Open AccessMinding the pandemic
Author(s) -
Jonas Svensson
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
approaching religion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.104
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1799-3121
DOI - 10.30664/ar.107742
Subject(s) - pandemic , worship , covid-19 , context (archaeology) , epistemology , sociology , apologetics , social psychology , psychology , political science , history , philosophy , law , disease , virology , medicine , infectious disease (medical specialty) , outbreak , archaeology , pathology
This article analyses clusters of Muslim responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in a theoretical framework provided by the cognitive science of religion. The responses include theological reflections on the origin, nature, and religious significance of the disease, religious justifications for restrictions on communal worship, apologetics in the light of COVID-19, and how aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic relate to issues of purity, impurity, and contagion. This article places the responses in a wider theoretical context that contributes to explaining their emergence as cultural representations, and, as a consequence, may promote further comparative research into responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in other religious traditions.