The World and God’s Word: of COVID-19, VUCA World, and Visions for the Future

Ma. Maricel  Ibita

The World and God’s Word

of COVID-19, VUCA World, and Visions for the Future

Authors

Ma. Maricel Ibita Ateneo de Manila University

Keywords:

COVID-19, VUCA, Biblical Interpretation, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG)

Abstract

How does one preach God’s Word in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world? As the global community is challenged by postglobal economics, postnational migration, posthuman climate crisis, post-truth politics, and the pandemic, reading the Bible needs to be reassessed. A more appropriate biblical interpretation for contemporary times has to be contextual, inclusive, integrated, and transformational. Doing so will allow us to propose alternatives to a VUCA world, one that has vision clarity, has an understanding that grasps what truly matters, has the courage to shift gears, and has the agility to act on more meaningful choices to build back better a post-COVID-19 world.

Author Biography

Ma. Maricel Ibita, Ateneo de Manila University

Dr. Ma. Maricel S. Ibita, PhD, STD (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is assistant professor at the Department of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University. She was Board of Trustee member of the Catholic Biblical Association of the Philippines (2017-2020). Her research focuses on narrative, poetry, and metaphor studies in the Bible; feminist, liberation, social science, and ecological hermeneutics, and; Jewish-Christian sources for biblical interpretation. Her latest publications are “Learn how to Weep: The Contemporary Challenge of Lament in Today's World,” Louvain Studies 41 (2018), 377-391; “With my Mouth I will Give Thanks [Ps 109, 30a]: The Contribution of Leuven Biblical Scholarship to the Field in the past 50 years: and the Future of Biblical Studies in the Light of Ps 109,” Louvain Studies 42 (2019), 365-395, and; “The Great Flood in Gen 6–9 : An Ecological Reading of the J and P Traditions,” Biblical Theology Bulletin 50 (2020), 35-43.

The World and God’s Word: of COVID-19, VUCA World, and Visions for the Future