July 20-21, 2018
Presentations @ UCLA, Royce Hall Room 314,
Registration Fee (Suggested Contributions):
Click here for online registration. Registration fees to paid at the door. If you would like to make a contribution to the cost of the conference, click here.
Schedule: The following is the tentative schedule for the conference:
Friday, July 20, 2018
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9:00-10:00 a.m. |
Registration |
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10:00-10:05a.m. |
Opening Remarks by Dr. Kathlyn Cooney (UCLA) |
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10:05-10:30 a.m. |
Hany N. Takla, Kitab al Durug by Patriarch John XVIII: Survey of SSACS ML.MS.207 |
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10:30-11:00 a.m. |
Rev. Edens Elvéus, A
Critical Comparative Analysis of Genesis 1:1-5 based on Hebrew, Greek, and
Coptic Manuscripts |
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11:00-11:15 a.m. |
Break |
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11:15-11:45 a.m. |
Prof. Salim Faraji, Osirian Motifs in the Martyrdom of St. Peter of Alexandria |
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11:45 am-12:15 pm |
Ms. Tamara Siuda, Challenges in Contemporary Coptic Martyrology |
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12:15-1:30 p.m. |
Lunch Recess |
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1:30-2:00 p.m. |
Dr. Janet Timbie, The Education of Shenoute and Other Cenobitic Leaders: New Sources and New Interpretations |
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2:00-2:30 p.m. |
Prof. Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom, ‘Unless I Have a Bed, I Can't Sleep Here’: An Archaeology of Monastic Sleeping |
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2:30-3:00 p.m. |
Fr. Theodore Labib, The Development of the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Alexandria over Egypt from the First to the Fourth Centuries |
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3:00-3:15 p.m. |
Break |
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3:15-3:45 p.m. |
Raafat Youssef, The
Architectural, Engineering, and Construction Features for St. Mark Cathedral
in Abbasiah Neighborhood, Cairo, Egypt |
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3:45-4:15 p.m. |
Ms. Mary Ghattas, The Lure of Egypt for Oriental Orthodox
Diasporas |
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4:15-4:45 p.m. |
Dr. Youhanna N. Youssef, The Readings for the Eucharist-Bride
Ceremony |
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7:30-8:30 p.m. |
Hany N. Takla, Tour of the new Coptic Cultural Museum at
the St. Shenouda Center for Coptic Studies, located at 1494 So. Robertson
Blvd, LA, CA 90035, Ste 200. |
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Saturday, July 21, 2018
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8:30-9:30 a.m. |
Registration |
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9:30-10:00 a.m. |
Hany N. Takla, The Journey
Continues -The State of the Society 2017-2018 |
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10:00-10:30 a.m. |
Dr. George Ghaly, Pseudepigrapha in Coptic Liturgical Text: The Memoirs of Job |
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10:30 – 11:00 a.m. |
Dr. Mohamed Saleh & Ms.
Claire Galez-Davis, Fertility and Child Mortality Before the Demographic
Transition: Religion or Income? Evidence from Nineteenth-Century Egypt |
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11:00-11:15 a.m. |
Break |
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11:15-11:45 a.m. |
Prof. Carolyn Schroeder, Coptic Literature in a Digital Age: New Models for Scholarship |
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11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. |
Dr. Lillian Larsen, ‘On Learning a New Alphabet’: Female
Teachers and Students in Coptic Monasticism |
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12:15 - 1:30 p.m. |
Lunch Recess |
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1:30-2:00 p.m. |
TBA |
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2:00-2:30 p.m. |
Prof. Tim Vivian, Habits of the Heart: Some Coptic
Sayings of St. Antony the Great from Vatican Copt 64, A Meditation |
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2:30-2:45 p.m. |
Break |
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2:45-3:15 p.m. |
Prof. Gawdat Gabra, The Crisis of Coptic Studies and the Identity
of the Copts |
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3:15-4:00 a.m. |
Prof. Mark Swanson, Buṭrus
al-Sadamantī’s The Story of Babnūdah: The eventful career of a
hidden servant |
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4:00-4:15 p.m. |
Break/Pictures |
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4:15-5:00 p.m. |
Business Meeting of the Members of St. Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society. |
The Conference will be located on the Campus of the
Coming from the south or from the Santa Monica Freeway:
Take the 405 N, Exit Wilshire East (Bear to the right at the exit)
Turn Right on Wilshire Blvd.
