الطاعون والوباء: من اللاهوت العملي إلى الأخلاقيات التطبيقية

This paper examines the complex nexus of «Text» and «Empirical
Reality» as unfolded in the classical discussions on plagues and pandemics. It
is argued that whereas practical theology dominated the classical discussions on
plagues, applied ethics (particularly, medical ethics) dominated the discussions
on the COVID–19 pandemic. The growing power of medicine, the system of
modern nation state and the birth of applied ethics as a distinct discipline, all
contributed to overshadowing the theological discourse. This paper is divided
into two main sections. The first section examines the pandemic and the
particularity of the plague and how this topic moved from being medical, or part
of natural sciences, in nature to assuming a religious (metaphysical) character.
The second section analyzes how the thesis of the particularity of plague led to (a) epistemological discussions on the sources of knowledge, and the related
nexus of text and empirical reality, and delineating the scope of medicine and Sharia and the functions of each of them, and (b) applied discourse within
the disciplines of theology and jurisprudence, premised on the thesis of the particularity of plague and related to the concept of practical theology.