Berkley Center

The history of the COVID-19 era is unfolding as a story of contrasts and ironies: dangers alongside opportunities; inspirational responses in the face of rare challenges to our common humanity contrasting sharply with aggravated divisions, grievances, and strife; and scientific knowledge and hope distorted by superstition and false information. Religious beliefs, practices, and communities play significant parts in each of these different narrative threads. This essay focuses on distinctive elements that characterized religious engagement throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The experience offers possible insights and lessons for future pandemic preparedness and response, and it sheds light more broadly on ethical challenges inherent in international development work and interreligious tensions and relationships. An underlying theme consists in possible new perspectives that the COVID-19 experience opens up concerning the roles of religion in public health and, more broadly, in efforts to promote human well-being. This book chapter by Katherine Marshall, originally written in 2021, was published in Faith and Pestilence: Paradigms and Historical, Theological, Hermeneutic Issues (2024).