Coptic Archaelogy

I find there are many things to admire about the Copts, beginning with their steadfastness over many centuries in the face of changing political fortunes in Egypt under various imperial powers. They are also admirably concerned with the safeguarding of their patrimony, as well as its study and ongoing renewal. Too many Eastern Christians are often not good at telling their history in all its forms. Not so the Copts, as we see in another recent book focusing on Marcus Simaika Pasha: Father of Coptic Archaeology by Samir Simaika (American University of Cairo Press, 2017), 240pp.

About this book we are told:

Marcus Pasha Simaika (1864-1944) was born to a prominent Coptic family on the eve of the inauguration of the Suez Canal and the British occupation of Egypt. From a young age, he developed a passion for Coptic heritage and devoted his life to shedding light on centuries of Christian Egyptian history that had been neglected by ignorance or otherwise belittled and despised.

He was not a professional archaeologist, an excavator, or a specialist scholar of Coptic language and literature. Rather, his achievement lies in his role as a visionary administrator who used his status to pursue relentlessly his dream of founding a Coptic Museum and preserving endangered monuments. During his lengthy career, first as a civil servant, then as a legislator and member of the Coptic community council, he maneuvered endlessly between the patriarch and the church hierarchy, the Coptic community council, the British authorities, and the government to bring them together in his fight to save Coptic heritage.

This fascinating biography draws upon Simaika's unpublished memoirs as well as on other documents and photographs from the Simaika family archive to deepen our understanding of several important themes of modern Egyptian history: the development of Coptic archaeology and heritage studies, Egyptian-British interactions during the colonial and semi-colonial eras, shifting balances in the interaction of clergymen and the lay Coptic community, and the ever-sensitive evolution of relations between Copts and their Muslim countrymen.

Copts in Context

Nelly van Doorn-Harder's work on the Copts of Egypt is something I have been following for some time after having asked her to write a review for Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies several years ago. So I sit up and pay attention when she publishes a new book, as she did in September in hardcover and October of last year on Kindle: Copts in Context: Negotiating Identity, Tradition, and Modernity (University of South Carolina Press, 2017), 296pp.
 
About this collection, of which she is editor, the publisher tells us the following:

Though the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt is among the oldest Christian communities in the world, it remained relatively unknown outside of Egypt for most of its existence. In the wake of the Arab Spring, however, this community was caught up in regional violence, and its predicament became a cause for concern around the world. Copts in Context examines the situation of the Copts as a minority faith in a volatile region and as a community confronting modernity while steeped in tradition.

Nelly van Doorn-Harder opens Coptic identity and tradition to a broad range of perspectives: historical, political, sociological, anthropological, and ethnomusicological. Starting with contemporary issues such as recent conflicts in Egypt, the volume works back to topics—among them the Coptic language, the ideals and tradition of monasticism, and church historiography—that while rooted in the ancient past, nevertheless remain vital in Coptic memory and understanding of culture and tradition. Contributors examine developments in the Coptic diaspora, in religious education and the role of children, and in Coptic media, as well as considering the varied nature of Coptic participation in Egyptian society and politics over millennia.

With many Copts leaving the homeland, preservation of Coptic history, memory, and culture has become a vital concern to the Coptic Church. These essays by both Coptic and non-Coptic scholars offer insights into present-day issues confronting the community and their connections to relevant themes from the past, demonstrating reexamination of that past helps strengthen modern-day Coptic life and culture.

The Early Coptic Papacy

I first read this book more than a decade ago as it began to emerge as the first of a trilogy, originally published in hardback editions. Next month, it will finally appear in paperback, and it is the sort of series that any library serious about Coptic realities, ecclesiology, and ecumenism must have: Stephen J. Davis, The Early Coptic Papacy: The Egyptian Church and Its Leadership in Late Antiquity: The Popes of Egypt, Volume 1 (American University of Cairo Press, 2017), 280pp.

