The Copts and the West, 1439-1822 : The European Discovery of the Egyptian Church

This first full study of the subject discusses how 17C Catholic missionaries tried to force the Copts (Egyptian members of the Church of Alexandria) into union with the Church of Rome, and the slow accumulation of knowledge of Coptic beliefs, undertaken by Catholics and Protestants. Includes a survey of the study of the Coptic language in the West. - ;In seventeenth-century Europe the Copts, or the Egyptian members of the Church of Alexandria, were widely believed to hold the key to an ancient wisdom and an ancient theology. Their language was thought to lead to the deciphering of the hieroglyphs and their Church to retain traces of early Christian practices as well as early Egyptian customs. This book, the first full-length study of the subject, discusses the attempts of Catholic missionaries to force the Church of Alexandria
into union with the Church of Rome and the slow accumulation of knowledge of Coptic beliefs, undertaken by Catholics and Protestants. It ends with a survey of the study of the Coptic language in the West and of the uses to which it was put by Biblical scholars, antiquarians, theologians and
Egyptologists. - ;For anyone interested in the earlier Coptic diaspora that Hamilton studies...this is a fascinating book. - Tim Vivian, Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, Vol. 48 (1-2);...this scholarly and very readable work fills an important gap in Coptic studies and draws together a number of historic strands which are only alluded to briefly in other works. - The Glastonbury Review, Issue 115

Keywords: RELIGION / General REL000000