RELIGION, POLITICS, AND SCIENCE IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ERA
Covid 19 Pandemic has evoked
various responses to address the crucial issue of Life in his planet-earth.
The scientific world, especially the medical scientists and the researchers in
the area of public health has offered various studies and creative responses
to make the public aware of the emerging challenges. The secular writers like
Slavoj Zizek signify the need to have a dream of a community of common need.
However, the responses from the religious circles are discouraging and
disappointing. The religious responses address only the obstacles of having
church meetings and sacraments in this crucial context of pandemic. It reminds
me of the sharp criticism of Johann B. Metz and Jurgen Moltmann who
responded to the German Church and the world Christianity in the post-World War
era regarding the privatization of religion. The contemporary theologians of
the church are not able to come out of this sin of privatization of religion
and open Christianity and the church to 'face the reality of the world' (Metz).
The immediate provocation to
write this note is the write-up of O.V. Jathanna regarding the issues connected
with the celebration of the Eucharist under the conditions of the lock-down. I
appreciate and acknowledge his sincerity, genuineness and the theological
expertise to initiate such a discussion in this regard. However, I just
want to register my contentions with those responses while I keep my respect
and love towards him. My serious obsession is that this response does not go
beyond the thought-pattern of a common believer; rather than a response of a
theologian.
O.V. Jathanna offers three
responses on the celebration of the Eucharist during the lock down period: 1.
Postponing the Celebration until Normalcy Returns; 2. Utilizing Technology in
the Celebration of the Eucharist; and 3. Strengthening the Family-Altar and
Reviving the Home-Based worship service, including the celebration of the
Eucharist.
All these three options are
helpful for the church to plan the functions of its sacraments. However, what
we expect from a theologian is something different, especially in the crucial
context of pandemic. The concern of a theologian should not be just the
unavailability of the sacraments; rather it should be about the efficacy of
religion and its practices all-together in this particular context where people
listen to science for more meaningful life in this planet. Theologians are
expected to think about the issues of public health, global economy,and
politics under the shadow of the pandemic that affect the people irrespective
of caste, color, creed and religion. I think this is the time to discuss about
the efficacy of liturgy and sacraments in the public ministry of church. The
Italian philosopher and theologian Giorgio Agamben raises his obsessions
whether our liturgy and sacraments perpetuate hierarchy and priestocracy. He
contends that it is the liturgical and the sacramental practices that
legitimizes hierarchy in the church in the name of the theology of a sovereign
God. Thus, let this be a time of interrogation and investigation whether
we need to deconstruct these practices in order to reclaim the legacy of Jesus
movement in the early church period where the people found it as a public event
of sharing and to de-imperialize the Constantine's legacy which shaped liturgy
and sacrament as the celebration of power. Do we think that we need to
democratize those practices in order to challenge the inherent dichotomy
between priest and the believer, sacred and secular, man and women, touchable
and untouchable, canonized and anarchical?
Don't we need to reformulate
religion in the context where people listen to science rather than religion to
find ways to confront the realities of life? The sanctity of the alter is not
beyond the hygiene-protocol of the health workers. Thus, it is not to bring the
sanctity of the church-alter into the homes and we create another theology of
sanctity in homes which may in turn disturb the genuine secularity of our
homes. What is trying to communicate here is to think about radical religiosity
and spirituality even in our public engagement and service where we find the
divine presence and comfort. I think Covid 19 pandemic era is the right time to
overcome the dichotomy between work and worship, religion and politics,
sacrament and diakonia, secular and sacred, church and society. Christian
theology is invoked by the science to join hands for finding ways to redeem
humanity and the planet-earth. Encountering the emerging 'corporate capitalism'
or the 'disaster capitalism' should not be sidelined while we think about
bringing sacraments into our 'highly commercialized' homes. I think this is the
right time to reform our spiritualities, theologies, and christianites rather
than reclaiming the hierarchical provisions of the established religion. I am
afraid that the post-Covid era may be the era of the established religions to
reclaim their practices and theologies through which they legitimize the
hierarchy and power.
Y.T. Vinayaraj
12.06.2020
Kottayam