Christian religious understandings and responses to Covid-19 in Eswatini

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20073924
AutoresSonene Nyawo (0000-0003-3542-8034, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Páginas141-154
Fecha de publicación2022-02-24
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoCHAPTER
RevistaReligion and the Covid-19 Pandemic in Southern Africa (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditorialRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781003241096-10
OpenAlexW4206658164
ISBN9781003241096
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas7

As the world grapples with an unprecedented health crisis that has caused lives to grind to a halt, Eswatini declared the spread of Corona virus a national emergency on March 17, 2020, resulting in the formulation of strategies to respond to COVID-19. Research has shown that religion is an important source of resilience and coping in the face of life-threatening catastrophes like epidemics and other unpredictable events. Likewise, Emaswati, being a predominantly religious nation, have used the Christian religion concretely to understand and respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. The chapter seeks to present how Christian communities, influenced by a traditional cosmological orientation understand and interpret this phenomenon. Whilst in support of total adherence to formulated strategies by the Eswatini government to limit human-to-human transmission of the virus, these communities show minimal charitable responses; instead, they call the nation to prayer and fasting. Their perspective of COVID-19 goes beyond interpreting it as a biological warfare intentionally engineered to bring the globe to its knees, as some conspiracy theories would claim, but a spiritual warfare between two kingdoms; hence the need for a spiritual intervention that would restore the disturbed equilibrium in the spiritual and natural milieu of human life. There are also those Christians who find the COVID-19 outbreak to be God’s punishment for sin and the fulfilment of biblical prophecies about the end times; hence the aggressive preaching, especially through live streaming services online. However, the chapter seeks to advance that such understandings and responses can have a double effect. They can bind the nation together and contribute to successful coping with the pandemic, but may also lead to low perception of risk and create a fatalistic attitude in the face of the virus. The solution there lies with church leaders who are well placed to build community resilience

Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Medicine · Philosophy · Religious studies