It is tempting to understand the Medieval hermeneutics of plague and pestilence as Neoplatonic—a supernatural force emanating from a divine center. However this would require that we understand the relation between Creator and creature as pathological, a divine sovereign that emanates itself through a miasmic diffusion of decay. But what is being emanated here is not creation itself but rather its opposite, a kind of de-creation that occupies the underside of what Aristotle called 'passing away' (disease, decay, decomposition). This strange type of life, that seems to emanate from a Neoplatonic One and diffuse itself throughout creaturely life, cannot be understood without taking into account another element. As varied as the Medieval accounts of plague and pestilence are, one of the common motifs, along with the angry God, is that of plague and pestilence as a divine weapon. The divine sovereign doesn't simply pass judgment; the sovereign weaponizes the earthly life of the creature, which is itself a product of divine will.
Eugene Thacker, "Nine Disputations on Theology and Horror" in Collapse Vol. IV: Concept Horror, ed. Robin Mackay
