Religious and Secular Worldviews in a Pandemic: Risk, Responsibility, and Resistance

This paper examines how religious and secular worldviews shape attitudes toward Covid-19 public health measures, drawing on empirical data from a three-year research project in Switzerland. Using a comparative analysis of semi-structured interviews, it critiques essentialist views on religion and objectivist approaches to risk. The study employs concepts from worldviews research, vernacular religion, folklore studies, and medical humanities to explore the narrative construction of risk. Moving beyond individual-centered approaches, it integrates cultural analysis to highlight how worldviews interact within social contexts. The findings challenge a binary view of compliance and non-compliance, emphasizing that risk perception is shaped more by relational positioning than by worldview content. The paper argues for a more comprehensive analysis of both compliant and non-compliant attitudes to better understand their underlying social dynamics.