History of the Modern Coptic Period (CH8309A)

Content

Modern Coptic history is an emerging field of study which covers the period from 1798 to the present. The unit will address the factors that were threatening the loss of Coptic identity. Topics for study will include: • the struggles both inwardly within the Coptic Church • the pressures facing the Church in its relation to the State and the influence of British occupation • the role that Western missionaries played in Egypt • the figures that shaped the direction that the Church took including Pope Cyril IV, Pope Cyril V, St Habib Girgis among others • the role that theological and religious education played during this period.

Learning outcomes

Pedagogy

articles and lecture notes, video lectures and online discussion forums.

Indicative Bibliography

• Baron, Beth. The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.
• Hasan, S. S. Christians Versus Muslims in Modern Egypt The Century-Long Struggle for Coptic Equality. Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA, 2003.
• Ibrahim, Vivian. The Copts of Egypt Challenges of Modernisation and Identity. London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2011
• Jirjis, Majdī, and Pieternella van Doorn-Harder. The Emergence of the Modern Coptic Papacy: The Egyptian Church and Its Leadership from the Ottoman Period to the Present. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2011
• Lane, Edward William. An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. New York: Dover Publications, 1973.
• Leeder, S. H. Modern Sons of the Pharoahs: A Study of the Manners and Customs of the Copts of Egypt. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1973.
• Miṣrī, Īrīs Ḥabīb. The Story of the Copts. [Place of publication not identified]: Middle East Council of Churches, 1978.
• Mitchell, Timothy. Colonising Egypt. Cambridge u.a: Cambridge Univ. Pr, 1988.
• Russell, Mona L. Creating the New Egyptian Woman Consumerism, Education, and National Identity, 1863-1922. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
• Sedra, Paul. From Mission to Modernity Evangelicals, Reformers and Education in Nineteenth Century Egypt. London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2011.
• Sharkey, Heather J. American Evangelicals in Egypt Missionary Encounters in an Age of Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.
• Suriel, Bishop. Habib Girgis: Coptic Orthodox Educator and a Light in the Darkness. (Forthcoming) SVS Press, 2016.

Assessment