A Global Perspective on the COVID 19 Crisis and an Ontological Theology Perspective

Abstract This article asks whether human history has any bearing on understanding and interpreting the Covid 19 pandemic. It seeks to examine the historical and present circumstance to identify possible causes, dangers, responses and solutions. It more importantly seeks to respond to the question, is there a possible conjuncture with an ontological theology view of God and the world? The aim of the first section is to present a succinct overview of pandemic themes and in the second, to articulate three significant responses from the ontological theology perspective. This view has for primary focus the reality of the Person of God with emphasis on being and existence, both His and ours in general and specifically in times of crisis. Where is God? Why is this happening? What is He saying? Why does He not intervene? Crises evoke fundamental belief questions. The article therefore, seeks to demonstrate the validity of a cohesive connection between the divine, transcendent and eternal with humanity and human history. Keywords: Covid 19, ontology, theology, existence, God. Methodology Knowledge souces were gathered qualitatively from academics, specialists in their fields addressing the Covid-19 pandemic: science, sociology, economy, history and theology. The validity of this broad context is to: define fundamental and global issues identified through the agency of the crisis and thereby establish a narrative, and to formulate a theological response based on historical and ontological truths. The articles analysed provided authoritative insight into pertinent concepts and thematics that establish historical patterns, necessary to articulate the principal narrative views. The knowledge base utilised is inexhaustive and evolving, but is specific to the divine metanarrative perspective. Introduction - Covid Overview Contextualized While we may be identified as the ‘Covid generation’, it is historically accurate to insist that in every generation there have been crises typifying the period and the people. Historical events such as: world wars, decolonialisation, the financial crisis, and the refugee displacement evidence the regional or global reality.1 With this backdrop, it is helpful to consider the following brief overview of epidemic-pandemics in the Common Era (CE) in order to substantiate their historicity. Antiquity witnesses to annals recording some of the earliest known plagues. 2 During the Antonine Plague possibly twenty five percent of the world population died due to small pox from the Hun invasion of Germany, and through the military movement, spread throughout the 1 Other significant events are: Post-war reconstructionism, the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Apartheid, HIV, and Ebola. 2 The Antonine plague (165 CE), the Cyprian plague (250 CE), and the Justinian plague (541 CE). Pharos Journal of Theology ISSN online Volume 102 - (2021) Copyright: ©2021 Open Access/Author/s - Online @ http//: 2 Roman empire. In the Middle Ages, of the three major plagues recorded,3 disease typically spread through trade caravans from Asia westward. The mortality rate was estimated at thirty percent of the world population (Costantinos, 2020: 564). Similar patterns appear in the Great Plague (1720 CE) in the eighteenth century. In the Provence region of Southern France between twenty five to fifty percent of the population died. During a period of about one hundred and fifty years, ( CE), in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, seven cholera pandemics were recorded4 (Waldman and Claeson, 2019; CBC/Radio Canada, 2010). Accumulative death tolls reached from hundreds of thousands to millions. Cholera is distinct from influenza in that it is principally caused by bacteria in unclean water and ingested by humans. The disease spread transcontinentally through people movements along trade routes (Costantinos, 2020: 562-568, 579). Cholera outbreaks have remained significant in the African continent (Waldman and Claeson, 2019).5 Influenza is a virus (serotype A H1-16) whose symptoms span from a common cold to severe respiratory infection, which is deadly when complicated by bacterial or viral pneumonia (Smil,6 2020). He suggests that this highly pathogenic H5N1 type originates through crosscontamination with birds or poultry. History witnesses to five major influenza epidemics.7 The Spanish Flu (influenza H1N1) has been considered one of the most virulent in human history, “... caused by an unusually deadly strain of ‘avian influenza’ ” (Costantinos, 2020: 562), which spread from a military base in Kansas USA, to Europe, then to North Africa, Japan, and East China in a period of only six months.8 This epidemic-pandemic portrait sets the context for understanding the Covid-19 virus group. In a world population of 7.8 billion, there are, at the time of writing, 72.7 million cases of Covid, 1.6 million deaths, 20 million active cases, and 51 million cases of recovery (worldometers, 2020). The primary global impact, observed comparatively, is less reflected in health or mortality rates than in factors of economic and social well-being. This affirms that bacterial and the more deadly viral influenza infections are recurrent historical features. In comprehending Covid-19, consideration of historical incidence is vital to uncovering the repeated causes, the behaviour of the viruses and effective responses. Prior 3 Black Death (1350 CE), the Columbian Exchange (1492 CE), and the Great Plague of London (1665 CE). 4 CBC News. (2008) “Cholera’s Seven Pandemics” CBC News. 22 October 2010. Available at: 1 st : beginning in Jessore, India spread through Burma, Ceylon, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Iraq, Turkey to the threshold of Europe; along the Arabian trade routes to East Africa and the Mediterranean coast. 2 nd : from India to Russia to Finland, Poland, along the trade routes to Hamburg, Germany to Sunderland, UK; on to Quebec and the major East Coast cities of USA, reaching to Mexico and Cuba, with a later resurgence in the UK. 3 rd : from India to Iran, Europe, USA and worldwide. The African Continent infected through Ethiopia and Uganda. Contaminated water was identified as the source by John Snow. 4 th : from Bengal through Muslim pilgrim caravans to Mecca spreading the disease throughout the Middle East, to Europe, Africa and North America and in Russia. 5 th : from Bengal through Asia, China and Japan severely affected, Italy and Spain and parts of France and Germany latterly to Africa, South America. 6 th from India quite lethally, through Arabia to the North Africa coast, to Egypt, Russia also sorely affected; while western Europe is untouched, Italy, Greece, Turkey and the Balkans were severely affected. The bacteria receded in India. 7 th from Celebes, Indonesia affecting Asia, the Middle east and North Africa during a decade. 5 Cholera outbreaks have remained significant in the African continent: during the Rwanda genocide period (1994), and South America (1991), beginning in Peru, spreading to Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, and Chile. (Waldman, R, and Claeson, M. (2019) “Cholera”; CBC News. (2008) “Cholera’s Seven Pandemics”) 6 Smil, Vaclav: Renowned scientist and best-selling author, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba, one of the top 100 Global Thinkers. 7 The five influenza outbreaks are: Russian (; ; ), Spanish (1918), Asian (1957). (Costantinos, 2020: 562-568, 579). 8 The Spanish flu, during the period , recorded 500 Million infections, with an estimated 50 million deaths. Costantinos estimates 100 Million deaths (2020: 562).