Copts in Context: Negotiating Identity, Tradition, and Modernity

298 Pages·2017·3.99 MB·English

by  Nelly van Doorn-Harder

Copts in Context
Studies in Comparative Religion
Frederick M. Denny, Series Editor
copts in context
Negotiating Identity, Tradition, and Modernity
Edited by
Nelly van Doorn–Harder
The University of South Carolina Press
© 2017 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/
ISBN 978-1-61117-784-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-61117-785-5 (ebook)
Contents
List of Illustrations • vii
Series Editor’s Preface • ix
Preface • xi
Note on Transliteration • xiii
Introduction: Creating and Maintaining Tradition in Modernity • 1
Part 1: Identity in Transition
The Copts in the January Revolution of 2011 • 21
Sebastian Elsässer
The Undesirables of Egypt: A Story of Persecution and Defiance • 34
Mariz Tadros
Examining the Role of Media in Coptic Studies • 52
Angie Heo
Father Samaan and the Charismatic Trend within the Coptic Church • 66
Gaétan du Roy
Transmitting Coptic Musical Heritage • 80
Séverine Gabry-Thienpont
Part 2: Challenges of the Diaspora
Singing Strategic Multiculturalism: The Discursive
Politics of Song in Coptic-Canadian Protests • 93
Carolyn M. Ramzy
Coptic Migrant Churches: Transnationalism
and the Negotiation of Different Roles • 107
Ghada Botros
vi Contents
Strategies of Adaptation for Survival: The Introduction of Converts
to the Coptic Orthodox Community in the Greater Toronto Area • 124
Rachel Loewen
Belonging to the Church Community: From Childhood Years Onward • 134
Nora Stene
Part 3: Tradition
The Revival of the Coptic Language and the Formation
of Coptic Ethnoreligious Identity in Modern Egypt • 151
Hiroko Miyokawa
Reading the Church’s Story: The “ʿAmr-Benjamin Paradigm”
and Its Echoes in The History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria • 157
Mark Swanson
The Evolution of Lent in Alexandria and the
Alleged Reforms of Patriarch Demetrius • 169
Maged S. A. Mikhail
The Perfect Monk: Ideals of Masculinity in the Monastery of Shenoute • 181
Caroline T. Schroeder
The Paradox of Monasticism: The Transformation of
Ascetic Ideals from the Fourth to the Seventh Century • 194
Karel C. Innemée
Reconsidering the Emerging Monastic Desertscape • 205
Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom
Notes • 219
Selected Bibliography • 267
Contributors • 275
Index • 279
IllustratIons
Fig. 1. Words of encouragement from Pope Tawadros, early 2013 • 2
Fig. 2. Recent icon of Saint Dimayana and her forty virgins • 5
Fig. 3. Portrait of Saint and Pope Kyrillos VI • 10
Fig. 4. Poster to commemorate Pope
Shenouda’s fiftieth anniversary as a monk • 12
Fig. 5. Icon of the Archangel Gabriel • 58
Fig. 6. Icon painting of the Virgin Mary, by Ishaq Rufa’il Girgis • 60
Fig. 7. Flyer for Magued Tawfik’s hagiographic films • 61
Fig. 8. Poster of the six martyrs of the Nag Hammadi shootings • 63
Fig. 9. “Stick method” to teach the Halleluia • 87
Fig. 10. Egyptian Coptic-Canadians
protest the 2010 Nag Hammadi killings • 94
Fig. 11. Taratil CD dispensing machine • 98
Fig. 12. Cover/masthead from ‘Ayn Shams magazine, no. 1 • 153
Fig. 13. Survey map of the surroundings
of the Monastery of Saint Macarius • 202
Fig. 14. Structure 25, preliminary reconstruction • 203

serIes edItor’s PrefaCe
This remarkable book provides contemporary readers and scholars around the world
with a delightful and rewarding journey through the complex and generally lesser
known dimension of Egyptian religious history: Coptic Christianity. Professor van
Doorn-Harder and her superb contributors themselves represent a rich diversity of
scholarly and cultural contexts and together have indeed enabled us to learn about
“Copts in diverse contexts.” The contexts in which Coptic Christians have lived,
loved, believed and survived through long and often challenging eras, contexts
and regions are described and explained. as the subtitle proclaims, by “Negotiating
Identity, Tradition, and Modernity.”
Copts in Context will provide an exciting product in the popular market of
historical studies of lesser known but intriguing subjects. If I were still a full-time
religious studies professor of history of religions and Islamic studies, with a con-
siderable amount of field research in Egypt, I would immediately design a course
using this book and encourage colleagues in history, theology, anthropology, and
sociology to use it as well. Professors and their students will be thrilled to learn
about Copts in Egyptian history down to the present, not only as they have lived
and believed but also as they are living in significant growing “migrant churches”
in the contemporary world well beyond Egypt, such as in Canada. Christian read-
ers from any denomination will be introduced to contemporary Coptic sacred
music including hymns.
Frederick Mathewson Denny