Abstract:
The novel coronavirus – officially named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
(SARS-CoV-2), causing a disease (Covid-19) which has flu-like symptoms – seems to be
responsible for the current global lockdown or maybe one can even refer to it as a global event.
Neither the virus nor the disease that it causes is truly novel, as the virus is part of the SARS
virus family and therefore known, and likewise the symptoms of the disease (Covid-19) are
also well known, even flu-like, and therefore also not novel. Yet, what is truly novel about the
virus or the disease it causes is its effect, not specifically referring to the health effect, but its
global socio-economic and political effect. It is for the first time in the history of humanity that
such drastic global lockdown measures have been taken and that governments have taken the
conscious decisions to ‘lay lame’ (cripple) their economies. Such a radical decision is truly
novel. Besides the economic ‘lockdown’, there are numerous socio-economic repercussions;
for example, in a single day, millions (3.3. million) of citizens in the United States file for
unemployment, and similarly in many other countries. Covid-19 is a challenge to the economies
of the world, to society at large, to the poor and vulnerable in particular, and to individuals
who are ‘locked safely’ in their homes. Religious institutions, which traditionally provide
collective meaning, can no longer gather in public places, and offer communal solace. Covid-19
maybe challenges what being human means, or at least, what one has come to believe
concerning the meaning of being human. In this article, this question of being human in the
time of Covid-19 will be explored.
Description:
This research is part of the
research project, ‘Towards a
practical postfoundational
theology as public theology
in response to the
challenges of lived religion
in contemporary Southern
Africa’, directed by
Prof. Dr Johann Meylahn,
Department Practical
Theology, Faculty of Theology
and Religion, University of
Pretoria.