La Chiesa e lo spazio pubblico al tempo del Coronavirus
- Author(s)
- Helmut Jakob Deibl
- Abstract
The article presents six steps to contextualize the question of church in times of the Covid-19 pandemic. The goal thereby is not to evaluate answers of the churches to the crisis, but to highlight two problem areas: the public dimension and the anachronistic horizon of the church. Ever since its identifiable beginning, the church has placed itself in the space of public discourse. The speeches of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the Acts of the Apostles indicate this, as do the sacred buildings with which the church contributes to form public space since the 4th century. These buildings are oftentimes marked by centuries of architectural history and mostly unaltered requirements for their use. Because of the churches‘ solid construction, they are durable and bear the potential for future use and transformation. This solid construction enables an anachronistic experience of time in church buildings in which the past, the present and the future intersect. The restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic did not fully disrupt religious life, but significantly changed its character in two aspects: Church life is transferred from public to private space in lockdown scenarios, and liturgy does not primarily take place in church environments any longer but in the virtual space. While the public character of belief so far guaranteed the debating of and dealing with the respective tendencies of the period, it has now turned into a possible danger. The timeless availability and formabilty of the virtual room eradicates the anachronistic experience of belief. Whatever shape the renewal of religious life may take on, it will have to win back the public and the anachronistic dimension of belief.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Systematic Theology and Ethics, Research Centre Religion and Transformation
- Journal
- Studia Paradyskie = Studia Paradisensia
- Volume
- 30
- Pages
- 225-234
- No. of pages
- 10
- Publication date
- 2021
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 603206 Fundamental theology, 603101 Aesthetics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Arts and Humanities(all)
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/la-chiesa-e-lo-spazio-pubblico-al-tempo-del-coronavirus(c5d29e0b-f3f4-4ce4-8150-4bb65350347e).html