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Christianizing Egypt

Syncretism and Local Worlds in Late Antiquity
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Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2017

About this book

How does a culture become Christian, especially one that is heir to such ancient traditions and spectacular monuments as Egypt? This book offers a new model for envisioning the process of Christianization by looking at the construction of Christianity in the various social and creative worlds active in Egyptian culture during late antiquity.

As David Frankfurter shows, members of these different social and creative worlds came to create different forms of Christianity according to their specific interests, their traditional idioms, and their sense of what the religion could offer. Reintroducing the term “syncretism” for the inevitable and continuous process by which a religion is acculturated, the book addresses the various formations of Egyptian Christianity that developed in the domestic sphere, the worlds of holy men and saints’ shrines, the work of craftsmen and artisans, the culture of monastic scribes, and the reimagination of the landscape itself, through processions, architecture, and the potent remains of the past.

Drawing on sermons and magical texts, saints’ lives and figurines, letters and amulets, and comparisons with Christianization elsewhere in the Roman empire and beyond, Christianizing Egypt reconceives religious change—from the “conversion” of hearts and minds to the selective incorporation and application of strategies for protection, authority, and efficacy, and for imagining the environment.

Author / Editor information

David Frankfurter is professor of religion at Boston University and a scholar of early Christianity whose specialties include apocalyptic literature, magical texts, demonology, popular religion, and Egypt in the Roman and late antique periods. He is the author of Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance and Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History (both Princeton). Each won an Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion from the American Academy of Religion.

Reviews

"Christianizing Egypt builds on David Frankfurter’s career working on the religious history of Roman and late antique Egypt and his deep knowledge of the Egyptian sources, material and literary alike, from hagiographical texts and sermons (in both Coptic and Greek) to terracotta figurines and amulets. The contribution this book makes to describing, analysing and interpreting religious change and process is very valuable indeed. There is much in this book for those interested in questions of religious change far beyond the confines of late antique Egypt."---Lucy Grig, Times Literary Supplement --- "Christianizing Egypt is a thoughtful and exceptionally valuable study, with implications that go far beyond either Egypt or Late Antiquity. . . . An excellent book."---Philip Jenkins, Journal of Church and State --- "Outstanding. . . . The thesis is interesting [and] the evidence effective. . . . Agree or disagree with Frankfurter's central claims, Christianizing Egypt may become a methodological must-read for anyone working in pre-modern Christianity."---Zachary B. Smith, Reading Religion --- "One of Choice Reviews' Outstanding Academic Titles of 2018" --- "Winner of the Philip Schaff Prize, American Society of Church History"

Topics

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    vii
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    Illustrations

    xi
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    Preface

    xiii
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    Acknowledgments

    xvii
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    Abbreviations

    xix
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    Chapter 1. Remodeling the Christianization of Egypt

    1
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    Chapter 2. Domestic Devotion and Religious Change

    34
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    Chapter 3. Controller of Demons, Dispenser of Blessings

    69
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    Chapter 4. A Site of Blessings, Dreams, and Wonders

    104
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    Chapter 5. The Magic of Craft

    145
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    Chapter 6. Scribality and Syncretism

    184
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    Chapter 7. Whispering Spirits, Holy Processions

    233
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    Afterword

    257
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    Bibliography

    263
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    Illustration Credits

    309
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    Index

    311
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
July 9, 2018
eBook ISBN:
9781400888009
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400888009
eBook ISBN: 9781400888009
Keywords for this book
Christianity; Religion; Syncretism; Christianization; Late Antiquity; Shenoute; Amulet; Divination; Exorcism; Hagiography; Paganism; Religious text; Procession; Figurine; Saint; Writing; Rite; Votive offering; Monastery; Iconography; Modernity; Sermon; Religious order; Demonology; Martyr; Homily; Religious conversion; Clergy; Heathenry (new religious movement); Literature; Apocalypse of Elijah; Magical texts; Shrine; Prayer; Ideology; Christian tradition; Ancient Egypt; Deity; Oberlin College; Ancient Egyptian deities; Terracotta; Tomb; Basilica; Tradition; Liturgy; Monasticism; Incense; Laity; God; Theocracy; Relic; Mural; Cemetery; Archaeology; Orthodoxy; Ceremony; John Chrysostom; Christian media; Narrative; Household; Martin Classical Lectures; Routledge; Piety; Veneration; Christian demonology; The Monastery; Roman Empire; Upper Egypt; V.; Menouthis
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For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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