DID GOD CAUSE

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC?

The coronarivus pandemic has been going on in earnest for six months now. People are falling sick and dying all around us. Along the way, I expect every one of us has asked, Why is this happening? Did God cause this plague? If so, for what reason? To punish us? To warn us of the last days? If not, why does not He/She intervene to stop the suffering and death? These are perfectly legitimate questions. We all wish we had the answers.

The problem of why bad things happen to good people is the oldest known question in recorded history. The earliest extant written story is the Sumerian text of the Epic of Gilgamesh, nearly four thousand years old. The answer to the Sumerians was---there is no answer. The universe is chaos. The gods act on whim. The monotheistic Hebrews reinterpreted this story to say that the universe is orderly, the creation of a divine force. However, God's work may remain enigmatic to humans. At the time of trial, we may not know why it is happening. The Black Death of the Fourteenth Century and the Holocaust of the Twentieth Century were prime examples of post-Biblical catastrophes. I would argue that God caused neither of these. The first was an act of nature. God and nature are not the same. The second was caused by human beings who made evil choices. Nevertheless, God dwelt among and with the victims suffering unspeakable hardships. He did not abandon them any more than he had Job. He/She will not abandon us today.

I am not a theologian and do not claim to be. I claim to be an historian, not a very good according to my critics, but I try my best anyway. I suppose nowadays, the best read Anglican theologian is N.T. Wright, the author of a shelf of books on New Testament interpretation. His latest book is God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and its Aftermath. 

(I must admit I have not read it. My reading list right now is political in anticipation of the upcoming national election. I just finished Mary Trump's book Too Much and Never Enough. And, you thought your family was dysfunctional! I am now into A Very Stable Genius, by Philip Rocker and Carol  Leonnig. They prove Trump is anything but. I digress.) 

Meanwhile, we have N.T. Wright himself summarizing his book. Here is our video of the day (23 minutes):

You may listen for yourself what Wright has to say about this problem. I will not presume to tell you what he says. I will just say my view is that God did not cause the pandemic but is with us in our hour of need.