Living in this unprecedented time of the pandemic of 2020, multiple existential questions arise.
They range from the deep and thoughtful question, “Will I risk my life in serving others who are infected with COVID-19,” to the simple and quotidian question, “Where can I find toilet paper?”
For theological students currently focused upon reading heavy tomes, writing research and analysis papers and engaging in discussions and presentations, a reasonable question is, “How can we (and should we) continue to do theological studies amid a pandemic?”
While this pandemic is a new experience for us, remember that the church has persevered through several of these experiences of plagues and pestilences.
The Cyprian Plague (250-271 C.E.) was probably a plague of measles or smallpox with up to 5,000 people a day dying in Rome.
In the 540s C.E. was the Justinian Plague (probably bubonic). At its height, the death carts of Constantinople were carrying away 10,000 corpses a day.
As Procopius, an eyewitness to this plague, wrote, “During these times, there was a pestilence, by which the whole human race came near to being annihilated.”
During these past catastrophic (one might even say, apocalyptic) times, however, individuals kept pouring over their books, debating theological issues, copying and transmitting the Scriptures and writing works we still read today.
Of course, they also ministered to the infected and provided comfort to those who were suffering and dying; this is what Christians did.
The theological students and scholars of that day, however, even in maelstroms of misery, kept on reading, writing and teaching because they understood that a plague was not the end.
The world will continue but will be changed. In fact, one should consider at this moment a paradigm shift is happening in relationship to how we understand reality and communicate the gospel.
So, now more than ever, we need thoughtful pastoral theologians of the church who will be able to guide us during this shift.
Churches, communities of faith and the world in general will need students who have reflected and struggled with questions such as “Where is God?” “Why has this happened?” and “How do we make sense of this loss?”
What folks don’t need are simplistic answers but answers from the sustained reading of theologians from the past, answers from creative exegesis upon relevant biblical passages and answers based on critical engagement with pastoral, psychological and sociological categories.
And, of course, if any theological education is worth its salt, it teaches there aren’t answers to all questions.
As I learned from one of my biblical professors during my own educational journey, “We do not have complete answers in our search for meaning;” however, by “wrestling with potential answers,” one can better understand the realities of the world (see pages 6-7 of “Christ and Chaos” by Gerald Borchert).
Amid a pandemic, it is an appropriate time to wrestle with texts, debate questions and write in the margins of our textbooks.
One should remember some of the most important biblical and theological insights we possess in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament were penned by individuals living through crises and who were struggling to make sense of their world in relationship to God, community and self.
Parts of the Hebrew Bible were written because of the “plague” of the exile, and much of the New Testament is a struggle with the “plague” of empire.
Often during times of plague, it is those individuals doing theological studies who are called upon most to help shape Christian identity and actions based upon the old but transformed by the new.
Let’s give thanks for each student who is called to do theological study at this “kairos”-moment in the life of the church.
Editor’s note: A version of this article first appeared on Central Seminary’s Central Scholars Reflect blog. It is used with permission.