**9. Conclusions**

COVID-19 has inaugurated a social drama in which pandemic, government, science, religion, and churches all play significant roles. All of these actors may undergo change, wanted or unwanted, as the play unfolds. As in Biblical religion, both Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament, powerful upheavals in the world can produce apocalyptic postures. What new revelations are on the way? Or is the crisis all over—a featherweight compared to the Black Death? What challenges will traditional religion undergo as it keeps evolving? What movements of God will be uncovered? What prophets will hear calls? On what fronts will the opposition between sacred texts and contemporary contexts be felt? What God seems to be calling for can seem to arrive from the left or the right. Did God not turn left after the Exodus? When COVID-19 departs, what will society and religion look like in its wake? For what new challenges will we have to be prepared?

The epidemic is a historic medium for understanding society and religion in perilous times. Epidemics have the power to expose strengths and weaknesses. The European Black Death was the quintessential epidemic. The Lisbon Earthquake was a natural disaster not unlike a pandemic. But an unexpected comparison to responses to an epidemic is the continuing argument over whether climate change or global warming or worldwide poverty or, even in the United States, completely inadequate healthcare are fundamental and undeniable facts and how big government should be authorized to mobilize in response. The notion of *global reset* is useful in estimating the religious and social change likely to respond to either.

Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic could be a useful and concrete way of cataloging for university classes the whole range of topics involved in the sociology of religion or in the history of American religion. Years ago, I began sub-titling my sociology of religion class, "religious contests for public space". COVID-19 discussions could bring these issues to life, make test cases of them, and inquire whether the historic disciplines involved in the sociology of religion and the histories of Christian thought are sufficient to understand the times in which we live.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Data Availability Statement:** No survey research was involved in preparing this article. Research was in books and journals mentioned in bibliography. Analysis was rooted in the public availability of the intellectual disciplines of sociology of religion and history of religions and Christian theology.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.
