How is the existence of disasters compatible with the power of God and His goodness?
Introduction
We have here a very important and sensitive subject that has tormented humans and put to the test the faith of many since antiquity. Because of it, many people have distanced themselves from faith and continue to do so; they declare that the existence of evil in this world (and disasters are but an aspect) points to one of two things: either God wants evil and consequently He is not Good, or He doesn’t want evil, but cannot prevent it, and therefore he is powerless. In both cases – in case of a God without goodness or without power - they deduce that this god cannot be God as He is usually defined [1]. They conclude that there is no God, and at least behave practically as if He doesn’t exist.
On the other hand, we notice that the believers strive to rescue an image of God, cracked by evil, in ways that can be described as the least unconvincing for non-believers, and even one can doubt their ability to convince the believers themselves. To be able to salvage the power of God, they claim that evil cannot happen without His will, and some of them, to mitigate this affirmation, say that He “permits” this evil, not taking into account that permission means alliance and complicity with evil [2]. In an attempt to salvage the goodness of God, they say that if He wants evil, He just wants it for the purpose of executing his justice, that requires the punishment of the wicked. Furthermore, to explain God “permitting” an innocent to be afflicted by evil, they say that this was a mysterious good that He delivered to this innocent via the evil that befell him. Even when presented with the best of intentions, distressing answers of this kind discredit both the dignity of God and man...

A common false image of Christianity A widespread perception of Christianity, even among Christians themselves, considers it as a religion in which the human being must limit his freedom and restrains his vitality in order to be worthy of the eternal life after death. This looks pretty much like an exchange process, in which God takes from the human being the most precious thing he owns in order to give him, in return, the goods of an unknown world. Or as if the human being is compelled and has no other choice but to accept a horrible blackmailing: being an ephemeral creature, he sacrifices the most precious thing he owns in this earthly existence in order to win the everlasting eternal life. This is a very common picture that might have been implanted in us by the education we were given. Nonetheless, it seems incompatible both with the message of the Gospel (as we know the word Gospel means actually the Glad Tidings) and with the authentic tradition we received and that our Fathers founded on the basis of the Gospel. On the contrary, it seems to me that the Christian message is an urgent call and a disturbing one in as much as it urgently calls for freedom and life, to the fullness of freedom and the fullness of life, starting now and here and not only after death. In fact, Christianity is a call for freedom.

Q: What is your opinion about St. Paul’s attitude towards women in his epistles?

A: According to our faith, religious revelation is not something ‘prescribed’. It is rather the expression of the word of God in human words that have their specific character and limits. It is, as Bishop Georges Khodr puts it, ‘an enlightened state of humanity’. Hence we ought to perceive the light through the earthly veil. In fact, this is a delicate process that requires awakening, effort, knowledge and most importantly an orientation of the heart to Jesus-Christ. This is what applies as well to the writings of the Apostle Paul who said that he “has this treasure in jars of clay“. In my opinion, Paul is torn (and this is part of his cross) between the the Gospel that revealed to him that there is no “male or female” in Christ, on one side, and the “ancienty” of a male society he grew in and which marginalized women and judged them as inferior, on the other side. This is what I explain in this book. This is also what I talked about in my previous book “The Image of Christ in Marriage and Family” (Al-Nour Coop, 1983)...

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:22-24) How does this verse agree with granting a woman her freedom and equality with man? Introduction: the two aspects of the Word of God
There are two aspects for divine speech: a divine aspect and a cultural aspect. The prophets and apostles speak in the language of the specific era; their divine revelation