The Theology of Pandemic: #2 - We're All In This Together (Part 1)

The Theology of Pandemic: #2 

We're All In This Together (Part 1)

Last week on Facebook I jokingly posted, "It's a good day to remember the words of theologian and social-scientist Red Green, 'Remember I'm pulling for ya. We're all in this together.'" It was meant lightheartedly, but bears a real truth - in this pandemic we are all in this together.  The universal nature of this moment in time was driven home yesterday morning as I joined in on a Zoom call with colleagues from cities around the world to pray.  On the screen were representatives from The United States (Sarasota, Salem, Seattle, Tacoma, Grand Rapids, Camden), as well as cities around the world (Montreal, Santo Domingo, Manilla, Halifax, Port-au-Prince, and Guatemala City.  While those gathered on that call (and others in Africa and India) have been a community with some commonality for a long time, we have never all been going through the exact same thing at the exact same time.

According to Dictionary.com the word pandemic means:

adjective
1)  (of a disease) prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world; epidemic over a large area.

2)  general; universal: pandemic fear of atomic war.

It is that second definition that interests me.  Despite the limited ways that some have tried to use this virus to divide humankind we are all experiencing the Corona Virus Covid-19 together.  There are cases on every continent except Antartica.  Lockdowns, stay at home orders, washing hands, cancelled plans, school closures, etc. are all happening at once around the world.

However, we rarely experience life in this universal way. Most often we are isolated by the identity politics of our lived experience. Humans seek out ways to divide ourselves. We look for the differences so that we can define ourselves in contrast to the others around us. 

Theologian Namsoon Kang describes our need to define ourselves as an "identity passport" (2011:279-280).  She sees this as a document we carry around that defines us by our race, nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, class, etc. In contrast she suggests a cosmopolitan theology (2011 & 2013) with five characteristics: trans-identity, radical affirmation of the Other / radical neighborly love, trans-religious solidarity, counter-empire, and boundary-transcending solidarity (2011:272-275).  In short Kang calls for a theology rooted not in what divides but in the "mobilizing discourse" of love spoken about by Spivak (2011:259).  She writes, "Cosmopolitanism calls for a 'planetary neighborly love' and 'deep and radical compassion' for living beings, which I believe should be the central message of Christianity" (2011:277).

Kang notes that her cosmopolitan theology is not a reality, but comes from the future (2011:276-279) because it has "not yet had the opportunity to actualize its universal potential" (2011:277).  But what if in this pandemic moment the time has come for all of us to put aside our identity politics, and all the ways we divide ourselves, in order to begin to live into the the passportless cosmopolitan theology Kang is envisioning?  What if we can, in this universal moment, see that we are all simply human?  What if we can begin to live out the Biblical reality that every human on this planet has a single identity as a child of God?  What if the future reality Kang is calling to is coming in this moment?  Has the opportunity that has not yet come, now, in this pandemic period being actualized?  

I believe that the potential for a passportless reality rooted in universal love has arrived disguised as Covid-19.  Saint Mother Teresa has been quoted as saying, "[W]e have forgotten that we belong to each other."*  Maybe in this pandemic moment we can remember that "We're all in this together."

Joel K

D.V.

Works Cited:

Kang, N., 2011, ‘Toward a cosmopolitan theology: Constructing public theology from the future’, in S.D. Moore & M. Rivera (eds.), Planetary loves: Spivak, postcoloniality, and theology, pp. 258-280, Fordham University Press, New York.

Kang, N., 2013, Cosmopolitan theology: Reconstituting planetary hospitality, neighbor-love,
and solidarity in an uneven world, Chalice Press, St. Louis.

* = https://www.scu.edu/mcae/architects-of-peace/Teresa/essay.html