Ethiopian Christianity

Ethiopian Christianity

Author: Philip Francis Esler

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781481306744

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In Ethiopian Christianity Philip Esler presents a rich and comprehensive history of Christianity's flourishing. But Esler is ever careful to situate this growth in the context of Ethiopia's politics and culture. In so doing, he highlights the remarkable uniqueness of Christianity in Ethiopia. Ethiopian Christianity begins with ancient accounts of Christianity's introduction to Ethiopia by St. Frumentius and King Ezana in the early 300s CE. Esler traces how the church and the monarchy closely coexisted, a reality that persisted until the death of Haile Selassie in 1974. This relationship allowed the emperor to consider himself the protector of Orthodox Christianity. The emperor's position, combined with Ethiopia's geographical isolation, fostered a distinct form of Christianity--one that features the inextricable intertwining of the ordinary with the sacred and rejects the two-nature Christology established at the Council of Chalcedon. In addition to his historical narrative, Esler also explores the cultural traditions of Ethiopian Orthodoxy by detailing its intellectual and literary practices, theology, and creativity in art, architecture, and music. He provides profiles of the flourishing Protestant denominations and Roman Catholicism. He also considers current challenges that Ethiopian Christianity faces--especially Orthodoxy's relations with other religions within the country, in particular Islam and the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches. Esler concludes with thoughtful reflections on the long-standing presence of Christianity in Ethiopia and hopeful considerations for its future in the country's rapidly changing politics, ultimately revealing a singular form of faith found nowhere else.


Ethiopian Christian Literature

Ethiopian Christian Literature

Author: J.M. Harden

Publisher: Dalcassian Publishing Company

Published: 2019-11-02

Total Pages: 81

ISBN-13: 1987021711

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This short volume outlines some of the basic features of Ethiopian Christian literature. J.M. Harden attempts to offer insight to the laymen regarding the structure and function of Ethiopian texts and attempts to place them within the proper literary context.


Symbolic Blackness and Ethnic Difference in Early Christian Literature

Symbolic Blackness and Ethnic Difference in Early Christian Literature

Author: Gay L Byron

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2003-10-04

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1134544006

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How were early Christians influenced by contemporary assumptions about ethnic and colour differences? Why were early Christian writers so attracted to the subject of Blacks, Egyptians, and Ethiopians? Looking at the neglected issue of race brings valuable new perspectives to the study of the ancient world; now Gay Byron's exciting work is the first to survey and theorise Blacks, Egyptians and Ethiopians in Christian antiquity. By combining innovative theory and methodology with a detailed survey of early Christian writings, Byron shows how perceptions about ethnic and color differences influenced the discursive strategies of ancient Christian authors. She demonstrates convincingly that, in spite of the contention that Christianity was to extend to all peoples, certain groups of Christians were marginalized and rendered invisible and silent. Original and pioneering, this book will inspire discussion at every level, encouraging a broader and more sophisticated understanding of early Christianity for scholars and students alike.


Paulos Milkias Dictionary of Ethiopian Christianity

Paulos Milkias Dictionary of Ethiopian Christianity

Author: Paulos Milkias

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780761852469

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This book is an authoritative, comprehensive and current resource of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo faith from its early Biblical beginnings to the present. It provides up-to-date information on a myriad of subjects, including the Ethiopian church's history, creeds, worship, doctrines, major events and individuals, literature, music, arts, and many more topics.


The Orthodox Church of Ethiopia

The Orthodox Church of Ethiopia

Author: John Binns

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2016-11-28

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1786730375

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Surrounded by steep escarpments to the north, south and east, Ethiopia has always been geographically and culturally set apart. It has the longest archaeological record of any country in the world. Indeed, this precipitous mountain land was where the human race began. It is also home to an ancient church with a remarkable legacy. The Ethiopian Church forms the southern branch of historic Christianity. It is the only pre-colonial church in sub-Saharan Africa, originating in one of the earliest Christian kingdoms-with its king Ezana (supposedly descended from the biblical Solomon) converting around 340 CE. Since then it has maintained its long Christian witness in a region dominated by Islam; today it has a membership of around forty million and is rapidly growing. Yet despite its importance, there has been no comprehensive study available in English of its theology and history. This is a large gap which this authoritative and engagingly written book seeks to fill. The Church of Ethiopia (or formally, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church) has a recognized place in worldwide Christianity as one of five non-Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches.As Dr Binns shows, it has developed a distinctive approach which makes it different from all other churches. His book explains why this happened and how these special features have shaped the life of the Christian people of Ethiopia. He discusses the famous rock-hewn churches; the Ark of the Covenant (claimed by the Church and housed in Aksum); the medieval monastic tradition; relations with the Coptic Church; co-existence with Islam; missionary activity; and the Church's venerable oral traditions, especially the discipline of qene-a kind of theological reflection couched in a unique style of improvised allegorical poetry. There is also a sustained exploration of how the Church has been forced to re-think its identity and mission as a result of political changes and upheaval following the overthrow of Haile Selassie (who ruled as Regent, 1916-1930, and then as Emperor, 1930-74) and beyond.


