I remain thankful for voices like that of N.T. Wright. Having theologians living through our times and being willing to bring their insights and truth into current situations like the pandemic is a gift. Jumping off an article written for Time magazine where Wright was shaping the response to the pandemic through the lens of lament is a quick and readable book. While not as in-depth as some of his other books, his reminders throughout that our hope does not need to be in this time and place is timely and comforting. If you need to reframe your thinking as the spread of this virus continues, be sure to pick up this book.

This is a thought-provoking book. After reading it, I want to reevaluate some of my own thoughts and decisions, and as my area continues to open up and put forth plans for various things, I want to be aware of what I can practically do, aside from prayer, to help those who need it.

It took me entirely too long to read this. But I'm very glad that I did read it. Wright is (unabashedly) my favorite theologian to read. But I think that even had this not been written by him, I'd love it just as much. It's full of prayerful wisdom and practicality. A very needed, albeit very slim, volume for the Church in our present moment.

I highly recommend this book. It was a real eye opener to me! I was very enlightened by the information in this book. A keeper for sure.

God and the Pandemic
A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath
by N. T. Wright


Zondervan Reflective
Zondervan
Christian
Pub Date 19 Jun 2020


I am reviewing a copy of God and the Pandemic through Zondervan Reflective/Zondervan and Netgalley:



What are we, (Christians) supposed to think about the Coronavirus? But not only what are we supposed to think about the Coronavirus but how can we help others in the midst of a global pandemic?




How is a Christian supposed to respond? What are we supposed to believe with so many conspiracy theories going around?



Some people are certain that this Pandemic is a sign of the end, that it’s all predicted in the Book of Revelation.




There are some that disagree that it’s a sign of the end, but they believe that this is a call to repent.



Others join in on condemnation. Blaming China, or others.



I found God in the Pandemic to be a powerful and thought provoking little book.


Five out of five stars.

N.T. Wright has carved out his spot in the world quite distinctly. He's a highly regarded New Testament theologian, pastor and bishop, a well-read biblical academic. So the question is fair to ask: what business does a guy like that have in talking about a major health crisis?
The answer is, "quite a bit of business." This isn't a book about looking on the bright side even though things look bad, or a bunch of ideas for how to stay happy while you're in quarantine. This short work is part of a much bigger picture, and it's also a call to Christians to remember who they are despite the circumstance.
Wright makes no bones about how bad the COVID-19 crisis has become. He doesn't downplay the suffering or try to talk around the death toll. This message is right in the middle of it, and it's a call to the community that should always stand in solidarity with the broken and the suffering: the church. Wright is challenging his fellow believers to deny the lie that the church has only words for some private, internal, unseen work. This is a charge to pray, lament, and stay on the mission that it has had for 2000 years. To be the people of peace and love that Jesus charged us to be, and to remember that those who came before us also faced challenges in answering this call.
It's not a message for everyone. It's going to be hard to swallow at times. But to grab what he's offering, this is a message that really could bring a new sense of identity for the worldwide church both during and after the pandemic.

I've read a number of books on God and the pandemic but this is by far the best. Routed in scripture, the character of God and the role of the people of God, otherwise known as the church, in seeing his kingdom come, but also in seeing us love like Jesus would. The answer to the question 'where is God in the pandemic' is that he is lamenting with us, he is with workers on the front line, crying with those who mourn, and serving with those many local churches that are serving their community. This book should spur on the church

A short but powerful and engaging exploration into the Scriptures regarding what the COVID-19 pandemic ought to mean for Christians.

Most books of this type suffer from the tyranny of the present: they come out in response to a given situation, and many of them do not age well. I am glad to say that this work of Wright's is not among them.

He begins by establishing the lay of the land: we have this global pandemic, and we see a range of responses in society and among Christians. He speaks about the various philosophical inclinations of modern man and their response to the pandemic. Many are confident it is some kind of judgment on society or the church, or part of a conspiracy, but as Wright well notes, the "answer" seems to be the same answer which the person was advocating for beforehand. All kinds of passages and ideas are brought up about what the pandemic "must mean."

