemporary liturgy, it is the prayer of the priest to the Father in supplication for the church, for the world, and for those in need of it. The meal in the Salo-Salo is the center of the event, Jesus is the center of the Last Supper, and in the contemporary liturgy, 19  Russell Moore, “Family Supper: Reclaiming Community Through Communion,” in desiring God, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/family-supper-reclaiming-­communitythrough-­communion, (Accessed Date: August 22, 2020, 11:51 PM). 20  John 17:21–23.

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Jesus is still the center of the Eucharistic event. The guidance imparted or the sharing of thoughts could be likened to the like of the Homily in the Eucharistic Liturgy and the apostles sharing their fellowship in the Word during the early church in the domus ecclesiae. The Salo-Salo ends with the Final Prayer and the augmentation of the chores which could be compared to the Final Blessing after the Eucharist and the Sending forth of the people to become witnesses of Christ’s love. Now in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Filipino family is faced in the challenges of how to face economic destabilization, health, and security issues, and even deprived of going to church due to the lockdown. The thing is, one should appreciate the family meal, salo-salo sa hapag, not as an alternative to the Eucharistic celebration, but as a response, a supplement to it, in order to participate vitally in the same meal where Christ manifested his great love for mankind. The response of the Filipino Family in the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis is its basic foundation, the Family, and what is the concrete manifestation of the Filipino family, it is the Salo-Salo sa Hapag. The Filipino family mealtime is an old yet ever new and ever ignited, most especially in this moment where everyone is at home due to lockdowns and public safety. Mealtime is emphasized in this paper as a response to the current pandemic. Family Eucharistic celebrations could still happen even without the sacramental presence of Christ, his body, and blood since it is also he who said that “whether two or three are gathered in my name, I shall be there.”21 The response of the Filipinos is the resiliency to fight for life and to still hold on to God despite everything since Filipinos believe that he alone could give everything to us for nothing is impossible to God.22 This response of the Filipino Family Eucharist is not a substitute for the actual Eucharist, but a supplement, a kind of support system, where one could still worship and participate intimately even in the presence of the family. Family’s Eucharistic Celebration, or Salo-Salo sa Hapag, is a holy event in which Christ’s spirit is present. The Father is working and acting in persona Christi, the mother is serving in persona Christi, and the children are listening and participating in persona Christi. Participating in this sacred familial event is relevant until now as the Filipino nation moves forward towards the end of this pandemic, holding still their trust and faith in the

 Matthew 18:20.  Luke 1:37.

21 22

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Risen Eucharistic Lord who calls them to be his chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, people set apart for God’s possession.23 Bonded by the Salo-Salo sa Hapag, the Filipino family’s response in Eucharistic liturgy in this time of COVID-19, one is challenged to move still and not to be filled with despair, but rather with the belief in the Eucharist that Christ is our hope of glory.24 In the end, it is significantly relevant to value one’s familial relationship as well as Christ who is present in all people who love. COVID-19 is not the end of the Filipino Family Eucharist, but rather, it is an old but ever new event in which one participates since he or she is a part of a family where life begins and ends with God’s embrace. The Eucharist is the ever old yet ever new event. The Salo-­ Salo sa Hapag is the Filipino response, an old yet ever new event, in which everyone participates and becomes one, in communion with the other, where Christ is present and it couldn’t be hindered by disease or virus of any kind, specifically COVID-19. Filipino’s family mealtime values, together with its strong faith in the Eucharistic Lord are continuously manifested because nothing could separate us from the Love of God, even COVID-19.25

 1 Peter 2:9.  Colossians 1:27. 25  Romans 8:39b. 23 24

CHAPTER 25

Spiritual Challenge Abraham Kuruvilla

Introduction COVID-19 has unsettled life across the globe to an unprecedented degree. While the nations are working hard to cope, life is nowhere near normal. COVID-19 has brought enormous suffering to humanity in the form of loss of life and loss of livelihood. Underlying the health and economic issues are also deep spiritual questions. The painful spiritual questions relate to the reality of suffering in a world created and redeemed by God. The pandemic also raises deep questions about the nature of relationships: between humans and between humans and the ecosystem. Pondering over the pain and the consequent spiritual issues is vital for the future well-­ being of humanity and the well-being of the planet. The suffering associated with the pandemic is multifocal. A paralyzing pandemic spread across the globe is unrecorded in history. No previous pandemics have affected human life as widely and deeply as COVID-19. One important challenge is to conceptualize life as inclusive of pandemics like COVID-19. A second challenge is to reorder life differently so that the possibility of recurrence of a similar pandemic is minimized. We address these challenges utilizing our knowledge and experience of God

A. Kuruvilla (*) Mar Thoma Syrian Church, Malabar, India © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6_25

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and the knowledge from the physical and social sciences about the way things work on earth. We undertake this challenge standing within the framework of the Christian faith. COVID-19 has resulted in extensive losses. COVID-19 is more than a massive viral problem and has very deep spiritual, cultural, and economic dimensions. Medical science has no tools at present to subdue COVID-19. Consequently, social and religious gatherings, production activities, and international and domestic travel are all disrupted. We are particularly concerned about the poor around the globe. In India, hundreds of thousands of migrant laborers lost their jobs and were evicted from their rented premises following the lockdown. When the pandemic is primarily constructed as a large-scale viral infection, the solution is to minimize spread while hoping for a vaccine. In as much as there are now significant opinions that link pandemics with human interference with the ecosystem, COVID-19 needs to be seen as more than a viral infection.1 COVID-19 has spiritual, cultural, economic, and ecological dimensions. Coping with COVID-19 requires a broader and deeper understanding.

Looking for a Relevant Construction of COVID-19 There is a need to construct COVID-19 and the consequent sufferings as an issue of the disrupted relationship between humans and the environment. Humans relate to the environment grounded in a worldview. Sociologists, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann2 tell us that reality is not objective and is socially constructed based on social assumptions. Berger and Luckmann have pointed out that humans are born into a society that has its own unique constructions of reality. These constructions become foundational in shaping reality for the members of society. The predominant assumptions on which the worldview is built are internalized through the various institutions of socialization, the structures of the society, and its cultural features. The caste system in India, slave trade in Europe, and Apartheid in South Africa were all perpetrated by the internalization of faulty assumptions that were transmitted from generation to generation. The internalized assumptions in the belief system provide 1  Robin Mckie, “Rampant Destruction of Forests will Unleash more Pandemics,” The Guardian, (30 Aug, 2020). 2  Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, Social Construction of Reality (London: Penguin Books, 1991).

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justifications for the prevailing system. The social construction of reality makes the constructions look like eternally valid absolute truths. Similarly, Paulo Freire,3 has pointed out how dehumanizing belief systems are transmitted through the ‘banking system of education’ to perpetuate poverty and oppression. From the field of psychology and human development, John Bowlby4 introduced the concept of the ‘Internal Working Model’ (IWM). Bowlby explains that the IWM is a kind of road map formed in our minds early in life based on our early experiences. The IWM consists of generalized beliefs about who we are, who the others around us are and the nature of life on earth. We relate to the external world based on these generalized pictures in the IWM. The above authors help us understand how a dominant worldview is transmitted from generation to generation by regulating the social experiences in such a way that the worldview and dominant assumptions of the particular society look valid. This process applies to the contemporary worldview of humans, our assumptions about who we are in the universe and the way we relate to the environment. There is therefore a need to critique the validity of the assumptions of twenty-first-century humans. COVID-19 needs to be constructed based on a critique of the assumptions of contemporary humans about who we are in relation to the environment.

Christianity and the Anthropocentric Worldview Over the last half a century or so critics of various persuasions have pointed out that several elements of traditional interpretations of the bible have contributed to human domination and unlimited exploitation of nature. Bjorn Oyvind Field has made a briefing of the inappropriate use of scripture to justify human domination.5 These may be mentioned briefly: The account of creation in the book of Genesis says that humans, created in the image of God, are given dominion over creation. Historically, dominion was interpreted as permission for domination and exploitation. This interpretation is alleged to be at the root of the contemporary ecological crisis. For quite long, the creation narratives were being interpreted as divinely ordained to establish a hierarchy in which humans stand at the top,  Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014).  John Bowlby, Attachment and Loss Vol.1 Attachment, (New York: Basic Books, 1969). 5  Bjorn Oyvind Field, “A Christian Ecological Ethics with Special Reference to Human Stewardship of God’s Creation,” Proceedings, 3 (2012):63–81. 3 4

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justifying the subordination and exploitation of the rest of creation. Lynn White has held the traditional Christian interpretation of dominion as the root cause of the modern ecological crisis.6 Hutchinson has made a critical appraisal of both the charge against the Judeo-Christian tradition and more modern interpretations of the relevant scriptural passages.7 The way the sovereignty of God is constructed is also vital. When God is understood as one who imposes his will on creation, creation is implicitly subordinated and is attributed a lower value. Some segments of Christianity have downplayed the spiritual significance of the created world itself and overemphasized, as in the case of Barthian theology, ‘special revelation’ as the primary source for theological reflection.8 This has also degraded the earth and all-natural phenomena as of secondary spiritual significance. Secondary significance for nature is implicit permission to dominate and exploit the environment. To construct COVID-19 in a relevant way today, there is a need to critically examine this worldview in which human domination is considered divinely ordained.

Faulty Worldview and Human Alienation While humans may have dominated the earth claiming divine sanction for domination, it has in fact alienated humans from the ecosystem. Under such serious alienation, the development of a vaccine against COVID-19 would only have the status of first aid. The real sickness is the interpretation of dominion as permission to dominate and exploit. The lasting solution includes the hard learning that humanity has no future without the health of the planet and support and protection for its inhabitants. Listen to Jane Goddal: “We have to realize we are part of the natural world, we depend on it, and as we destroy it we are actually stealing the future from our children.”9 In the history of humanity, the earlier pandemics occurred before the intensification of the ecological crisis. Therefore, to think that 6  Lynn White Jr. “The Historical Roots of Environmental Crisis,” Science, 155, no.3767 (1967): 1203–1207. 7  Roger Hutchinson, “Human Responsibility and Environment: A Christian Perspective,” Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, 6, Article 7 (1993): 13–17. 8  Paul Bantmire and John B.  Cobb, “The World of Nature According to Protestant Tradition” In Oxford Handbooks of Religion and Ecology edited by Roger S. Gottlieb, (Online edition, 2009). 9  Jane Goddal cited by Osamu Takeuchi, “What message is Covid 19 sending us,” Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church, (June 1, 2020).

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COVID-19 is the direct consequence of the exploitation of the earth may be challenged by some. However, there is a significant section of opinion that the sufferings associated with COVID-19 have a lot to do with alienation from nature and the ecological crisis. Listen to one of them: “COVID-19 is nature’s revenge for over forty years of nature’s gross and abusive mistreatment at the hands of a violent and unregulated neoliberal extractivism.”10 The consequences of social distancing are symbolic of the comprehensive alienation humans have created from the rest of creation. When one dominates another, power is manipulatively exercised over the other. Under that power equation, there is alienation between the two. By dominating the earth so completely, humans have alienated themselves so completely from the earth. Nature has completed the alienation by forcefully alienating humans from one another. This is nature’s way of putting some sense into human heads so that we may understand that humanity has no future unless we regain communion with the earth and its inhabitants. The pain of being shut in due to COVID-19 is to shake us out to become sensitive to the pain of the earth and its inhabitants due to human domination. It is an open invitation to humans to act like genuine stewards who care for their wards. We are likely to bring down human suffering and the suffering of the planet only when COVID-19 is constructed as an issue of alienation.

A Faulty Worldview Is the Foundation of Ecological Disaster The impact of uncritical exploitation of nature is indeed alarming. The ever-increasing transformation of land is one source of alarm. Roger LeB Hooke and Jose F. Martin- Duque11 have, based on a survey of studies, observed that more than 50% of ice-free land has transformed due to human interventions. Citing authoritative studies, they observe the consequences of large-scale land transformation: “Many of these activities have indirect consequences well beyond the area directly affected. Converting land to agriculture leads to local extinctions of biota in adjacent areas, the 10  David Harvey, “Anti-Capitalist Politics in the Time of COVID-19,” Jacobin, (March 20, 2020). 11  Roger LeB Hooke and Jose Martin-Duque “Land Transformation by Humans: A Review,” GSA Today 22, no.12 (2012): 4–10.

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insecticides and herbicides used diffuse into the surroundings, killing non-­ target species and fertilizers foul our streams and rivers, leading to dead zones in the ocean. Invasive species commonly find footholds on surfaces disturbed by agricultural activities, and can severely reduce the usefulness of large areas.”12 These authors also point out that degrading the land degrades our life support system. In addition to land transformation, indiscriminate exploitation of the resources of the earth is also leading to an excessive increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was only 280 parts per million (ppm) in the year 1800 and was stable at that level.13 However, this has risen to 414.7 ppm as recently reported by the NOAA Atmospheric Baseline Observatory in Hawaii.14 What ecologists have done through authentic research work is that human interference with the environment has made us vulnerable to epidemics. The present crisis invites the attention of humans to the fact that the earth will not passively tolerate indiscriminate exploitation of the environment and that humans will need to be sensitive stewards. Instead of dumping all responsibility for the current suffering of humanity to a virus, we need to take responsibility to check the human contribution in bringing about the pandemic. In the contemporary world, justice for the ecosystem is unlikely without major political decisions to regulate the exploitation of the resources of the earth. However, political decisions are manipulated by the Multi-­ National Corporations. The power to manipulate the political regimes is abused for unlimited exploitation of the ecosystem. The Multi-National Corporations are like giant trees with their trunk in the first world and roots spread across the world to drain away from the resources of the earth. Unethical exploitation is resulting in alienation from the environment and the fellow inhabitants of the earth. The consequences of such alienation will be damaging to humanity and the ecosystem and could lead to unprecedented calamities including pandemics. Mother earth and all her other children are demanding that humans stop acting like bullies and come back to be stewards who care. There is a need for COVID-19 to be  Hooke and Martin-Duque, “Land Transformation by Humans: A Review,” 7.  Peter M. Vitousek, Harold A. Mooney, Jane Lubechenco and Jerry M. Melillo, “Human Domination of the Earth’s Ecosystems,” Science, 277 (1997): 496. 14  Adam Voiland, “Carbon Dioxide Reaches Record Levels, Plus Things to Know about the Greenhouse Gas,” Earth Matters, NASA Earth Observatory (June 14, 2019). 12 13

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constructed from a worldview in which human domination does not look normal and valid. A worldview fairer to the whole creation is a must in constructing COVID-19 validly.

