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

How the Pandemic Will Change Minjung Theology 47
sunk at the sea in the South-West of Korea and more than three hundred
innocent people, the majority of whom were high school girls
and boys, were drowned, shocked many people. They blamed the authorities
for inefficient and inappropriate rescue operations. The tragic
incident became a space of event. Fathers, mothers, and siblings of the
victims became historical subjects and participated in the movements
for overthrowing the inefficient and impotent government. The new
subjects of history were created in the space of this event.
The pandemic is a historical event. Its effects are far-reaching and
people`s ways of living have changed. In accordance with the changes
or transformations the pandemic has brought, there must be a significant
change of human nature. The world struck and sickened by the
pandemic waits for new subjects to emerge. The key message of Paul
in his Letters hinges on the emerging of new subjects. In Romans
8:19–23, Paul writes:
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of
God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the
will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set
free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the glorious liberty of the children
of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail
together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the
first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the
redemption of our bodies (RSV Bible).
We find some important ideas in the text above: the children of God,
the whole creation, the redemption of our bodies, groaning in travail.
There are opposing pairs: bondage vs. liberty, decay vs. glory. There
are also co-related pairs: adoption and redemption, and futility and
decay. I think that the most significant pair in this passage is that of
our bodies and the children of God.
The whole creation is suffering from the pandemic and other catastrophes
such as climate change. It groans in labor pains; it awaits
the revealing of the children of God, who walk in the path of the Spirit.
Paul highlights the children of God, a new humanity or, we may
call it, a new subject in the whole creation. That the children of God
need to be seen from the body, is a major idea in this passage. The
new subjects of the world and in the whole creation are the children of
God, who have their body.