The Garima Gospels

The Garima Gospels

Author: Judith S. McKenzie

Publisher: Manar Al-Athar

Published: 2016-12-31

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0995494673

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The three Garima Gospels are the earliest surviving Ethiopian gospel books. They provide glimpses of lost late antique luxury gospel books and art of the fifth to seventh centuries, in the Aksumite kingdom of Ethiopia as well as in the Christian East. As this work shows, their artwork is closely related to Syriac, Armenian, Greek, and Georgian gospel books and to the art of late antique (Coptic) Egypt, Nubia, and Himyar (Yemen). Like most gospel manuscripts, the Garima Gospels contain ornately decorated canon tables which function as concordances of the different versions of the same material in the gospels. Analysis of these tables of numbered parallel passages, devised by Eusebius of Caesarea, contributes significantly to our understanding of the early development of the canonical four gospel collection. The origins and meanings of the decorated frames, portraits of the evangelists, Alexandrian circular pavilion, and unique image of the Jerusalem Temple are elucidated. The Garima texts and decoration demonstrate how a distinctive Christian culture developed in Aksumite Ethiopia, while also belonging to the mainstream late antique Mediterranean world. Lavishly illustrated in colour, this volume presents all of the Garima illuminated pages for the first time and extensive comparative material. It will be an essential resource for those studying late antique art and history, Ethiopia, eastern Christianity, New Testament textual criticism, and illuminated books.


A Companion to Medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea

A Companion to Medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea

Author: Samantha Kelly

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 606

ISBN-13: 9789004419582

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"A Companion to Medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea introduces readers to current research on major topics in the history and cultures of the Ethiopian-Eritrean region from the seventh century to the mid-sixteenth, with insights into foundational late-antique developments where appropriate. Multiconfessional in scope, it includes in its purview both the Christian kingdom and the Islamic and local-religious societies that have attracted increasing attention in recent decades, tracing their internal features, interrelations, and imbrication in broader networks stretching from Egypt and Yemen to Europe and India. Utilizing diverse source types and methodologies, its fifteen essays offer an up-to-date overview of the subject for students and nonspecialists, and are rich in material for researchers. Contributors are Alessandro Bausi, Claire Bosc-Tiessé, Antonella Brita, Amélie Chekroun, Marie-Laure Derat, Deresse Ayenachew, François-Xavier Fauvelle, Emmanuel Fritsch, Alessandro Gori, Habtemichael Kidane, Margaux Herman, Bertrand Hirsch, Samantha Kelly, Gianfrancesco Lusini, Denis Nosnitsin, and Anaïs Wion"--


Envoys of a Human God

Envoys of a Human God

Author: Andreu Martínez d'Alòs-Moner

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2015-04-14

Total Pages: 453

ISBN-13: 9004289151

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In Envoys of A Human God Andreu Martínez offers a comprehensive study of the religious mission led by the Society of Jesus in Christian Ethiopia. The mission to Ethiopia was one of the most challenging undertakings carried out by the Catholic Church in early modern times. The book examines the period of early Portuguese contacts with the Ethiopian monarchy, the mission’s main developments and its aftermath, with the expulsion of the Jesuit missionaries. The study profits from both an intense reading of the historical record and the fruits of recent archaeological research. Long-held historiographical assumptions are challenged and the importance of cultural and socio-political factors in the attraction and ultimate estrangement between European Catholics and Ethiopian Christians is highlighted.


The Ethiopian Orthodox Church's Tradition on the Holy Cross

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church's Tradition on the Holy Cross

Author: Getatchew Haile

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2017-10-02

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 9004352511

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The Ethiopian Orthodox Church’s Tradition on the Holy Cross is a volume that combines both ancient and derived Ethiopic literature on the Cross. The work brings together all the major sources from manuscripts preserved in different monasteries and edited and translated into English. The sources include homilies by Minas bishop of Aksum, John Chrysostom, James of Sarug, as well as a number of anonymous authors, all translated from Greek during the Aksumite era. The derived literature includes works by the famous men of the pen, including the fifteenth-century Abba Giyorgis of Sägla and Emperor Zär’a Ya‘ǝqob. Poetic hymns to the Cross constitute a part of the collection, one of these being glorification of the Cross by Abba Baḥrǝy, author of several important works.