About this book the publisher tells us:

The Copts, adherents of the Egyptian Orthodox Church, today represent the largest Christian community in the Middle East, and their presiding bishops have been accorded the title of pope since the third century AD. This study analyzes the development of the Egyptian papacy from its origins to the rise of Islam. How did the papal office in Egypt evolve as a social and religious institution during the first six and a half centuries AD? How do the developments in the Alexandrian patriarchate reflect larger developments in the Egyptian church as a whole-in its structures of authority and lines of communication, as well as in its social and religious practices? In addressing such questions, Stephen J. Davis examines a wide range of evidence-letters, sermons, theological treatises, and church histories, as well as art, artifacts, and archaeological remains-to discover what the patriarchs did as leaders, how their leadership was represented in public discourses, and how those representations definitively shaped Egyptian Christian identity in late antiquity.

I don't know whether volumes II  (The Coptic Papacy in Islamic Egypt, 641-1517 by Mark N. Swanson) and III (The Emergence of the Modern Coptic Papacy by Magdi Girgis and Nelly van Doorn-Harder) will also appear in paperback, though one would suppose so. Still, the hardbacks of both are available and are not expensive.

Northern Egyptian Christianity

So much of Christian monastic history is indebted to late antique Egypt, which continues justly to be the object of regular study, especially by Coptic scholars. A very impressive and wide-ranging group of them has collaborated to produce a substantial collection due out at the end of this month: Christianity and Monasticism in Northern Egypt: Beni Suef, Giza, and the Nile Delta, eds. Gawdat Gabra and Hany Takla (American University of Cairo Press, 2017), 384pp.

About this book we are told:

Christianity and monasticism have long flourished in the northern part of Upper Egypt and in the Nile Delta, from Beni Suef to the Mediterranean coast. The contributors to this volume, international specialists in Coptology from around the world, examine various aspects of Coptic civilization in northern Egypt over the past two millennia. The studies explore Coptic art and archaeology, architecture, language, and literature. The artistic heritage of monastic sites in the region is highlighted, attesting to their important legacies.

Coptic Culture and Knowledge

I finished a discussion with my students just two short weeks ago now looking at Coptic-Muslim relations in Egypt, and allowed myself a very cautious expression of hope that perhaps under President el-Sisi we were seeing long-overdue signs of improvement in treatment of the Coptic Church in Egypt--that was before the attack on the cathedral in Cairo this Sunday. Copts, as I stressed in class, have been in it for the long haul, and know, more than just about anybody else, the costs of living long-term under Islam. Theirs is a venerable culture with an extensive and impressive history, some of it told in this new book, Studies in Coptic Culture: Transmission and Interaction, Mariam Ayad, ed. (American University of Cairo Press, 2016), 288pp.

About this book we are told:

Coptic contributions to the formative theological debates of Christianity have long been recognized. Less well known are other, equally valuable, Coptic contributions to the transmission and preservation of technical and scientific knowledge, and a full understanding of how Egypt's Copts survived and interacted with the country's majority population over the centuries. Studies in Coptic Culture attempts to examine these issues from divergent perspectives.

Through the careful examination of select case studies that range in date from the earliest phases of Coptic culture to the present day, twelve international scholars address issues of cultural transmission, cross-cultural perception, representation, and inter-faith interaction. Their approaches are as varied as their individual disciplines, covering literary criticism, textual studies, and comparative literature as well as art historical, archaeo-botanical, and historical research methods. The divergent perspectives and methods presented in this volume will provide a fuller picture of what it meant to be Coptic in centuries past and prompt further research and scholarship into these subjects.

Christianity in Africa

With chapters on the Coptic Church, the Ethiopian Church, and the development of early Eastern Christian communities in Africa, inter alia, The Routledge Companion to Christianity in Africa is a collection not to be missed. Edited by Elias Kifon Bongmba, and coming in at nearly 600 pages, this tome, while expensive, was published at the very end of last year and looks like it deserves a place in every library devoted to the study of Christianity on the continent where it is experiencing some of the most dramatic--if not explosive--growth of our time.

