num_pages: 344
description: Christianity arrived early in Egypt brought according to tradition by Saint Mark the Evangelist who became the first patriarch of Alexandria. The Coptic Orthodox Church has flourished ever since with millions of adherents both in Egypt and in Coptic communities around the world. Since its split from the Byzantine Church in 451 the Coptic Church has proudly maintained its early traditions and influence from outside has been the liturgy is still sung to unique rhythms in Coptic a late stage of the same ancient Egyptian language that is inscribed in hieroglyphs on temple walls and papyri. Dr. Otto Meinardus a leading authority on the history of the Coptic Church here revises updates and combines his renowned studies Christian Egypt Ancient and Modern (The American University in Cairo Press 1965 1977) and Christian Egypt Faith and Life (The American University in Cairo Press 1970) into a new definitive one-volume history for the Millennium surveying the twenty centuries of existence of one of the oldest churches in the world.
language: English
title: Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity
publisher: The American University in Cairo Press