EKPOMA REVIEW

One of the major issues that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore for discussion is how to cope with social distancing. Social distancing became a precautionary measure for coping with this virus since it is easily transmitted through physical contact. However, this has not adequately addressed human beings' need for one another. Despite the growing culture of individualism, meeting each other is unavoidable because no one can survive alone. This paper seeks to address how to meet this need for the other from a spiritual-theological perspective. While it accepts social distancing, it proposes and argues that spiritual closeness is one of the possible means of meeting the need for the other. It is the life of a human relationship and its place and role can only be obstructed by choice and not by any social circumstance. Though physical contact in a relationship is very good and important, the paper argues that it is not all about human contact. Other ways of contact satisfy the human being's need for each other. Among these various means that may be employed to meet the need for the other at a moment of a pandemic, such as COVID 19, spiritual closeness is one and has a greater service even when one falls victim to the pandemic. The work shall use the theological method.

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