Egyptian novel explores controlling church
775 views · Published 18 December 2018 · 2:33 · Indexed 5 October 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(13 Dec 2018) LEADIN: A new book explores the dilemmas of many Coptic Christians living in Egypt. "Ways of the Lord" by Shady Lewis Botros presents a picture in which recent ties between the Coptic Church leadership and Egyptian establishment are central to the plot. STORYLINE: Coptic Christians who have lived Egypt for centuries have been targeted because of their faith. But many attend church services to seek comfort and show that the attacks will not stop them from practising what they believe. A new book explores the difficulties of following the faith. Shady Lewis Botros says his recently published novel - "Ways of the Lord" - can be broadly viewed as an attempt to answer one question: What it's like to be a Christian in Egypt? The answers, narrated by the book's chief character, are complex and often disheartening. The novel tells the story of a young Christian man in Cairo, Sherif, who has abandoned the church. He's in a relationship with a German woman, but to marry her he must first get a church document. So he goes to his neighbourhood priest each week for interviews that turn into confessionals. The confession sessions with the priest are one of two plot tracks running through the novel. The other follows Sherif's political activism, which lands him in trouble with the police. His one hope to escape jail time is to marry his girlfriend and go to Germany, but in the end, the girlfriend returns home. He spends a year in jail for a white-collar crime he did not commit. The novel ends with Sherif surrendering to the powers that crush his rebellion. Jobless after losing his government engineering job, he survives on a small income from doing little jobs for the church, while telling his stories to whoever will listen. "The end is frustrated, and it's fatalistic, too," says Botros. "The story shows that as long as the Christian minority it is under the control of the church and the state, which are acting as one and the same, the result is catastrophic and painful and very violent for the Christian minority in general." Beyond entrenched discrimination, the Arabic-language novel explores what the author says is the victimisation of Egypt's Christians by a "politically engineered harmony" between the state and their own church, seeking to control their lives. "What I hope is that the book exposes or sparks a debate about this issue ( the close links of the church and the state) and that it could contribute to untying of the strings which tie the church and the state." The novel, the author's first, takes on added relevance because the Coptic Church leadership has adhered closer to the government than at any time in recent memory. It's an alliance that gives the community a measure of protection but has raised questions over its independence and has drawn the wrath of Islamic militants who have over the past year killed more than a 100 Christians in attacks. The church's unity is also being tested, partially over persistent calls for it to modernise some of its rigid rules, like those governing marriage and divorce. The gruesome killing in July of the abbot of a desert monastery, for which two monks are on trial, has led to soul searching questions about the contemporary practices of monasticism, traditionally a cornerstone of the Church's identity. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/b19ffb926640d09018211c10a783158c
