Conflict in Coptic Culture (CCC). Forming Religious Identity in Early Egyptian Christianity

The project studies Christian literature and culture in 5–14th century Egypt. Egyptian Christians, called Copts, produced a vast corpus of writings about fighting spiritual and religious enemies.

Conflict was thus a pivotal concept to the Copts, but it has never been subjected to a full study.This project will provide the first ever all-round analysis of the importance of the theme of conflict to the orthodox Coptic Christian identity, ideology, and self-image. It will be conducted by a team of three researchers from Uppsala and Basel Universities over four years.

An initial data-gathering period will be followed by three subsequent research stages: Connecting the literary production to historical circumstances; assessing how enemies such as the devil or Jews were crafted, described or demonised; and clarifying the intended audience and impact of conflict literature.

In processing the material, critical close reading will be combined with comparative and contextual philological methods, historical analysis and social identity theory.The study of conflict is vital for a full understanding of Coptic and early Christian culture.

The project will also illuminate the role of literature and rhetoric as tools of social manipulation and why conflict may become a major cultural issue.

The same tainting of minorities etc. as enemies for social and political purposes seen in Mediaeval Christian Egypt are observable and relevant also in modern societies, including our own.