As the publisher futher tell us us:

The Routledge Companion to Christianity in Africa offers a multi-disciplinary analysis of the Christian tradition across the African continent and throughout a long historical span. The volume offers historical and thematic essays tracing the introduction of Christianity in Africa, as well as its growth, developments, and effects, including the lived experience of African Christians. Individual chapters address the themes of Christianity and gender, the development of African-initiated churches, the growth of Pentecostalism, and the influence of Christianity on issues of sexuality, music, and public health. This comprehensive volume will serve as a valuable overview and reference work for students and researchers worldwide.

New Publication from the Pope!

Catholics have grown weary of papal speeches and interviews, whether on airlines or in other fora. The endless yammering has turned even the most caricatured ultramontane fantasies or the most outrageous Protestant polemics about "papolatry" into reality: the pope as oracle, ceaselessly pontificating on matters large and small, well beyond his brief and far exceeding any authority he has, and thereby causing far more confusion than clarity. 

How much better the example of the other pope, the one whose use of the title, according to some historians, pre-dates that of the Roman bishop's adoption of it. I refer, of course, to the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria, successor to St. Mark.

Perfectly timed for this Lenten season is a book about repentance hot off the presses from St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, which has just put into my hands: †Pope Shenouda III, The Life of Repentance and Purity, 2nd. Eng. ed., trans. H.G. Bishop Suriel (SVS Press, 2016), 322pp.

About this book, now in a second issue from the late pope (who died in 2012), the publisher tells us:

The Life of Repentance and Purity provides readers with a comprehensive overview of the practice of repentance and purity, essential aspects of Christian life. Pope Shenouda III draws on Scripture, the Church Fathers, his own experience of desert monasticism, and his experience as a shepherd to millions of Christians to provide a practical understanding of how to live a life of continually turning to God.

My advice to you, instead of saying, I promise you that I will repent, O Lord, say to the Lord: Restore me, and I will return (Jeremiah 31:18). Ask for repentance as a good gift from him, for he himself promised this, saying: I shall give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you (Ezekiel 36.26). 

The Coptic Studies Series at St Vladimir s Seminary Press was conceived with a two-fold purpose: to increase the accessibility of the many treasures of Coptic Orthodox Christianity to a wider English-speaking audience; and to cross-pollinate the spiritual minds of Coptic Orthodox Christians and their Eastern Orthodox brethren with the knowledge of a common faith in the incarnate Word of God who is the true source of all wisdom and knowledge.

I am delighted at both this book, and also this new Coptic Studies Series from SVS Press. I am delighted because I have an abiding affection for the Copts thanks to my friendship with Iman Nashed, through whom I was first introduced to the writings of Pope Shenouda in the mid 90s, and to the Coptic tradition in Canada, at whose flagship parish of St. Mark's in Scarborough I gave lectures over the years. The Copts in Egypt have suffered enormously over the years at the hands of Muslims in Egypt but all the while have been a faithful witness to the gospel. In addition, they are second to nobody in the number and rigor of their fasting days each year. They are a model to us all.

A Coptic Biography

As an inveterate reader of biographies, as well as a scholar of Eastern Christianity with a special fondness for the Coptic Church, I am doubly looking forward to the release of this new study at the end of June: Youssef Boutros Ghali, A Coptic Narrative in Egypt: A Biography of the Boutros-Ghali Family (I.B. Tauris Press, 2016), 256pp.

About this book we are told:

A short walk from the glistening Nile nestled in a dusty Cairo street lies the Coptic Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, known locally as the Boutrosiya. If one were to enter through one of the seven doors, walk down the columned central aisle past Venetian mosaics and silk curtains, they would find the tomb of Boutros Pasha Ghali. Resting on two steps of black marble, decorated with colourful crosses, are written his last words: 'God knows that I never did anything that harmed my country'. The first Copt to be awarded the title of Pasha, the career of Boutros Pasha Ghali inextricably linked his family's fate to that of Egypt. From early whispers of independence to the last Mubarak government and the United Nations, the Boutros-Ghali's have not only been a force in the political, cultural and religious life of Egypt, but internationally. This book traces the illustrious history of this family from 1864 to the present day. Through assassinations, wars and elections, it illuminates the events that have shaped Egyptian and Coptic life, revealing the family's crucial role in the creation of modern Egypt and what their legacy may mean for the future of their country.