Need for an Eco-Friendly Science and Religion Environmental sciences have been giving strong warnings for quite some years that there is an evolving ecological crisis and that the present model of development is not sustainable. Many of the assumptions that humans maintain about themselves and the world is inappropriate for a healthy relationship with the environment. Expanding the scope of the interventions needed to cope with the ecological crisis has been debated extensively in the scientific literature and religious literature. The Interfaith Statement to the Plenary of the High-Level Ministerial Segment of COP 23 organized By the World Council of Churches reads: “We emphasize that lifestyle corrections are not enough. We must continue to work for urgent changes in our work-oriented systems of investment, production, distribution, and consumption to overcome poverty and transform to a zero-carbon economy by 2050. In a world where one in eight people remain hungry, we must hold together these two objectives.”15 A satisfying and enduring solution to the present crisis requires that humans take responsibility for constructing an eco-friendly worldview and act differently to dismantle exploitative relationships and structures. Fortunately, there is a new awareness of the ecological crisis among theologians across religions and among scientists. In the light of the criticisms originating from diverse sources, there has been a considerable rethinking of the hierarchical, anthropocentric interpretation of the creation narrative and the scope of the mandate for ‘dominion’ of humans. There is now greater appreciation of the intrinsic worth of all creation. The ‘dominion’ is interpreted not as the license to dominate but as part of the stewardship granted to humans to ‘till the earth and to keep it.’ The sovereignty of God over creation is also conceptualized relationally and not ontologically. The proposal by Hutchinson that the relationship between humans and the world can be conceptualized analogously to the relationship within the Trinity is commendable.16 Within the Orthodox

 COP23_WCC Statement_Final pdf dated Nov 16, 2017  Hutchinson, “Human Responsibility and Environment,” 16.

15 16

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world, we can see the sacramental view of life being highlighted to address the ecological issues.17

The Indian Scene In its search for an eco-friendly reordering of life, the Indian church has much to gain from both the religious heritage of India and the secular search for sustainable development. Within Hinduism, we can see efforts to highlight the traditional reverence. This is despite the efforts in some quarters to hold the ecological crisis in India as arising from the ‘extraneous’ influence of Islam and Christianity.18 There is a biocentrism in the Indian religious heritage which ascribes sacredness to elements of nature such as the rivers, trees, and the forests. Without ascribing divinity to the elements in nature, it is possible to value the sacredness of nature, much as the Orthodox tradition highlights a sacramental view of life. In the secular arena, the Gandhian orientation of simplicity and the stand against indiscriminate industrialization are valuable resources. Gandhi’s emphasis on ‘gramswaraj,’ autonomy of the village, may be seen as an anti-globalization slogan. Two contemporary voices that deserve attention in the protection of the environment are those of Gadgil and Guha.19 Their classification of the population as ecosystem people, ecological refugees and as omnivorous people is indeed very pertinent. The voice of Vandana Shiva20 is particularly important for her efforts to link environmental concerns with feminist concerns. Nature, which in the Indian religious tradition is feminine, inspires her to combine the cause of eco-justice and gender justice. Medha Patkar,21 an environmental activist, 17   John Chryssavgis, “The Earth as Sacrament: Insights from Orthodox Christian Theology,” In Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology. Edited by Roger S.  Gottlieb, (Online Publication, 2009). 18  O. P. Dvivedi, “Human Responsibility and Environment: A Hindu Perspective,” Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, 6, Article 8, (1993). 19  Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, Ecology and Equity: The Use and Abuse of Nature in Contemporary India (New York: Routledge, 1995). 20  Vandana Shiva, Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development, (London: Zed Books, 1989). 21  Medha Patkar, a leading environmental activist in India, engaged in a prolonged battle against the Narmada Valley Project consisting of 30 big dams in the river Narmada. Her mobilization of the affected poor and the general public won national recognition. She could also alert the government and the judicial system to see the deep ecological and demographical implication of the Narmada Valley Project

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combined environmental protection and the rights of the poor in her ‘Narmada Bachavo’ (save Narmada river) movement. She drew attention to the environmental consequences of huge dams and the injustice done to the large population of poor who would be displaced by the dams. While these are positive elements on the Indian scene, the threat of the Multi-National Corporations and the corporate sector influencing policy decisions and ignoring the rights of the environment and of the poor is real. A combination of opinion mobilization and political action is the remedy.

The Earth as a System in Balance The developments in environmental studies are inviting us to see the systemic character of the world. Rather lately we are coming to realize that all elements of the created order, big and small, affect others and are in turn affected by others. Ecologists and environmental scientists have been telling us over these years that humans have no option of making an impact on the cosmos without being impacted in return. For this reason, it is worth looking at the pandemic in the context of the interactions between humans, the planet earth, and the rest of creation. Since humans are part of a system, it is helpful to see how systems function in harmony.

Fulfilling Relationships in a Systemic Context Family systems theory throws some light on how a system in which humans are a party functions effectively. Insights shared by Murray Bowen22 in his model of Family systems therapy are useful. So also, the insights of structural family therapy put forth by Salvador Minuchin23 are also useful for our purpose. Family systems theory highlights flexible boundaries and communication across boundaries as important indices of functional families. Flexible boundaries facilitate space for the units of the family to affirm their identity and separateness. At the same time, flexible boundaries provide a safe environment for healthy exchanges between the units of a family. It is worth extending the principle to the relationship between humans and the ecosystem. The universe as a system will be  Murray Bowen, Family Therapy in Clinical Practice (New York: Jason Arnson, 1978).  Salvador Minuchin, Families and Family Therapy (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1974). 22 23

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f­unctional when the constituents respect the boundaries and interact across the boundary. Humans, the physical elements, plants, animals, birds, and marine creatures are all constitutive elements of a system in balance. Each constituent of the system needs to respect the space of the other. As in the case of respectful human relationships, humans need to learn to relate to the planet with empathy.24 While that is our calling, humans have been acting without empathy in relation to the environment. Humans presently are living without empathy and sensitivity to the frustrations and protests of the ecosystem. A vicious negative cycle of a relationship is operating in the relationship between humans and the ecosystem, much as in vicious family dynamics. Humans have a special responsibility to listen sensitively to the ‘groaning’ of the created order. As stewards of the earth, humans also have a special responsibility to ensure the well-being of the planet and all forms of life on the planet. A responsible steward needs to see things from the perspective of the planet and its inhabitants and act in ways that will bring down the pain of the planet as a whole and ensure the well-being of the planet in its totality. COVID-19 and the restricted social life are to become an occasion for humans to reflect on the quality of our stewardship of the earth.

Towards a Holistic Construction of Christian Faith We have mentioned earlier the initiatives within the Christian faith of constructing a holistic view of the Christian Faith. A systemic view of ‘creation and fall’ is of first importance. The creation narratives in Genesis may be read from a systemic perspective. The narrative of creation speaks of the boundaries applicable for humans to maintain the harmony of the system. ‘Fall’ may be viewed as arising from a violation of systemic boundaries. The core of the temptation the serpent threw at the primitive humans was the vision of unlimited freedom, a posture destabilizing the system. Limitations of being part of a system in balance were portrayed as evil and suspicion was aroused about the intentions of God behind the setting of limits. In a system in balance, there is the openness to endure some discomfort or pain for the sake of the well-being of the system. This is a more

24  Empathy is postulated as the ability to see reality from the perspective of the other and as facilitative of human-environment relationship. Empathy may also be seen as part of the image of God in humans.

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appropriate spiritual frame for understanding humans as part of the natural world. The Bible also portrays a God who exercised authority not by dominating humans but by enlisting humans as colleagues. God displays power not by dominating but by the willingness to sacrifice and forsake for the constituents of the system. This requires power of a different kind: the power for self-limitation and the power to choose the sacrificial path for the sake of the harmony of the whole. This power is also what God is looking for from humanity. God in Jesus Christ did not die as a helpless victim. Jesus chose to give up life to establish a relationship with revolting humanity.25 The New Testament portrays the death of Christ as a triumphant death making a mockery of those who killed him.26 This is sacramental living and sacramental death. The old power equation of humanity which legitimized domination through the abuse of science and technology has to end. In Christ, we also see the power to confront. Jesus confronted the religious and political powers of his time to establish harmony and dignity for all in the community. To establish harmony in creation, there is a need to confront the evil powers which legitimize domination and exploitation. The evil powers of domination and exploitation need to end so that the planet may be able to support the life of its inhabitants. Restoring the harmony of creation involves compassionate care for all inhabitants and confronting the powers that impoverish the planet and its inhabitants. It is highly unlikely that the vested interests will voluntarily give up their power. The economic vested interests need to be challenged through political and social action. A new and just international economic order must emerge. There is a need for massive political movements across the globe committed to protecting the rights of planet Earth and all its inhabitants on land, in the air, and the oceans. Humanity needs to take responsibility for restoring such harmony on the planet.

Concluding Remarks: Coping with Sufferings While a changed worldview accompanied by a new style of relationship is what will help humanity in the future and protect the planet from suffering, the immediate challenge of coping with the present is also important.  John 10:18.  Col. 2:14–15.

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The church and other faith communities have responded splendidly to the occasion. In the case of the present pandemic, there are no way humans individually or as a species can bring it to an end by the actions and responses at our disposal. Humanity has simply to go through this very unpleasant phase. More than a million have lost their lives. Millions have been infected. An inestimable number have lost their jobs or were thrown out of the country they were residing to make a living. There is grief and pain. A faith community copes with such pain by coming together in worship as a community to pour out their hearts before God. However, in the present case, the very coming together is blocked so that liturgical grieving is also blocked. The people of Israel went through something similar when the Babylonians caught them captives and took them into exile. The memory of the temple was even more heart-rending because the temple was simply not there. The grief of the people of Judea is what we encounter in Lamentations. We hear an echo in many psalms and Psalm 42 probably stands out. Throughout the globe, the faithful have been pouring out their pain primarily within the walls of their homes during these COVID-19 times. In India, it is six months since regular worship has ceased. Even when it gradually opens up, there is a sense of vulnerability in any human gathering. When the ideal option is not available, humans improvise. The online options have been a substitute all across the globe. Humans are grieving in private and through online options. However, it is appropriate that we also begin to feel the pain of mother earth and its inhabitants since they have been grieving for so long with little sensitive listening from humans. Like the Egyptian Pharaoh, we were hardening our hearts to oppress and persecute, to accumulate and possess. Human grief will be more wholesome when we grieve the many losses, we have suffered due to COVID-19 blending them with the pain of planet earth and our fellow beings. When our lamentations are more wholesome, all living beings may have purer air to breathe, purer water to drink, healthier food to eat, and a safer habitat to thrive. It will then become a lamentation in which heaven and earth alike will rejoice for the glory of the Triune God, Father Son, and Holy Spirit.

Index1

A Ababa, 133 Abaluyia of Western Kenya, 288 Abba, 130 Abomination, 199 Abortion, 2 Abrahamic, 324 Abstention, 227 Abuom, Agnes, 146 Abuse, 158 Abuse of alcohol, 23 Abusive and dehumanizing, 161–162 Abusive fathers, 146, 148 Abusive partners, 133 Abusive relationships, 143 “Accidental” infections, 22 Accommodating, 236 Accommodation, 40 Accountants, 65 Accra, 45 Acculturation, 67

Accuser, 210, 212 Acquiescence, 19 Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), 4 ACT, 329 Acts of kindness and mutuality, 105 Adam and Eve, 280 Adams, Vincanne, 80 Addis, 133 Addressing social issues, 94 Adequate healthcare, 108 Advancing capitalist, 78 Affiliated, 273 Affirmation, 195 Affliction, 213, 215–217 Affluence, 2 Affluent societies, 33 Africa, 36, 37, 121, 139, 208, 238, 274, 288 African, 248–255, 306 African American communities, 107

 Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

1

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. J. Kaunda (ed.), World Christianity and Covid-19, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12570-6

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386 

INDEX

African bodies, 126 Africa News Channel, 133 Africanization, 239, 245 African National Congress, 27 Africans, 249 African theologian, 136 African traditional medicine, 238–241 Agape, 141, 142 Agapic, 143 Age, 136 Age of Coronavirus, 107 Aging, 22 Agnosticism, 96 Agrarian society, 313 Agricultural workers, 63 AIDS, 28, 227–229, 242 Alfred North, 129 Alienation, 206 All Africa Conference of Churches, 24 Allah, 116 Allen, David L., 112 Allied, 49 All Nations Church-House of Restoration, 40–41 All-permeating, 253 Alludes, 213 Almighty God, 141 Alston, Philip, 54 Altars of globalization, 156 Alves, Rubem, 339 Ambivalence, 241 Ambivalent, 251 America, 53, 108–111, 114, 115, 117, 118, 156, 187 America. Blacks, 109 America first, 51, 53 American, 346–349, 352, 355, 356 American and Japanese forces, 155 American Christian, 345 American isolationism and protectionism, 50 Americanized, 346–350

American Presidency, 53 Americans, 346, 348, 349 American suffering, 115 Ammonites, 152 Amos, 322 Amsterdam Declaration on Earth System Science, 29 Anamnesis, 369 Ancestors, 106, 140, 155, 247, 251 Ancestor to descendant, 99 Ancient, 103 Ancient Israelites, 166 ANC-led government, 27 Andersen, Mrs. Inger, 305 Anglo-European theology, 101 Ang Misteryo sa Pananamit ni Hulyan (The Mystery of the Clothes of Hulyan), 160 ‘Ani,’ 171 Animal products, 22 Animal trade, 21 Animism, 247 Aniri, 184 Antecedents, 196, 220 Antediluvian, 231 Anthropocene, 7, 23, 34, 55, 56, 332 Anthropocentric, 127 Anthropocentric greed, 74 Anthropocentric worldview, 129 Anthropocentrism, 7 Anthropogenic climate change, 33 Anthropological, 215 Anthropology, 212 Anti-Black racism, 96, 97, 108, 117 Anti-black racism in America, 118 Anti-government movement, 187 Anti-immigration, 53 Anti-internationalist, 57 Anti-internationalist forces, 59 Antithesis, 222 Anxiety, 22, 170 Apartheid, 23

