The Politics of Faith: On Faith, Skepticism, and Miracles among Coptic Christians in Egypt

Abstract

The relationship of faith and skepticism has rarely been discussed by anthropologists. Drawing on ethnographic work among Coptic Orthodox Christians in Egypt, this article explores this relationship, particularly through the lens of the miraculous. By focusing on what might be at stake in Coptic miraculous tales that address Coptic Church-State relations as well as Muslim-Christian sectarian tensions, this article pushes for an analysis of faith and skepticism that sees them as products of social relationships. An emphasis is placed on skepticism not as opposing faith, but as potentially cultivating it, especially when that skepticism is of the Muslim Other. I conclude by suggesting that if socio-political miracles often say something about the narrator's piety, they are also stories that highlight a commitment to persecution as central to Christian faith while simultaneously offering joy and empowerment to the Copts that recount and listen to them.

Keywords:

• faith
• skepticism
• miracles
• Coptic Christianity
• Egypt

Acknowledgements

This paper was first presented at the conference Foregrounds and Backgrounds: Ventures in the Anthropology of Christianity at the university of Copenhagen, 23–24 April 2009. There I benefited from the insightful remarks of Andreas Bandak, Matthew Engelke, Jonas Jørgensen, and Ashley Lebner. A subsequent version of the paper was presented at the conference Feeling the Divine: Emotions in Religious Practice (Max Planck Institute, Berlin, Germany, 22–25 July 2009), where the astute comments of Deirdre de la Cruz, Knut Graw, Angie Heo, Tanya Luhrmann, Amira Mittermaier, Vlad Naumescu, Lehel Peti, and Monique Scheer helped sharpen many of the ideas presented here. I am also deeply grateful to the following colleagues for their perceptive observations regarding several elements of this article: Sa'ed Atshan, Felicity Aulino, Naor Ben-Yehoyada, Dadi Darmadi, Alireza Doostdar, Sarah Eltantawi, Crystal Fleming, Smita Lahiri, Erez Manela, Maryann Shenoda, Ajantha Subramanian, Fumi Wakamatsu, and Ann Wilson. Finally, I thank the four anonymous reviewers for Ethnos whose critical readings made this a much better article than it otherwise would have been.

Notes

The field research that informs this article was conducted between 2004 and 2007 and made possible by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellowship; a Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship (Harvard University); the Department of Anthropology and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (Harvard University); and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (Harvard University).

While doubt can be taken as a mode of thought that lacks uncertainty and a lack of enough evidence to make a decision about something, and skepticism a stronger state of unwillingness to accept something, throughout this article I use the two words interchangeably.

The Copts that I refer to and have in mind here are those who would consider themselves pious and feel invested in their Church. I am not here interested in Copts who are only nominally such or who might consider themselves on the margins of the Church, of which there are many.

I focus here on miracle narratives as opposed to Coptic experiences of miracles largely because I am interested in how those narrations are as much a narration about oneself as they are about the events themselves. This analytical choice obviously has particular consequences, not least of which is the history of miracle tropes drawn upon in narration. Unfortunately, a lack of space keeps me from giving this matter proper treatment.

A lack of space prevents me from presenting many miracle accounts in this socio-political genre. For an historical analysis of Coptic investments in a narrative of persecution see Shenoda (2010).

Cf. Mittermaier who argues that dreams among Egyptians cannot be reduced to a mode of escaping the realities of a difficult life in Egypt (2011: 14–15).

For many Copts this relationship was surely the result of miraculous interventions in Nasser's life by Kyrillos VI, namely that the latter healed the ailing son of the former (Fawzī 1993).

The popular Egyptian revolution which began on 25 January 2011 forced Mubarak to abdicate on 11 February 2011.

Most recently this included expressing support for President Mubarak during popular uprisings, but before his abdication. Once Mubarak stepped down the Coptic Church expressed support for the interim military government.

See the recent remarks (14 December 2010) by Bishop Surial, Coptic bishop of Australia and New Zealand, where he emphasizes that to be followers of Christ, Christians will suffer and be persecuted in this world: http://tinyurl.com/5t94gjg://tinyurl.com/5t94gjg (accessed 3 January 2010).

See also the essays in the special issue of Social Analysis v.10 n.1 (2002) on religious reflexivity. I thank an anonymous reviewer for pointing me to this issue.

See Bandak (this issue) for an example of a simultaneous embrace and skepticism of one's faith.

Michael said ‘harmony’ in English.

The details of what exactly happened remain obscure to me. However, I did learn from a reliable source (herself a nun) that local authorities did take issue with the fence around the monastery, and with much finagling a bishop of the Coptic Church convinced local authorities to repeal the decision to tear the fence down. For Copts like Michael, however, that the decision was repealed cannot be attributed in the final analysis to a savvy bishop, but must have otherworldly intervention behind it.

Yusriyya is married to ORASCOM mogul Onsi Sawirris. www.businesstodayegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=4361 (accessed 11 January 2010).

Michael said ‘check-up’ in English.

An indication of the collapse of this agreement came, especially, on 24 November 2010 when security forces in the governate of Giza stopped Copts from allegedly building a church without authorization in the ^cUmraniyya district. Christians protested and the police killed three of them and arrested over 150, the last of whom were finally released shortly after the 1 January 2011 Alexandria church bombing.

Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim told me that the Ibn Khaldun Center, which he founded, had long been fighting for the 7 January holiday to be recognized as a national one in Egypt. It was finally made official a few days after Dr. Saad was released from prison in 2003 (personal communication 28 May 2009). See also: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/619/li1 (accessed 8 January 2010).

There are numerous stories about the healing of Muslim rulers by Copts. In fact, this is a long standing trope in Coptic narratives about their dealings with Muslim rule (Fawzī 1993; Afifi 1999; Sedra 1999).

See Agrama (2010) for an important discussion as to whether or not the Egyptian State is secular or religious (see also Starrett 1998).

Thanks to Ahmed Ragab for help with the translation of this report.

While outside the scope of this article, the use of biomedical knowledge to ‘prove’ the miraculous can certainly be considered to be one articulation of ‘an enchanted modern’ (Deeb 2006).