Coptic Christianity

Set for release at the end of December is another book introducing Coptic Christianity. We have seen a number of such introductions released over the last decade, but one more will not hurt if it aids even a little bit in continuing to draw attention to one of the oldest aboriginal Christian groups in the Middle East which has suffered so much at the hands of Islam, and continues to do so today: Jill Kamil, Christianity in the Land of the Pharaohs: The Coptic Orthodox Church (Routledge, 2015), 336pp.

About this book the publisher tells us:

The Copts - the indigenous Christians of Egypt - declared their independence from Byzantine Christianity when they appointed their own patriarchs in the sixth century. Jill Kamil has written an angaging and accessible survey of the history of Christianity on Egypt, through its development under Rome, Byzantium and Islam, to modern times.

Drawing on personal travel to all the Christian sites of Egypt, and conversations with scholars, monks, museum directors, and scores of lay Egyptians both Copt and Muslim, the author tells us about the fundamental importance of Coptic religion and culture in Egypt. Weaving together historical research with absorbing stories, she explores questions as:

* How did Christianity suceed in an Egypt that already had an established religion which had lasted for more than 300 years?
* What part did Egypt play in the evolvement of the early Christian movement?
* Why were there so many Egyptian martyrs?

Lavishly illustrated with more than 120 photographs, drawings and maps, Christianity in the Land of the Pharaohs offers a captivating insight into a side if Egypt that will be new to many readers. It is ideal not only for students of Egyptian history and Christianity, as well as those with a more general interst in Egypt's past and present.

Copts and Ottomans

Global attention has not been as riveted on Egypt and her Coptic Christians in the past many months as it had been from early 2011, but that does not mean they do not continue to suffer and are not worthy of our sustained attention. A book published in June will help to maintain that scholarly focus: Febe Armanios, Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt (Oxford UP, 2015), 272pp.

About this book the publisher tells us:

In this book, Febe Armanios explores Coptic religious life in Ottoman Egypt (1517-1798), focusing closely on manuscripts housed in Coptic archives. Ottoman Copts frequently turned to religious discourses, practices, and rituals as they dealt with various transformations in the first centuries of Ottoman rule. These included the establishment of a new political regime, changes within communal leadership structures (favoring lay leaders over clergy), the economic ascent of the archons (lay elites), and developments in the Copts' relationship with other religious communities, particularly with Catholics.

Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt highlights how Copts, as a minority living in a dominant Islamic culture, identified and distinguished themselves from other groups by turning to an impressive array of religious traditions, such as the visitation of saints' shrines, the relocation of major festivals to remote destinations, the development of new pilgrimage practices, as well as the writing of sermons that articulated a Coptic religious ethos in reaction to Catholic missionary discourses. Within this discussion of religious life, the Copts' relationship to local political rulers, military elites, the Muslim religious establishment, and to other non-Muslim communities are also elucidated. In all, the book aims to document the Coptic experience within the Ottoman Egyptian context while focusing on new documentary sources and on an historical era that has been long neglected.

The Copts and the West

In 2006 when the hardback version of this book came out, we had a Coptic specialist review it for Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies. The reviewer praised the book as a significant and insightful contribution not only to Eastern Christian, and specifically Coptic, history, but also to East-West relations and the historical construction of the same. At the end of this year a very affordable paperback version will be forthcoming of Alastair Hamilton, The Copts and the West, 1439-1822: The European Discovery of the Egyptian Church (Oxford UP, 2014), 354pp.