And so Wright systematically explores the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the rest of the New Testament in light of what we are experiencing during the pandemic. He well demonstrates how events like these are considered part of "normal" existence, and need not mean a specific kind of judgment from God. He shows well from the Old Testament the power of lament in difficult situations, deeply informed by the psalms (for Wright theological fans, all the old hits are here - the psalms, robust resurrection themes, Romans 8 and the corruption of the creation, Kingdom values). He shows how the Gospels portray Jesus as recognizing the plagues and challenges of the world that is, but how He in Himself points the way to a better way - the Kingdom of God, and the pursuit of the purposes of that Kingdom should always be a thing, not just in a pandemic. Jesus is Lord now; His people must follow His way of the cross now. He then goes through the New Testament and sees a community of people who provide mutual help and aid, to love and to serve, all in light of the hope of the changed world imagined in the resurrection. His exegesis of Romans 8:28 is fascinating, diverging even from his own Kingdom translation - exploring whether Paul's point is more that God works with/in/through us to do the good, very much consistent with Ephesians 3:14-21 and other passages.

To this end he addresses what Christians should do, and what he says sounds apropos in almost any disaster or time of distress: lament, repent, be active in advancing God's purposes in prayer and humility, to encourage the powers that be to be prepared and to function well, and in the pandemic itself, to show love to one another - he uses the oft-cited quote from Luther when he was in the midst of an outbreak of plague to encourage people to serve as they can but to not cause greater harm by becoming a vector. Both sides of his point regarding churches and assemblies are important: the importance of not maintaining a vector, but the danger to society in creating the idea that religion is a mere private affair and sacred space is optional. His conclusion in regards to what should be done in recovery is also well considered, to strive to establish more justice and righteousness in the land, and to avoid the temptation to just "return to what it was" and to miss the opportunity for growth and fresh and creative ways forward.

The only disappointment I register is that Wright could have spent some time with the idea of such events as apocalypses for those who endure them - apocalypse as an unveiling, the exposure of what is in the minds and hearts of people, when in anxiety and fear people show aspects of themselves they would rather not have exposed. This is a major theme in judgments throughout Scripture, and even if it remains true that we need to be careful about seeing COVID-19 as a specific kind of judgment, the crisis has certainly exposed a lot of things about people, governments, and systems, and we need to take that to heart.

Nevertheless, a great resource for consideration in the days of COVID-19, but also relevant in any moment of distress.

This short book grew out of an essay by N.T. Wright, expanding upon his thoughts and beliefs, based on Biblical study, surrounding Christians and the coronavirus. I’ve read one book by N.T. Wright before – Simply Christian – and found his work to be scholarly and thoughtful so I was immediately curious about what he might have to say about the current global pandemic. Obviously a book like this has a quick turnaround from conception to publication so overall it has a more casual tone than Simply Christian. That said, it still reads well and thoughtfully and is grounded in Biblical study.

Wright speaks very boldly to Christians, rebuking those who might attempt to use the coronavirus for political or even religious purposes. He writes, “We sometimes have the impression that the coronavirus is providing people with a megaphone with which to say, more loudly, what they were wanting to say anyway.” There are Christians (and non-Christians too) who will see this virus as a warning sign, a lightning bolt from heaven. There are people who will say it is a punishment on our secular society, a plague sent to us from the godless nation of China. Wright unequivocally rejects these ideas and I loved reading his Biblically-grounded statements against them.

He does this by pointing the reader back to Jesus and what the gospels (and indeed the entire Bible) tell us about him. “Any claim to tell from world events when the ‘second coming’ will occur is a claim to know more than Jesus himself." Wright goes on to make the point that world events don’t exist to tell us to repent and turn to God. That was Jesus. Jesus was God come to earth, who lived as a man, died as a criminal, and was resurrected from the dead. Wright says, “The resurrection is the launch of God’s new creation, of his sovereign saving rule on earth – starting with the physical body of Jesus himself. Those events are now the summons to repent and the clue to what God is doing in the world.” In other words, we shouldn’t need tsunamis and pandemics to point us to God because we’ve already been given Jesus.

Wright also references one of my favourite stories of Jesus. When he heals a man born blind, his followers ask him, “Who sinned? This man or his parents?” They believe, as many people still do, that any ailment (or world catastrophe) must be the result of sin. “Neither,” replies Jesus. “This happened so that the work of God might be displayed.”

