![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The aim of this article is to juxtapose contemporary and historical perspectives in order to offer new theological insight into COVID-19, particularly regarding the church’s pastoral response to the trauma it has left in its wake. Narratives of the experience of trauma in the early modern period will be compared to the work of twenty-first century theologians and current theological debate about COVID-19. Providence and lament are highlighted as key themes for comparison. Whilst accepting the limitations of doing theology via a historical perspective, the results of this juxtaposition suggest the possible outlines of a theological response to COVID-19 which takes the unfolding consequences of the virus as its stimulus. The past–present comparison will highlight the need for theologians to develop a more confident and direct theology of providence and a fuller theological rationale for lament, whilst moving away from therapeutic models which promote passivity and acceptance. A theology of Covid suggests the inclusion of language which embraces the need for positive change in the light of the inequalities exposed by the pandemic, whilst engaging with sorrow, grief, and loss.
KEYWORDS:
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank the Revd Dr David Hewlett for our conversations on this topic and for reading an earlier draft, and The Parish of Putney for kindly making the Daily Bread reflections available to me.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Tragedies and Christian Congregations: The Practical Theology of Trauma, edited by Grosch-Miller, Ison, Southgate and Warner, 1–2
2 K. O’Donnell, Broken Bodies: The Eucharist, Mary, and the Body in Trauma Theology, 7.
3 Peters, “Trauma Narratives of the English Civil War”, 80, 85–87.
4 M. Harrington, “Transitional Justice Theory and Reconciling Civil War Division in English Society, 1660–1670.” In Civilians and War in Europe 1618–1815 (Liverpool, 2012). M. Harrington, “Disappointed Royalists in Restoration England and Wales” (PhD diss., University of Cambridge, 2013).
5 Oldridge, “Light from Darkness: The Problem of Evil in Early Modern England”, 391
6 J.R. Hale, Renaissance Europe: Individual and Society, 1480–1520, 8–9 (London, 1971).
7 Oliver Cromwell to Colonel Valentine Walton, 5 June 1644. http://www.olivercromwell.org/wordpress/?page_id=671
8 R. Houlbrooke, Death, Religion and the Family in England, 1480–1750, 222.
9 Oldridge, “Light from Darkness”, 390
10 Oldridge, “Light from Darkness”, 401
11 B. Worden, “Providence and Politics in Cromwellian England”, Past & Present, 1985, 57.
12 Paul Slack, quoted by Oldridge in “Light from Darkness”, 404.
13 Oldridge, “Light from Darkness”, 400.
14 Petition of Maud Cape, 15 April 1656. Somerset Heritage Centre. Q/SR 94,14.
15 R. Houlbrooke, Death, Religion and the Family in England, 221.
16 Worden, “Providence and Politics in Cromwellian England”, 63.
17 Works of John Owen, viii, 11, quoted in Worden, “Providence and Politics in Cromwellian England”, 63.
18 Burton, Anatomy of Melancholie, 1621
19 Jeremy Taylor, quoted in Houlbrooke, Death, Religion and the Family, 224–225.
20 Gilbert Ironside, A sermon preached at Dorchester in the county of Dorcet, at the proclaiming of His sacred Majesty Charles the II, May 15, 1660 (London, 1660), 15.
21 N.T. Wright, “Christianity Offers No Answers About the Coronavirus. It's Not Supposed To”, Time, March 29, 2020. https://time.com/5808495/coronavirus-christianity/
22 J. Swinton, Raging with Compassion, 103.
23 J. Swinton, Raging with Compassion, 104.
24 J. Swinton, Raging with Compassion, 104.
25 Swinton, Raging with Compassion, 113.
26 Swinton, Raging with Compassion, 114.
27 Christopher Southgate, “‘In spite of all this, we will yearn for you’: reflections on God’s involvement in events causing great suffering”, 113. Southgate states ‘even the ingenuity of parasites can all be considered signs of the creative work of God’.
28 Southgate, “In spite of all this”, 118.
29 Southgate, “In spite of all this”, 115, 119, 113.
30 Southgate, “In Spite of all this”, 117.
31 D. Ford, Christian Wisdom, 45, 44.
32 Ford, Christian Wisdom, 44.
33 Ford, Christian Wisdom, 43.
34 Ford, Christian Wisdom 46.
35 R. Klein, “The Phenomenology of Lament and the Presence of God in Time”. In Evoking Lament, edited by E. Harasta and G Brock, 14.
36 Ford, Christian Wisdom, p. 47.
37 Ford, Christian Wisdom, 51.
38 Niels Henrik Gregersen, “Providence”. In The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, 574–575.
39 Gregersen, “Providence”. In The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, 575.
40 R.P. Abbott, “An Evangelical Practical Theology of Providence in the Light of Traumatic Incidents”, Tragedies and Christian Congregations, 103.
41 G. Tomlin, “Is the Coronavirus a Judgement from God?”, 1 May 2020. https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/1-may/comment/opinion/is-the-coronavirus-a-judgement-from-god
42 Bailey Pickens, “Maybe This Really Is a Time of Divine Judgement”, 14 July 2020. https://www.christiancentury.org/article/opinion/maybe-really-time-divine-judgment
43 I would like to thank the Parish of Putney, and particularly the Team Rector, Revd John Whittaker, for allowing me access to the full collection of Daily Bread reflections.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Melanie Harrington
Revd Dr Melanie Harrington is a priest and third year curate in the Diocese of Lichfield. Before being ordained she completed her PhD in early modern history at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and was a published historian. She now wishes to bring her historical background to bear on her work as a theologian. She is particularly interested in the theology of reconciliation and pastoral responses to trauma.