About this book we are told:

In seventeenth-century Europe the Copts, or the Egyptian members of the Church of Alexandria, were widely believed to hold the key to an ancient wisdom and an ancient theology. Their language was thought to lead to the deciphering of the hieroglyphs and their Church to retain traces of early Christian practices as well as early Egyptian customs. Now available in paperback for the first time, this first, full-length study of the subject, discusses the attempts of Catholic missionaries to force the Church of Alexandria into union with the Church of Rome and the slow accumulation of knowledge of Coptic beliefs, undertaken by Catholics and Protestants. It ends with a survey of the study of the Coptic language in the West and of the uses to which it was put by Biblical scholars, antiquarians, theologians, and Egyptologists.

Coptic Civilization

It is only in the last three years that many people have started paying attention to what is going on in Egypt, and suddenly "discovering" a native Christian population there. But of course the Copts have long been known, studied, and admired for their tenacity and for their formidable artistic, liturgical, and ascetical traditions, inter alia. Forthcoming in May of this year from the American University in Cairo Press is a collection edited by Gawdat Gabra entitled Coptic Civilization: Two Thousand Years of Christianity in Egypt (2014, 360pp).

The publisher helpfully provides an overview and table of contents thus:

Egypt's Copts make up one of the oldest and largest Christian communities in the Middle East. Yet despite the availability of a large number of books on aspects of Coptic culture, including art and architecture, monasticism, theology, and music, there is to date no single volume that provides a comprehensive cultural history of the Copts and their achievements. Coptic Civilization aims to fill this gap, by introducing the general reader, the interested non-specialist, to Coptic culture in all its variety and multi-faceted richness. With contributions by twenty scholars, Coptic Civilization includes chapters on monasticism, the Coptic language, Coptic literature, Christian Arabic literature, the objects and documents of daily life, magic, art and architecture, and textiles, as well as the history of the Coptic Church, its liturgy, theology, and music.

Contributors: Dominique Bénazeth, Lois Farag, Cäcilia Fluck , Peter Grossmann, Gisele Helmecke, Magdalena Kuhn, Marvin Meyer, Samuel Moawad, Elisabeth R. O'Connell, Monica René , Tonio Sebastian Richter, Saad Michael Saad, Mark Sheridan, Mark N. Swanson, Hany N. Takla , Jacques van der Vliet, Nelly van Doorn-Harder, Gertrud J.M. van Loon, Youhanna Nessim Youssef, Ewa D. Zakrzewska

Includes chapters on  Coptic Historiography • Church History • Monasticism • Alexandrian Theology • Liturgy • Music • The Coptic Language • Gnosticism and Manichaeism • The Coptic Bible • Coptic Literature • Documentary Evidence of Daily Life • Magic • Copto-Arabic Literature • Archaeology • Architecture • Church Decoration • Objects of Daily Life • Post-pharaonic Textiles • The Coptic Church Today • Contemporary Coptic Art • Coptic Civilization in the Diaspora.

Coptic Christian Heritage

Available now in the UK and in December here in the US is a new book by the Coptic scholar Lois Farag which is as timely as ever given the on-going focus on Egypt and the continued suffering of her people, especially her Coptic Christians: Lois M. Farag, ed., The Coptic Christian Heritage: History, Faith and Culture (Routledge, 2013), 296pp.

About this book we are told that it

offers a comprehensive introduction to the heritage of Coptic Christians. The contributors combine academic expertise with intimate and practical knowledge of the Coptic Orthodox Church and Coptic heritage. The chapters explore historical, cultural, literary and material aspects, including: the history of Christianity in Egypt, from the pre-Christian era to the modern day; Coptic religious culture: theology, monasticism, spirituality, liturgy and music; the Coptic language, linguistic expressions of the Coptic heritage and literary production in Greek, Coptic and Arabi; .material culture and artistic expression of the Copts: from icons, mosaics and frescos to manuscript illuminations, woodwork and textiles.

