SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

on both sides of the debate are still studying it and some of their constituents are vehemently opposed to it. It is hoped that a union in faith can be forged so the Orthodox Churches can meaningfully meet with the Roman Catholic Church to eventually unify the faith of the Apostolic Churches. It is very promising that such classes are offered at UCLA and our children are participating in it. The hope is for more and more of these classes and better and better representation from our Coptic youth. Coptic Legal Texts: The only paper in this category and the first one to be presented in this branch of Coptic Studies in our conferences was by Dr. Monica Bontty, Los Angeles. It was titled: Papyrus LACMA No. M.4812 , and was read by Mr. Douglas Wilkinson in her absence. The paper dealt with this unpublished palimpsest papyrus, containing different portions of private letters. It is preserved in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles. The presentation was an abridged version of the original paper to cater to the audience. The original paper however included a codicological description and analysis of the manuscript as well as a commentary on its contents primarily from a grammarian perspective. The major portion of the manuscript is a semi-cursive letter, containing a type of invoice or a promissory note from one person to another for the delivery of goods (wheat and wine) to him. The language of the texts is Sahidic. Coptic Literature & Patristics: The first presentation in this category was by Mr. Thomas Murphy, New York, titled: The Role of Christ in the Christology of Apa Shenoute . It was delivered in the Saturday late morning session. This presentation dealt with a topic that the audience were treated to in earlier conferences, St. Shenouda's sermon, I am Amazed . However, this time the emphasis was placed on the profound theology found in this work, contrary to what the early scholars said about St. Shenouda's work being Christless. The work was a discourse against heretical teachings that were present in

the area of the monastery. St. Shenouda's approach was the typical patristic method of combating such false teaching, which is to use biblical evidence as well as those of the early Church fathers like St. Athanasius and St. Cyril. The presenter work was based on his Master Thesis about the subject, given at the Union Theological Seminary in New York. His primary sources were based on the work of Tito Orlandi and Alois Grillmeier, which references this Sahidic Discourse. It is worthy of note that such work deservingly brought the mention of Prof. Emmel's monumental dissertation on compiling the literary Corpus of our Saint. An accomplishment that put Shenoutian Studies to the forefront. The last presentation in this category was given by Prof. Boulos Ayad Ayad on the First Saturday afternoon session. It was titled, The History and Literature of the Ancient Egyptian and Coptic Languages . It dealt with the type of literature found in Egyptian, their subject matter, their function, and their format. A similar survey was given for the literature that was found later in Coptic. These showed diversity in subject matter, but still they were primarily Christian or more specifically ecclesiastical. Among the Christian subjects were, biblical, patristic, hagiographic, liturgical, as well as gnostic, apocryphal, magical, scientific, and documentary. Eventually these texts were translated in part to Arabic and later to Ethiopian. Coptic Monasticism: Rev. Dr. Tim Vivian was the lone contributor in this field this year. His paper dealt with the voluntary poverty in Early Egyptian Monasticism. In it he explored, through early Egyptian monastic literature, the many examples found about this virtue. Examples were mostly in praise of its practice or as admonition against the practices that did not incorporate it. To the fathers, the love of possession was a form of Idolatry, it brought arrogance, led to greed, and more importantly deprived them from God help. Because you can serve God or mammon (or possession), but not both. Papyri evidence tells

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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