Natural Evil, Suffering, a New Encyclical and a New World Order. A Socio-Religious Perspective on the Spirit of 'Fratelli Tutti'

Scientific Essay from the year 2020 in the subject Didactics - Theology, Religion Pedagogy, grade: 1.0, Kwame Nkrumah University, language: English, abstract: This elaboration draws out what the author refers to as the 'Spirit of Fratelli Tutti' from the recent encyclical by Pope Francis entitled Fratelli Tutti. He provides a socio-religious or theological perspective on the new encyclical. Based on three social virtues, fraternity, solidarity and social friendship, the encyclical is a call to humanity to unite and to build a brave new world order after the Covid-19 pandemic. He has limited himself to examining why the encyclical has been well-received, how Covid-19 calls us to a new way of being human in which humanity is being challenged not to return to business as usual in the way we deal with each other; how natural evil, such as a pandemic, cannot thwart the plan of the creator; how the new encyclical, Fratelli Tutti factors into a new World Order and ending with five lessons he was able to cull from Fratelli Tutti. Written, as the Pope says, when 'the Covid-19 pandemic unexpectedly erupted, exposing our false securities' (Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti 2020: par 7), he uses that as a jumping off point to challenge the age-old theologoumenon of the impassibility of God. He argues that God in fact suffers as he has been suffering during the Covid-19 pandemic, but he is not overwhelmed by suffering. Fratelli Tutti calls for a new way of relating to each other as our brothers' and sisters' keepers, as we head towards Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Tarcisius Mukuka [Dipl. Pastoral Theol & Counselling, Dipl. Phil. & Rel. Studies, STB, SSL, PhD] is a biblical exegete by training. He holds a Licentiate in Biblical Exegesis from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and a doctorate in Biblical Hermeneutics from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. His doctoral dissertation was entitled "Orality as Casualty: Contextual and Postcolonial Analysis of Biblical Hermeneutics in Bembaland" (2014). He is currently a lecturer in Religious Studies Education at Kwame Nkrumah University in Kabwe. His research interests include postcolonialism and the Bible, gender and the Bible, religion, politics and power. He is the author of "Spoken Voice/Written Word: Negotiating How We Hear/Read the Bible" (2016) published by Lambert Academic Publishing and "In the Eye of a Very Catholic Storm" (forthcoming), by Crown Arts Publishers