We are also given the table of contents and contributors:

Introduction | Part One: Coptic Christian History | 1. The Pre-Christian Period: Changing Times and Cultural Endurance | 2. The Early Christian Period (42-642): The Spread and Defence of the Christian Faith under Roman Rule | 3. The Early Islamic Period (642-1517): From the Arab Conquest through Mamluk Rule | 4. The Ottoman Period (1517-1798): Beyond Persecution or Tolerance | 5. The Pre-Modern Period (1798-1952): The Age of Coptic Citizenship and Reform | 6. The Modern Period (1952-2011): An Era of Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs

Part Two: Coptic Religious Culture | 7. Theology: Defending Orthodoxy | 8. Monasticism: Living Scripture and Theological Orthodoxy | 9. Spirituality: In God’s Presence | 10. Liturgy: Heaven on Earth | 11. Music: Performing Coptic Expressive Culture

Part Three: Coptic Literary Culture | 12. Coptic Language: The Link to Ancient Egyptian | 13. The Greek Literature of the Copts: Innovative and Formative Era | 14. Coptic Literature: Copts Writing in their Own Tongue | 15. Coptic Arabic Literature: When Arabic Became the Language of the Saints

Part Four: Coptic Material Culture | 16. Art: A Multifaceted Artistic Heritage

Contributors: Mariam F. Ayad, Maged S. A. Mikhail, Febe Armanios, Maged Hanna, Saad Michael Saad, John Paul Abdelsayed, Carolyn M. Ramzy, Hany N. Takla, Samuel Moawad, Gawdat Gabra

What is the Colour for Missing Mothers?

When children go missing (which God prevent), there is an "amber alert" issued; when demented seniors wander off from their institutional cages, we have a "silver alert." What colour shall we have for missing mothers? Shall it be a different shade if those mothers are Eastern Christian?

Such, less flippantly, is the question raised by Samuel Tadros in his new book, Motherland Lost: The Egyptian and Coptic Quest for Modernity (Hoover Institution Press, 2013), 262pp. 

About this book we are told:

In Motherland Lost, Samuel Tadros provides a clear understanding of the Copts—the native Egyptian Christians—and their crisis of modernity in conjunction with the overall developments in Egypt as it faced its own struggles with modernity. He argues against the dominating narratives that have up to now shaped our understanding of the Coptic predicament--their eternal persecution, from the Roman and Byzantine emperors to the rule of Islam, and the National Unity discourse--asserting rather that it is due to the crisis of modernity.
Linking the Egyptian and Coptic stories, the book argues that the plight of Copts today is inseparable from the crisis of modernity and the answers developed to address that crisis by the Egyptian state and intellectuals, as well as by the Coptic Church and laypeople. The author asserts that the answers developed by Egyptian intellectuals and state modernizers to the challenge modernity poses revolved around the problem of Islam. The Copts, then, although affected, like their fellow Egyptians, by the challenge of modernity, were faced with a separate crisis: a specific challenge to their ancient church and the need for a new orientation and revival to be able to deal with modernity and its discontents. Tadros concludes that the prospects for Copts in Egypt appear bleak and are leading to a massive Coptic exodus from Egypt.

The Literary Heritage of Eastern Christianity

Certain publishers continue to offer an invaluable service in making major scholarly works on Eastern Christianity better known. Peeters is one such publisher, with an on-going series, the latest volume of which, under the editorship of J.P.  Monferrer-Sala, H.G.B. Teule, and Tovar S. Torallas, Eastern Christians and their Written Heritage: Manuscripts, Scribes and Context  (Peeters, 2012), 282pp.   

About this book the publisher tells us:

This volume gives the text of the contributions presented at the Second International Congress on Eastern Christianity organised in Madrid in April 2008. The focus of the conference was on the written heritage ("manuscripts, scribes and contexts") of Eastern Christians in different periods and from different confessional backgrounds, but it was thought appropriate to include some contributions on the Jewish heritage as well. 

