The coronavirus is altering social existence in ways that we can and cannot yet perceive. Even after a vaccine finally defangs the virus, society will feel the impact of COVID-19 for decades, if not longer. The same was true of the Black Death that first hit Europe in the mid-fourteenth century.
One of the Black Death’s most significant effects was its acceleration of certain spiritual trends that had already been steadily growing. During and after this period, Christianity saw the blossoming of an interior spirituality that had been forged in the reforms of the twelfth century. In the words of the great historian of mysticism, Bernard McGinn, the flowering of mysticism (1200–1350) produced a late medieval harvest for the spiritual life.
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