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 major new three-volume study of the popes of Egypt covers the history of the Alexandrian patriarchate from its origins to the present-day leadership of Pope Shenouda III. The first volume 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. The Early Coptic Papacy is volume one of The Popes of Egypt: A History of the Coptic Church and Its Patriarchs, edited by Stephen J. Davis and Gawdat Gabra. Forthcoming: Volume 2 The Coptic Papacy in Islamic Egypt Mark N. Swanson Volume 3 The Emergence of the Modern Coptic Papacy Magdi Girgis, Michael Shelley, and Nelly van Doorn–Harder
The Early Coptic Papacy
The Egyptian Church and Its Leadership in Late Antiquity: The Popes of Egypt, Volume 1
Stephen J. Davis
1 March 2005
280 pp.
15 b/w illus.
15X23cm
ISBN 9789774248306
For sale worldwide
$29.95
Related products
Coptic Monasteries
Egypt’s Monastic Art and Architecture
Gawdat GabraWith a historical introduction by Tim Vivian
Egypt, the birthplace of communal monasticism, has a rich store of monasteries and monastic art. Coptic Monasteries takes the reader on a tour of the best preserved and most significant of these ancient religious centers, documenting in exhaustive detail the richness and the glory of the Coptic heritage. An informative introduction by Tim Vivian brings to life the early Christian era, with background information on the origins of the Coptic Church as well as its rites and ceremonies, sketches of some of monasticism’s founding figures, and accounts of some of the difficulties they faced, from religious schism to nomadic attacks. Gawdat Gabra’s expert commentary, complemented by almost one hundred full-color photographs of newly restored wall paintings and architectural features, covers monasteries from Aswan to Wadi al-Natrun. Ranging across a thousand years of history, Gabra’s observations will make any reader an expert on the composition and content of some of Egypt’s most outstanding religious art, the salient architectural features of each monastery, as well as the ongoing process of restoration that has returned much of their original vibrancy to these works. A unique and invaluable historical record, Coptic Monasteries is equally an in-depth, on-the-spot guide to these living monuments or an armchair trip back in time to the roots of one of the world’s oldest Christian traditions.
...read more
15 October 2010
Hardbound
160 pp.96 color illus.
15X23cm
$29.95
The Coptic Orthodox Liturgy of St. Basil
Box of 4 Audio CDs
The Liturgy of St. Basil is sung in the Coptic language, directly descended from the language of the pharaohs, and the melodies are also thought to have their roots in ancient Egypt. This set of four audio CDs has been produced to accompany the major publication The Coptic Orthodox Liturgy of St. Basil with Complete Musical Transcription (AUC Press, 1998), which provides fascinating documentation of this ancient tradition. The three-hour liturgy is part of a unique musical tradition transmitted orally through some twenty centuries by generations of singers in Egypt’s ancient Coptic Orthodox Church, and still used today. For these CDs, the liturgy was sung by Sadek Attallah, chief cantor of the Institute of Coptic Studies, Cairo, and recorded at the Institute of Coptic Studies under the supervision of Dr. Ragheb Moftah. This unique set of recordings will be of great value to Copts around the world, as well as to musicologists, ethnologists, and students of religious traditions. Also available from the AUC Press: The Coptic Orthodox Liturgy of St. Basil with Complete Musical Transcription Compiled by Ragheb Moftah Music transcription by Margit Toth Text edited by Martha Roy
...read more
Audio CDs
$45.00Christianity and Monasticism in Aswan and Nubia
Edited by
Gawdat GabraHany N. Takla
Christianity and monasticism have flourished along the Nile Valley in the Aswan region of Upper Egypt and in what was once Nubia, from as early as the fourth century until the present day. The contributors to this volume, international specialists in Coptology from around the world, examine various aspects of Coptic civilization in Aswan and Nubia over the past centuries. The complexity of Christian identity in Nubia, as distinct from Egypt, is examined in the context of church ritual and architecture. Many of the studies explore Coptic material culture: inscriptions, art, architecture, and archaeology; and language and literature. The archaeological and artistic heritage of monastic sites in Edfu, Aswan, Makuria, and Kom Ombo are highlighted, attesting to their important legacies in the region.
...read more
1 August 2016
Paperback
352 pp.91 b/w illus.
15X23cm
$29.95
An Islam of Her Own
Reconsidering Religion and Secularism in Women’s Islamic Movements
Sherine HafezAs the world grapples with issues of religious fanaticism, extremist politics, and rampant violence that seek justification in either “religious” or “secular” discourses, women who claim Islam as a vehicle for individual and social change are often either regarded as pious subjects who subscribe to an ideology that denies them many modern freedoms, or as feminist subjects who seek empowerment only through rejecting religion and adopting secularist discourses. Yet in actuality Muslim women whose activism is grounded in Islam draw equally on principles associated with secularism. Here Sherine Hafez focuses on women’s Islamic activism in Egypt to challenge these binary representations of religious versus secular subjectivities. Drawing on five years of ethnographic fieldwork within a women’s Islamic movement in Cairo, Hafez analyzes the ways in which women who participate in Islamic activism narrate their selfhood, articulate their desires, and embody discourses in which the boundaries are blurred between the religious and the secular.
...read more
Hardbound
208 pp.15X23cm
$22.95