Part I of the volume is devoted to manuscript collections and archives in Spain, Portugal, Alexandria and St Petersburg. Part II deals with Christian Arabic, Coptic, Greek and Slavonic manuscripts written by members of different religious communities. Part III discusses a variety of contextual issues such as the Egyptian monastic environment (book binding and manuscript illumination, women readers), schools (school texts on papyri) and Christian sources in Ibn Giqatela's psalm commentary.

From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt

Though for understandable reasons most of our attention today is on current Muslim-Coptic relations in Egypt, those relations go back to the very beginnings of Islam and have waxed and waned for 1400 years. Set for release just before Christmas is a new study that will help us appreciate the depth of relations in Egypt, and the process of her becoming an increasingly Islamized society from the seventh century onward: Maged S.A. Mikhail, From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt: Religion, Identity and Politics After the Arab Conquest (Tauris Academic, 2013), 304pp.

About this book the publisher tells us:

The conquest of Egypt by Islamic armies under the command of Amr ibn al-As in the seventh century transformed medieval Egyptian society. Seeking to uncover the broader cultural changes of the period by drawing on a wide array of literary and documentary sources, Maged Mikhail stresses the cultural and institutional developments that punctuated the histories of Christians and Muslims in the province under early Islamic rule.

From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt traces how the largely agrarian Egyptian society responded to the influx of Arabic and Islam, the means by which the Coptic Church constructed its sectarian identity, the Islamisation of the administrative classes and how these factors converged to create a new medieval society. The result is a fascinating and essential study for scholars of Byzantine and early Islamic Egypt.

The Desert and the Copts Today

The Coptic scholar Lois Farag recently published one book, and late this year will publish another one. The first is Balance of the Heart: Desert Spirituality for Twenty-First-Century Christians (Wipf and Stock, 2012), 282pp.

About this book we are told:

Desert spirituality speaks to the mind and heart. It is a spirituality that helps us balance our work and daily obligations and figure out our priorities and the place of God in our lives. Desert spirituality addresses our most intimate thoughts and helps us analyze the roots of our spiritual setbacks. Its essence is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind (Matt 22:37). Starting in fourth-century Egypt, desert spirituality has become a global phenomenon. It has endured through the centuries because it is practical and simple; it tells us how to live out Scripture in our daily lives. It is also profound; it is deeply rooted in the theology of the incarnation and the renewal of creation by the resurrection. The desert fathers and mothers left us short wisdom sayings, revealing their inner experience in their long journey toward being with God. They speak about Scripture and prayer, but also about how to love our neighbors, discern our thoughts, and evaluate our daily activities. Come, learn from these desert dwellers as they teach us about the examination of thoughts, the discernment of the soul, and the balance of the heart.

Then, just before Christmas this year she has another work coming out: The Coptic Christian Heritage: History, Faith and Culture (Routledge, 2013), 320pp.

The publisher provides the following details about this forthcoming book:

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the heritage of Coptic Christians. The contributors combine academic expertise with intimate and practical knowledge of the Coptic Orthodox Church and Coptic heritage. The chapters explore historical, cultural, literary and material aspects, including:

• the history of Christianity in Egypt, from the pre-Christian era to the modern day

• Coptic religious culture: theology, monasticism, spirituality, liturgy and music


• the Coptic language, linguistic expressions of the Coptic heritage and literary production in Greek, Coptic and Arabic .


• material culture and artistic expression of the Copts: from icons, mosaics and frescos to manuscript illuminations, woodwork and textiles.

Students will find The Coptic Christian Heritage an invaluable introduction, whilst scholars will find its breadth provides a helpful context for specialised research.

Old Cairo

To think of Egypt today, with her long, indigenous Christian presence, is to weep. A new book will only likely deepen that flood of tears at what once was but has increasingly been destroyed by barbarians: Carolyn Ludwig et al, eds., The History and Religious Heritage of Old Cairo: Its Fortress, Churches, Synagogue, and Mosque (American University in Cairo Press, 2013), 250pp.