 INDEX 

Apocalypse, 2, 4, 198 Apocalyptic, 2, 248, 261 Apocalyptic imagination, 2 Apocalyptic interpretations, 12 Apocalyptic pandemic, 4 ‘Aponah,’ 171 Apostleship and traditions, 99 Appositively, 212 Appropriating, 236 Aquinas, Thomas, 141 Aramaic word, 42 Arariyo, 185 Arbery, Ahmaud, 108 Architecture and infrastructure, 56 Ardern (Prime Minister), 102 Arduous, 196 Argentina, 61–66, 68–72, 75 Argentinean, 63, 65, 67, 69, 74 Argentinean churches, 71 Argentinean economy, 63 Argentinean patients, 66 Argentineans, 62, 67 Argentinean society, 65 Argentines, 63 Argument, 202 Arirang hill, 185, 186, 191 Aristotle, 138 Articulation, 244 Arusha Call, 57–59 Ascesis, 320 Asia, 36, 37, 121, 158, 327, 328 Asian, 66, 68, 69 Asian American, 96 Asian and Asian Americans, 44 Asian communities, 69 Asian context, 178 Asian immigrants, 61, 63, 68 Asians, 66, 69 Assault, 23 Asthma, 108 Atheism, 25, 96, 215 Atheist, 7

387

Atlantic slave trade, 96 Atmosphere, 29 Atonement, 197 Attenuate, 222 Augustine of Hippo, 141 Augustinian, 34 Augustinian approach, 28 Auschwitz, 19–21 Australian national, 158 Authenticity, 198 Autocratic governments, 27 Autonomy, 268 Ayin, 168 B Babylonians, 384 Bajo Flores, Avellaneda, 65 Ballaylah negdeka, 170 Bandages, 202 Bankruptcy, 55 Baptism and communion, 104 Barrier, 62 Barthian, 376 Basilicum polystachyon, 237 Battlefield, 201 Battle of Manila, 155 Bayview Hotel, 156 Beale, G. K., 354 Bedford-Stuyvesant, 40 Beelzebul, 350 Believer, 278 Bemba, 238 Benard Onyango (aka Abeny Jachiga), 290 Benevolent, 251 Benga and Ohangla musicians, 290 Berakah, 369 Berger, Peter L., 113, 114, 118, 374 Berry, Thomas, 130 Bethlehem, 155

388 

INDEX

Bible, 124, 125, 127, 128, 138, 139, 312, 313, 317–319, 321, 375, 383 Biblical, 125, 310–323, 326, 345–347, 349, 352, 353, 355, 356 Biblical ethics, 129 Biblical resources, 14 Biblical story, 40 Biblical studies, 14 Biblical text, 56 Biblical tradition, 310 Biblical zoology, 312 Biblicist, 281 Bildad, 201 The Bill of Rights, 157 Binary, 246 Biological race, 65 Biological variations, 22 Biosphere, 29 Biota, 377 Bird, 138 Bird, Jennifer, 138 Bjorn Oyvind Field, 375 Black, 96, 108, 109, 111, 125 Black American, 107, 110, 114–115 Black American Christians, 109, 115 Black American communities, 93 Black Americans, 107–109 Black and Brown communities, 96–97 Black and Brown people, 96, 100 Black and indigenous people of color, 100 Black and Latinx churches, 101 Black bodies, 108, 110, 111, 117 Black Bodies, 110 Black Christian religiosity, 118 Black Christians, 115 Black community, 107, 118 Black Death, 220 Black experience in America, 115 Black faith, 109–119

Black faithful, 117 Black faith in America, 117 Black lives, 108, 110, 117 Black Lives Matter movement, 100 Black living, 114 Black neighborhoods, 108 Blackness, 100 Black people, 100, 107, 109–114, 117, 118, 123, 127 Black presence, 117 Black religion, 114 Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Interpretation of the Religious History of Afro-American People, 110 Black religiosity, 109 Black struggle, 118 Black suffering, 115, 116 Black women, 100 Blood types, 26 Body ethic, 100 Body of Christ, 37, 137 Boff, Leonardo, 307 Bolivians, 66 Bolsanaro, Jair, 52 Bolsonaro administration, 27 Bombard, 207 Book of Acts, 361 Bor, 169, 171 Born-again, 240 Bowen, Murray, 381 Bowlby, John, 375 Brazil, 27, 52 Breaking the silence, 148 Breathtakingly, 278 BRICS politics, 21 Bristol University, 143 Bronx, 44 Brooklyn, 40, 44 Brother Ray, 104 Brown, 125 Bruce, F. F., 111, 112

 INDEX 

Brueggemann, Walter, 4, 5, 8, 172, 177, 180, 205 Brum, Eliane, 337 Brunswick, 108 Buck, Jennifer, 353 Buddhism, 116 Buenos Aires, 61, 64, 65 Bullying, 166 Bunyole, 292 Businesses, 64 Byung-mu Ahn, 183 C Calamity, 5 California, 121 Campylobacter, 309 Canon, 362 Cape Town, 20, 21 Cape Town Commitment, 59n32 Cape Town Conference, 59 Capitalism, 79, 156 Capitalist, 78, 79 Capitalist policies, 79 Captatio benevolentiae, 201 Carbon emissions, 31 Care ethics, 136 CARES Act, 101 Caribbean, 37 Carnage, 222 Cartesian legacy, 167 Caste system, 23 Cataclysms, 222 Catalytic pandemic, 7 Catalyze social change, 77 Catastrophe, 222, 263 Categories of identity, 99 Cathartic emotional, 179 Catholic, 70, 312 Caucasian, 159 Causality, 203 Censoring, 205

389

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 93 Central Africa, 306 Centrality, 197 Central University, 94 CEO, 216, 218, 336 Chai Hoon Park, 186 Changdan, 184 Chapel Hill, 94 Chapel of Hope, 40 Charismatic, 195, 239, 269 Charismaticism, 195 Charismatic Pentecostal, 195 Charismatic Pentecostal Christianity, 273 Charismatics, 246 Charismatic theology, 195 Charms, 249, 250, 252 Chastisement, 195 Chattel slavery, 113 Cheap internet, 154 Cherokee nation, 98 Chewa, 147 Chidester, David, 126 Chief of Child Protection at UNICEF, 153 Childcare, 79 Child marriage, 144 Child pornography, 153, 154 Child prostitution, 158 Children, 143 Children and women, 138 Children of the poor, 156 Children sacrificed, 156 Child sexual abuse and exploitation materials, 153 Chile, 78 Chiliastic, 280 China, 1, 22, 23, 50–52, 56, 68, 285, 309, 327, 328 Chinchulín, 66 Chinese, 67, 328

390 

INDEX

Chinos, 65–67 Chinyang, 184 Chisale, Sinentlanhla Sithulisiwe, 135, 136 Choson, 185 Christ, 2, 3, 10, 34, 58, 59, 100, 106, 130, 137, 140, 183, 196, 197, 206, 221, 237, 244, 269, 276, 277, 280, 346, 347, 350, 352–357, 360, 361, 363, 369–371 Christendom, 320, 350, 352, 357 Christian, 2–5, 10–12, 19, 20, 25, 31, 34, 36, 37, 39, 41, 45, 48, 57–59, 71, 72, 96, 98, 109, 110, 126, 127, 130, 137, 148, 158, 161, 167, 173–176, 181, 193–197, 200, 207, 209, 213–217, 232, 240, 246–248, 252, 257–262, 264–266, 269, 272–274, 282, 283, 299, 317, 319, 320, 323, 324, 331, 334, 341, 346–348, 353, 356, 360–363, 369, 374, 376, 382–383 Christian Aid, 122 Christian Americans, 347 Christian churches, 39, 99, 116, 307 Christian congregations, 94 Christian context, 106 Christian denominations, 96, 137 Christian ethical frameworks, 131 Christian ethics of care, 137 Christian faith, 118, 297 Christian home, 140 Christian imperialism, 131 Christianity, 8, 37, 43, 48, 56, 96, 102, 109, 110, 115, 116, 119, 137, 146, 194, 196, 197, 221, 238, 245–247, 255, 273, 320, 334, 336, 376, 380 Christianity in African soil, 297

Christianize, 197 Christian liturgical practices and rituals, 301 Christian mission, 56 Christian pastors, 103 Christian practices, 95, 102 Christian prayers, 95 Christian principles, 138 Christian religiosity, 115 Christians, 2–5, 34, 41, 45, 59, 71, 72, 96, 109, 110, 130, 161, 167, 173–176, 181, 193–196, 207, 209, 213–217, 232, 246, 257, 259, 260, 264–266, 269, 272, 282, 283, 299, 319, 320, 324, 331, 360–363, 369 Christian’s lament, 181 Christian supremacy, 128, 131 Christian theology, 131 Christian traditions, 132, 267 Christ Jesus, 3, 138 Christ-like, 138 Christmas, 143 Chuimsae, 184 Chungjungmori, 185 Chungmori, 184 Church, 4, 5, 8, 10, 14, 39, 40, 42, 56, 70, 71, 94, 142, 158, 181, 194, 195, 198, 199, 213, 260, 266, 267, 273, 301 Church culture, 101 Church culture dictates politics, 95 Churches, 7, 44, 45, 58, 65, 69–71, 74, 75, 77, 94, 95, 99, 101, 104–106, 149, 166, 181, 194, 197, 206, 248, 249, 259, 260, 262, 269 Churches of color, 99 Church members, 41, 77 Church of England, 96 Church universal, 94, 99, 101, 106 Church worldwide, 137

 INDEX 

CICM, 361 Circumscribed, 228 Cis-hetero-sexism, 94 City, 35–46 City Seminary of New York, 36, 38 Civilization, 30 Clara, 71 Class, 14, 79, 136 Classical Greek, 141 Classical Pentecostal, 278 Clifford, Paula, 10, 66, 70, 71 Climate, 68 Climate change, 29, 30, 54, 124, 125, 131 Climate-warming emissions, 123 Clyde Yancy, 122 Cncourage, 43 Co-existence, 313 Cognitive dissonance, 114, 297, 298 Cognitive or affective self-identity, 170 Collapsing economies, 106 Collective and global distress, 276 Collective humanity, 7 Collective nature, 274 Collective resurrection, 11 Colonial, 159 Colonial genocide, 94 Colonialism, 57, 97, 99 Colonization, 220, 221 Color, 66 Comfort, 43 Comforting, 71 Commercialization, 7 Common life, 44 Communion, 99, 104, 251 Communitarian-based ethical contexts, 149 Community, 38, 43, 66 Community-based group healing, 149 Community-based healing to traumatic memories, 149 Community clinics, 24

391

Community life, 38 Comorbidities, 29 Compassion over unfettered consumption, 2 Complete isolation, 22 Complexities, 245 Conception, 205 Concept of a good, 114 Concept of Christ’s suffering, 182–183 Concept of Han, 178 Concocted, 252 Condemnation, 240 Condemned, 241 Conference, 57–59 Conference call lines, 45 Conference calls, 39, 41, 44, 45 Confess, 26 Confession, 28, 202 Confession of sin, 28 Confinement, 228, 229, 231 Conformists, 204 Confraternidad de Líderes Conciliares (CONLICO), 39 Conglomeration, 65 Congregational prayer, 42 Congregations, 44, 46 Congruence, 258 Consciousness, 241 Conservative Christian politicians, 95 Conservative groups, 96 Conservativism, 72 Conspiracy of silence, 146 Constructions, 254 Construct theology, 273 Consumerism, 8 Consummation, 269 Consumption, 99 Contagion of hope, 5 Contagious and dangerous, 308 Contagious nature, 47 Contaminate, 228

392 

INDEX

Contemporary, 195–197, 200, 250, 273 Contemporary Ghanaian, 193 Contexts, 193 Contextual aesthetic approach, 179 Contextual Bible studies (CBS), 148 Contextuality and translatability, 137 Contextual theologies, 22 Contradict, 193 Contradictory, 241 Contraposed, 200 Contrasting, 200 Conundrum, 215 Conversation, 45, 140 Conviction, 198, 204 Cooperation, 48 COP 23, 379 Coram Deo, 26 1 Corinthians, 136 Cornelian, 223 Corollary, 203 Corona Pandemic, 13, 14, 21, 24, 29, 33, 36, 40, 43, 47, 57, 58, 77, 79, 80, 93, 100, 118, 121, 133, 134, 144, 146, 175, 194, 195, 198, 200, 208, 271, 307, 346 Coronavirus (COVID-19), 1–15, 19, 20, 22–24, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32–36, 38–45, 47–53, 55, 57, 61, 62, 66, 68–69, 71, 74, 78–81, 94–109, 117, 122, 123, 125, 127, 130, 134–138, 143, 145, 149, 162, 173–176, 195, 197–199, 207–209, 213–218, 220, 223, 227–231, 237, 238, 241–244, 246–253, 255, 257–264, 266, 269–271, 274, 282, 285–287, 289–297, 300, 301, 308, 328, 331–334, 336, 340–342, 345, 347–350, 352, 353, 355–357, 359, 363, 366–371, 373–379, 382, 384

Coronavirus crisis, 51, 52, 55, 78, 80, 258, 306, 307, 325 Coronavirus pandemic, 121–123, 126, 165, 175, 305 Corruption, 7, 23, 27 Cosmic, 203, 214 Cosmic Christ, 273, 277 Cosmic plan, 275 Cosmos, 131, 195, 196 Council of Damascus, 39 Counteracts, 222 Court, 157 Covenantal, 266 COVID-19 era, 144 COVID-19 infections, 107 COVID-19 lockdowns, 134, 143 COVID-19 outbreak, 134 COVID-19 relief, 98 Coyle, N., 167 Creation, 14, 19, 22, 73, 125, 131, 132, 142, 199, 216, 218, 247, 249, 250, 252–255, 273, 277–278 Creation renews, 124–127 Creations, 250 Creator, 203, 215–218, 250, 321, 347 Creator and Nurturer, 147 Creator Mother and Father, 147 Creatures, 211, 212, 215, 216, 218, 228 Criminal activities, 23 Crisis, 6, 307 Cross, 10, 31, 183, 196 Cross of Christ, 31 Crossroads Christian Center, 39, 45 Crucifixion and Resurrection, 184 CT Global, 137 Cultural, 9, 67, 72, 228–232, 238, 240, 241, 245, 246, 258 Cultural arrogance, 48 Cultural differences, 65

