Coptic Christology in Practice: Incarnation and Divine Participation in Late Antique and Medieval Egypt

by Stephen J. Davis

Coptic Christology in Practice forges a new path in the study of ancient and medieval Christology. Employing a range of interdisciplinary methods derived from the fields of social history, discourse theory, ritual studies, and the visual arts, Stephen J. Davis demonstrates how Christian identity in Egypt was shaped by a set of replicable "christological practices." He thus enables readers to trace the fascinating lines of the Coptic church's theological and cultural transition from late antiquity to Dar al-Islam.

392 pages, Hardcover

First published February 28, 2008

Reviews

[Monica Mitri · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Stephen Davis studies Christology (from incarnation to deification) in Coptic Egypt, starting from the “classical” patristic teachings of late antiquity and tracing their reception into medieval Copto-Arabic theology. Davis links Christological theology to ritual practice by focusing on “the function of human bodies in Alexandrian theologies of the Incarnation” (p. 1). Part 2 is concerned with the doctrine reception in the Copto-Arabic milieu, from the 10th to the 13th centuries. He argues that Arabic provided Copts with a language well suited to Christian-Muslim encounters, something more akin to Greek than Coptic. At the same time, the reception of Christological doctrine was not confined to intellectual treatises or Christian-Muslim apologetics, but remained grounded in late antique Alexandrian theology and in liturgical practice.

Two sections from Part 2 are worth mentioning. The first is his chapter on Sāwīrus ibn al-Muqaffa‘, the 10th century, whom he calls the father of Copto-Arabic literature. Sāwīrus wrote prolifically in Arabic, and his doctrinal defenses of the incarnation were aimed against Islamic, specifically Mu‘tazalite, theology on tawhid. This raises the question of Mu‘tazalite impact not only on subsequent Islamic theology but also on Christian theology—in Egypt not Baghdad.

The second is his section on the Christology of Awlād al-ʿAssāl. Davis “trace[s] how these authors mediated their patristic (Greek) and post-patristic (Arabic) christological heritage in the context of intra-Christian and interreligious (i.e., Christian–Muslim) dialogues” (p. 252). It is a valuable argument, supplemented by biographical and historical data. In contrast to Saïd Rizkalla’s argument in “From the Arabic Christian heritage: Awlād al-ʿAssāl,” (Coptic Church Review 17 (1996) 97-101), who bases his argument for the brothers’ relevance on their connection to the patristic fathers, Davis argues that Al-Mu’taman ibn al-ʿAssāl’s Majmū‘ ’usūl al-Dīn integrates significantly more Arabic Christian theologians than patristic ones—and from Miaphysite, Chalcedonian, and Nestorian affiliations. The brothers’ work contributed to cataloging and redefining the scope of Arabic Christianity in Egypt and represent “a discernible shift in the articulation of medieval Egyptian theological identity—a shift that brings Copto-Arabic Christology into a more thoroughgoing dialogue with the larger Arabic-speaking world” (p. 251).