Â鶹Éç

Available for over a year

Good morning. As we have been hearing, the world has changed rapidly over the last few days. From the closing of bars to international borders, corona virus is having a profound effect not only on the health of individuals but on the nature of 21st century society. Indeed my world has already changed profoundly. Today here at Durham University we are moving to on-line lectures and tutorials, and we have already cancelled large social gatherings and set up structures for some staff to work at home. For many the experience of social distancing, self isolation and the illness itself will mean a very different world. Working with staff and students to devise new structures of life in the midst of uncertainty and fear has been physically and emotionally draining. Mary Shelley’s ‘Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change’ is beloved by quotation websites and consultants in business change management. However, in her novel, these are the words of Victor Frankenstein, whose confidence in creating life becomes a nightmare of the death of those he loves. The quote goes on, ‘The sun might shine or the clouds might lower, but nothing could appear to me as it had done the day before.’ Her novel is a warning against trust in modernity’s power to control the world. For Frankenstein, the shattering of his dream leads to a downward cycle of despair and destruction. The crisis of Covid 19 is a humbling experience that reminds me of my vulnerability. I have too easily taken for granted the stability and power of modern society to solve every problem and keep my world the same. Some see religious faith in the same way – a guarantee that the world will not change. Our somewhat quaint Latin motto here at St John’s College is fides nostra victoria, which generations of mischievous students have mistranslated as ‘our faith is victorian’. But the words come from the apostle John who was living in the face of persecution and death and had experienced the socio-political upheaval of the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. He wrote ‘This is the victory that conquers the world, our faith’. Not that faith is only suitable for previous generations but that the object of faith, Jesus Christ, is the same yesterday and today and forever. Of course, vulnerability can be the source of innovation and I am thankful for those scientists working hard at this time. Yet it also can raise the things that ultimately matter – where faith is located and the primacy of love.