 INDEX 

Cultural erasure, 98 Cultural illnesses, 227 Culturally diverse, 37 Cultural-religious types of contextual theology, 178 Culture, 9, 29, 58, 196, 197, 206, 239, 240, 247 Culture of money, 57, 58 Culture of silence, 152 Cultures, 37, 105, 124, 132, 196, 240, 266 Curse, 199, 203, 213, 228 Customary, 229 Customary bereavement consolations, 9 Customers, 62 Customs, 115 CWME Director, 57 Cybertips, 154 Cycle of harm, 100 Cynically, 212 D “Daisy’s Destruction,” 158 Dances online, 98 Daoism, 328 Data, 286 Daughters, 139 Davis, John Jefferson, 353 Davos, 53 Death, 22, 113, 129 Death-dealing forces, 57 Deaths, 35, 36 Decay, 129 Deception, 198 Deceptive, 211 Deciphers, 209, 223 Decolonial version, 20 Decolonize, 95 Decolonized, 99 Decolonizing, 98–101

393

Decolonizing contemporary Christian, 99 Decolonizing faith, 94 Deconstructing, 236 Defilement, 201 Defining, 236 Degeneration, 22 Degraded the Earth, 131 Dehumanize black people, 114 Dehumanized, 105 Dehumanize the children, 162 De-inculturated, 247 Deism, 25, 215 Deistic, 253 Deity, 62 Demarcation, 205 Dembroff, Robin, 55 Democracy, 15 Demographics, 21, 244 Demoniac, 103 Demoniac forces, 147 Demonic, 240, 241, 244, 246, 248, 249, 251 Demonization, 245, 247, 251 Demonized, 240, 247 Demonizing Argentineans, 68 Demons, 240, 243, 251 Denial and injustice, 182 Den of robbers, 137 Denominational connotations, 278 Denominational identity, 299 Denominations, 96 Denouncing, 247 Department of Justice Office of Cybercrime, 154 Depression, 170 Deprived condition of the ecosystem, 274 Descartes, René, 313 Desi, 96 Destructive forces, 113 Deuteronomistic, 201

394 

INDEX

Developed nations, 6 Devil, 240 Diabetes, 108 Diaconia, 320 Diagnosed, 41 Dialogues, 6, 201, 203, 204, 209 Diaspora, 41 Diaspora churches, 43 Dichotomizing, 246 Dichotomy, 246 Didache, 360, 361 Diego, 67, 70, 71 Digital, 45 Digitalized, 156 Dignity, 310 Dilemmas, 213 Diplomacy, 49 Diplomatic relations, 63 Disabilities, 22, 79 Disarmed, 203 Disaster Capitalism, 77–81 Disaster relief, 78 Disasters, 78 Disaster Socialism, 77 Disciple, 59 Discipleship, 58, 59, 99 Discoverable, 254 Discriminate, 131 Discrimination, 62, 66, 68, 117 Diseases, 22, 34 Disparaged and weakened organizations, 55 Disparities, 93, 105 Disparities and inequalities, 107 Disruptive diversity, 241 Dissociation, 266 Distinctiveness, 268 Distorted, 247 Distribution of labor, 56 Divination, 252 Divine Love, 141 Divinely ordained, 138

Divine pedagogy, 30 Divine protection, 198 Divinities, 126, 251, 252 DNA, 325 Doctors, 24, 42, 65 Doctors without Borders, 97 Doctrinal, 310 Doctrinal refinement, 243 Doctrine, 200–204, 273 Doctrine of Discovery, 99, 126, 131 Documented evidence, 153 Dodeuri jandan, 187 Dodeuri jangdan, 187 Dogmas, 236 Dolamo, Ramathate, 136 D’Olimpio, Laura, 136 Domestic violence, 122, 134, 143, 144, 165, 272 Dominican Republic, 39 Domus Ecclesiae, 360–363, 370 Donald Trump, 50, 53, 53n14 Douglas, Kelly Brown, 110, 111, 113, 114, 117, 118 Drama, 200 Drugs, 23 Drying plant, 203 Du Toit, Louise, 136 Dualism, 246 Dualistic, 143, 237, 252, 253 Duke University Chapel, 94, 104, 105 Dungeon, 145, 148 Dungeon of Robbers, 143–145 Durham, 93–96, 101, 103, 105 Duterte, Rodrigo (Philippine President), 52, 154 Dwarfs, 214 Dying, 24 E Early Church, 138 Earth, 6, 106

 INDEX 

Earth systems, 23, 29 Earth system science, 23, 29 Earth system scientists, 29 East New York, 44 Ebola, Zika, and HIV, 50, 306 Ecclesial, 21, 32, 138 Ecclesial and theological discourse, 20 Ecclesial authorities, 26 Ecclesial discourse, 28 Ecclesial excommunication, 29 Ecclesial structures, 37 Ecclesial traditions, 9 Eco-feminist ethicist, 137 Ecological and theological Copernican revolution, 125 Ecological crisis, 313 Ecological destruction, 33 Ecological devastation, and suffering, 58 Ecological order, 129 Ecology, 221 Economic, 7, 9, 10, 77 Economically, 77, 208 Economically marginalized, 79 Economic change, 78 Economic crisis, 61, 64 Economic damage, 49 Economic disaster, 107 Economic divides, 93, 100 Economic hardship, 72, 165 Economic impacts, 133 Economic implications, 21 Economic inequalities, 21 Economic injustices, 33 Economic reasons, 72 Economic recession, 80 Economic responses, 77 Economic situation, 65 Economic stability, 66, 94 Economic support, 77 Economics, 44, 54, 105 Economies, 6, 11, 79

Eco-social impact, 97 Ecosystem, 382 Eco-theologian, 307 Ecumenical, 244, 273 Ecumenical journey, 57 Ecumenical movement, 57 Edgar, Bill, 139 Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference, 48 Egotistical and anthropocentric, 123–124 Egypt, 155 Eikon, 350 Elenchos, 111, 112 Eliphaz, 201, 202 Elizabeth, 40 Elucidated, 201 Embracing the Cross, 5 Emotional beings, 142 Emotional distress, 107 Emotional labor, 106 Emotional/mental suffering, 173 Emotional needs, 98 Emotions, 71 Empathy-poor theologies, 106 Empire, 31 Empirical, 240 Employment, 99 Employment opportunities, 107 Encapsulates, 209 Enclaves, 64 Encounter, 200 Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, 50 Endangering the health, 30 Endemic, 230, 231 Endemic corruption, 27 Endemic seems, 105 England, 130 English, 39 English prayer, 42 Enlightenment, 20 En masse, 319

395

396 

INDEX

Enslaved Africans, 113, 114 Entertainers, 8 Entitlement, 99 Environment, 14, 53 Environmentalism, 271–283 Environmental landscape, 126 Environmental Protection Agency, 93 Envisaged, 267 Envisioned, 266 Epiclesis, 369 Epidemics, 219–221, 223, 228, 231, 232 Epilogue, 209, 214 Epiphany church Yuvajana Sakhyam, 42 Epiphany Mar Thoma Church, 41–43 Epistemic, 241 Epistemology, 104, 246 Equality, 110 Equality and justice, 136 Equilibrium, 196, 255 Erdogan, Recip, 52 Eric Omondi Odit (aka Omondi Long Lilo), 290 Eros, 141, 142 Erotic, 143 Escalated, 272 Eschatological, 4, 112, 248, 258, 263, 269, 299, 322–325 Eschatological millennialism, 279 Eschatology, 137, 270 Eschews, 237, 252 Esther, 40 Esthetic, 182 Eternal life, 3, 127 Ethical, 9 Ethical frameworks, 131 Ethical leadership, 58 Ethic of care, 94, 98–106 Ethic of care and community, 95 Ethic of power, 105 Ethic of power and privilege, 95

Ethics, 100, 128, 136 Ethics of care, 148, 149 Ethiopia, 133 Ethnic areas, 64 Ethnic associations, 70 Ethnic business, 65 Ethnic church, 70–72 Ethnic church community, 71 Ethnic communities, 67, 70 Ethnic congregations, 70 Ethnic culture, 64 Ethnic enclaves, 64–67 Ethnic garment industry, 65 Ethnic Koreans, 65 Ethnic marginalization, 68 Ethnic minorities, 96 Ethnic origin, 66 Ethnocentric nationalisms, 11 Ethnocentrism, 58, 99 Ethos, 347 Ethos of care, 99, 106 EU, 51 Eucharist, 45 Euphrates, 140 Euro-American Slave Trade and American chattel slavery, 109 Europe, 37, 69, 121, 123, 374 European, 69, 126, 159, 306 European Christo-centric, 126 Europe and America, 53 European Enlightenment, 19, 20 Evangelical, 312 Evangelical Christians, 95 Evangelical churches, 95 Evangelicalism, 72, 96 Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD), 317 Evangelization, 244 Evils, 25, 27, 33, 53, 113, 146, 203, 214, 238, 240, 248, 249, 251, 268 Evil spirits, 252

 INDEX 

Exclusion, 57 Exegesis, 194–204 Existential, 212 Exodus, 155 Expanse of imprisonment, 144 Expansive, 131 Expansive death, 107 Expendability of women and girls, 143 Exploit, 203 Exploitation, 146 Exponential, 194 Extrapolates, 209 Extreme poverty, 52 Extremism, 248 Ezeanaba, Itoro, 145 Ezekiel, 351 F Facebook, 41, 44, 45, 359, 365 Facebook Live, 45 Face malnutrition, 52 Face-to-face worship, 45 Faith, 4, 8, 42, 205, 210, 214, 215, 218, 221, 252 Faith academic communities, 148 Faith and justice, 94 Faithless, 205 Falsehood, 198 False securities, 6 Families, 9 Fancy dancers and healers, 98 Fasting, 39, 40 Fatalism, 25 Father, 139, 346, 352, 356, 368–370 Father of Korean church music, 186 Father Son, 384 Favoritism, 66 Fellowship, 278 Fellowship-centered, 71 Female sexual exploitation, 115 Feminist, 31, 136, 147

397

Feminist conception, 142 Feminist ethics and care, 136 Feminist ethics of ubuntu, 135, 136 Feminist liberation, 148 Feminist passion, 142 Feminist theological, 142 Feminist theological perspectives, 141 Ferrell, B., 167 Fervor, 202 Feudalism, 23 Filipino, 155, 157, 158, 161, 162, 359–371 Filipino children, 154, 159 Filipino Christians, 161 Filipino civilians, 155 The Filipino OSEC trafficker, 159 Filipino Salo-Salo sa Hapag, 363–366 Filipino women, 156 Finance, 43 Financial support, 40 Finite, 214 Finitude, 210, 214, 218 Firefighters, 42 First, 53 First-generation immigrants, 64 First World War, 48 Fischer, Joshka, 55, 56 Fitzpatrick, Melissa, 7 Flexibility, 244 Floyd, George, 7, 44, 108 Flu-like symptoms, 285 Foment hatred, 57 Food insecurity, 93, 108 Food insecurity, forced migration, disease, and death, 54 Foreigners, 66 Foreign internationals, 154 Forms of inequality, 78 Fragile, 8, 57 Fragile skeleton, 54 Fragilities, 7 Fragmented, 57

398 

INDEX

France, 221 Francis, Pope, 4–6, 8, 10–12, 15, 46, 55, 314 Francis of Assisi, 314 Frankopan, Peter, 51 Fratricide, 318 Fray, 202 Freakish “accidents,” 22 Freedom, 110 Free markets, 54 Free markets and democracy, 79 Freire, Paulo, 375 Friedman, Milton, 78 Fruits of creation, 6 Fuji, 121 Fundamental human rights, 153 Fundamentalism, 4, 57 Fundamentalist, 4 Funeral, 9 G Gadgil, Madhav, 380 Gaia, 307 Gaias revenge, 307 Galatians, 347 Gandhi, M. K., 380 Gandhian, 380 García, Sixto J., 73 Garden of Eden, 354 Garment industry, 65 Gatekeeping of education, 106 GDP, 327 Gender, 9, 14, 99, 136 Gender analysis, 134 Gender and racial inequality, 6 Gender-based pandemic, 134 Gender-based realities, 143 Gender-based violence, 7, 134, 137, 145, 146, 148, 149 Gender inclusive, 147 Gender-just, 138, 147

Gender justice, 148 Gender roles, 138, 139 Gender stereotypes, 148 Gender stereotypical roles, 138 General well-being, 40 Generational patterns, 44 Genesis, 5, 124, 125, 128, 354, 375, 382 Genocide, 98 Geobiological, 130 Geographical, 228 Geographic divides, 93, 100 Geographic ethnic, 64 Geography, 14 Geological force, 34 George, Reji, 37 Georgia, 108 Gerasene Demoniac, 103 German Foreign Minister, 55 German missions, 49 Germans, 20 Gerstenberger, E. S., 170 Gethsemane, 332 Ghana, 121 Ghanaian, 194–200, 206 Ghanaian Christianity, 194, 195 Ghanaian Christians in Elizabeth, 45 Ghanaian congregation, 40 Gift-love, 141 Girls and women, 133, 134, 137 Girls’ voices, 148 Girls vulnerable, 149 Gleiser, Marcelo, 125 Global affairs, 51 Global and collective concern, 275 Global and local inequalities, 6 Global capitalism, 7, 155–160, 162 Global capitalism and sex tourism, 158 Global ceasefire, 51 Global church, 59 Global city, 43, 44 Global climate emergency, 55

 INDEX 

Global context, 55 Global crisis, 47, 49, 51, 56, 62 Global economic recession, 2 Global economy, 20, 24, 29, 31 Global ecumenical, 57 Global epicentre, 154 “Global Epicenter” of OSEC, 153–155 Global financial system, 57 Global health, 54 Global health crisis, 1, 52 Global history, 55 Global imperial system, 58 Global inequalities, 30 Global infrastructure, 50 Globalized, 156, 270 Globalized economy, 56 Globalized world, 19 Global leadership, 51, 52 Global location, 79 Globally connected medical research, 55 Global mission, 57 Global New York Church Project of City Seminary, 38 Global order, 2 Global pandemic, 7, 12, 50, 137, 285 Global policy, 136 Global political environment, 53 Global public health, 35 Global reaction, 69 Global solidarity, 5, 50 Global South, 33, 123, 149 Global strategy, 51 Global structural sin, 5 Global summit, 49, 50 Global system, 11 Global Thursdays in Black Campaign, 148 “Global village,” 47 Global virtue, 137 Global warming, 55

