A Possible Victim of the Influenza Outbreak Max Weber’s Theodicy Theory and Its Current Value in The Context of the Covid-19 Outbreak Cover Image

İnfluenza Salgınının Olası Kurbanı Max Weber’in Teodise Kuramı ve Covid-19 Salgını Bağlamında Aktüel Değeri
A Possible Victim of the Influenza Outbreak Max Weber’s Theodicy Theory and Its Current Value in The Context of the Covid-19 Outbreak

Author(s): Bayram Sevinç
Subject(s): Philosophy of Religion, Health and medicine and law, Sociology of Religion
Published by: Atatürk Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi
Keywords: Sociology of Religion; Theodicy; Disaster; Pandemic Diseases; Covid-19;

Summary/Abstract: Max Weber deals with issues such as liberation in general with a dual positioning to understand the modern era. His main contribution to the issue of theodicy, which has been discussed in philosophy especially since Leibniz, is that he took it on a sociological level. He shows that the rationalist approach of the modern era tends to explain the issue of evil, and it has tangible consequences in the social sphere. The question of “What is the actual value of Weber's theory, which deals with theodicy and salvation as central themes of religion sociology?” is the focus of this article. In this study, which has a qualitative research pattern, the explanations provided by American denominations of Calvinist origin were compiled on the internet with the purposeful sampling technique. The contents of these articles belonging to the authorized producing religious discourse have been investigated through descriptive analysis technique. As a result, it is determined that the doctrine of the Calvinist salvation and the thought of predestination are maintained today. This theodicy approach operates with different argumentation. This approach, for example, discusses the logic of scientific inferences. It presents the difference between induction and deduction, and doubts about the absolute judgments. According to these interpretations of the disaster, God has a plan beyond the ages and beyond human knowledge. This plan is considered as a matter of faith, as it is above human understanding and will. Finally, although the Covid-19 outbreak is considered to be a judgement, it is stated that it is a judgement for the world (everyone), not for the sins of a single group.

  • Issue Year: 2020
  • Issue No: 54
  • Page Range: 17-44
  • Page Count: 28
  • Language: Turkish