Pandemic Religion project

Abstract

Pandemic Religion documents the many ways that American religious communities have been challenged and reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the midst of the crisis, websites are full of this sort of information. Synagogues and mosques post coronavirus updates, and tweets and Facebook posts record spiritual responses to illness, death, and unemployment. Most of this information, however, will be lost if we don’t retain a record of it. When historians study the Black Death or the 1918–1919 Spanish Flu, they rely on materials that generations have preserved, everything from parish documents to church altarpieces to newspapers to personal diaries and letters. Only a fraction of materials survive. Today’s digital age poses unique challenges. On the one hand, a Tweet might circulate long after its author has disavowed it. On the other hand, videos of sermons or church webpages are ephemeral. Please help us to act now to preserve memories and materials—your memories and materials—that will otherwise be lost.