Turn Left on Westwood Ave. (the 3rd traffic light after exiting the fwy)
Turn Right on Leconte Ave
then turn Left on Hilgard Ave (the second light after turning into Le Conte
Turn Left on Westholme Drive, then turn right immediately in a driveway to the
information kiosk.
Request parking in Lot #2, parking is $12 per day, Saturday $8,
Handicap $5and mention that you attending the 15th St. Shenouda - UCLA
Conference of Coptic Studies at Royce Hall.
The attendant at the booth can direct you to Royce Hall.
Enter in the left-most door of Royce Hall and take the elevator up to the third
floor (Room #314).
Coming from the north (The
Take the 405 S, Exit Sunset East
Turn Left on Sunset Blvd.
Turn Right on Hilgard Ave.
Turn Right on
Request parking in
The attendant at the booth can direct you to Royce Hall as indicated above.
Enter in the left-most door of Royce Hall and take the elevator up to the third
floor (Room #314).
Title: Unless I have a Bed, I Can't Sleep Here: An Archaeology of Monastic Sleeping
Presenter: Prof. Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom
Abstract
Sleeping is one of the fundamental activities
that humans share, regardless of time and culture, and yet, the topic is rarely
considered a subject for historical inquiry. In this paper I will consider the
archaeological of sleeping within the monastic communities of late antique
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Title: A Critical Comparative Analysis of Genesis 1:1-5 based on Hebrew, Greek, and Coptic Manuscripts
Presenter: Rev. Edens Elvéus
Abstract
Most of the original books that formed the Hebrew Bible canon in both Christianity and Judaism were composed originally in Hebrew. The Book of Genesis is not exempt from this Hebraic category. It is not everybody of the ancient world who spoke Hebrew, so then, translations had to be carried out throughout the centuries. For instance, the Hebrew text was translated into Greek, namely, the Septuagint (LXX). The Christians of Egypt took over this Greek translation as Holy Scripture, and later it formed the basis for the translation of the Old Testament books into Coptic [The Coptic Encyclopedia (CE:380b-381b)].
A translation of Genesis 1:1-5 may seem to be both close and far at the same time from the original Hebrew text because of theological, historical, geographical, cultural, philological, and linguistic reasons. The scribes who translated the biblical story of the creation of light from Hebrew to a lingua franca of their time had a translation technique. They knew what they were doing, and why they chose these terms in relation to the original text. Their worldview had a great influence upon their intercultural communication.
After presenting a history of translations, the second chapter of my book will be a textual analysis of the Hebrew Masoretic text of Gen. 1:1-5. This will include an engagement with the critical apparatus of the Hebrew Bible [The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia]. A big part of my work will be devoted to a critical consideration of the Septuagint version of Gen. 1:1-5. Moreover, the story of the creation of light according to the native Egyptian (Bohairic) manuscript will be scrutinized. My research will not be focused on the interpretation of Genesis 1:1-5, but how its Hebrew original text was translated into other languages, including Greek and Coptic, and what are the similarities and differences between them.
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Title: Osirian Motifs in the
Martyrdom of St. Peter of
Presenter: Prof. Salim Faraji
Abstract
The ancient Egyptian deity Osiris was the preeminent god of resurrection
throughout the history of ancient Egyptian civilization. For Egyptian
Christians it would have been effortless for them to have applied the concept
of Osirian death and resurrection that had existed in their culture for over
three thousand years to the new Christian ideology of resurrection. The
Martyrdom of St. Peter Alexandria suggests that Peter was regarded as an
Osirian figure and upon his death the various post-mortem rituals attest to the
reverence of not only a deceased bishop, but a transfigured Pharaoh. The
episode of Peter's death in the Martyrdom is an example of acculturation in early
Egyptian Christianity and therefore demonstrates the manner in which Christian
traditions in
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Title: The Crisis of Coptic Studies and the Identity of the Copts
Presenter: Prof. Gawdat Gabra
Abstract
The decades spanning between the 1960s and the
1990s are of special importance for the promotion of Coptic Studies. Those
decades witnessed a remarkable progress in the study of the Coptic Gnostic
codices, the spread of the archaeological field work and carefully recorded
excavations in many Coptic sites, the discovery of beautiful Coptic wall
paintings in a number of Coptic Monasteries, the establishment of the
International Association for Coptic Studies, and the publication of the Coptic
Encyclopedia. Thus, the discipline of Coptology flourished under such academic
terms as Coptic heritage, Coptic history, Coptic art and Archaeology, Coptic
literature, and Copto-arabic literature. On the other hand, the increasing
interest in the scientific disciplines in the past thirty years led to the
abandonment of departments of Coptic studies in a number of European
universities. Furthermore, no remarkable
progress has been made in the field in
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Title: Pseudepigrapha in Coptic Liturgical Text: The Memoirs of Job
Presenter: Dr. George Ghaly
Abstract
This presentation will explore an obscure paschal text used liturgically within the modern era. The text describes apocryphal content not found into the biblical narrative of Job. We will explore possible origins for the liturgical text. We will also explore the folklore customs associated with the Memoirs of Job.
