November 24, 2010

The Synergy between Coptic Spirituality and Liturgy and the 13th Century Wall Paintings, St Anthony's Old Church, Monastery of St Anthony, Red Sea

by Helene Moussa - St Mark’s Coptic Museum, Scarborough



The paintings in the Old St. Anthony’s Church are the most complete and best preserved examples of 13th century Coptic art. They are considered “masterpieces.”  The paintings were “uncovered” in 1999 as a result of an extensive three years cleaning and conservation program funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and managed by the American Research Centre in Egypt (ARCE) in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Monastery. In addition to conservation, an important part of the project has been comprehensive documentation including a publication: Monastic Visions – The Wall Paintings in the Monastery of St. Anthony at the Red Sea, edited by Elizabeth Bolman (2002).  The paintings were not seen for at least 400 years. The majority of the paintings were part of a single program with inscriptions dating according to the Coptic calendar, AM 949 (anno martirorum)—  AD1233. Inscriptions also indicate that the paintings were initially executed by a Coptic team under the supervision of the master painter, also a Copt named “Theodore” who described himself as the zographis  —“the writer of life.” While one can study the conservation accomplishments that have rendered these paintings visible to us, or Coptic medieval iconographic development, the paper will “walk through” the church to illustrate how place and space in this church were carefully constructed to celebrate Coptic identity and spirituality in the liturgical life of the monks and faithful.

November 3, 2010

The Birth of Death Imagery in Baptismal Theology in East Syria

by Paul Smith, BA, ThM, ThD student (Wycliffe College)



Older scholarship worked under the assumption that a Romans 6 model of baptism, revolving around the death and resurrection of Christ, was the dominant baptismal model of the early church.  A more careful reading of the sources has led modern scholars to replace this view with a more nuanced view which saw both a Romans 6 model as well as a “Johannine” theology of   baptism as a new birth.  Under this new model, East Syria’s baptismal theology exclusively revolved around new birth imagery until (ca. 399-ca. 502 CE), under the influence of West Syria, especially Jerusalem, death imagery was introduced. It will be argued that this model needs to be slightly revised.  While it is true that new birth imagery is the dominant East Syrian image for    baptism, it is not the exclusive image.  Death imagery appears in both Aphrahat (ca. 270-ca. 345 CE) and Ephrem (ca. 306-373 CE), almost a hundred years before Narsai.