The Politics of Materiality and Middle Eastern Christianity

This paper examines the role and impact of Saint Catherine's monastery in the lives of eighth century Christians living in Egypt. By approaching this topic through the lens of material and embodied religion, Saint Catherine's can be identified as a sacred space as well as a tangible testament to the vitality of eighth century Christians in Egypt. This paper specifically examines the structure and location of the monastery, the Ashtiname of Muhammad, and information provided by Father Justin who currently lives at Saint Catherine's. Through these sources, the Holy Monastery is identified as a refuge for Christians in the midst of religious conflict as well as a memorialization of the deeply rooted history of migration, violence, memory, and home-making that Christians in Egypt have experienced throughout the past generations.

In the vicinity of Beirut's Bibliothèque Orientale lies a collection of archives, including those of Louis Cheikho, a leading figure in Oriental studies and manuscript collection. While Cheikho's efforts are often portrayed as mere emulation of European models, a closer examination of the manuscripts challenges this narrative. Through archival research in Beirut and Vanves, France, Cheikho's collecting emerges as a quest to establish a religious and linguistic education framework, grounded in modernity and secularism. His diaries from 1914 to 1918 offer profound insights into the manuscripts' journey during wartime, reflecting on their significance amidst religious and cultural upheaval. This study highlights the intricate interplay between faith, identity, and cultural preservation, emphasizing the pivotal role of manuscripts as repositories of collective memory and agents of societal transformation.

This paper traces discourses on revolutionary politics in the Coptic Orthodox Church during the early Egyptian Republic (est. 1953). I argue that Egypt’s 1952 coup resonated with a Coptic community grappling with material corruption and spiritual decay, prompting a transformation of communal politics and religious thought in line with the period’s revolutionary ethos. This manifested in a populist wave in elections for the Coptic Communal Council and papacy that called for new blood, with a preference for younger candidates whose credentials were piety, spirituality, and ascetism rather than administrative experience. This was accompanied by a communal discourse that emphasized the affinities between socialism and Christianity, with clergy in particular arguing that Christianity constituted the origins of socialism in its purest form. While both currents were apparently inspired by the revolutionary period’s antiestablishment trajectory, I argue that their result was the incorporation of the Coptic Church into the ermerging authoritarian state.