The early Coptic papacy : the Egyptian church and its leadership in late antiquity / Stephen J. Davis.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-180) and index.

Machine derived contents note: One The Succession of St. Mark: -- Apostolic Traditions and the Origins of the -- Egyptian Church (Saint Mark to Demetrius) -- Traditions about Saint Mark and the Founding -- of the Church in Egypt 2 -- The Earliest Successors of Saint Mark: -- Apostolic Lineage and Orthodox Self-Definition 14 -- -- Two Bishops, Teachers, and Martyrs: -- The Shaping of Episcopal Authority in an -- Age of Persecution (Demetrius to Peter I) 21 -- The Bishop of Alexandria and the -- Alexandrian Catechetical School 22 -- The "Church of the Martyrs": Episcopal -- Leadership in an Age of Persecution 28 -- -- Three Theological Controversy and the Cultivation of -- Monastic Support: The Alexandrian Patriarchate -- from 312 to 451 (Achillas to Dioscorus I) 43 -- Alexander, Athanasius, and the Arian -- Controversy in Egypt 47 -- Theophilus' Anti-Pagan Campaign and the -- Battle over Origen's Legacy 63 -- Cyril, Dioscorus, and the Controversy over -- Christ 70 -- -- Four Contesting the Alexandrian Papacy: -- Ecclesiastical "Colonialism" and the Egyptian -- Church from 451 to the Rise of Islam -- (Dioscorus I to Benjamin I) 85 -- The Politics of Resistance and Compromise: -- Early Conflicts with the "Imperial" -- (Chalcedonian) Church 88 -- A Period of Internal and Inter-Regional Schism 98 -- New Colonial Rivals and the End of Byzantine -- Rule in Egypt 112.

The Copts, adherents of the Egyptian Orthodox Church, today represent the largest Christian community in the Middle East, and their presiding bishops have been accorded the title of pope since the third century A.D. This major new three-volume study of the popes of Egypt covers the history of the Alexandrian patriarchate from its origins to the present-day leadership of Pope Shenouda III. The first volume analyzes the development of the Egyptian papacy from its origins to the rise of Islam. How did the papal office in Egypt evolve as a social and religious institution during the first six and a half centuries A.D.? How do the developments in the Alexandrian patriarchate reflect larger developments in the Egyptian church as a whole - in its structures of authority and lines of communication, as well as in its social and religious practices? In addressing such questions, Stephen J. Davis examines a wide range of evidence - letters, sermons, theological treatises, and church histories, as well as art, artifacts, and archaeological remains - to discover what the patriarchs did as leaders, how their leadership was represented in public discourses, and how those representations definitively shaped the Egyptian Christian identity in late antiquity.