This book, the publisher says, is a "celebration of the history of religious life in the early Egyptian capital, in text and pictures": 

Just to the south of modern Cairo stands the historic enclave known as Old Cairo, which grew up in and around the Roman fortress of Babylon, and which today hosts a unique collection of monuments that attest to the shared cultural heritage of ancient Egyptians, Christians, Jews, and Muslims. In this lavishly illustrated celebration of a very special place, renowned photographer Sherif Sonbol’s remarkable images of the fortress, churches, synagogue, and mosque illuminate the living fabric of the ancient and medieval stones, while the text describes the history of Old Cairo from the time of the ancient Egyptians and the Romans to the founding of the first Muslim city of al-Fustat, focusing on the Jewish history of the area (exploring the famous Genizah documents found in the Ben Ezra Synagogue that tell so much about everyday life in medieval Egypt), the early Coptic Christian churches, some of the oldest in the world, and the arrival of the Muslims in the seventh century, their establishment of al-Fustat on the edge of Old Cairo, and the building of the oldest mosque in Africa.

Religion in Africa

Continuing their welcome series of "Companions," Wiley-Blackwell has just brought out another volume that pays significant attention to Eastern Christians in Africa: Elias Kifon Bongmba, ed., The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to African Religions (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 636pp.

About this book the publisher tells us:

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to African Religions brings together a team of international scholars to create a single-volume resource on the religious beliefs and practices of the peoples in Africa.

• Offers broad coverage of issues relating to African religions, considering experiences in indigenous, Christian, and Islamic traditions across the continent
• Contributors are from a variety of fields, ensuring the volume offers multidisciplinary perspectives
• Explores methodological approaches to religion from anthropological, philosophical, and historical perspectives
• Provides insights into the historical developments in African religions, as well as contemporary issues such as the development of African-initiated churches, neo traditional religions, and Pentecostalism
• Discusses important topics at the intersection of culture and religion in Africa, including the arts, health, politics, globalization, gender relations, and the economy

Chapters of especial interest include ch. 14, "Coptic Christianity" and ch. 15, "The Ethiopian Orthodox Church." 

Coptic Culture: Past, Present, Future

As the Copts in Egypt continue to undergo one of the most horrific periods in their long and blood-stained history, academic interest in them continues to grow, aided in part by recent academic conferences in Canada and Great Britain. One such conference has recently published its proceedings thus: Mariam Ayad, ed., Coptic Culture: Past, Present and Future (Coptic Orthodox Church Centre, 2012), 300pp.

About this book the publisher tells us:

In May 2008, the Coptic Orthodox Centre in Stevenage, UK organized a conference on Coptic Culture: Past, Present, and Future. The conference aimed to highlight the contributions and achievements of one of the most obscure periods of Egyptian history: the Coptic Period. The importance of this period lies in its valuable contributions to some of the most formative theological debates of Christianity. Strictly defined as a Late Antique culture, spanning only the third to the seventh centuries AD, the heritage of the Coptic Period still survives today in the artistic expression, liturgical services, and heritage of millions of Egyptian Christians who live in Egypt and abroad. This period's lasting contributions, however, remain underappreciated, and many of its aspects remain unclear, or unknown to the general public. For the first time, the conference at the Coptic Centre brought together specialists working on all aspects of Coptic Culture, from its earliest phases to the present day. One of the aims of the conference was to highlight new research on Coptic art, writings, and archaeology. By bringing together specialists, academics, and Coptic clergy, the conference fostered an active discussion of what defined Coptic identity in centuries past, and what it means to be Coptic in contemporary culture, both in Egypt and abroad. It is important that we draw on, understand, and appreciate the rich cultural heritage of this period as we look to our past to inform our present and define our future. The conference drew scholars from Australia, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Their papers were organized along 5 general thematic blocks that dealt with (1) The Egyptian roots of Coptic culture; (2) How do we know what we know: Archaeological Sites and Museum Collections; (3) Aspects of Early and Medieval Coptic Culture: Case Studies; (4) Current Trends in Coptic Studies; and (5) Coptic Culture Today and where it's heading. This volume contains their contributions.