I’m recovering from a Covid infection as I write. It’s been a mild one, like a dry flu, and for this I feel grateful for the vaccinations I received back in the summer. Even before contracting Covid-19, I was planning to write about the biological aspect of this epidemic – Read more…
The word “Covid” surely evokes a mental reaction now from people everywhere in the world. The illness caused by this particular virus has inflicted suffering and death in almost every country, and continues to do so, albeit with very different trajectories in different places. This virus is also perceived in very Read more…
We’re continuing our series of posts considering the Covid-19 pandemic from the perspective of the various ‘aspects’ proposed by reformational philosophy. We’ve already considered perspectives of economics, aesthetics, religion, ethics and history; this week I want to consider the lingual aspect of the pandemic – the way in which our Read more…
A virus in itself, even Covid-19, doesn’t know what effects it can have in our world. It’s simply part of the natural world, part of the domain of the microbiologists. But when a virus sparks a pandemic, then we’re dealing with something a lot more complex – history. When we Read more…
Ethical decision-making: when might we choose to continue wearing masks if the law doesn’t require it? Image by Julián Amé from Pixabay, used with permission This is the next in a series of posts reflecting on the Covid-19 pandemic through the lens of the various ‘aspects’ of reformational philosophy. This week, I want to offer some tentative Read more…
In the past year, while worldwide lockdowns have been instituted for the preservation of life, many people have been forced to ponder anew what the value of it is: what, if anything, makes life ‘beautiful’? In the silence of our isolated homes, the call to find meaning—a call which has always been sounding in Read more…
Before the pandemic, recent university graduates often told me about their struggles finding work in their field of study. Since the pandemic, most young adults I talk to have given up on the idea of finding permanent employment in their field of training or choice. In many ways, the pandemic Read more…
This is the third in a series of posts considering the Covid-19 pandemic from the perspective of the various ‘aspects’ proposed by reformational philosophy. Last week Alicia Smith considered the religious aspect of the pandemic – the way it has revealed the underlying influence of religious attitudes and priorities on collective thought and action. This week, I’m Read more…
In this week’s installment of our series of reflections on the various dimensions of the Covid-19 pandemic, I’m briefly considering the question: how has Covid-19 revealed the religious orientation of our lives? I’m taking this phrase ‘religious orientation’ to mean the ways in which our lives, individually and collectively, are shaped and Read more…
We’re starting a new series looking at the phenomenon of Covid-19, this strange disease that has spread to virtually every part of the world’s population over the last 18 months or so and is attributed with the deaths of more than 3 million people so far. This basically biotic event Read more…