Abstract
Abstract In this study, we examine which narratives were put forward by key figures of the Dutch reformed pietist community during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyse sermons and news articles from the period March–November 2020. We find, as expected, a dominant narrative of COVID-19 as God’s judgment, a calling to repentance and an event which emphasizes the need for prayer. Although the pandemic was seen as a call by God, the systematic origin of the virus (God/Satan/natural phenomena) remained rather ambiguous. More often it was stated that ‘everything falls under His providence’. The earthly origin of the virus remained mostly unaddressed, as well as eschatological interpretations, contrary to our expectations. We conclude that the main narrative is a general message of repentance, rather than a concrete theological application to the dynamic of the virus, its origins and its subsequent spread. In some cases, virus ‘jargon’ even was used as a tool just to further accentuate general tendencies of reformed pietist theology.
Highlights
During the COVID-19 outbreak, religious believers worldwide were suddenly confronted with a reality of uncertainty, suffering, the loss of community members and drastic regulations for holding worship services
(2) To gain insight into which narratives and God representations were used by key figures and ministers, by means of qualitative data analysis of textual and online output between March and November 2020
That is how we could even regard the horrible coronavirus as His calling: as God’s megaphone for a deaf world”b “Still, there may be no doubt about the fact that God calls us, both Christians and non-Christians, to sincere repentance and to break with sin”c “This week of Pentecost is reason to pray whether the Spirit of God may blow throughout the half-empty churches, to convinces us of our sin and to lead us to repent”d “Will this pandemic lead to humility? To revitalization of the Christian hope?”e “... ‘flesh’ refers here [ Jes 40] to our fragility and transience
Summary
During the COVID-19 outbreak, religious believers worldwide were suddenly confronted with a reality of uncertainty, suffering, the loss of community members and drastic regulations for holding worship services. Before we go into our empirical results, we present the theoretical framework which informed our analysis and was built on the basis of: (a) theologicalscholarly publications from Christian theology on religious narratives in times of natural disasters, which especially concern questions regarding why disasters occur and what God’s role in it may be (b) popular theological literature written during the COVID-19 crisis, which gained attention in reformed pietist circles (such as the book of Wright 2020) In this way, a systematictheological overview is given on a rather abstract and conceptual level, summarizing the main paradigms regarding the role of God in the manifestation of evil, disaster and disease (theodicies). Wake-up call from an active agent God (who somehow used COVID-19 in His Divine plan)
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