The World of Early Egyptian Christianity: Language, Literature, and Social Context

With increasing interest in early Egyptian (Coptic) Christianity, this volume offers an important collection of essays about Coptic language, literature, and social history by some of the finest authors in the field. The essays range broadly through the areas of Coptic language and literature, examining the origins and history of the Coptic community in its formative years. The Jewish content and connections of earliest Christianity in Egypt are explored, as is the survival of pagan religion in a later, increasingly Christian world. Studies of Egyptian monasticism range from investigations of the later literature and history of the important Upper Egyptian communal movement of Pachomius to the identity of a class of monks disparaged by Cassian and Jerome. Other studies include an important examination of the rhetorical structure of Coptic sermons (with numerous examples), a study of the complex manuscript tradition of the Coptic ecclesiastical history, and a fascinating application of modern information theory to the analysis of Coptic grammar. Written in honor of David W. Johnson, S.J., professor emeritus of Semitic and Egyptian languages at the Catholic University of America, the book features essays by Monica J. Blanchard, Daniel Boyarin, Leo Depuydt, David Frankfurter, James E. Goehring, Tito Orlandi, Birger A. Pearson, Philip Rousseau, Mark Sheridan, Janet A. Timbie, and Robin Darling Young. James E. Goehring is professor of religion in the Department of Classics, Philosophy, and Religion at the University of Mary Washington and former president of the North American Patristics Society. Janet A. Timbie is adjunct associate professor of Semitic and Egyptian languages at the Catholic University of America.