Coptic philosophy

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

There are no original works of

Greek origin and many are anonymous.[1] Mostly they deal with ethics and are treated like wisdom literature.[1] Only a few texts have been edited and published.[1]

Among the named philosophers quoted in Coptic are

Gnostic teaching.[1][2] Many leaves of a Coptic manuscript consisting of philosophical texts, fables with Christian interpretations and explicitly Christian texts survive dispersed between libraries in Vienna and London. The manuscript was probably compiled in Akhmim, a centre of Greek learning into the 6th century and also a late redoubt of Egyptian paganism.[2]
One of the anonymous sayings from the Vienna fragments that cannot be identified with any Greek text is this:

It is better to do good to a dog and a lion than to feed a thankless person. When the dog and the lion become tame, they remain friends of those who feed them. The disorderly person not only does not remain a friend but you will find that when you are doing him a favour, he is trying to rob your house and deliver you into the hands of your enemies.[2]

Although many writings of the Church Fathers contain extensive philosophizing, few of these are known to have been translated into Coptic.[1] The most notable is Gregory of Nyssa's De anima et resurrectione, a piece of philosophical theology that includes references to Plato's Phaedrus.[1] The native Coptic saint Shenoute also references Plato in his writings.[1] Some philosophy, or at least Plato, seems to have been a standard part of a Coptic education in the first centuries AD.[2]

Conflicting Coptic attitudes to Greek philosophy are apparent in several sources.

hagiographic Life of Anthony portrays its subject as an implacable foe of the philosophers.[4]

Some later Copts wrote philosophy or philosophical theology in

Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī.[5]

In modern times, and especially with the strong French and British influence during the colonial period, there was a resurgence of Coptic philosophical writing. Two notable examples of modern Coptic philosophers are Bishop Gregorius (General Bishop of Higher Studies)[6] and Zakariyya Ibrahim.[7]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kuhn (1991).
  2. ^ a b c d Alcock (n.d.).
  3. ^ a b Corrigan 2009, p. 5.
  4. ^ Rubenson 1995, p. 187.
  5. ^ Sidarus 2004.
  6. ^ "Bishop Gregorius (1919–2001)". Archive of Contemporary Coptic Orthodox Theology. St Cyril's Coptic Orthodox Theological College. Archived from the original on 2021-02-26.
  7. ^ "Zakaria Ibrahim (1924–1976)". Archive of Contemporary Coptic Orthodox Theology. St Cyril's Cotpic Orthodox Theological College. Archived from the original on 2021-02-23.

Bibliography

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coptic_philosophy&oldid=1107017107"