Nezvítězí, kdo nebojuje
Who does not fight will not win

Patriarch Shenoute III of Alexandria and the dispute over the deification of man

Author(s): Jaroslav Franc
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, History of Religion
Published by: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci
Keywords: Coptic Christianity; Egypt
Summary/Abstract: The Church is essentially both human and divine. It is a sign of hope in which mysteries of God are revealed within the reality of human cultures. Among the main characteristics of Coptic Christianity is a tendency to the profound spirituality; the spirituality between the culture of city and the culture of desert. Throughout history the Egyptian Christian tradition has adopted Coptic, Greek and Arabic culture. From the nineteenth century onwards, also the cultural influences of modern Europe has been intensified. It brought to Egypt new theological impulses. The doctrine of the deification of man was in the second half of the twentieth century promoted in Egypt by Matthew the Poor and his disciples. And soon it became the subject of a theological dispute. It is significant for the time of cultural exchange that among the main impulses there was a compilation of texts on prayer written in English by Lazarus Moore. It actually determined the framework of his theological thinking. Among his opponents there was his former pupil and further Alexandrian patriarch Pope Shenouda III. The presented work might be described as a follow up of the already published monograph on Matthew the Poor. It presents a theological analysis of the work of the Alexandrian Patriarch Shenouda III with the focus on his critique of the doctrine of the deification of man. The analysis is a search for the causes of the dispute over the doctrine of the deification of man and it also presents the results within the context of newly emerging cultural paradigms of Coptic Christianity.

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