الفهرس 
الفصل الاوليوجد فقط 14 صفحة متاحة للعرض العام
 |  | from | 502 |  |  |
| | | from | 502 | | |
المستخلص
The purpose of this thesis is to highlight a certain
cultural part which hasn’t been focused on before. As the
previous studies whether the religious or the archaeological
have never discussed this topic which is ” the relation
between the daily rituals sacraments and the architectural –
artistic characteristic of the Egyptian Church .” The church
here is not used only to refer to the building but to refer to
the abstract meaning. As the church means a group of
believers, referring to any gathering for praying or
performing certain rituals. The sacrament is everything of
prayers , rituals and secrets that the servant ( the priest )
each according to his rank does, including its variables and
its materialistic , spiritual and social influences in the sorts
of the architectural and artistic elements that affect and
complete the ritual inside the church, monastery, private
building or a hermitage.
from the title, we can understand that this thesis will try
to reveal the relation which occurred between the Egyptian
– Coptic rituals and the architectural – artistic elements of
the Egyptian Church during the Byzantine Era before and
after the Council of Chalcedon ( 451 A.D ) in which the
Egyptian church had separated from the Byzantine Church.
And because the Egyptian church didn’t admit the rules of
this council and insisting on following the opinions of the
Church Fathers in Nicene Council ( 325 A.D. ), and the
Nicene Act of Faith that Kerolos hold on to in the first
Ephesus council ( 431 A.D. ) in which he refuses the idea
that gives the christ two natures. This is a evidence for the
strictness of the Egyptian ideology which refuses any
moderation or changes, as it believes that the christ has one
nature, its Theologian thought and its rules which were
considered to be an outcome of this religious thought and
the nature of its culture and society.
This thesis aims to search for the relation between the
architectural and artistic elements inside the church in
Egypt through the limited ritual need of the Egyptian
ideology.
Out of this, came the title of the first chapter ” The
Church and council sources in determining the
sacraments rules.” In this particular part, the research
discuss the appearance ( rise ) of the christianity and how it
was spread in some severe circumstances made by the
Roman Emperors, where it faced all kinds of persecutions.
But sooner everything changed when the Emperor
Constantine the First admitted the christianity ( 306 – 337
A.D. ). The christians Fathers then were able to solve their
own problems after the foreign problems were solved. The
thoughts and opinions varied, once because of the Greek
philosophy and once by the Egyptian thought, which cause
the christians to disperse and the appearance of some new
opinions and ideas that contradicted with the church. This
led to the appearance of Ecumenical councils where the
ideas were presented and voted by the church bishops. The
Egyptian role was very effective in these councils. As in
Nicene Council ( 325 A.D ) the Conflict between Arius and
his followers and the church of Alexandria that has the
Theologian thought was severe. Which Arius faced hardly
trying to pass a law of faith to gather all the christians, and
if any one breaks it, he was judged just as Arius who was
considered a heretic and a splinter from the Church. After
that the Egyptian Church followed Athanasius method.
As for the second chapter, it was written under the
title ” The study of the origins of the sacraments’ rituals
in the Egyptian church.” The ritual is how the prayers are
organized and held and the services at the religious and
daily celebrations. As for the linguistics meaning, it’s a
derivative from the Greek word which means order or system. In this part we aim at understanding the
origination of the rituals during the first five christian
centuries. Concerning the ritual’s origination there are three
ways by which we can recognize its origin ( the oral sources
– the written sources – the Archaeological sources ). For the
origin of the ritual refers to ( the Biblical effects - The
Hellenistic effects - The ancient Egyptian effects – Gnostic
practices – The folklore ) the previous order has been made
according to the direct influence on the rituals not
according to the chronological order. For example, there are
daily rituals which are practices called sacraments such as
raise incense, the daily Mass which is considered a group of
rituals gathered inside only one ritual and the handling
which is one of the most important rituals performed inside
the Coptic Church. There are some periodical rituals related
to the seven secrets , inauguration of the churches and
icons , some rituals are specially related to the prophets,
martyrs and the saints because all the churches and
monasteries were build on the martyrs’ cemeteries. Some
rituals were related to Virgin Mary.
The third chapter is titled ” the study of practicing
the daily sacraments’ rituals in the Egyptian church”. In
this chapter the thesis discussed in details how these rituals
are performed on the oral, materialistic and spiritual level.
The spiritual level is the most important as it has a direct
relation between the Priest and the worshiper. the main
purpose of this thesis, that is how the architectural and
artistic elements being affected by the Ecclesiastical rituals
as it’s clear that certain tools must be used in certain places
to go along with these rituals.
Chapter four came under the title ” The architectural
and artistic elements used in reinforcing the
Ecclesiastical rituals.” In this chapter we consider the
early christian architecture in Egypt which wasn’t clear or
specific because of many reasons and elements, the most
important is the modesty of the shape, size and the
architectural design used by this group who was living
under several social pressures such as poverty, the Roman
occupation and the social and religious lack of awareness.
We can also find a clear reason which is the lack of the
ritual features and determining it in a fixed way during the
early era . That was an essential reason for not selecting an
architectural structure with specific characteristics to
perform the religion freely, which was so clear in Ismant el-
Kharab ( Kellis ) and it surroundings.
In addition to that, the examples of the church
architecture, if there were any, that were mentioned by the
majority of the early christian Historians have been
changed completely at the beginning of the 8th Century.
These architecture examples couldn’t resist the time factors
or the desired christian expansion in this era. So, it was
removed and modified. That’s why we can’t be certain in
identifying its architectural religious identity in Egypt
during this early era. That’s why the thesis was interested in
churches and monasteries which haven’t been changed or at
least that kept their figure. Such as, Egypt’s Western desert
churches, Ismant el-Kharab( Kellis ), Abu Matta monastery,
churches ( of / from ) monasteries such as Abu Mina , the
Red and White monasteries and others.
As for the artistic elements it’s logical to find a relation
between the artistic elements and the architectural
components inside the Egyptian church. There must be
some places that serve these rituals. For examples, we find
one of the most sacred secret is the Baptism which must has
a certain place to perform its rituals, and the baptizing basin
confession secret and the secret of Anointing the sick . all
these rituals needs some private places to be practiced. We
also find the tools by which these rituals are practiced
whether big or small ones. Such as the cups.