Copts in Context: Negotiating Identity, Tradition, and Modernity PDF
Preview Copts in Context: Negotiating Identity, Tradition, and Modernity
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
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