Egyptian Christianity

From time to time I come across people who refer to Christianity as “the white man’s religion.” Such persons know very little history. Africa has had a greater influence on Christianity than many Western countries. Doctrinal definitions of orthodoxy like the Trinity, emerged through a process that began in Africa, and more specifically in Egypt.

Out of the African ethos came a great hunger to follow the consensus of the New Testament canonical writers. The New Testament was written all around the Mediterranean, but the canonization process took place as a result of decisions taken in Africa. Even the Old Testament Jesus used was translated in Africa (The Septuagint – a Greek translation).

From its inception, Christianity was nurtured on the African continent. The Middle East and African origins of Christianity emphasized the communal nature of the Christian faith - so unlike the individualism that is prevalent in today’s American Christianity.

In the early centuries of Christianity, it was the Africans who understood what it meant to die for the faith. Their sacrificial lifestyles, models of mutual care, and pursuit of spiritual community continue to teach us in these days of compromise and “easy believe-ism”.

The great tradition of philosophy and theological scholarship that distinguished Alexandria in the age of Origen and Clement was swept away by the invasion of Islam in the seventh century, while elsewhere in North Africa, Christianity left only relics and fading memories as Muslim forces moved in to assert control.

However, because of the rural roots of Coptic Christianity in Egypt, many believers escaped the barbarianism of the Muslims. “Coptic” means “Egyptian,” and Christians living in Egypt identify themselves as Coptic Christians.

As a denomination, they originated in the city of Alexandria, one of the most faithful, respected, and fruitful cities during the Apostolic Period. Proudly, the Coptic Christians acknowledge and herald John Mark, (author of the Gospel of Mark), as their founder and first bishop sometime between A.D. 42 - A.D. 62.

This is the same Coptic Church that has been in the news recently and had been persecuted by former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s Islamic regime. It was this Islamic regime that openly persecuted Coptic Christians with impunity.

Egypt’s Christians have celebrated the Egyptian Army’s decision to force president Morsi out of power and set up a new government, after some

30 million Egyptians took to the streets to demand Morsi’s ouster. The June 30 protests sponsored by the Tamarod (“Rebel”) movement are being called the largest mass demonstration in world history.

The fall from power of former President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood could prove a decisive moment for the future of Coptic Christianity in Egypt. Since the Muslim Brotherhood took power, the situation of Egypt’s Christians had deteriorated rapidly. Not only had attacks on Christian communities rapidly increased under Morsi, but churches had been attacked or bombed.

In an unprecedented move, Islamists besieged St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo, the heart of Coptic Orthodoxy, in broad daylight. More than 500 Christian women were kidnapped to face forced conversion, rape or forced marriage. Under the authoritarian rule of the former regime, Christians in Egypt experienced the worst suffering in more than sixty years.

Egypt is still in crisis, in that having been ousted, the Muslim Brotherhood has instigated protests and refuses to sit at the table to form an interim government. The willingness of Christians to discuss an interim government with the military is now cause for further targeting by radical Islamists.

In the early centuries of Christianity, Egypt gave the world great thinkers like Clement, Origen and Athanasius – today, our brothers and sisters in Egypt need our help. Actually, we need their help also. We need to understand and appreciate more of what it means to live in community as believers. The challenges of post-modernism require less cerebral and more demonstrative Christianity.

That demonstrative Christianity was what Paul encouraged when Christians were suffering in Jerusalem. He challenged the churches in Galatia, Macedonia and Corinth to provide practical assistance to those who pioneered the faith (See 2 Corinthians 8:1-9:5).

If you would care to know more about the impact of African Christianity, here are two helpful resources you may want to access: www.worldwatchlist.us and Thomas Oden’s volume – How Africa Shaped The Christian Mind (exploring the role of African Christians and theologians in shaping the doctrines and practices of the church in the first 500 years).