Arab Nationalism and Political Islam

For complicated but often quite defensible reasons, some Eastern Christians in Syria, Egypt, and elsewhere have sometimes been strong proponents of Arab nationalism in the hopes that it might in fact be a pan-nationalism, that is, a political ideology qua political in the modern "secular" sense, making room for Christian and other minorities in the face of an otherwise sometimes hostile Islam.

A new study by Lahouari Addi looks more deeply into Radical Arab Nationalism and Political Islam (Georgetown UP, 2017), 288pp.

About this book the publisher tells us:

In Radical Arab Nationalism and Political Islam, Lahouari Addi attempts to assess the history and political legacy of radical Arab nationalism to show that it contained the seeds of its own destruction. While the revolutionary regimes promised economic and social development and sought the unity of Arab nations, they did not account for social transformations, such as freedom of speech, that would eventually lead to their decline. But while radical Arab nationalism fell apart, authoritarian populism did not disappear. Today it is expressed by political Islam that aims to achieve the kind of social justice radical Arab nationalism once promised.

Addi creatively links the past and present while also raising questions about the future of Arab countries. Is political Islam the heir of radical Arab nationalism? If political Islam succeeds, will it face the same challenges faced by radical Arab nationalism? Will it be able to implement modernity? The future of Arab countries, Addi writes, depends on this crucial issue.

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.

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 Church in the Square

Though the Coptic Church is of course the indigenous church of Egypt, there are other Christian traditions extant in the country, not least Roman Catholics and evangelicals. What was striking to me in visiting Coptic churches the first few times now twenty years ago was the evidence of clear borrowing of certain practices from North American evangelicals. One such evangelical church in Cairo is the object of a book set for release later this spring. 

The American University of Cairo Press just sent me their latest catalogue, and included a book set for release in May of this year: Anna Jeanine Dowell, The Church in the Square: Negotiations of Religion and Revolution at an Evangelical Church in Cairo (Cairo Papers in Social Science) (AUC Press, 2015), 112pp.

About this book we are told:

In the wake of the January 25, 2011 popular uprisings, youth and leaders from the Kasr el Dobara Evangelical Church, the largest Protestant congregation in the Middle East, situated just behind Tahrir Square embarked on new, unpredictable political projects. This ethnography seeks to elucidate the ways that youth and leaders utilized religious imagery and discourse and relational networks in order to carve out a place in the Egyptian public sphere regarding public religion, national belonging, and the ideal citizen. Evangelical Egyptians at KDEC navigated the implications of their colonial heritage and transnational character even as their leadership sought to ground the congregation in the Egyptian national imagery and emerging revolutionary political scene. The author argues that these negotiations were built upon powerful paradoxes concerning liberal politics, secularism, and private versus public religion, which often implicated Evangelicals in the same questions being raised in public discourse concerning Islamist politics and religious minorities.

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.

Heirs to Hated and Deliberately Overlooked Kingdoms

I don't know how anyone can look at the situation of Middle Eastern Christians today and not ricochet between rage and despair--rage at the ignorance of their plight, not least on the part of their co-religionists in the West, and despair over the inability and unwillingness of anyone to do anything of substance to help them. I have been talking about Christians in Syria and Egypt in my classes these past two weeks, and it is difficult not to weep and rail about what they have been undergoing for centuries, but especially what they have suffered in the last three years in particular.

A new book released in late October takes us inside these neglected and overlooked religious communities: Gerard Russell, Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys Into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East (Basic Books, 2014), 352pp.

About this book the publisher tells us:

Despite its reputation for religious intolerance, the Middle East has long sheltered many distinctive and strange faiths: one regards the Greek prophets as incarnations of God, another reveres Lucifer in the form of a peacock, and yet another believes that their followers are reincarnated beings who have existed in various forms for thousands of years. These religions represent the last vestiges of the magnificent civilizations in ancient history: Persia, Babylon, Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs. Their followers have learned how to survive foreign attacks and the perils of assimilation. But today, with the Middle East in turmoil, they face greater challenges than ever before. 

Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms, former diplomat Gerard Russell ventures to the distant, nearly impassable regions where these mysterious religions still cling to survival. He lives alongside the Mandaeans and Ezidis of Iraq, the Zoroastrians of Iran, the Copts of Egypt, and others. He learns their histories, participates in their rituals, and comes to understand the threats to their communities. Historically a tolerant faith, Islam has, since the early 20th century, witnessed the rise of militant, extremist sects. This development, along with the rippling effects of Western invasion, now pose existential threats to these minority faiths. And as more and more of their youth flee to the West in search of greater freedoms and job prospects, these religions face the dire possibility of extinction. Drawing on his extensive travels and archival research, Russell provides an essential record of the past, present, and perilous future of these remarkable religions.

