MSI Press Blog

  From Morning Prayer: “We accept good things from God, and should we not accept evil?” - Job 2:10 1. What Job is actually saying Job is not shrugging. He is not being passive. He is not saying suffering is “fine.” He is naming a truth that most of us would rather avoid: If we only trust God when life is pleasant, then we don’t trust God — we trust the pleasantness. Job is refusing to build a conditional relationship with God. He is saying: My faith is not a transaction. My faith is a posture. 2. Why this line stings us Because we want a moral universe that behaves. We want good people to prosper and bad people to get their cosmic comeuppance. We want fairness, symmetry, predictability. But Job is living in the gap between: the God we believe in , and the world we actually experience. And that gap is where faith either collapses or deepens. 3. Why God allows good things to happen to bad people Job never gets a tidy answer — and that’s the point. Scripture consistently shows that: G...

  What Is Evil? 1. The Question What is evil. Not as a villain in a story, not as a label we slap on what we fear — but as a real, persistent question: What do we mean when we say something is evil? 2. The Human Angle You see a news story that makes your stomach turn. You hear about cruelty that feels incomprehensible. You witness someone act with coldness, calculation, or indifference to suffering. And you think: That’s evil. But then you pause. Is it? Or is it brokenness? Ignorance? Illness? Is evil a force, a choice, a shadow, a wound? 3. The Inquiry Philosophers and theologians have offered many lenses: St. Augustine : Evil is not a thing, but the absence of good — like darkness is the absence of light. Manichaeism : Evil is a real, opposing force — locked in cosmic battle with good. Kant : Evil is the corruption of the will — choosing self-interest over moral duty. Schopenhauer : Evil is the blind will to live — trampling others in pursuit of desire. Nietzsche : Evi...

  A Multifaith Reflection on Suffering and the Sacred It’s one of the oldest and most unsettling questions in human history: If God is good, why does evil persist? Why do the innocent suffer, the unjust thrive, and violence echo through generations? Every major religious tradition wrestles with this tension—not to solve it neatly, but to live with it faithfully. Here’s how some of them approach the paradox: ✝️ Christianity: Free Will and Redemptive Suffering Christian theology often frames evil as the consequence of human free will. God, in love, allows choice—even when that choice leads to harm. Suffering, while painful, can also be redemptive. The crucifixion of Christ is seen not as divine failure, but as a profound act of solidarity with human pain. Evil exists, but grace persists. 🕊️ Islam: Divine Wisdom Beyond Human Understanding In Islam, everything happens by the will of Allah, but not all is meant to be understood. Evil and suffering are seen as tests—opportunities for pa...