Coptic Church considered one of the major branches of Christianity

Floid

Hermanubis said:
Make the Coptic Church of Egypt considered to be one of the major branches of Christianity.
Click to expand...
Perhaps you could specify what you mean by 'major'?

The Coptic Church is the largest church of Christianity in the Middle East and coupled with the Ethiopian Church which was part of the Coptic Church up until 1959, it was the largest Church in the communion of Oriental Orthodox churches.
 

Hermanubis

picky, picky, picky! :p (can’t you take ambiguity in stride?)

Floid said:
Perhaps you could specify what you mean by 'major'?

The Coptic Church is the largest church of Christianity in the Middle East and coupled with the Ethiopian Church which was part of the Coptic Church up until 1959, it was the largest Church in the communion of Oriental Orthodox churches.
Click to expand...

Hmp! :p

Fair enough.

Make the Coptic Church one of The TOP THREE denominations of Christendom, that is to say that it has at least 60% of the membership of ether of the larger two branchs.
(or make it the largest! Bonus points, as it where! Yes sir!)
 

Jared

Hermanubis said:
Make the Coptic Church one of The TOP THREE denominations of Christendom, that is to say that it has at least 60% of the membership of ether of the larger two branchs.
(or make it the largest! Bonus points, as it where! Yes sir!)
Click to expand...

With a POD of Islam never emerging, it shouldn't be that difficult. Byzantium and Persia get involved in a rather long and bitter series of wars (which they fought anyway in OTL) and when both sides are battered down, Egypt regains its independence as a Coptic nation. They've already converted Nubia and Ethiopia. With some missionary work, they could lead to the Christianization of much of Africa and maybe even Arabia, depending.

With Zoroastrian Persia firmly blocking the Byzantine advance to the east to spread their version of Orthodox Christianity, it's up to the branches in the Coptic communion to spread their version of Christianity east across the sea lanes to the subcontinent and beyond. This would give them rather a decent geographical spread, even if Egypt itself is eventually reconquered by Byzantium or Persia.
 

htgriffin

Hermanubis said:
Hmp! :p

Fair enough.

Make the Coptic Church one of The TOP THREE denominations of Christendom, that is to say that it has at least 60% of the membership of ether of the larger two branchs.
(or make it the largest! Bonus points, as it where! Yes sir!)
Click to expand...

<Insert ObNoIslamPoD>

Hejazi and Yemeni conversion mainly accomplished by the Monopystite (anti)Patriarch of Alexandria. Said branch of faith speads of Oman and taps into Monsoon Trade Network, reaching the Malays by 1000 and coastal China by 1200. Meanwhile it oozes into the East African interior from the Swahili Coast and Ethiopia.

HTG
 

Ran Exilis

Jared said:
With a POD of Islam never emerging, it shouldn't be that difficult. Byzantium and Persia get involved in a rather long and bitter series of wars (which they fought anyway in OTL) and when both sides are battered down, Egypt regains its independence as a Coptic nation. They've already converted Nubia and Ethiopia. With some missionary work, they could lead to the Christianization of much of Africa and maybe even Arabia, depending.

With Zoroastrian Persia firmly blocking the Byzantine advance to the east to spread their version of Orthodox Christianity, it's up to the branches in the Coptic communion to spread their version of Christianity east across the sea lanes to the subcontinent and beyond. This would give them rather a decent geographical spread, even if Egypt itself is eventually reconquered by Byzantium or Persia.
Click to expand...

I disagree with that last suggestion; the area of South Asia was already the "missionairy turf" of the Assyrian Church of the East (seriously, this is a historical and still existing Church), and they already had a strong presence on all the major trading points on the Arabian coast, as well as in southern India (the Malabar Christians), and evidence of the presence of a (small) Christian community belonging to the A.C.o.t.E. was found on Java, so even if the Coptic Church would have gotten the chance to reach these areas, it would still have to face up to a strong competition with the Assyrian Church.

However, in two of my own timelines (I'm busy writing down one of them),
I did explore the possebilities of a good and direct contact between Ethiopia
and several Indian coastal states, resulting in some Indian (partially Hindu)
communities in the large Ethiopian cities, especially Adulis,
and a presence of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in some Indian states as well...

(note that in one of those two timelines, islam never existed, and Axum
quickly seized control over southern Arabia again, whilst in the other
timeline, islam did exist, but it collapsed in the early 11th century.
In both timelines, Ethiopia remained a powerful empire, with established
direct contacts with India)

Though I think that without islam, the Coptic Church would indeed become
a numerically great Church, even without spreading into South Asia.
And especially through missionary efforts westwards, first in the area of lake Chad (which would propably become an important Christian centre in that scenario), and from there on, further west and south to the empire of Gambia and the Haussa city-states (if they already exist at that point).

That way, the Coptic Church would come to dominate the lionshare of
Saharan Africa, and I imagine there could be a number of strong Coptic Christian African empires
along with their blossoming civilisations in Saharn Africa...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top