The argument of this essay is simple. I want to invite Christians, particularly American evangelicals, to a new consideration of how the coronavirus might cause them to rethink what kind of healthcare policy ought to mark a flourishing society. I name one figure in particular, Matthew Lee Anderson, because he has recently issued a call for Christians to think with specificity about what this pandemic reveals of us. I want therefore to invite (tempt?) Anderson to a form of economic and political radicalism to which he has hitherto been allergic.
But of course this invitation is extended to all evangelicals who agree with C.S. Lewis that pandemics like these reveal, but do not fundamentally alter, the precarity of human life.
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Justin Hawkins
Justin R. Hawkins is a postdoctoral researcher in bioethics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He received his PhD with distinction from Yale University in 2024.
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