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Apocrypha, Magic, Liturgy

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Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin examines a group of Coptic prayer texts known in modern scholarship as "magical liturgies." Drawing on the sociological concept of "multiple identities," she explores how these prayers can, from an etic perspective,...
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  • 31 October 2026
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Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin examines a group of Coptic prayer texts known in modern scholarship as "magical liturgies", preserved in manuscripts, mostly from Egypt, dating from the 5th to 13th centuries. Drawing on the sociological concept of "multiple identities", she explores how these prayers can, from an etic perspective, be described as "apocryphal", "magical", and "liturgical". Her approach involves a rigorous comparative analysis and employs several scholarly categories as lenses for evaluating the sources. It sheds light on how these prayers might have been conceptualized and used by people in Late Antique and early Islamic Egypt, and on the roles they played in the formation of Christian identities. In addition, the book draws on concepts from Material Philology. It pays particular attention to the material and paratextual features of the manuscripts containing these prayers, and assesses what these features can tell us about the contexts in which the manuscripts were produced and used. By analyzing the textual, material, and paratextual aspects together, the study reveals that the "magical liturgies" were most probably composed in monastic and ecclesiastic contexts. The Coptic manuscripts transmitting them, too, were produced and used in such settings in Late Antique and early Islamic Egypt.
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Price: £85.40
Pages: 280
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Imprint: Mohr Siebeck
Series: Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum / Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity
Publication Date: 31 October 2026
ISBN: 9783162005731
Format: Paperback
BISACs:

RELIGION / Christian Living / Prayer, Criticism and exegesis of sacred texts, Prayers and liturgical material, Biblical Apocrypha and Intertestamental

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Born 1991; 2020 PhD from University of Ottawa/Université Libre de Bruxelles; Postdoctoral fellow, Chair of Egyptology, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg.
Introduction: Some Thoughts on Categories and Boundaries Establishing Categories: "Apocrypha" Establishing Categories: "Magic" Establishing Categories: "Liturgy" At the Intersection of Apocrypha, Magic, and Liturgy - On Multiple Identities Chapter 1 - The Prayer of Mary at Bartos The Work - Origin and Developments The Manuscripts - Material and Paratextual Features The Texts - Structure and Variants Chapter 2 - The Praise of the Archangel Michael Introduction: The Work, its Manuscript Attestations, and its Title The Texts - Structure and Variants Drawings, Instructions, and the Contexts of Production and Use Chapter 3 -The other "Magical Liturgies" Rossi's Tractate Cairo JdE 49547 Berlin P. 11347 The Baktiotha Prayer The Magical Liturgies: Elaboration and Spheres of Influence Chapter 4 - Liturgical Prayers and Magical Liturgies: Structures Compared Liturgical Prayers, Anaphoras, and their Structure Structures in Comparison What is "Liturgical" in the "Magical Liturgies"? Concluding Remarks - On Multiple Identities and Monastic Contexts