The Islamization of Egypt

As Arab Muslims swept across Egypt in the seventh century, it's not as if the extant Coptic civilization simply disappeared overnight. But gradually Egypt did become more and more an Islamic state, and the Copts were reduced to the minority they remain today--roughly 10% of the population. The details of that centuries-long process are still not entirely known, but one recent book in the prestigious series Oxford Studies in Byzantium sheds welcome light here: Shaping a Muslim State: The World of a Mid-Eighth-Century Egyptian Official (Oxford UP, 2014),424pp.

About this book we are told:

Shaping a Muslim State provides a synthetic study of the political, social, and economic processes which formed early Islamic Egypt. Looking at a corpus of previously unknown Arabic papyrus letters, dating from between AD 730 and 750, which were written to a Muslim administrator and merchant in the Fayyum oasis in Egypt, Sijpesteijn examines the reasons for the success of the early Arab conquests and the transition from the pre-Islamic Byzantine system and its Egyptian executors to an Arab/Muslim state.

By examining the impact of Islam on the daily lives of those living under its rule, the volume highlights the striking newness of Islamic society while also acknowledging the influence of the ancient societies which preceded it. The book applies theoretical discussions about governance, historiography, (social) linguistics, and source criticism to understand the dynamics of early Islamic Egypt, as well as the larger process of state formation in the Islamic world.

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

Copts and Muslims in Egypt

Given the recent focus on Egypt and the ongoing violence by the Muslim Brotherhood and others against Coptic Christians in the aftermath of the overthrow first of Mubarak and more recently of Morsi, a book set for release early next year looks to be timely indeed: Abdel Latif Al Menawy, The Copts: An Investigation into the Rift Between Muslims and Copts in Egypt (Gilgamesh Publications, 2014), 210pp.

About this book we are told:

There are seventeen million Copts in the world, among them an estimated half million US Copts.This book covers the long history of this ancient Christian community, as well as the key role the Coptic Church played in the 2012 uprising in Egypt, and their prospects in post-revolution Egypt. Abdel Latif Al Menawy met and interviewed late Pope Shnouda, the third Patriarch of Egypt many times during his rule. Throughout his career in journalism he was constantly in touch with leaders of the Coptic Society in Egypt. He had unparalleled access to developments of the various crises unravelling in the streets of Egypt as a result to confrontation between religion and politics.

    Coptic Cairo explains how Christianity became so deeply rooted in Egypt that Islam was never able to overcome it, leading to an uneasy relationship between the two faiths. It will give accounts, never published before, of direct confrontations between  the Late Pope Shnouda and both Presidents Late Anwar Sadat and former President Hosni Mubarak.  Abdel Latif also reveals the role the Coptic Church has played in the recent uprising in Egypt.

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.

Between Terror and Tolerance

Timothy Sisk's recent book offers some insights into two Eastern Christian countries that have often been plagued with violence: Lebanon (with the Maronites in particular), and Egypt, with the very long-suffering Coptic population, whose fate, even today, remains grimly uncertain: Between Terror and Tolerance: Religious Leaders, Conflict, and Peacemaking (Georgetown U Press), 280pp.

About this book we are told:

Civil war and conflict within countries is the most prevalent threat to peace and security in the opening decades of the twenty-first century. A pivotal factor in the escalation of tensions to open conflict is the role of elites in exacerbating tensions along identity lines by giving the ideological justification, moral reasoning, and call to violence. Between Terror and Tolerance examines the varied roles of religious leaders in societies deeply divided by ethnic, racial, or religious conflict. The chapters in this book explore cases when religious leaders have justified or catalyzed violence along identity lines, and other instances when religious elites have played a critical role in easing tensions or even laying the foundation for peace and reconciliation.

This volume features thematic chapters on the linkages between religion, nationalism, and intolerance, transnational intra-faith conflict in the Shi'a-Sunni divide, and country case studies of societal divisions or conflicts in Egypt, Israel and Palestine, Kashmir, Lebanon, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Tajikistan. The concluding chapter explores the findings and their implications for policies and programs of international non-governmental organizations that seek to encourage and enhance the capacity of religious leaders to play a constructive role in conflict resolution.

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.

Copts at the Crossroads

The events in Egypt over the last 3 years are a source of great sadness--and not a little frustration given how predictable much of this was. The frustration grows when one sees the same mistakes being pursued by the Obama administration now in Syria. Once again it seems painfully clear that the Eastern Christian populations are of no consideration or worth to those who make these geopolitical calculations.

A book released just last week takes a fresh look at what has been going on in Egypt: Mariz Tadros, Copts at the Crossroads: The Challenges of Building Inclusive Democracy in Egypt (American U of Cairo Press, 2013), 320pp.


About this book the publisher tells us:

A detailed examination of Christian–Muslim relations in Egypt before and since the 2011 Revolution

In the light of the escalation of sectarian tensions during and after Mubarak’s reign, the predicament of the Arab world’s largest religious minority, the Copts, has come to the forefront. This book poses such questions as why there has been a mass exodus of Copts from Egypt, and how this relates to other religious minorities in the Arab region; why it is that sectarian violence increased during and after the Egyptian revolution, which epitomized the highest degree of national unity since 1919; and how the new configuration of power has influenced the extent to which a vision of a political order is being based on the principles of inclusive democracy.
The book examines the relations among the state, the Church, Coptic citizenry, and civil and political societies against the backdrop of the increasing diversification of actors, the change of political leadership in the country, and the transformations occurring in the region. An informative historical background is provided, and new fieldwork and statistical data inform a thoughtful exploration of what it takes to build an inclusive democracy in post-Mubarak Egypt.

