Sacrifice in the Desert: A Study of an Egyptian Minority Through the Prism of Coptic Monasticism [Paperback]

Mark Gruber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 18, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0761825398 | ISBN-13: 978-0761825395

The desert fathers of ancient Egypt are an inherently fascinating, historical phenomenon. Sacrifice in the Desert is an anthropological study of the contemporary spiritual descendents of these monks as they live out their lives in some of the most primitive and remote monasteries of the Sahara Desert. This book is an investigation of the role of these desert ascetics as the cultural center of the Copts of Egypt in their struggle for survival through centuries of oppression and marginalization.

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About the Author

Father Mark Gruber, O.S.B., a Benedictine monk of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Saint Vincent College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 278 pages
• Publisher: University Press Of America (April 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761825398
• ISBN-13: 978-0761825395
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,040,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Scholarly Treatment of Its Kind, September 14, 2005

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fred ricardo "baona" (Venezuela) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sacrifice in the Desert: A Study of an Egyptian Minority Through the Prism of Coptic Monasticism (Paperback)

The Copts are usually just forgotten by the academic world, of if they're remembered it's for their early medieval florescence of Alexandrian theologians and desert fathers. Ecclesiastical historians hold the subject in a death grip and use their philological expertise to mute all nonspecialist's commentaries (how many of us speak Coptic, after all). Finally a social scientist, an anthropologist, no less, investigates the contemporary Coptic experience and shows that its culture is still rooted in its special monastic heritage. This book is a fabulous ethnographic account of monasticism itself as well as a penetrating synthesis of the anthropology of religion applied to a nonwestern variant of Christianity. Before an ecclesiastical historian attacks it as an intrusion into their turf I want to applaud it as a beautifully crafted and carefully considered study that supplies a great resource for a subject scarcely ever treated in this way.