Obituary: Otto Meinardus (1925-2005) It is with sorrow that we learn of the passing of Reverend Otto Friedrich Meinardus, professor of philosophy at the American University in Cairo between 1956 and 1968, Coptologist and pastor of the Maadi Community Church. He played an important role in drawing attention to Egypt's Coptic heritage both here and abroad. His first two books, Christian Egypt: Ancient and Modern and the companion volume Christian Egypt: Faith and Life, both published by the American University in Cairo Press, became bestsellers. In recalling this tall and dignified member of the clergy as he walked around the streets of Cairo's southern suburb of Maadi I can do no better than quote Egypt's late scholar Henry Ayrout who wrote in the introduction to Meinardus's second publication in 1965: "The book of Otto Meinardus is a timely production and it answers a very real need. It embraces both the past and the present in its continuity as well as in its discontinuity. It is a balanced, clear and well-documented work, useful to enquirers, travelers, and those of the East and the West seeking information on the subject. It is the outcome of a very considerable amount of research, and it provides exactly what we have been in need of for a very long time. We did not know who would have the ability to accomplish it. And here it is, at last, a most welcome realization!" Meinardus, a fellow of the Institute of Coptic Studies in Cairo, lectured widely. He was also a prolific scholar and published on the Coptic Orthodox Church as well as on Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Coptic Christians. He served as a visiting professor in seven countries and contributed to many international publications including the Coptic Church Review (US), Coptologia (Canada), Orientalia Suecana (Sweden) and Medieval and Middle Eastern Studies (Netherlands). He served on the advisory board of the Egypt-based Religious News Service from the Arab World (renamed Arab West Report in 2003) and was exceptionally knowledgeable about Christian-Muslim politics. Meinardus revised and updated his two earliest studies on Christian Egypt into a new definitive one-volume history entitled Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity that appeared in 1999. As the title suggests, it surveys 20 centuries of Egyptian Christianity, Catholic, Evangelical and Orthodox. The volume traces the history, traditions, theology and structure of the Coptic Church, including sections on the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt, Saint Mark the Evangelist, the founding of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt and the canons of the Coptic Church. It also provides an overview of the history of Coptic theology from the fifth to the 20th century alongside a guide to Coptic churches and monasteries, ancient and modern, and to Coptic folk tradition which, he wrote, "is very inclusive since it touches on every aspect of the personal and social life of the people. The folk religious attitudes and practices, which have their roots in the religious heritage of Pharaonic Egypt, should be distinguished from the attitudes and practices of the official cults as set forth in the dogmatic and catechetical treatises of the church. At the same time, however, we notice a good deal of overlap between the two spheres of religious experience." Meinardus distinguished between the "official" and the "folk" in religion by discussing such questions as the relationship of the Coptic Church to the family, to the state and to its own historic mission. All his work was informed by a sensitivity that can come only through a thorough understanding of, and sympathy with, the community of people among whom he dwelled for so many years and whom he regularly revisited following his retirement to Germany. Meinardus employed history, theology, sociology, psychology and anthropology to trace the vicissitudes of the Coptic heritage and with this multidisciplinary approach made the story of Christian Egypt come alive for his many readers. Otto Meinardus's most recent book, Coptic Saints and Pilgrimages, appeared in 2002. Shortly before his death he had completed the editing of Christians in Egypt, due to be published next spring.
