Dorothea Erbele-Küster | Volker Küster (Eds.): Between Pandemonium and Pandemethics (Leseprobe)

44 Kwon Jin-Kwan
the work of the Holy Spirit. Then we need to approach event in a different
way. Our idea of event should be more neutral to include the
pandemic as an event. That is the case, because we are doing theology
after the pandemic. Ahn’s event is the people’s act for liberation, as he
believes that Christ is active among and with the collectivities in their
struggles for liberation. However, I would contend that after the pandemic
the event has to be understood as something that breaks out,
something unexpected, revolutionary, repressed, and shocking, and it
opens up the real and makes us encounter the real, the whole, and the
truthful. 7
The present pandemic then ironically and in spite of all tragedies
gives us an opportunity to encounter the truthful and the real in our
life. The corona virus pandemic is the “revenge” of the real and the
truthful upon the faulty human world. I borrowed the term real from
the French psychoanalyst and philosopher Jacques Lacan. This concept
has been developed further by various philosophers such as
Slavoj Žižek. 8 According to Lacan, the real is outside of the symbolic
world that is created by words (language). 9 Our normal world is created
by our language, especially by long-trusted discourses and stories.
The intrusion of the pandemic was unexpected, unimaginable, and
impossible to the ordinary people of the world created by words and
language, but it has actually happened in our world and changed it. It
has broken down the meaning system of our everyday life and created
a different life style. Thus, the pandemic can be seen as the intrusion
of the real.
The recent pandemic is more than a human tragedy and it urges us
to do away with the normalcy that has been hitherto taken for granted
and never been in doubt. Its effects are far-reaching on diverse dimensions
of our life including economy, religion, politics, and even theology.
An event is a historical occurrence that infuses substantial changes
into very important aspects of our life. Churches, businesses, and
schools are closed. The features of everyday life have changed. Masks
must be worn, travelling is restricted, quarantines are required, and
only 50 people or less can be invited to the wedding. Many workers
have lost their jobs.
The epidemic was predictable at least for a small group of specialists
including those in the WHO. But for the states and the ordinary
people, it is quite new and unexpected and even unimaginable, and it
7
Peter Hallward, Badiou. A Subject to Truth, Kindle Edition, xxv.
8
Refer to Slavoj Zizek, Event. Philosophy in Transit, London 2014.
9
Jacques Lacan, Ecrits. A Selection, New York 2007 [French 1999], 228.