399

Global world, 21 Glossing, 268 Gnosticism, 25 Goal of black faith, 114 Goatley, David Emmanuel, 115–118 God, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 14, 19, 23, 25–28, 30–34, 40, 43, 62, 69–75, 95, 99–102, 105, 106, 109–112, 114–116, 118, 123–132, 137, 140–142, 146, 147, 151, 158, 161, 166, 167, 169, 171–183, 187, 188, 191, 193–195, 197, 199–207, 209–218, 221, 222, 240, 246, 247, 249–255, 262, 263, 266, 269, 273, 275–277, 279, 280, 282, 299, 306, 308, 312–318, 320–323, 331, 333, 335, 337, 338, 340–342, 346–348, 350–356, 361–363, 367, 368, 370, 371, 373, 375, 376, 379, 382–384 God as Creator, 34 God as God, 73 God as Savior, 34 God-bearer, 273 Goddal, Jane, 376 God for justice and mercy, 180 God-given window, 282 God love, 31 God’s, 62, 72 God’s grace, 184 God’s image, 125 God’s love, 28, 30, 31, 99 God’s omnipotent, 73 God’s power, 31–32 God’s purpose, 40 God’s radical intimacy, 74 God’s solidarity, 32 God’s spirit, 130 God’s struggle against evil, 33 God’s suffering, 73 Goliath, 126

400 

INDEX

Gonzãlez, Antonio, 346, 353 Goods over commodities, 2 Gospel, 31, 74, 178, 193, 195, 196, 206, 275 Gospel of Christ, 4 Gospel of Matthew, 155 GoToMeeting, 45 Government, 24, 54, 62, 151, 157, 158 Government and international, 143 Government organization, 68 Governments, 54 Grace, 139 Grace and acceptance, 139 Gramswaraj, 380 Grassroots, 94, 239 Grassroots and global, 105 Grassroots church contexts, 78 Gratuity over greed, 2 Gravest injustices, 74 Gravitational factors, 65 Greater New York metropolitan, 38 Great immigration, 37 Great Mother, 307 Great Work, 130 Greed, 58 Greek categorization, 142 Greek concepts of love, 142 Grieving, 384 Groans, 268 Growth, 139 G20 summit, 53 Guaranteeing financial security, 65 Guardian, 122 Guha, Ramachandra, 380 Guilt-free superiority, 66 Guilty, 202 Guterres, António, 51 Gutiérrez, Gustavo, 201, 202

H Habitat loss, 29 Halal, 321 Hall, Amy Laura, 141, 142 Hall, D., 136 Halt, global poverty, 52 Han (한, 恨), 178 Han and Han-puree, 184 Han and Han-puree (dissolving Han), 184 Han of the Minjung, 191 Han-puree, 184 Han (suffering), 177–192 Hapag, 366, 367 Hardship of the poor, 183 Harlem, 38, 43 Harmful, 106 Harmful polluting, 123 Harper, Lisa Sharon, 101 Harrowing, 214 Hartshorne, Charles, 129 Hawaii, 378 Head of this House, 140 Healer, 61–75 Healing, 32, 149 Healing and justice, 98 Healing and restoration of wholeness, 286 Healing of traumatic, 149 Healing of traumatic memories, 137 Healing Together, 149 Health, 30, 33, 38, 40, 44, 79 Health and economic progress, 7 Health and economic resilience, 96 Health and economic systems, 123 Health care, 21, 32, 33, 54, 93, 97, 99, 108 Health crisis, 1 Health financing, 32 Health problem, 30 Health systems, 96

 INDEX 

Healthy internationalism, 56 Heavens, 199 Hebrew, 141, 155 Hebrew and Greek testaments, 102 Hegemonic compulsion, 100 Hegemonic father, 145 Hegemonic Western theologies, 106 Hegemony, 58 Hepatitis E, 309 Heritage, 106 Hermeneutical, 273 Hermeneutics of suspicion, 148 Herodotus, 350 Herod the Great (King of Judea), 155 Heroes, 24 Hester, Marianne, 143 Heterogeneity, 244 Hewitt, Roderick R., 140 Heyward, Carter, 143 Hidden systems of global coloniality, 6 Hierarchical, 126 Hierarchical relationship, 125 Hierarchical supreme being, 131 Hierarchies, 246 Higher preservation, 64 Highly efficient and highly fragile, 56 Hinduism, 116, 380 Hirschman, Charles, 69 Hispanic Pentecostal churches, 39 Historical disenfranchisement, 93 Historical inequalities, 108 Historical injustice, 111 Historically black Protestant denominations, 109 Historically sacramental ecclesiology, 45 Historical marginalization, 107 Historical traditions, 131 Historic inequalities, 96 HIV/AIDS, 11, 208, 227, 229, 242 HIV/AIDS pandemic, 28 Hollenweger, Walter J., 278

401

Holocaust, 27 Holocene, 29 Holy Family, 363 Holy Friday, 337–338 Holy of Holies, 354 Holy Spirit, 258, 262, 268, 270, 275, 332, 346, 350, 352–356, 369, 384 Holy week, 331–333, 342, 343 Home, 43 Homepage, 40 Homophily, 67 Homosexuality, 28 Hooke, Roger LeB, 377 Hope, 71 Horton, Richard, 50 Hospitality, 8 Hospitals, 24, 97 Hostile, 53 Hostilities, 272 Household Codes, 138 Housing, 99 Housing conditions, 23 Hulyan, 160, 161 Human civilization, 117 Human community, 47 Human evil, 22 Human freedom, 28 Human history, 31 Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), 4 Humanism, 96 Humanity, 14, 73 Humanity’s sins, 30 Human pain and suffering, 166 Human resources, 70 Human society, 53 Human struggles, 179 Human suffering, 1, 28–31, 73, 113, 114, 116, 118 Human trafficking, 158 Human wickedness, 5

402 

INDEX

Hungary, 52 Hunger of children, 161 Hutchinson, Roger, 376, 379 Hydrosphere, 29 Hymn, 203 Hypertension, 108 Hypostasis, 111, 112 I “I can’t breathe,” 7 Idakho, 292 Idealized nor romanticized in biblical tradition, 312 Ideal women, 138 Idea of God, 131 Identification, 278 Ideological, 254 Ideological force, 53 Ideologies and systems of patriarchy, 162 Ideology, 4, 69, 75 Idiosyncratic, 236 Idols, 58, 205 Ignorant, 205 Illiberal democracies, 11 Illness, 93 Image of God, 73, 75, 146, 313 Imaginary, 237 Imaginary category, 67 Imaginations, 251, 252, 255 Imago Dei, 136, 345–357 Immanence, 252 Immanent, 216 Immanent God, 116 Immanentist, 237 Immigrant, 71, 75 Immigrant churches, 72 Immigrant community, 67 Immigrant entrepreneurs, 65 Immigrant population, 65 Immigrant religious congregations, 69

Immigrants, 64, 65, 96 Immigrants documented, 95 Immigrants undocumented, 95 Immigrant woman, 188 Immortality, 288 Immortalized victimization of children, 156 Immunization and vaccination, 50 Immutable, 210 Impact of climate change, 29 Impassable, 210 Imperialism, 156, 162 Imperialist, 155 Imperial Japanese Army, 155 Implications, 213 Implicitly, 213 Impoverished, 230 Impoverishment, 202, 230 Inaccessible education, 93 Inadequate healthcare and living conditions, 106 INADI, 68 Inalienable rights, 7 Inanimate, 216 Inarticulate, 261 Inarticulate groaning, 262 Incarnated Christ, 276 Incarnation, 277 Incest, 146 Inclusive, 106, 131 Inclusive liberation, 100 Inclusive of God, 142 Incomprehensibly, 253 Inculturating, 236 Independent churches, 71 Independent ethnoreligious congregations, 72 Indescribable, 230 India, 52, 374, 380, 384 Indian, 380–381 Indian Pentecostal Church of God (IPC), 260

 INDEX 

Indian Pentecostal pastor, 46 Indian sari, 37 Indigenous, 96, 246 Indigenous and First Nation peoples, 98 Indigenous communities, 98 Indigenous imaginations, 245 Indigenous nations, 97 Indigenous North American traditional ethos of care and healing, 101 Indigenous North Americans, 97 Indigenous peoples, 97–98, 101, 123, 127 Individualism, 99 Individualist, 95 Inductively, 245 Industrialized capitalism, 30 Inequalities, 7, 33, 77, 79, 101 Inequality and climate, 53 Inequality and climate change, 55 Inequitable power of whiteness, 111 Inequities, 93, 101 Inequity and injustices, 94 Inescapable, 230 Inextricably, 227 Infected, 26 Infection, 22, 26, 122 Inferior, 66 Infinite, 210 Influx of pedophiles, 157 Information and communication technologies, 56 Infrastructure, 70 Inhumane trade in animals, 23 Iniquity, 202 Injustices, 6, 7, 14, 55, 62, 74, 99, 100, 124, 131, 183, 199 Injustices and excesses, 58 Injustices and suffering humanity, 105 In-person, 44 In-person gatherings, 43

403

Instagram, 41, 359, 365 Instigator, 228 Institute for Fiscal Studies and Public Health England, 122 Institutionalization and amplification, 58 Instituto Nacional contra la Discriminación, 68 Integrated theological response, 72–74 Integrity, generosity, and servanthood, 59 Intellectual labor, 106 Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre, the Office for National Statistics, 122 Intentional isolation, 68 Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, 159 Intercultural, 194 Interfaith prayer meeting, 102 Interlocutors, 202, 204 International, 51 International affairs, 57 International borders, 49 International collaboration, 52, 55, 59 International collective action, 51 International community, 51 International cooperation, 47, 49, 50 International engagement, 49 International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), 29 International institutions, 50, 58 Internationalism, 48, 49, 55–59 Internationalist, 56 International Justice Mission, 159 International Monetary Fund, 52 International order, 47–59 International organizations, 47 International platform, 48 International relations, 48, 56 International Review of Missions, 48 International stage, 58

404 

INDEX

Internet, 96, 156 Internet Watch Foundation, 156 Interpretation, 194, 246, 265, 266 Interpretations, 236, 248, 254 Interrelations, 195 Intersection of God, 75 Intersection of religion, 44 Inter-tribal phone, 98 Inter-tribal space, 98 Interventionist, 252 Intimacy, 276 Intimate partner violence (IPV), 144 Intrinsic, 236 Invasion, 7 Inventors, 203 Invisible visible, 99 iPhone, 42 Irenaean approach, 30 Irenaeus, 275, 277, 280, 281 Irenaeus of Lyon, 276 Irenaeus’ theology, 276–278 Ironic, 205 Ironically, 203 Irrational, 113, 119 Irrationality, 113–114 Isaiah and Ezekiel, 6, 280 IsiNguni, 135 IsiNguni communitarian ethos of northern Malawi, 135 Islam, 137, 380 Islamic, 324 Isolating God, 173 Isolation, 32, 188, 228, 260–263 Israel, 179, 277, 320–322, 351, 384 Israelites, 166 Isukha, 292 Italian Argentineans, 69 Italy, 52, 68, 208 J James, 340 Japan, 53

Japanese, 67, 156 Japanese colonization, 185 Jefferson, Thomas, 347 Jephthah, 152 Jeremiah, 335 Jerusalem, 333, 334 Jesus, 3, 7, 10, 27, 59, 103, 124, 128–130, 161, 162, 183, 278, 279, 282, 319, 332–334, 336–338, 340–343, 346, 350–355, 360, 362, 363, 367–370 Jesus Christ, 110, 269, 277, 355, 383 Jesus’ suffering and death, 183 Jewish, 19, 20, 130, 316, 321, 322, 333, 351 Jewish-Christian, 319, 324 Jews and Gentiles, 279 Jim Crow laws, 96 Job, 26, 175, 316 Job market, 65 Job security, 2 John, 129, 143, 323, 351–353 Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, 108 Johns Hopkins University, 122 Johnson, Boris, 52 Jooseop Keum, 57 Joseph, 363 Joshua, 140 Journaling, 264 Judaism, 102, 320 Judas, 336 Judea, 384 Judeo-Christian, 376 Judeo-Christian ethics, 131 Judeo-Christian faith, 112 Judge, 203 Judged or victimized, 140 Judgement of the Nations, 161 Judges, 152 Judgment, 212

 INDEX 

Justice, 11, 110, 130, 201–204, 206, 210 Justice and mercy, 99 Justice of God, 110 Justification, 202 Justifies discrimination, 62 Justifies the oppression, 66 Justify, 205, 213 Justify God, 202 K Kaf, 168 Kafka, Franz, 343 Kairos, 327 Kalmanofsky, Amy, 146 Kant, Immanuel, 311 Kärkkäinen, Veli-Matti, 279 Katongole, Fr. Emmanuel, 36 Kearney, Richard, 7 Keener, Craig, 350 Kentucky, 108 Kenya, 290 Kenyans, 298 Kerala, 41 Kerala Pentecostalism, 257–270 Kerala Pentecostals, 259, 260 Kerala stream, 45 Keralites, 42 κεχαριτωμένη, 277 Khay, 168 Kidner, Dereck, 176 Kierkegaard, Soren, 141 Kifo, 287 Kindred, 222 King, 369 King Canute, 125 King of Egypt, 155 Kings, 322 Kisa, 292 KJV, 323 Klein, Naomi, 78

405

Korea, 63, 182 Korean, 62–64, 66, 67, 177–192 Korean Americans, 64 Korean Argentineans, 63, 65, 67 Korean churches, 71 Korean community, 62, 64 Korean culture, 178, 191 Korean districts, 64–65 Korean ethnic churches, 69 Korean folk song, 187 Korean immigrants, 62–65, 68, 69, 74 Korean immigration, 63, 64 The Korean language, 185 Korean local cultural and spiritual heritages, 179 Korean musical, 191 Korean musical forms, 179 Korean national folk song “Arirang.,” 185 Korean people, 178, 187 Korean Protestant Churches, 69–71 Korean Psalm of Lament, 186–189 Korean resistance anthem, 185 Korean sacred music, 186 Korean songs, 178 Korean theologians, 178, 183 Korean traditional music, 182–187 Korean traditional musical, 179, 185 Kosher, 321 Kulmala, Markku, 282, 283 Kunming, 328 Kyemyo ̆n, 185 Kyongbok royal palace in Seoul, 186 Kyonggi-do Province, 186 Kyriarchal, 135, 136, 138, 148 Kyriarchal-FLM, 138 L Lack of access to jobs that pay a living wage, 108 Lack of criminal laws, 157

