ABSTRACT
The first era of Greek Christian literature is epitomized by the Gospels, New Testament epistles, and the post-Apostolic literature of the Apostolic Fathers. This chapter discusses the following era of literary compositions beginning in the middle of the second century in Alexandria, Egypt, the birthplace of experimentation with new Greek Christian literary genres. The focus of this chapter is on Christian literature written by Greek-speaking Egyptians whose writings expressed a distinctive Coptic/Alexandrian cultural and theological character. This Alexandrian literature is foundational to Coptic heritage and should equally be called Copto-Greek Literature since it is preliminary to the Coptic and Copto-Arabic literature. The literary production discussed in this chapter set the theological trajectory of the Coptic Orthodox Church and determined many aspects of the history of Christianity in Egypt. The chapter follows the shifts in literary development. The first period is characterized by texts that are groundbreaking in genre, literary style, and topic choice. The second period sifts through the ideas articulated in the first and lays foundations for the theological principles that will set the trajectory of Alexandrian/Coptic theology. This period concludes with the literary production that upholds the distinctive Alexandrian theological thought against attempts to dismantle it. Monastic literature is another Egyptian literary genre characteristic of the second period; it is addressed in the last section together with liturgical texts. The chapter will introduce major literary figures chronologically and present aspects of their literary production. Antiochene, Cappadocian, and Byzantine Christian Greek literature will not be included.
