Alon Goshen-Gottstein's Coronaspection is a reflection upon interviews between the author and forty different religious leaders of all stripes in which they were asked what effects COVID-19 pandemic has had on the apprehension and practice of their religions by themselves and by their coreligionists.

The author is the founder of the Elijah Interfaith Institute, headquartered in Jerusalem. The organization's purpose is to further interreligious harmony. I did not look at all of the interviews, which can be found on YouTube, preferring instead just to sample a few. As a summary, the book does well.

Seven questions were addressed in each interview. They served to focus people's responses while allowing considerable liberty of expression. Readers might find them helpful in organizing their own personal thoughts. The questions, quoted from pp. 4-5, were:

1. What have been your greatest challenges in dealing with the present Corona crisis?
2. Corona is bringing out a lot of rear in people. How does one deal with fear? What spiritual advice could you offer to people struggling with fear?
3. Corona has forced people into solitude. How should time be spent in solitude?. Many people do not have experience and habits that would allow them to make the most of this opportunity. What advice could they be given?
4. Corona brings about deprivation. We are deprived of our freedom, our habits. We lose things, and even more so – people we love. How does one deal with all forms of separation?
5. What does Corona teach us about our interconnectivity? What are spiritual applications that people can practice consciously?
6. Corona forces us onto our own protective space, but it also calls us to solidarity. How can we practice solidarity? What are teachings that support solidarity? What actions express solidarity? What can one do to express solidarity, even from the confines of one’s home and protection?
7. Many people say the world will be different after this Corona crisis. What blessings do you see Corona bringing to the world? How can the world be different, for the better, following this crisis?

The main section of the book was comprised of “Coronaspections,” or the author’s introspective ruminations about what he’d heard in the interviews, arranged thematically. It was intriguing to see how, for all the differences in religious content, there was considerable agreement about what the coronavirus crisis has brought to our experience.

Interestingly, no one thought that the pandemic was being visited upon humankind as a punishment. There was more of a sense that God (as theistic people would term it) was suffering along with us, rather than tormenting us with a well-deserved affliction. I was reminded of Elie Wiesel’s stories from the Holocaust in which God’s presence was questioned. 

The observation about co-suffering led to realizations of deep interconnectedness and the desirability of compassion and service among most, if not all the religions represented in the book. A  vivid phrase describing the depth of our interconnectedness that captured my attention was one person’s belief that the inner being of another person is myself. (p.61). Beyond human interconnectivity, upon which the Abrahamic religions notions of community focused, Eastern religions saw interconnectivity as embracing all of Nature as well.

Christians, and almost all other religions, tended to interpret the challenges and lessons being taught by the pandemic through the lens of love. Muslim people additionally perceived a warning about deviation from the will of God, and viewed the pandemic itself as a test.

The challenges for religious leaders were to manifold, centering around how to help people cope with loss, fear and anxiety. In general, the advice was to pray, using each religion’s respective traditional practices. Eastern religions tended to focus more on wisdom and interior practice than the discursive prayer of other religions.

In cases where common worship was a requirement, the restrictions imposed by the pandemic presented severe challenges. Individual and family practice needed to be thought through carefully. The hope was expressed that this eventuality would result in greater participation by women in traditionally paternalistic religions.

The imposed solitude of pandemic countermeasures causes anxiety for some, loneliness for all, and an opportunity to draw closer to interior experience of God, or existence in the non-theist paradigm. One Sufi religious leader spoke of learning to die before one dies, so that when one dies, one does not die. Sufi’s speak of a kalwah or interior retreat, which sounds to me similar to St. Theresa of Avila’s Interior Castle and even Jesus’ advice about prayer – that one should go into one’s own room, close the door, and pray with God in private. For those whose religions encompass an eschatological dimension, the implications are clear. For those whose religions do not, the phrase might simply be rephrased “Live so that when you die, you will have lived.”

No matter how one chooses to look at it, the pandemic is offering everyone something to think about. It simply isn’t possible not to have a response of some kind. This book can help readers sort out the different threads of thought that can emerge in human consciousness when responding, consciously or otherwise and create a matrix of meaning that can lead to a constructive, loving response.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.