406 

INDEX

Lack of resources, 93 Lagos, 144, 145 Lake, Stephen, 361 Lament, 35–46, 182–189, 191, 258, 261–266, 268–270 Lamentation, 182, 202, 265, 335, 384 Lament psalm of Chai Hoon Park, 186 Lament psalms, 179, 187 Lamented, 57 Lamenting, 6, 177, 186, 188 Lamenting voice, 180 Laments, 262, 335 Lancet medical journal, 50 Lane, William L., 112 Language of lament, 181 Laodicea, 335 Last Supper, 104 Latin America, 36, 37, 306, 307, 331 Latino theologian García, Sixto J., 73 Latinx, 70, 96 Latinx Americans, 109 Latinx and white Americans, 108 Latinx people, 109 Latour, Bruno, 332, 335, 342, 343 Lausanne Movement, 59 Law and policy, 23 Law enforcement, 23 Lawyers, 65 La Xenofobia y el Racismo, 68 Leadership, 53–55 Leaving communities devastated, 100 Legacy of chattel slavery, 96, 109 Legacy of colonialism, 97 Legalism, 101, 106 Legal marriages, 95 Legion of demons, 103 Legitimacy, 205 Legitimated tyranny, 111 Legitimize the oppression of women, 31 Leone, Sierra, 149 Leupold, H. C., 166

Levav, 351, 352, 356 Leviathan, 216 Lewis, C.S., 141 Leza, 147 LGBTQ, 2 LGBTQ+, 95 Liberalism, 53, 247 Liberation, 11, 19, 100, 101, 104, 140, 178 Liberation theodicies, 34 Liberation theologies, 33, 34, 94, 148 Liezyl Margallo, 158, 159 Life-giving sanctuary, 133 Life of suffering black people, 112 Limited life-cycle of cells, 22 Linear hierarchical, 126 Linguistic, 67 Lintel, 222 Lisa Cooper, 108 Lisbon, 19–21 Lisbon earthquake, 19, 20 Literal (apocalyptic) interpretations, 12 Lithosphere, 29 Liturgical, 273, 384 Liturgical calendar, 104 Liturgy, 14, 103, 181, 266, 267, 294 Livelihoods, 21 Live streaming, 41 Live stream services, 45 Living crystallizes the complexity of this pandemic, 44 Living Presence, 5 Living sacrifice, 103 Living standards, 52 Local Argentinean, 62 Local church, 104 Local community, 68 Localized, 227 Local parish, 43 Lockdown, 2, 23, 32, 42, 98, 133, 134, 144–146, 151, 154, 165, 194, 228, 232, 259, 261, 290,

 INDEX 

325, 327, 349, 359, 366, 370, 374 Locke, John, 346–347 Lockean, 347 Locked down, 35 Long, Charles H., 115, 116 Longings for life, 110 Long-standing injustices, 77 Lord, 5, 140, 152, 280, 315, 316, 324, 351, 355, 360–362, 367, 369, 371 Lorde, Audre, 142 Lord Jesus Christ, 362 Lord’s salvation, 171 Loss of biodiversity, 29 Loss of means of livelihood, 135 Loss of quality, 93 Louisville, 108 Louw, Dirk, 136 Love, 139–142, 147 Lovelock, James, 307 Love of God, 141, 143 Luckmann, Thomas, 374 Lukan, 279 Luke, 275, 277, 278 Lumbee, 98 Luther, Martin King Jr., 118, 141 Luyia, 286, 288–289, 297, 300 Luyia rituals, 297 Luzon, 154 Lwena, 237 Lyricism, 265 M Macarius, 281, 282 Macho leaders, 55 Macro-level, 124 Macrostructure, 72 Mainstream evangelical church, 45 Majorities, 33 Majority of black Christians, 109

407

Makhshak, 169, 172 Maladies, 208 Malawi, 140, 144, 207–209, 208n2, 213–218 Malayalam, 42 Malediction, 222 Malevolent, 251 Malicious, 213, 214, 227 Malinowski, Bronislaw, 288 Man, 278 Managers, 8 Mandates of capitalism, 105 Manhattan, 45 Manichaeism, 25 Manifestation of divine benevolence, 277 Manila, 155 Manila Massacre, 155 Manipulation, 198 Marama, 292 Maraschin, Jaci, 331 Margallo, Liezyl, 156–157 Marginalization, 57, 62, 67, 72–74, 109, 117 Marginalized, 21, 62, 74, 75, 95, 191, 205 Marginalized people, 183 Maria Liu Wong, 38 Marian Pentecostalism, 271–283 Mariology, 273 Marivoet, Fr., 361 Mark, 129 Market society, 58 Marriage and rites of death, 104 Mars, 338 Mar Thoma Syrian church, 41, 43 Martial law, 121 Martin, Trayvon, 100 Martin-Duque, Jose F., 377 Martyrs, 24 Mary, 274–278, 282, 283, 363 Mary Magdalene, 340

408 

INDEX

Masculinity, 147 Masks, 23, 98 Massacre, 155 Materialism, 7 Materialist philosophies, 7 Matriarchs, 112 Matthew, 128, 161, 350–352 Maunder, Chris, 278 Maundy, 336–337 Mbiti, John, 288 Mechanistic, 200 Media, 96, 365 Mediation, 45 Medical anthropologist, 80 Medical apartheid, 108 Medical personnel, 97 Medical supplies, 97 Memorial services, 43–44 Men, 142 Men and women, 139 Men of God, 194 Mental, 9 Mental disorders, 174 Mental distress, 258–261, 270 Mental health, 9 Mental health crisis, 260, 270 Mental health needs, 98 Mental pain, 169 Mental suffering, 165 Mercedes Sosa, 340 Mercurial, 53 Messalianism, 281 Messiah, 183, 333 Messianic, 183 Messianic narrative, 130 Metaphor for a planet, 7 Metaphoric, 33 Metaphysical, 196, 237 Metaphysical impassable, 10 Methodologies, 148, 238 Metsolah, 169 Mexico, 39

MGM Hotel, 157 Microbe, 126 Micro-level, 124 Microscopic organism, 55 Microscopic virus, 122, 123 Middle East, 121 Migrants, 63 Migrant workers, 66 Migrated, 63 Migration, 44 Milieus, 326 Militarism, 57 Mimics, 249 Ministers, 71 Ministry, 38, 44 Minjung (민중, 民衆), 183, 191 Minjung theologians, 178, 183, 191 Minjung theology, 178, 179, 182–186, 191 Minneapolis, 108 Minnesota, 108 Minorities, 33 Minuchin, Salvador, 381 Mirabel Centre, 145 Miracles, 193, 237, 243, 249–251, 254, 255 Miraculous, 250, 251 Misfortunes, 197 Missio Dei, 142, 353 Missiological, 14 Missiology, 14 Mission, 48, 49, 56, 57, 59, 73, 96, 196, 197 Missionaries, 48, 59, 196, 246, 247 Mission of God, 8, 11 Moberly, R. W. L., 179 Modernism, 247 Modernity, 6, 11 Modernization and industrialization, 63 Modern missionary movement, 48 Modi, Narendra, 52

 INDEX 

Moltmann, Jürgen, 8, 279 Mombasa, 290 Monastics, 102 Money, 8 Monolithic, 236 Monologues, 200, 201 Monstrous behemoth, 216 Monumental, 223 Moon, 29 Moral and spiritual crisis, 106 Moral evil, 21 “More acceptable,” 67 Morning Shower, 40 Mortal, 203 Mosque, 199 Mother, 139, 275 Mothers and children, 134 Mother and Father, 147 Mother Earth, 307 Mother, losing her child to a cruel death, 275 Muhammad, 116 Müller, Mónica, 69 Murder, 23 Murmurings, 227 Muslim, 197, 321, 324 Mute suffering, 268 Mutual love and respect, 140 Mysteries, 212, 214, 215, 218 Mysteriousness, 210–213, 253, 254 Myth, 267 N Naamath, 201, 203 Nairobi, 290 Namaskaram, 43 Nam-Dong Suh, 183 Narcissistic, 126 Narcotic, 8 Narmada Bachavo, 381 Narratives, 275

409

Narrow, 200 Natality, 236 Nation after nation, 48 National, 66 National and global epicenter, 35 National Council of Churches in the USA, 50, 162 National governments, 58 National identity, 66, 185 Nationalism, 57, 58 Nationalist, 55 Nationalistic, 48 Nationality-based discrimination, 68 National leadership, 53 National populist movements, 53 National Urban League, 107 Nations, 48 The nation-state, 56 Natural evil, 21, 27 Natural habitat of animals, 22 Navajo Nation, 97, 98 Nazareth, 363, 368 Near East and North Africa, 102 Needless suffering, 117 Nefesh, 168 Nelson Mandela Lecture, 54 Neo-colonialism, 159 Neo-colonization, 7 Neo-Fascist Ascendancy, 52–56 Neoliberal capitalism, 7 Neoliberal capitalist, 7 Neoliberal economy, 78 Neoliberal global economic, 58 Neoliberal ideologies, 78 Neri, Bernadette, 160 Net zero emissions, 31 Network, 65 “Neutral,” 67 New city, 44 New forms of violence against women, 133 New infections, 61

410 

INDEX

New internationalism, 58, 59 New Jersey, 40 New life, 5 Newspapers, 290 New Testament, 59, 138, 322, 323, 383 New York City, 35–41, 46, 328 New Zealand, 102 New Zealanders, 102 Nicaragua, 39 Nigeria, 40, 149 Nile Virus, 306 Nipah virus, 309 NOAA, 378 Noachian, 315, 316, 318 Noisiness, 259 Non-Christians, 71 Nonconformist, 200 Non-dichotomist, 246, 247 Non-Europeans, 126 Non-interventionist, 247, 252 Non-Korean members, 70 Nonliteral (apocalyptic) interpretative, 12 Nonliterate, 266 Non-partner, 133 Non-reductionist, 253 Non-white peoples, 131 Noosphere, 29 Normal, 210 North America, 41, 98, 123 North American mainline Protestant churches, 77 North Atlantic consumerist, 20 North Carolina, 93, 94, 98 North Carolinians, 95 Northeast Asians, 67, 68 Norton-Staal, Sarah, 153 Notions of civilization, 29 Notoriously, 251 Novel influenza variants, 309 Nurses, 24, 42

O Objectification, 313 Objectifying, 311 Objectifying-mechanistic, 311 Occult, 251 Oduyoye, Mercy Amba, 346, 353 Oikonomia, 353 Oikoumene, 11 Old Testament, 166, 315, 316, 318, 320, 354 Oldham, Joe, 48, 49, 56 Omens, 238 Omnipotence, 73 Omnipotent God, 114 Omnipotent sufferer, 74 Omnipresent, 20 Omniscient, 20 O’Murchu, Diarmuid, 128 Online, 41, 45, 146, 159 Online “attendance,” 41 Online platforms, 41, 42, 45 Online prayers, 42 Online resources, 42 Online services, 41 Online sexual, 146 Online sexual exploitation, 160 Online sexual exploitation of children, 161 Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC), 152–154 Online video conferencing, 104 Online worship, 41 Ontological, 252 Ontologies, 237, 252–254 Opiate, 248 Oppressed, 74, 183 Oppression, 23, 73, 109, 117, 162, 182 Oppression of women, 152 Oppressive regulation, 23 Oppressor, 246 Orality, 266

 INDEX 

Oratory, 202 Orban, Viktor, 52 Ordination, 104 Orientals, 66 Orients black Christians to suffering, 115 Osaka, 53 Ott, 355 Outbreak, 62, 71–74, 94 Outsiders, 66 Ovels, 178 Oxfam, 53 P Pacification, 196 Pacific Islander, 96 Padilla, C. René, 346, 355, 356 Paganization, 245, 251 Pain, 129, 183, 186, 206, 210, 213, 215, 261, 265, 266, 268, 269 Pain and suffering, 127, 165 Pain-bearers, 205 Pained, 205 Pain-embrace, 205 Palestinians, 333 Pallim, 184 Palm Sunday, 332–334 Pan-African Diaspora, 110 Pandemic, 1–10, 14, 19, 21–27, 29, 32, 33, 35–38, 40, 42, 43, 45–47, 49–51, 54, 62, 63, 65, 68–74, 80, 94, 103, 108, 109, 123, 134, 137, 146, 149, 153, 154, 156, 161, 162, 167, 173, 174, 176, 188, 194–199, 207–209, 214, 219, 220, 227, 228, 231, 242, 243, 248, 253, 255, 260, 261, 264, 271, 272, 274, 287, 305, 308, 326, 327, 331, 339, 346, 348, 359, 360, 363, 366–371, 373, 374, 378, 381, 384

411

Pandemic and hegemony, 117 Pandemic of anti-black racism in America, 118 Pandemics, 10, 11, 108, 117, 195, 219, 223, 231, 232, 326, 331, 342, 373, 374, 376, 378 Pandemics of injustice and inequalities, 14 Pansori (Korean traditional musical drama), 184, 185, 191 Pantheism, 215 Paradigm, 246 Paradoxes, 241 Paradoxical, 239 Paraguayans, 66 Parallels, 200, 208, 210 Paranoia, 7 Parents and/or guardians, 144 Parish, 41, 42 Participation, 278 Partisan politicization of COVID-19, 93 Partnership for Justice, 145 Paschal Triduum, 359 Passion, 201 Passiontide, 320 Passive acquiescence, 33 Passive victim, 275 Passover, 228 Pastor, 43, 45 Pastor Abosede Oyesile, 40 Pastor Adebisi Oyesile, 40 Pastoral care, 38, 39, 43, 44, 100 Pastoral ministry, 38, 41 Pastor Asmah, 41, 45 Pastor Babu Thomas, 46 Pastor Norma, 39 Pastor Norma Santiago, 39 Pastors, 45, 199, 243, 244 Paterfamilias, 138, 322 Pathologizing evil, 24 Pathos, 200 Patkar, Medha, 380

412 

INDEX

Patriarchal, 126, 130, 138, 148 Patriarchal hierarchical worldview, 129 Patriarchal segmentation, 142 Patriarchs, 112 Patriarchy, 7, 23, 159 Patriotism and weapons, 55 Patristic, 142, 273, 281 Paul, 27, 368 Pauline, 138, 141 Pedagogy, 19 Pedophiles, 157–159, 162 Pentecostal, 195, 196, 235–238, 240–245, 248, 250, 255, 258, 259, 262, 266–270, 273, 278 Pentecostal church, 39 Pentecostal cosmologies, 241 Pentecostal ethos, 278 Pentecostalism, 235, 236, 238–243, 245–252, 257–259, 266, 267, 269 Pentecostal perspective, 273 Pentecostal revival, 281 Pentecostals, 236–249, 251, 253, 254, 257–259, 261–263, 266–269, 275, 281–283 Pentecostal spiritual, 268 Pentecostal spirituality, 261–263, 270 Pentecostal theological reflection, 279 Pentecostal theology, 197 People of color, 123, 127 People of Ireland, 97 Perception, 201, 204 Percolate, 253 Perish, 202 Perlocutionary, 204 Permeated, 200 Pero ustedes, 62 Perpetuated, 245 Perplexities, 212 Persecution, 272 Persona Christi, 370 Personal collection, 45

