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Coptic Christianity: Coptic Church
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Coptic Christianity dominated Egypt until the Islamic conquest of Egypt in the late seventh century and remained an integral part of society until the 12th century when the country began to change into a predominantly Muslim country. Today, the head of the Coptic Church remains in Alexandria, where the Coptic pope maintains a residence.
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Readers interested in the development of Christianity in Egypt upto its post Chalcedonian emergence into a national Coptic Church will feel a sense of engagement with these pages. Fr. Harmless examines the origins and evolution of Egyptian Christianity and the foundation of monastic communities in their formative years (early fourth century). Tracing histories of early Christianity in Egypt, nothing is more likely that Christianity gained adherents among the messianic Jews of Mariotes, the Therapeutae, a tradition that the author rejects, alleging that Eusebius was confused, rather than his own sources. Catholic writers, generally maintain that it is quite impossible to make any historical continuity between the Therapeutae or, 'the monks of the old law,' as Jerome calls them, and Christian monks of Nitria and Kellia. Although Eusebius, Jerome, Sozomenes, and Cassien, all maintained that the monasteries in Christian Egypt were due to the Therapeutae converts of St. Mark, the preacher of Alexandria.
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The Coptic Church's rejection of the Council of Chalcedon (451 CE) meant that from the fifth century onwards the church in Egypt distanced itself even further from Greek and Latin Christianity. This separation was exacerbated by the unwillingness of Rome or Constantinople to provide any support for the Copts in later history, particularly when Christianity in Egypt was under serious threat following the Arab invasion. The long-term result was, on the one hand, an ever-deeper relation with the people and culture of Egypt and, on the other, a growing sense of alienation from the rest of Christendom. This estrangement has only begun to be overcome in the second half of the twentieth century as the Coptic Orthodox Church has participated in the ecumenical movement. It has ... led to a reassessment of Chalcedonian Christianity and the controversial label of “Monophysitism”.[17]
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The Coptic Christian tradition is one that goes back almost two thousand years to the very beginnings of Christianity: Mark the Evangelist himself is said to have brought the faith to Alexandria. In his Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity (AUC Press, 1999), renowned scholar Otto Meinardus reviewed the history of the official church from its earliest days to the end of the twentieth century, with its doctrinal disputes and its long isolation from other world churches. Here in Coptic Saints and Pilgrims, he examines the other side of the coin, the popular traditions and beliefs of the people. While the Coptic Orthodox church is strongly influenced by Hellenistic modes of thinking, many of the folk attitudes and practices by contrast have their roots in the religious heritage of pharaonic Egypt, and while the official faith is by its sacramental nature exclusive, the folk religion is inclusive and touches every aspect of the personal lives of ordinary Copts. It is this popular aspect of Coptic religious devotion that is revealed here, in its many points of focus: biblical saints, martyrs, ascetics, equestrian warriors, ‘silverless’ physicians, women saints, pilgrimage, dreams, visions, and apparitions.
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The Coptic Church is based on the teachings of Saint Mark who brought Christianity to Egypt during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero in the first century, a dozen of years after the Lord's ascension. He was one of the four evangelists and the one who wrote the oldest canonical gospel. Christianity spread throughout Egypt within half a century of Saint Mark's arrival in Alexandria as is clear from the New Testament writings found in Bahnasa, in Middle Egypt, which date around the year 200 A.D., and a fragment of the Gospel of Saint John, written using the Coptic language, which was found in Upper Egypt and can be dated to the first half of the second century. The Coptic Church, which is now more than nineteen centuries old, was the subject of many prophecies in the Old Testament. Isaiah the prophet, in Chapter 19, Verse 19 says "In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border."
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"In addition to Druidism, the Celtic Church had been influenced by Coptic Christianity. This unorthodox version of the new faith was founded by Clement of Alexandria who had blended the teachings of Jesus with Gnosticism, Judaism and Neo-Platonism. Clement founded his Coptic Church on the Secret Gospel of Mark, written by the evangelist in Alexandria following the death of Jesus. This gospel preserved the inner teachings given by Jesus to his closest disciple who had been initiated into the Christian mysteries. It is interesting that Ormus, the legendary first-century founder of the secret society which became the Priory of Sion, lived in Alexandria and was converted to Christianity by Mark." (2)
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