ABSTRACT
The history of contemporary Egypt is most starkly marked by two revolutions: the army revolution in 1952 and the populist revolution in 2011. Throughout the nearly 2,000 years of Christianity in Egypt, both the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the Coptic people have often been subject to forces of discrimination and persecution by both Christian and non-Christian governments. Modern history is no exception. Copts are, however, much more than an oppressed Christian minority. As this volume illustrates, they are inheritors and preservers of an ancient civilization, builders of a modern nation, and defenders of Christian orthodoxy. The popes of this era—Pope Yusab II (1946–56), Pope Kyrillos VI (1959–71), and Pope Shenouda III (1971–2012)—played a significant role in recent Coptic history, as have the activities and faith of the Coptic people, the modernization of Egypt, the rapid expansion of the Coptic diaspora, and the spread of globalization and ecumenism.