Personal faith, 72 Personhood, 136 Perspectives, 209, 210, 212, 223, 246 Persuasive, 31 Persuasive love, 31–32 Pertinent, 216 Pervasive, 193, 242 Perverse, 203 Pervert, 202 Pew Research Center, 109 Pharaoh of Egypt, 155 Pharisees, 130, 350 Phenomenon, 198 Philia, 141, 143 Philippine Independence Day, 156 Philippines, 52, 121, 153–158, 160, 162, 359 Philippines vs. Heinrich Ritter, 157 Philosophers, 10 Philosophical, 7, 212, 215 Physically, 43 Physically abuse, 145 Physical pain, 169 Physical suffering, 168–169, 173 Physical therapists, 42 Physical violence, 116 Physicians, 203 Pietism, 246 Pietistic, 207 Piety, 205 Pilgrimage, 149 Pilgrimage of justice and peace, 149 Pillay, Jerry, 65, 66 Pimps, 157 Pinochet, Augusto, 78 Piper, John, 2, 3 Plagues, 34, 221–223, 228, 230, 232 Planet, 131 Planetary life, 128 Planetary systems, 29, 58 Plausible, 214, 254, 255 Plausibly, 254

 INDEX 

Pleistocene, 29 Plutarch, 350 Pneumatic, 239 Poems, 178 Poetic hymns, 179 Polarization, 74 Police and military, 121 Policies, 23 Policymakers, 143 Political, 7, 9, 10, 178 Political and economic systems, 6 Political asylum, 94 Political citizenship, 66 Political corruption, 7 Political culture, 53 Politically and economically, 56 Political systems, 52 Political tool, 105 Politics, 6, 15, 53, 79, 94, 105, 125 Poor, 6, 10, 11, 99 Poor children, 161 Poor Filipino children, 157 Poor theology, 94 Pope Francis, 50 Population density, 61 Populisms, 11, 12, 15, 53 Populist, 52–56 Populist and nationalist political movements, 47 Populist enthusiasm, 53 Populist leaders, 53 Pornographic, 153 Pornographic performances, 153 Pornography industry, 153 Portugal, 126 Postal service, 45 Postal workers, 42 Postcolonial, 20, 245 Postcolonial feminist paradigms, 101 Postcolonial-neo-colonial, 241 Post-COVID-19, 14, 15, 179, 185 Post-COVID-19 pandemic, 181, 192

413

Post-modern, 207 Post-racist, 54 Potlucks, 99 Poverty, 7, 61, 98, 123, 154, 159, 161, 183 Poverty and inequality, 123 Poverty and oppression, 183 Poverty reduction, 54 Power, 8 Power of lament, 179 Power of the cross, 31 Power of the process, 278 Power of the resurrection, 31 Power to raise Jesus from the dead, 31 Practical labor, 106 Practical theology, 14 Practices of prayer, 103 Practices spirituality, 105 Practicing faith, 103 Pragmatically, 236 Praxis, 195 Prayer, 39, 40, 44, 45 Prayer for healing and protection, 43 Prayers and daily life of congregations, 43 Praying Psalm, 173 Pre-and post-COVID-19, 72 Preconceived, 204 Pre-COVID-19, 15 Predictable miracle, 206 Pre-existence, 277 Preexistent, 236 The preferential option for the poor, 10 Pre-incarnate, 277 Presentation, 265 President, 96 Presuppositions, 201, 202 Prevailing hostilities, 7 Primal, 251 Privatization of public goods, 78 Privileges power, wealth, and the culture of money, 58

414 

INDEX

Proclamation of God’s forgiveness, 28 Profane, 246 Professional, 67 Professor of Global History, 51 Profound ethical, 7 Progressive soteriology, 277 Prologue, 209, 212, 214 Promiscuity, 28 Propagating, 259 Prophecy, 24 Prophet, 198, 200, 243, 273, 275 Prophetic, 125, 201, 249 Prophetic call, 74 Prophetic pandemic, 11 Prophetic voice, 62 Prophets, 5, 124, 198, 199, 206 Proponents, 193, 195 Proportionality, 202 Prosperity, 193–195, 203, 206, 210 Prosperity Gospel, 196 Protagonist, 200 Protectionism and hostility, 48, 55 Protector, 140 Protest, 19 Protestant, 70, 314 Protestors, 130 Proverbs, 139, 168, 351 Provocateur, 200 Provocative, 204 Psalm, 165–176, 179, 180, 187, 188, 191, 312, 384 Psalm Anthem Choral Book, 187 Psalmic language, 178 Psalmist, 166–172, 175, 176, 188, 191 Psalmist’s psychological pain, 170 Psalmist’s suffering, 176 Psalms of lament, 177–180, 186, 191, 192 Psalter, 166, 172, 179, 181 Pseudo-Macarius, 275, 281 Psychological, 9, 72, 264

Psychologically, 71 Psychological suffering, 169–172 Public health, 79, 80 Public health challenges, 7 Public health issues, 61 Public policy, 96 Public services, 79 Public transportation system, 39 Puerto Rico, 39 Puik, 184 Pulpit, 41 Punisher, 61–75 Punishment, 19 Punitive, 214 Putin, Vladimir, 52, 53 Puzzle, 196 Q Qever, 169 Q fever, 309 Quality education, 108 Quarantine, 154, 259 Queens, 39, 41, 44–46 R Ra,’ 169 Rabbi, 102 Race, 9, 14, 65, 79, 99, 136 Race car, 56 Racial and xenophobic violence, 75 Racial colonial project, 101 Racial discrimination, 65, 66 Racial disparities, 44 Racial divides, 93, 100 Racial injustice, 74 Racialized colonial mindset, 99 Racialized incarceration, 93 Racial justice, 130 Racially, 70, 77 Racial minorities, 68–69

 INDEX 

Racial prejudice, 65 Racial superiority, 66 Racial supremacy, 75 Racial tensions, 105 Racism, 7, 65–68, 80, 94, 99, 109, 123, 131 Racism and oppression, 117 Racism and xenophobia, 65, 66, 73, 74 Racist, 108, 126 Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., 288 Radical, 106 Radical social and economic engineering, 78 Ramaphosa (President), 27 Ramirez, Jessie, 157 Rape, 23, 146, 158, 166 Raped, 133 Rape of Manila, 155 Rapist, 145, 146, 158 Rapture, 138 Rational, 268 Rationale, 268 Rationality, 241 Rationalize, 245 Ravaged, 222 Reactionary, 247 Reality of evil and human suffering, 114 Reality of God’s omnipotence, 114 Reality of human suffering, 114 Real men, 138 Reappropriating, 236 Reassuring theology, 193 Rebelliousness, 202 Reconceptualize, 250 Reconstructing, 236 Redeemed Christian Church of God, 40 Redefining, 236 Redemption, 197, 277–278

415

Redemption prepared for humanity, 275 Redemptive event, 276 Reductionist, 253 Reductionistic, 237, 254 Re-emigration, 63 Refuge, 69 Region, 9 Regulations, 23 Reinculturating, 236 Reindeers, 216 Reinsertion, 229 Relational, 7, 9 Relational ethics, 142 Relationality and interdependencies, 132 Relational theology, 131 Religiocultural, 236, 239, 241, 248 Religions, 9, 288 Religiosity, 239 Religious, 198, 230, 260, 272 Religious ecology, 37 Religious education, 71 Religious gatherings, 146 Religious life, 37 Religiously and politically conservative groups, 96 Remedy, 274 Renewal, 281 Renewing, 117 Repent, 72 Repentance, 227 Reproductive capacity, 278 Republic, 108 Rescued victims, 154 Resentment, 186 Resilience, 181–182 Resilience and resistance to the cultural violence of Japanese imperialism, 185 Resistance, 23

416 

INDEX

Resonate, 199 Resources, 69 Respectability, 69 Restaurants, 64 Restoration of creation, 280 Restoring, 117 Resurrection, 183, 218, 300 Retribution, 200, 203, 204, 209–213, 215 Retributive, 201, 203 Retributive justice, 211 Retributive theology, 193, 206 Retrospect, 214 Revelations, 323, 335, 354 Rev. Sibu Pallichris, 41–43 Rise of global value chains, 56 Risky sexual behavior, 23 Ritter, Heinrich Stefan, 157 Rituals, 103, 196, 197, 229, 237 Rituals act as a source of comfort, 286 Rituals and liturgy, 103 Rituals of healing, 103 Rohr, Franciscan Richard, 5, 59 Roman, 362 Roman Catholic Church, 96 Roman Catholics, 158, 314 Roman Empire, 361 Rosa, Hartmut, 324 Rosario Baluyot, 156–159 Rosary, 158 Rose, 144–149 Rubric, 264 Rugged individualism, 99 Russia, 7, 51, 52 Russian, 53 S Sacred, 246 Sacredness of life, 106 “Secret pandemic,” 154 Sacrifices, 46, 196, 201

Sacrificial, 106 Sacrificial love, 105 Sacrificial suffering, 31 Safety protocols, 291 Sagacity, 238, 246 Saint Matthew, 10 Saliers, Don E., 180 Salome, 340 Salo-Salo, 366, 369, 370 Salo-salo sa hapag, 360, 363, 366–371 Salvation, 277 Salvation and liberation, 183 Salvini, Matteo, 52 Samaritan, 351 Sample of churches, 38 Sanctuary, 42 Sandels, Michel, 6 Sansonetti, Phillipe, 332 Santiago, Jose W., 39 SARS-CoV-2, 220 Satan, 25, 200, 203, 210, 212–214, 217 “Savage Girl”, 158 Savagery, 158 Scandalized, 203 Scapegoated minorities, 62, 74 Scapegoating, 69 Schökel, Alonso, 203 Science, 32, 131 Science and theology, 21 Scientists, 32, 58 Scourges, 222 Scriptural, 376 Scriptures, 148, 152, 166, 349, 369, 375 Scully, Peter, 158 Sd, 242 SDG, 326, 329 Second World War, 49, 51 Secretary of the International Missionary Council, 48 Secularism, 25

 INDEX 

Secular responses, 21 Secular resurrection, 2 Security, 8 Seed sowing, 197 Segtho, 42 Self-centered dualism, 96 Self-defense, 205 Self-giving, 142 Self-isolation, 21, 23 Self-proclaimed, 206 Self-quarantine, 165 Self-sacrifice, 152 Senses of masculinity, 147 Sentinels, 244 Seoul to Jamaica, 45 Separation, 115 Septuagint, 141 Sermon, 45 Servant leadership, 58 Severe economic, 52 Severe economic crisis, 63 Severe economic hardship, 71 Severe economic injustice and are disenfranchised by race, gender, sexual orientation, 181 Severity, 229 Sex, 8, 158 Sex tourism, 156 Sexual abuse and exploitation of women and children, 156 Sexual abuse trade, 154 Sexual and gender-based violence, 134, 143, 144 Sexual and psychological abuse, 116 Sexual and/or physical violence, 144 Sexual exploitation, 146 Sexual gratification, 158 Sexual images, 154 Sexual initiation rituals, 144 Sexuality, 9, 14, 99, 145, 147 Sexually and physically abused, 144 Sexual violence, 133, 145, 146

417

Shalom, 101, 129, 353 Sharing poetry, 104 Shava, 169 Shawa‘, 171 Sheol, 168, 169, 171 Shiva, Vandana, 380 Shivanga, 292 The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, 78 Shrine, 251 Shuah, 201 Silent Listener, 140 “The Silver Lining in COVID-19’s Dark Clouds,” 108 Simon Chan, 276 Sin, 11, 28, 95, 161, 178, 193, 195, 197, 198, 209, 214, 217, 218, 274–275 Sinentlanhla Sithulisiwe Chisale, 135 Sinfulness, 195, 203 Singapore, 124 Sinned, 202, 203 Sinners, 205, 213, 216 Sins, 28, 198, 214, 217 Sites, 250 Skeletal social spending, 78 Skype, 365 Slander, 23 Slavery, 115, 116, 156 Slaves and wives, 138 Smaller gods, 198 Smartphones, 154 Social, 7, 10, 133 Social and ecological, 9 Social and economic assistance, 70 Social and economic engineering, 78 Social and economic inequalities, 32 Social and economic systems, 126 Social and political structures, 105 Social contact, 22 Social dimension, 74 Social disease, 9

418 

INDEX

Social distancing, 2, 29, 79, 98, 104, 165, 296, 377 Social distancing and self-­ isolation, 174 Social ethics, 14 Social evil, 22, 34 Social exorcism, 29 Social gospel, 100 Social-historical to the interpersonal, 182 Social ills, 8 Social implications, 94 Social injustices, 7, 11 Social isolation, 165 Social issues, 72 Socialist, 77 Socializing culture, 95 Social justice, 178 Socially, 71, 208 Socially conservative, 53 Socially distanced outdoor circles, 104 Socially marginalized, 80 Social media, 53, 137, 287, 290, 359, 365 Social responsibility, 74 Social safety nets and healthcare, 55 Social scientists, 195 Social status, 66 Social upheaval, 62, 69 Society, 66 Socio-economic, 178, 208, 231 Socioeconomic and racial inequalities, 74 Sociological, 215 Socio-political, 241 Sociopolitical and cultural structures, 97 Socio-religious, 206 Soelle, Dorothee, 177–179 Soji, 42 Solar radiation, 29 Solar system, 29

