COVID-19 PANDEMIC: AN ESCHATOLOGICOTHEODICAL PARADOX
COVID-19 PANDEMIC: AN ESCHATOLOGICOTHEODICAL PARADOX

Summary/Abstract: Following the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have resorted to asking questions that are rooted in certain religious assumptions. They assume, that God caused and allowed the disease; and second, that the pandemic is a sign of the end-time. These assumptions tactically point to eschatological and theodical paradoxes. This theoretical paper examines the presumptions and assumptions about the COVID-19 outbreak panic from the paradoxical paradigms of eschatology and theodicy. The paper employed the descriptive and phenomenological methods including personal interviews to achieve its aim. The research revealed that the effects of the pandemic worldwide have prompted people regardless of their religions to presume and assume that the disease outbreak is an end-time event and that God sent the disease to punish humanity for their moral evil. The paper concluded that these postulations resulted from the presumed and assumed eschatological and theodical traditions of religions and recommended that religious leaders and adherents should change their perceptions about the pandemic and work hard to deal with the realities on ground by cooperating in various ways with governments and other agencies using modern technologies to resolve the crises.

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