{"id":56141,"date":"2020-06-30T12:58:14","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T16:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/blog\/?p=56141"},"modified":"2020-07-02T08:30:45","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T12:30:45","slug":"god-and-the-pandemic-an-interview-with-n-t-wright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/god-and-the-pandemic-an-interview-with-n-t-wright\/","title":{"rendered":"God and the Pandemic: An Interview with N.T. Wright"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"N.T.<\/a>How are we supposed to think biblically about the coronavirus crisis? Is it a sign of the end of the world? Is it a call for repentance? Is God judging the world? What should be our approach drawing on Scripture, Christian history, and the way of living, thinking, and praying revealed to us by Jesus?<\/p>\n

Bible Gateway interviewed N.T. Wright<\/a> (@profntwright<\/a>) about his book, God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and its Aftermath<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (Zondervan, 2020). (Some answers below are reflective of his interview provided by the Jesus Creed<\/em> blog.)<\/p>\n

[Browse books by NT Wright in the Bible Gateway Store<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\"Buy<\/a><\/p>\n

You wrote a short article on COVID-19 for TIME<\/em> magazine, the title of which was \u201cChristianity Offers No Answers About the Coronavirus. It’s Not Supposed To.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

N.T. Wright:<\/strong> That was the TIME<\/em> editor\u2019s title. It wasn\u2019t inaccurate, in that I was saying that Christianity does NOT say \u2018This proves the Rapture is imminent\u2019 or \u2018this shows that we need to repent of [fill in your pet peeve]. Those were the \u2018answers\u2019 people were offering, and I was saying \u2018no, we don\u2019t get that kind of thing.\u2019 But clearly the editor was being provocative.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

[Read NT Wright’s Bible translation, the New Testament for Everyone<\/em>, on Bible Gateway<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Your call to lament was not one untethered to hope, but rather to guard against hoping for the wrong sort of things. Is that accurate?<\/strong><\/p>\n

N.T. Wright:<\/strong> To guard against hoping for the wrong sort of things, yes: and to guard against a knee-jerk reaction as to \u2018what God must be doing\/saying in all this.\u2019 Actually, I think it\u2019s a modern rationalistic thing to suppose that we ought to be able to decode \u2018what God is saying\u2019 in any and all circumstances: the over-confident modernist western assumption that we should be able to \u2018explain\u2019 everything, especially if we believe in God. The trouble is . . . which God do we believe in? Jesus\u2019 closest followers were \u2018hoping for the wrong thing\u2019\u2014witness the two on the road to Emmaus<\/a>. Perhaps we will often be in that position.<\/p>\n

[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, The World as It Was When the New Testament Was Written: An Interview with N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird<\/em><\/a>]<\/p>\n

Your closing words in your TIME<\/em> article are: \u201cIn fact, it is part of the Christian vocation not to be able to explain\u2014and to lament instead. As the Spirit laments within us, so we become, even in our self-isolation, small shrines where the presence and healing love of God can dwell. And out of that there can emerge new possibilities, new acts of kindness, new scientific understanding, new hope.\u201d Explain the idea of having a biblically grounded hope.<\/strong><\/p>\n

N.T. Wright:<\/strong> What I was doing, of course, was drawing attention to that remarkable passage in Romans 8<\/a>\u2014which I expound in detail in God and the Pandemic<\/em><\/a>\u2014where Paul talks about lament and sees that as the very moment when the Spirit is lamenting within us\u2014and we’re fulfilling a key aspect of our vocation.<\/p>\n

[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, The Drama Surrounding Paul: An Interview with N.T. Wright<\/em><\/a>]<\/p>\n

What are a few of the most egregious errors you hear people making when it comes to this present pandemic crisis?<\/strong><\/p>\n

N.T. Wright:<\/strong> (a) This is a sign of the second coming. Answer: no it isn\u2019t: Jesus pointed out<\/a> that there would be wars, famines, earthquakes, etc., and \u2018the end is not yet,\u2019 but that the eventual end would come \u2018like a thief in the night<\/a>,\u2019 in ordinary times, with no great \u2018signs.\u2019<\/p>\n

(b) This is a call to repent. Answer: that’s the stock pagan response to \u2018bad things happening.\u2019 In the Old Testament it’s a very specific point in relation to God\u2019s covenant with Israel; but that’s tempered with the Psalms of lament where the sufferer is innocent (I\u2019m thinking of Psalms 22<\/a>, 42<\/a>, 43<\/a>, 44<\/a>, 88<\/a> and others) and of course with the book of Job<\/a>, where it\u2019s Job\u2019s pseudo-comforters who say \u2018Ah, this shows you\u2019ve been secretly sinning all along.\u2019<\/p>\n

(c) This is a great opportunity for evangelism. Answer: well, good luck with that one. If non-Christians think you\u2019re just using the pandemic as a stick to beat them with (\u2018Hey! Wake up! You might die!\u2019) it may be counter-productive. Sensible people know they might die any day. If we wait for a pandemic to have an excuse to evangelize, we were obviously asleep on the job.<\/p>\n