Covid-19 and the Apocalypse: Religious and Secular Perspectives
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Covid‑19 and the Apocalypse: Religious and Secular Perspectives Simon Dein1 Accepted: 26 September 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The current Covid-19 pandemic has led to existential crises. One way of finding meaning in this is through apocalyptic narratives. We differentiate between religious (based upon eschatology) and secular apocalypticism (based upon radical political and economic change) and argue that both are to be found in the wake of Covid-19 infection. For religious believers, the apocalypse signifies the rapture of the faithful into heaven while those on earth will undergo the tribulations. For secular believers, the apocalypse signifies sociopolitical change. The paper ends by speculating upon the socio-political and economic changes during and after the pandemic- the New Jerusalem. Keywords Apocalypse religious · Secular · Covid Covid-19 is highlighting serious deficiencies in our existing system. An effective response to this is likely to require radical social change. I have argued that it requires a drastic move away from markets and the use of profits as the primary way of organizing an economy (Mair 2020). Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea (Revelations 21:1 KJV).
Introduction The coronavirus covid-19 pandemic is the most significant global health crisis of our time and presents the greatest challenge we have faced since the Second World War. To date there have been 9,738,975 cases and 492,390 deaths worldwide as of June 26 2020 (Worldometer 2020). Emerging in Asia in late 2019, the virus is present in every continent except Antarctica. Cases are rising on a daily basis throughout * Simon Dein [email protected] 1
Queen Mary College, University of London, London, UK
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Religion and Health
Africa, the Americas, and Europe. While Covid-19 is of course natural, the way it spreads is highly influenced by social, political and cultural factors. Historically pandemics have been attributed to both religious and naturalistic causes. While epidemics in the ancient world were generally accounted for in religious terms, a concept of contagion still existed (Feder 2013). Throughout history pandemics and apocalyptic narratives have run closely together. As one example explanations of the Black Death (1347–1352) involved ideas of sin and apocalypse, acts of God and alignments of the planets. While bad air, divine punishment and witchcraft were postulated causes, for many the Black Death signaled the end-times (Lerner 1981; Dwyer 2016). In another case, Howard (2008) reports on religious explanations of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic where appeal was made to ideas of sin and of an eschatological sign of Christ’s second coming. One member of the Dutch Reformed Church, Johanna Brandt, prophesied that the Day of Judgment had come. A pamphlet, The Millennium—A Prophetic Forecast, warned readers that the flu epidemic was only the beginning of the affliction that was stated in
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