The congresses organised every four years under the auspices of the
International Association for Coptic Studies (IACS) are the main forum for
scholars of Egyptian Christian life and culture through the ages. The
proceedings of the seventh congress, which was held in Leiden in 2000, comprise
ninety-nine papers, reflecting the growth and diversification of Coptic studies
worldwide. They include valuable and sometimes groundbreaking essays in topics
of, for example, Coptic language, literature, monasticism and archaeology. A
particularly noteworthy and important feature of the present proceedings are
the state-of-the-art reviews of current trends and achievements in the main
fields of the discipline, written by invited experts and accompanied by
extensive bibliographies. These review articles cover aspects of Coptic studies
as diverse as papyrology, gnosticism, liturgy, Copto-Arabic and art history.
They turn these two volumes into real reference books, indispensable for every
scholar of early Church history, late antiquity and Near Eastern Christianity.
