Those for Whom the Lamp Shines

Vince L. Bantu is Assistant Professor of Church History and Black Church Studies at the Fuller Theological Seminary and is the Ohene of the Meachum School of Haymanot. He is author of A Multitude of All Peoples: Engaging Ancient Christianity's Global Identity and editor of Gospel Haymanot: A Constructive Theology and Critical Reflection on African and Diasporic Christianity.

• ContentsAcknowledgments 1 • Egyptian Ethnicity in Late Antiquity 2 • Egyptian Christians and Ethnicity Prior to Chalcedon 3 • Aftermath of Chalcedon 4 • Response to Justinian 5 • Identity Formation Under Islam 6 • Egyptian Identity from Outside Perspectives Conclusion: Miaphysite Christology as Identity Boundary Notes Bibliography Index

“Bantu, building on advances in the study of Egyptian Christianity in late antiquity over the past fifty years, puts forward a bold thesis . . . distinctly Egyptian ethnic identity arose, not in the crisis of Arab Muslim conquest, but in theological disputes with the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon two centuries earlier.”