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.

The Copts in Egyptian Politics

As we continue to watch the sad decline of Egypt and the sadder plight of her Coptic Christians, a new book reminds us that it has not always been this way: B.L. Carter, Egypt: The Copts in Egyptian Politics (Routledge, 2012), 344pp. 
 
About this book we are told:

This book explores the political relationship between the Muslim majority and Coptic minority in Egypt between 1918 and 1952. Many Egyptians hoped to see the collaboration of the 1919 revolution spur the creation of both a new collective Egyptian identity and a state without religious bias. Traditional ways of governing, however, were not so easily cast aside. Some Egyptians held tenaciously to the traditional arrangements which had both guaranteed Muslim primacy and served relatively well to protect the Copts and afford them some autonomy. Differences within the Coptic community over the wisdom of trusting the genuineness and durability of Muslim support for equality were accentuated by a protracted struggle between reforming laymen and conservative clergy for control of the community. The unwillingness of all parties to compromise hampered the ability of the community both to determine and to defend its interests.

The Copts met with modest success in their attempt to become full Egyptian citizens. Their influence in the Wafd, the pre-eminent political party, was very strong prior to and in the early years of the constitutional monarchy, and their formal representation was generally adequate and, in some parliaments, better than adequate. However, this very success produced a backlash which caused many Copts to believe, by the 1940s, that the experiment had failed: political activity has become fraught with risk for them. At the close of the monarchy, equality and shared power seemed motions as distant as in the disheartening years before the 1919 revolution.

Fleeing Herod through Coptic Egypt

I have, long before it was on the radar (however desultorily) of the press today, maintained a deep interest in all things Coptic, in part because of the inspiration of my friend Iman Nashed, who was born in Cairo and came to Canada when she was 17, and introduced me to Fr. Markos of St. Mark's parish in Scarborough, Ontario, the priest through whom the Coptic Church was first established all across the North American continent. That parish, which I have visited and lectured at, is an incredibly dynamic place full of life and activity; and Fr. Markos gave me--when I was recuperating in hospital in 1996--a most beautiful Coptic icon of the Theotokos which remains my most treasured of Marian icons.

Later this month, a new book will be published that takes us at once through ancient and modern Egypt: James Cowan, Fleeing Herod: A Journey Through Coptic Egypt with the Holy Family (Paraclete Press, 2013), 260pp.

About this book we are told:

When the Holy Family fled to Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod Antipas, they journeyed for three years throughout Egypt, mainly along the Nile, to keep Herod’s agents at bay. Using an ancient 4th century text written by Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria as his guide, Cowan takes the reader on a fascinating journey through modern-day Egypt in the footsteps of the Holy Family, about the Delta region and up the Nile to a place called Mount Qussqam, where Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus resided for six months. The itinerary, according to Coptic tradition, was revealed to Theophilus in a dream.

Documenting his journey, Cowan finds himself in the midst of a spiritual revolution going on in Egypt itself. He meets with monks and health workers, desert mystics and visionaries, all of whom have a stake in the story of the Holy Family’s journey, as they know it. Through their eyes the reader is drawn into a dramatic story of escape and miraculous interventions.

The Churches of Egypt

As we continue to watch with unease the situation in Egypt, and especially the plight of the Coptic Church under their newly elected pope, a new book sheds light on Christian history in Egypt. American University of Cairo Press tells me of a forthcoming edition of The Churches of Egypt: From the Journey of the Holy Family to the Present Day by Gawdat Gabra and Gertrud J.J. van Loon, edited by Carolyn Ludwig with photographs by Sherif Sonbol (AUC Press, 2012), 330pp.

This book, the publisher tells us, offers us a:

New flexibound edition of this stunning tour of Egypt's Christian houses of worship

With over 300 full-color photographs, this is the first fully illustrated book devoted to Christian houses of worship in Egypt. The text incorporates the latest research to complement the broad geographic scope covering nearly all significant Coptic sites throughout the country, from the ancient Coptic churches in Old Cairo to the churches in the monasteries of Wadi al-Natrun, the Red Sea, and Upper Egypt. Churches associated with the Holy Family’s sojourn in Egypt, including Gabal al-Tayr and Dayr al-Muharraq, enrich the volume. Churches of all other Christian denominations in Egypt are also described and beautifully illustrated here. A number of Greek Orthodox churches, Evangelical Coptic, Catholic, Armenian, and Anglican churches are included. Introductory chapters on the history of Christianity in Egypt, the architecture of the Coptic Church, and Coptic wall paintings help readers to appreciate fully the great cultural, artistic, and architectural heritage of Egypt’s Christians.