Wright addresses the practicalities of catastrophe and how Christians should respond. He refers back to a New Testament story found in Acts where the church in Antioch learns that there will be a great famine. Rather than react with judgement toward sinners or expecting it to be a sign of Christ’s imminent return, the church mobilizes to provide aid to the church in Judea, knowing they would be hard hit. Wright puts their response this way: "They ask three simple questions: Who is going to be at special res when this happens? What can we do to help? And who shall we send?"

This very simple response is entirely applicable in our own situation today. Who needs help? What can we do? Who can do it? And in many cases and places, the church has done that and it has been wonderful to see the global Church mobilized in such a way. In many other ways, the church has failed, putting selfish desires and pride first and even endangering the lives of those around them. From the very beginning of the church, Christians have been called to step into the centre of the pain. This is a place Jesus himself never shied away from. Whether he was weeping at Lazarus’ tomb, asking a Samaritan woman for a drink, or laying down his life on the cross, he never stepped back from pain. Wright reminds the reader of Paul’s letter to the Romans where he writes of “groanings too deep for words”. "That is our vocation: to be in prayer, perhaps wordless prayer, at the point where the world is in pain."

Which isn’t to say that we are called to passive acceptance. Wright quickly pushes back against this idea, refusing to let Christians shrug off the ills of the world with an “Oh well, God will work it out.” Instead, Wright calls Christians to action, to mobilize like the church in Antioch, like the church has at many other points in history. One famous example I’ve heard frequently in recent months is that during incidences of the Black Plague, Christians remained behind to care for the sick while others fled the illness. For us today, care for others can look as simple as staying home, wearing a mask, grocery shopping for someone more vulnerable. Or it may require greater risk to ourselves, a larger step out of our comfort zone. We are still called to do it.

For a small book, I got a lot out of this. While it’s written for a very specific time, there is also a lot here that is vastly applicable for Christians in all scenarios. How do we, as followers of Jesus Christ, respond to pain and suffering? Who needs help? What can we do?

This book, though little, hold a lot of weight. Wright dissects multiple Christian and worldly perspectives on the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. He brings a common ground of understanding through heavy Scriptural context and study. For those who may not see the meaning behind God's works at this time, this powerful work provides much-needed clarity.

Wright gives a great overview of how the Old Testament and New Testament talk about large-scale suffering and the early church's response to similar pandemics. His conclusions are sobering and enlightening, with plenty of substance.

N.T. Wright continues to be a trusted and leading voice in biblical studies and theology - this short book is no exception. He brings together some major concepts in his work - who Jesus is, the Kingdom of God and the place of Israel - to paint a picture of what our response to the pandemic should look like. I loved his focus on asking WHAT instead of WHY and how Christians should respond with grace and love. Highly, highly recommend this read.

I have been interested in this author's work for some time now, and I liked that this shorter read did not require a huge time commitment, yet offered insight in how we should like during this pandemic. We should be thoughtful, compassionate, deliberate - and ultimately this is how we should live - period. Wright helps dispel Christian notions that this is somehow a punishment from God. There have been many challenges and disasters before with God's people and He was always there to intervene and to help them through. Just read the Psalms of David if you need further proof. He refers to Paul telling the Corinthians that though "there's a crisis; but no, you mustn't be alarmed. just be wise about what you do and don't do while it's going on". And to the Romans "We are completely victorious through the one who loved us". Sometimes suffering is inevitable but our "inheritance here is not heaven ... (but) the complete heaven-and-earth reality, renewed from top to bottom, as in Revelation 21, with corruption, death and decay abolished for ever." Take some time to read this and be encouraged, especially if you have been touched directly by this pandemic. God is your source.

(submitted to Amazon but still pending)

#God and the Pandemic by N T Wright# is a Christian living book. NT Wright is a former Bishop of Durham and is a leading Bible scholar. He taught New Testament studies at Cambridge , McGill and Oxford Universities. He has been on ABC News , Dateline, Colbert Report. He is also a best selling author. He examines the pandemic from the Old Testament, New Testament and history. He also addresses the questions we have like why has God allowed this pandemic? He uses scriptures to help address this issue. He also helps Christians see practical ways they can live out their Christian life in the midst of the pandemic. i like is over all perspective. He tells us as Christians we have a vital role to play in our world during the pandemic. I feel challenged to apply the practical suggestions He has given for the pandemic. He also suggests how to move forward out of the pandemic. The book is short but well written with good research and scripture to back the author up. Thank you for the publisher, netgalley , the author for allowing me to read and review this book. The opinions are my own.