Sons, 139 Sorcerers, 229, 230, 232 Sori, 184 Source, 346, 352, 356 South Africa, 27, 374 South America, 64 Southern Baptists, 96 Southern United States, 99 South Sudan, 149 Sovereign, 210, 217 Sovereignty, 218 Spain, 126, 156 Spanish, 39, 67 Spared, 242 Special Rapporteur, 54 Spectrum of apocalyptic interpretative possibilities, 12 Spirit, 34, 238, 240, 246, 247, 250–253, 262, 268, 275, 350, 352, 354–357 Spirit of Jesus, 282 Spiritual, 9, 194, 196, 197, 199, 240–244, 246, 250–252, 254, 257, 258, 261, 262, 264–268, 270 Spiritual gifts of prophecy, 137 Spirituality, 250, 252–254, 258, 263, 267, 268, 270, 273 Spirituality and ethics, 56 Spirituality of the Psalms, 172 Spiritualization, 200, 242, 254 Spiritualized, 247 Spiritual labor, 106 Spiritually hungry congregants, 104 Spiritual needs, 98 Spiritual resources, 94 Spiritual suffering, 172, 173 Spiritual ugliness, 2 Spirit-world, 251 Ssalmist, 167 State, 332, 336, 337

 INDEX 

The State of Black America: Unmasked, 107 Statutory rape, 157 Steaming, 251 Steenberg, M.C., 277, 280 Stereotypical gender, 148 Stigmatization, 23, 67 Stoic, 26 Stokes conflict, 57 Storge, 141 Straddles, 238 Strauss, 355 Strictest quarantines, 61 Strong economies, 52 Strongly nationalist, 53 Strongman leaders, 53, 55 Strongman leaders, authoritarian, 52 Strongman leadership, 54, 55 Strongmen, 55 Strong social capital, 65 Structural racism, 67 Structural sin, 62 Structural sin of xenophobic violence, 75 Structural violence, 23, 24, 33 Structure of racial marginalization, 69 Structures and systems, 118 Structures of marginalization, 74 Struggle, 127, 131 Struggle for domination, 25 Struggles, 9 Subaltern, 20 Subculture, 267 Subjugation of women, 142 Subliminal, 245 Succinctly, 213 Suffered, 308, 354, 384 Sufferer, 61–75, 328 Suffering, 5, 6, 8, 10, 13–15, 19–28, 30–34, 41, 46, 62, 73–75, 94–96, 98–101, 106, 109, 110, 113–119, 129, 130, 138,

419

165–183, 186, 191–193, 195, 196, 201, 202, 205–209, 211, 213–218, 220, 223, 228–230, 257, 258, 261–263, 265, 266, 268, 269, 271, 273–276, 278–281, 307, 308, 310, 316, 317, 323, 336, 346, 352–357, 373, 377, 378 Suffering and hardship, 188 Suffering and pain of being black, 114 Suffering community, 276 Suffering God, 73 Suffering (Han), 183 Suffering in America, 115 Suffering of black Americans, 118 Suffering of black people, 117 Suffering of God, 14 Suffering of the people, 182 Suffering people, 183 Suffering people of Korea, 183 Sufferings, 9, 167, 173, 176, 183, 213, 215, 216, 230, 232, 258, 354, 374, 377, 383–384 Suffering world, 20 Suicide ideation, 170 Sun, 29 Sunday morning worship service, 45 Superficial optimistic, 2 Superficial sense, 30 Super macro sociopolitical structures, 96 Supernatural, 247, 254 Supernaturalisms, 252, 253 Superstition, 246 Susan, 66, 70 Sustainable harmony, 132 Sustained by the Spirit, 36, 37, 46 Sustained histories of racial discriminations, 11 Switzerland, 53 Symbolisms, 254, 255 Symbolize, 275

420 

INDEX

Synoptic, 219, 223 Syria, 281 Systematic theology, 14 Systematic weakening, 47 Systemic denial, 8 Systemic evil, 5, 159, 161 Systemic inequalities, 78, 122, 123 Systemic injustices, 96, 123, 131 Systemic obstacles, 107 Systemic racism, 108 T Tamara Campaign, 148 Tanak, 193, 201 Tanzania, 57 Taub, Amanda, 143 Taylor, Breonna, 44, 108 Technological, 125, 174 Technological capacities, 41 Technologically, 44, 159 Technological modalities, 44 Technologies, 29, 32, 44, 45 Technology hub of North Carolina, 94 Teleconference, 40 Telephone calls, 43 Telephone conference line, 42 Telephone conference line for prayer, 39 Telephones, 42 Teman, 201 Tempest, 203 Tenebrae, 334–335 Tennent, 355 Teresa, 66 Testimonies, 203, 258, 263, 268–270 Textile business, 64 Textile industry, 65 Thematic, 245 Theodicy, 10, 19–34, 94, 113, 114, 172, 268 Theodicy problem, 24–34

Theoethical implications, 94 Theologians, 10, 62, 267 Theologians and church leaders, 74 Theological, 7, 14, 20, 21, 30, 31, 45, 62, 68, 69, 72, 74, 126, 128, 146, 182, 187, 200–202, 204, 207, 209, 211–213, 216, 218, 243, 257, 258, 267, 273, 279, 281, 314 Theological and missiological resources, 14 Theological and practical, 161 Theological and spiritual character, 187 Theological approach, 75 Theological articulations, 147 Theological dilemmas, 146 Theological dimension, 179 Theological engagement, 72 Theological imaginations, 125, 137 Theological implications, 72 Theological inquiries, 99 Theological interpretation, 74 Theological lenses, 72 Theologically, 9, 71, 299 Theologically grounded, 274 Theological praxis, 106 Theological problems, 28 Theological reflection, 74 Theological spectacle, 173 Theological traditions, 14 Theological worldview, 127, 129, 130 Theologizing, 205 Theology, 8, 10, 11, 94, 118, 125, 127, 129, 130, 193, 201, 205, 209–212, 237, 243, 248, 249, 255, 273, 312, 314 Theology of incarnation, 100 Theories, 200, 204, 217, 245 Theotokos, 273, 276 Therapeutic, 264 Therapists, 8

 INDEX 

“Third way” (apocalyptic) interpretative, 13 Thomas, 340, 342 Threatened, 272 Thrift, 205 Thurman, Howard, 335 Tidy, 209, 211, 212 Tillich, Paul, 129 Tintin, 160 Tiriki, 292 Tithes and offerings, 45 Tobacco, 23 To‘evot, 169 Torah, 27 Torture, 158, 166, 202 The total disintegration of the social norms, 115 Total liberation for corporations, 78 Tourist travel, 47 Toward a Womanist Ethic of Incarnation, 100 Trade routes, 47 Tradition, 199–201, 203, 204, 246, 266 Traditional, 196, 197, 200, 201, 203, 209, 237, 239–241, 243, 244, 248–252, 254, 255 Traditional diviners, 252 Traditional healing, 97, 235–255 Traditional healing ritual, 237 Traditional Korean music, 185 Traditional music elements, 186 The traditional nation-state, 56 Traditional practices, 144 Traditional religious, 239 Tradition and worship, 56 Traditions, 249, 273 Traffickers, 155, 156, 161 Trajectories, 213 Transcend, 210 Transcendence, 143, 211 Transcendent, 75, 210, 212, 216, 246, 254, 255

421

Transcendental, 73, 74 Transcends, 211, 212 Transformative, 279 Transgression, 202 Transmedia nature of worship in diaspora churches, 45 Trauma, 103, 166 Trauma Hulyan, 160 Trauma resilience and healing, 149 Traumatized, 260 Trevas, 335 Triangle Native Association of North Carolina, 98 Tribes of North Carolina, 98 Trinitarian perspective, 34 Triple lens, 197 Triune God, 57 Trivial, 269 True Holy Apostolic Church, 44 Trump, Donald (US President), 50–52, 54, 97 Trump administration, 27 Turkey, 52 Turman, Rev. Dr. Eboni Marshall, 100 Twitter, 359, 365 Tyrannical rule, 155 Tyranny, 23 Tyrant, 203 U U.S. Americans, 346, 348–350, 352, 353, 355–357 Ubuntu, 135, 136 Ujaama Center, 148 UK, 52, 79, 80, 122 Ukraine, 7, 53 Ukufukutila, 245–252 Ukufutikila, 237, 238, 245, 246, 248, 249, 255 Ultimately lament, 177 Ultimate meaning, 56

422 

INDEX

Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (in Malawian chiTumbuka: Munthu ni munthu chifukwa cha banyakhe), 136 Uncertain, 57 Unconditional love, 140 Unconsciously, 255 UNDP, 134 Unequal, 20 Unfairness, 183 Unfaithfulness, 195 Unfrugal societal structures, 23 Unfruitful, 22 Unhealed traumatic, 149 UNICEF, 145, 154 Unilateralism, 50, 55 Unilateralist and protectionist, 51 Unimaginable, 261 Unintentional, 245 United Nations (UN), 1, 47, 49, 51, 52, 54, 134, 144, 328, 329 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 153 United States (US), 27, 36, 50–52, 54, 56, 63, 64, 71, 80, 93–101, 103, 105–110, 117, 122, 130, 208, 345, 346, 348, 349, 355 Universal, 216 Universe, 205, 210, 211, 214–218, 251 University of Oregon, 274 University of Oxford, 51 University of the Western Cape, 24 Unjust, 20, 23 Unjust exploitative relationship, 145 Unjust suffering, 193 Unjust systems of oppression, 101 Unpopular governments, 27 Unprecedented, 244, 271 Unpredictable, 210 Unsafe haven for women, 144 Unschooled, 8

UN Secretary General, 51 UN Secretary General António Guterres, 54 The UN Security Council, 51 Unseen Guest, 140 Unsustainable, 20 Unwise, 23 UNWOMEN, 134 US churches, 99 Ustedes (los coreanos), 63 V Vaccination sites, 101 Vaccine, 32, 33, 50 Vahia, Ipsit V., M. D., 349 Values of justice and inclusion, 58 van Gennep, Arnold, 287 Variations, 201 Venerating the dead, 9 Verbal or behavioral violence, 72 Vicar, 41 Victimization and sacrifice, 153 Victimization of children, 155 Victimized and commodified, 156 Victimize girls, 144 Victim of injustice, 159 Victims of forced labor and sex trafficking, 156 Victims of imperialism, 155–160 Victims of state negligence, 156 Videos raping and torturing children, 158 Vigil, 104 Violation of children, 161 Violence, 72, 93, 115, 133, 152, 153 Violence against children, 152 Violence against women, 134 Viral diseases, 29 Viral pandemics, 29, 33, 134 Viral spread, 44 Virtually, 43

 INDEX 

Virtue of love, 135, 140–141 Virus, 4, 5, 21, 22, 26, 36, 47, 49–52, 56, 61, 68, 69, 95, 96, 103, 107, 123, 124, 127, 131, 132, 134, 151, 165, 173, 198–200, 206, 227, 229, 230, 241, 242, 260–262, 285 Virus outbreak, 72 Virus populations, 308 Viruses, 26, 124, 308, 309 Vision, 201, 204 Vision and ethics, 59 Visionary political leadership, 58 Voice of Koreans, 185 Voices of the children, 153 Volatile, 57 Vulnerability, 19, 31, 32, 46, 161, 174 Vulnerability to gender-based violence, 135 Vulnerable, 6, 7, 24, 31, 32, 105, 107, 123, 140 Vulnerable girls, 148 Vulnerable masses, 135 W Wage, 200 Wallace, Bob, 309 Walls, Andrew F., 37 Waltke, Bruce K., 179 Wanga, 292 Ward-Lev, Rabbi Nahum, 4 Wars, 49, 98 Wars, conflicts, 58 Watcher, 202 WCC, 329 WCC News, 134 Wealth, 99 Weaponization of COVID-19, 105 Weaponization of the church universal, 93 Wearing face coverings, 104

423

Weber, Jeremy, 137 Website, 42 Well-being, 382 Werner, Dietrich, 58 Wesley, John, 281 West, 37 West Africa, 306 Westermann, Claus, 167, 180 Western, 127, 297 Western Church, 99 Western epistemologies, 104 Western European, 314 Western Kenya, 286, 290 Western medical practitioners, 97 Western racial-colonial project, 106 Western supremacist, 136 WhatsApp, 42, 45 WhatsApp groups, 44 White, Lynn, 376 White Americans, 109, 110 White Christian Nationalism, 93, 95–97, 100 White churches, 105 White counterparts, 96, 97 White counties, 122 Whitehead, 129 Whiteness, 99, 101 White oppression, 111 White people, 109, 125 White person, 125 White supremacy, 69, 96, 111, 125, 126, 128, 131 White supremacy and racism, 111 WHO, 50 Willoughby, 184 Wilmore, Gayraud S., 110, 114–116 Wisdom, 139 Witchdoctors, 250–252 Witches, 251 Woman, 275, 278 The womanhood of Mary, 278 Womanism, 94

424 

INDEX

Womanist, 100, 142 Womanist theoethicist, 100 Womanist theological ethics, 101 Women, 133, 142, 143 Women and gender equality, 7 Women and girls, 134, 144 Women and men, 156 Women feminists, 147 Women inferior, 139 Women prostituted, 156 Women’s conception of God, 141 World, 43 The World Bank, 123 World Christianity, 9, 11, 14, 37, 38, 179 World Council of Churches, 49, 149 World Council of Churches Commission, 57 World Economic Forum, 53 World Food Programme, 52 World Health Organaisation (WHO), 1, 47, 50, 134, 146 World Mission and Evangelism (CWME), 57 World Mission Conference, 57 Worship, 38, 42–44, 72, 100, 105 Worship experiences, 37 Worshiping, 70 Worship services, 41, 45, 96 Worst pedophiles, 158 Wounded, 14 Wounds, 202, 203 Wreaking havoc, 285 Wuhan, 1, 20, 21, 51, 285 X Xenophobia, 7, 62, 63, 66, 68, 106 Xenophobia South Korean, 62 Xenophobic, 68, 69

Xenophobic attacks, 69 Xenophobic incidents and stigmatization, 61 Xenophobic social marginalization, 72 Xenophobic violence, 72, 73, 75 Xi Jinping, 52 X-ray, 54 Y Yahweh, 172, 180, 191, 210–212, 214, 216, 217, 222 Yale University, 100 Yamashita war, 155 YHWH, 170, 171 Yom-tsa‘aqti, 170 Yong, Amos, 279 Young boys, 138 Young girls, 138 YouTube, 41, 45, 359, 365 YouTube Channels, 45 YouTube services, 45 Yunkaporta, Tyson, 342 Z Zambia, 240, 243, 244 Zambian, 246, 251 Zambian Pentecostalism, 235–255 Zambian Pentecostals, 248 Zambians, 255 Zechariah, 351 Žižek, Slavoj, 80 Zoom, 39, 41–45 Zoom call, 104 Zoom meeting, 121 Zoom memorial, 104 Zoonosis, 326 Zoonotic, 220 Zophar, 201, 203, 205