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Title: The Lure of
Presenter: Ms. Mary Ghattas
Abstract
The Oriental Orthodox churches are a group of
sister churches that do not recognize the 451 CE Council of
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Title: The Development of
the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of
Presenter: Fr. Theodore Labib
Abstract
“Let the ancient customs in
By the time the Bishops of the Empire had
gathered in
Examining
several primary and secondary sources on the topic, it is observed that from
the first to the fourth centuries, the hierarchical structure of the
Phase 1: From
the coming of Mark the Evangelist to
Phase 2: From the patriarchate of Demetrius (AD 189-232) to the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 during the patriarchate of Alexander (AD 312-328). This is the period of the emergence of the Egyptian ecclesial hierarchy.
Phase 3: From
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Title: ‘On Learning a New Alphabet’: Female Teachers and Students in Coptic Monasticism
Presenter: Prof. Lillian Larsen
Abstract
While women's roles as teachers in later monasticism are well documented, less consistent interest has been directed towards exploring the shape of women’s pedagogical investments in the earliest periods of monastic life. In addressing this lacuna, the present paper argues that recognizing the shape of women’s education in the primary layers of monastic source material remains foundational to more precise identification of women’s involvement in a longer teaching legacy. Likewise, the emergent contours of Egyptian practice usefully elucidate and balance registers of female investment within a broader pedagogical and monastic frame.
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Title: Fertility and Child
Mortality Before the Demographic Transition: Religion or Income? Evidence from
Nineteenth-Century
Presenter: Dr. Mohamed Saleh, Ms. Claire Galez-Davis
Abstract
There is a dearth of evidence on the determinants
of fertility and child mortality before the demographic transition, especially
outside North America and
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Title: Coptic Literature in a Digital Age: New Models for Scholarship
Presenter: Prof. Carolyn Schroeder
Abstract
Digital media is transforming publishing, the news media, and even Coptic studies. This paper will provide a report on the latest developments in the online, open source project Coptic Scriptorium. In doing so, it will argue for the necessity of collaborative partnerships for research in a digital age. Coptic Scriptorium digitizes, annotates, and publishes Coptic literature in an open source, accessible online environment. Such work enables new ways of reading Coptic literature: text hyperlinked to an online dictionary; computational queries of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax; original text aligned with a modern translation; and many more. Such work faces obstacles at the same time it heralds promise. This paper will demonstrate the ways digital scholarship can transform Coptic Studies while also documenting the challenges to such work. As part of its emphasis on collaboration, this presentation will be in part collaborative itself, encouraging participation from and soliciting dialogue with conference participants.
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Title: Challenges in Contemporary Coptic Martyrology
Presenter: Ms. Tamara Siuda
Abstract
While Coptic martyrdom, and martyrology in multiple forms, has never ceased, the availability and accessibility of reliable source material on individual martyrs and martyrdoms varies significantly over millennia. Despite the seeming advances of modern media and a global Coptic community, challenges in collecting, interpreting, and disseminating martyr narratives for those Coptic martyrs from St. Sidhom Bishay to the present day - a collection of martyrs truly worthy of remembrance - are greater in some ways than for martyrs who received their crowns even centuries before.
Hundreds of Coptic martyrs, under both Pope Shenouda III (1971-2012) and Pope Tawadros II (2012-present), are unevenly documented in any language. Because of this lack of documentation, whether or not these marytrs can be uniformly remembered or documented is questionable. While the study of Egyptian and/or Christian mass media can be of assistance in understanding more about contemporary Coptic martyrs, reliance upon mass media alone is problematic for multiple reasons, and in any case, a martyrology will never be created solely from a newspaper headline. When scholars are unable to acquire reliable, correct sources, or cannot properly evaluate the sources they can locate, our body of knowledge on Coptic martyrs simply cannot grow.
This paper will discuss the various issues in contemporary Coptic martyrology and suggest some ways to overcome them. I also hope to use this presentation as a starting point to ask for the Coptic community’s help in achieving a better understanding of the most recent Coptic martyrs, as well as the living traditions of martyrology they are just beginning to enter.
