Fear not, snear not: A healthy Christian response to COVID-19
The Oxford Pastorate serves a remarkable community, one member of our Christian Leadership and Service cohort, Dr Mirjam Schilling, is a postdoc virologist and a DPhil student in Science and Religion studying the theological aspects of viruses under Alister McGrath. Who better to offer perspective on the current crisis. Mirjam’s article, Fear not, sneer not: A healthy Christian response to COVID-19, can be found at the link below. We asked her what prompted her and co-author Joel Gamble to write it.
"Due to our individual research projects in theology Joel and I independently got interested in how viruses or diseases have been viewed by Christians in the past. When we met up to share some resources COVID-19 had just started to gain people’s attention and we experienced how especially our Christian friends asked a lot of questions about the virus. It felt natural to try and write an article that would both explain the science behind the outbreak to a lay audience as well as share some wisdom from Christians who went through similar experiences in the past. I think what is so fascinating about Martin Luther is how he has his priorities in his responsibilities right. He knows that he is responsible before God first, and has to take care of his own spiritual life and then love his neighbour… Secondly, he knows that caring for his neighbour does include his spiritual needs and his physical needs. Thirdly, he knows that he needs advice from medics as this is not his area of expertise. Overall, we can learn from Luther how to deal with an infectious disease (in his case the plague caused by a bacterium), but also his way of responsibly dealing with his own expertise and limitations."
Click on the link below to read the article:
Opinion Piece: Fear not, sneer not: A healthy Christian response to COVID-19.
ABC Religion & Ethics, Posted Tue 17 Mar 2020, 1:31p Updated Tue 17 Mar 2020, 3:14pm