Browsing by Author "Evans, Annette Margeretha Henrietta"

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    Hellenism and the formation of Coptic identity : 332BCE - 200CE : a Coptic trajectory through a Hellenistic context
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1999-11) Evans, Annette Margeretha Henrietta; Cook, J.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Ancient Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Conflicting perceptions of the Copts exist for a variety of reasons. This dissertation seeks to examine some of the traces of their own process of interpreting and mediating the past. Hellenism facilitated this process, as did the Egyptian pharaonic cultural background. Both these influences left their mark on Coptic Christianity as evidenced for example in the Coptic language, and in the iconography of Madonna and child. In addition, examples of the presaging of Christianity in Egyptian iconography are presented. Recent discoveries, for example the Nag Hammadi Codices, have been taken into account in researching Coptic identity. Clement of Alexandria was another major force in the formation of Coptic identity. The vastly diversified area of Gnosticism is a complicating factor in understanding Coptic Christianity. Due to Clement's work in reconciling Greek philosophy with Christianity some authors associated him with Gnosticism, in spite of his making a clear but nuanced distinction between Gnosticism in general and Christianity. Several researchers have noted a similarity between the prologue of the Gospel of John and the type of Gnosticism that Clement was said to be associated with. This dissertation attempts to demonstrate that ancient Egyptian cosmology facilitated the Coptic understanding of the Incarnation of the Logos, but was misunderstood at the Council of Chalcedon. The Coptic trajectory through a Hellenistic context was found to be like that of a boomerang, in that the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt represents, in the words of the current Coptic Patriarch, "a return to the apostolic father-type of leading of the church". He stresses that they aim at renewal by expressing ancient doctrine, theology and traditions in a contemporary form that is understandable to their youth.