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Title: Buṭrus al-Sadamantī’s The Story of Babnūdah: The eventful career of a hidden servant
Presenter: Prof. Mark Swanson
Abstract
The Coptic Orthodox
monk and priest Buṭrus al-Sadamantī composed a number of powerful
works in Arabic towards the middle of the 13th century CE, among
them a set of three “instructive lives” which are unique in their literary
form—not quite hagiography and not quite ascetical discourse, but
simultaneously edifying and entertaining.
At last year’s St. Shenouda conference, I introduced the new edition of these lives by Bishop Epiphanios of the Monastery of St. Macarios (Siyar taʿlīmiyyah, Dār Majallat Marqus, 2016), and argued that the lives were Buṭrus’ compositions in Arabic rather than translations from Coptic. This year’s presentation will address one of the three lives, The Story of Babnūdah al‑Mitradī, in order to examine (a) Buṭrus’ literary artistry, especially in the interplay of hiddenness and manifestation; (b) Buṭrus’ ascetical teaching, especially as he seeks to make it accessible to and practical for lay people; (c) Buṭrus’ theological discourse, both in his making common cause with Islamic kalām and in his insistence on the particularities of Christian faith.
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Title: Kitab al Durug by Patriarch John XVIII: Survey of SSACS ML.MS.207
Presenter: Mr. Hany N. Takla
Abstract
The St. Shenouda Society acquired a very rare Arabic manuscript in early 2016, containg the Kitab al-Durug of Patriarch John XVIII. This book is a collection of encyclical letters of this late 18th century Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church along with some works of his immediate predecessor on the throne of St. Mark. The manuscript is unique in its contents, age, scribe, and owner. This paper will survey these aspects of the manuscripts and compare the contents with the earliest known copy of this manuscript, preserved at the Cairo Patriarchal Library, written by the same scribe just three years earlier!
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Title: The Education of Shenoute and Other Cenobitic Leaders: New Sources and New Interpretations
Presenter: Dr. Janet Timbie
Abstract
Monastic texts, including rules, sermons, and letters, written in the fourth and fifth centuries by Pachomius (d. 346) and his successors, and by Shenoute (d. 465) and Besa, provide some information about the education of Coptic-speaking monks who joined their communities. Many details in the texts indicate that monks in the Pachomian Koinonia and the White Monastery Federation came from a range of socioeconomic levels and their social status might align with their pre-monastic level of education. But the study of education inside and outside these monasteries is complicated by a language question, since the fourth and fifth centuries also saw the rise of written Coptic for both literary and non-literary material. Was monolingual Coptic education available, or was bilingual Greek-Coptic education the norm? Which type was the norm inside the monasteries? New evidence and a re-examination of older material may offer some help toward answering these questions.
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Title: Habits of the Heart:
Some Coptic Sayings of St. Antony the Great from
Presenter: Prof. Tim Vivian
Abstract
A camel, a horse, a troupe of pigs rising from
the waters of the Nile; an ostrich with its young; genuflecting crocodiles;
souls flying up to heaven, a malevolent giant stopping some of them; a female
monk who has transgressed; a dummy dressed up like a monk with demons attacking
it; fiery lamps and a chorus of angels. These “characters” in Coptic sayings
attributed to St.
But the central element that informs each human life is the habits of the heart. In Coptic, het means both “heart” and “mind.” Thus, Coptic does not share the Western dualism between intellect and emotion, as if each existed independent of the other. In the thirty sayings discussed here forms of het occur twenty-five times, sometimes obscured by the necessary English renderings. Moreover, in the sayings here, the heart is not a lonely hunter; the heart has other hearts within community. Early monastic communities had spiritual teachers, guides, to help discern the heart’s habits. A pre-eminent guide was Abba Antony.
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Title: The Architectural,
Engineering, and Construction Features for St. Mark Cathedral in Abbasiah
Neighborhood,
Presenter: Mr. Raafat Youssef
Abstract
As we are celebrating the 50th anniversay of the
opening of St. Mark Cathedral in
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Title: The
Presenter: Dr. Youhanna N. Youssef
Abstract
In this paper we will overview the reading system in the Coptic Church. We will discuss the different editions of the matrimony rite. We will make a classification of the available manuscripts of this rite and the other sources. We will conclude with a comparison with readings of the matrimony and the reading of the liturgy following this rite and brief commentaries.
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Prepared by Hany N. Takla, July 9, 2018
For more information contact: info@stshenouda.org