Christianity and COVID-19: Pathways for Faith

Description

This volume explores current understandings of the global meaning of faith and suffering in the context of COVID-19 and interrogates responses to the pandemic that have emerged from World Christianity. It includes chapters by a range of international contributors approached from a variety of angles within the Global Christian theology. They provide reflections and analyses focused on the question of God, human suffering, structural injustice, the role of the church and Christian praxis in the milieu of COVID-19, where misery and dying are daily routine. This book will be of interest to scholars of Missiology, World Christianity, biblical/public/contextual theology and various contemporary Christian studies. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgements List of contributors Introduction: Faith facing suffering PART 1 FAITH MAKING SENSE OF SUFFERING Chapter 1 A critical examination of how some questionable perspectives are revealed within Chinese Christian reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic Chapter 2 Covid-19: A reflection from Indigenous peoples’ lifeway Chapter 3 Perceptions of COVID-19 in a sample of female clergy: Implications for theological understandings of suffering Chapter 4 The Word of God and the Covid-19: Intercultural reading of Job’s questions to God Chapter 5 The Holy Spirit, human suffering and healing: An initial Pentecostal reflection Chapter 6 COVID-19, the question of evils, human freedom and Divine attributes Chapter 7 Asking God tough questions: The Use of interrogatives in Habakkuk’s first chapter Chapter 8 Martin Luther’s understanding of righteousness and its implications and challenges to COVID-19 Chapter 9 Who tweeted “Mene Mene Tekel Parsin”?: COVID-19, Twitter and apocalyptic literature Chapter 10 COVID-19 and human suffering PART 2 FAITH TAKING ACTION Chapter 11 Pacific Christianity online or on the line?: Renewing church, sacrament and worship amidst the pandemic Chapter 12 Liberation after COVID-19—(re)building hope for older and disabled people beyond the global hegemonies of “unity,” “youth” and “growth” Chapter 13 “Give us this day our daily bread?”: Innovative responses by faith communities to suffering during COVID-19 within a context of inequality and poverty in South Africa Chapter 14 Theology and ethics of pastoral accompaniment for patients with COVID-19 in the context of physical distancing Chapter 15 Trusting in God’s protection in the wake of COVID-19: An exegetical reading of Psalm 91 Chapter 16 Love in the time of corona: Case studies of theodicy during the COVID-19 pandemic Chapter 17 The evangelical church’s love affair with injustice (white supremacy): A womanist study of mishpat during COVID-19 Chapter 18 The church and COVID-19 pandemic: Voices of Myanmar women clerics Chapter 19 Reflections on an ecological conversion of Catholic spirituality today Index