The Future of Coptic Studies

In a lecture given at the Society of Biblical Literature in 2006, Dr. Stephen Emmel, one of the world's foremost Coptologists, remarked:

"I think that the current senior generation of diaspora Copts – if I may call them that, certainly without meaning to offend anyone by it – I think that the current senior generation of diaspora Copts is quite right to place emphasis on 'Coptic studies' as a potentially important factor in the shaping and maintenance of the, or a, Coptic identity in the future, certainly in the diaspora, perhaps also in Egypt itself. One need think only of what the Jewish interest in and support of Jewish scholarship has meant for Jewish identity, and of the place of Jewish, or Judaic, studies in our university curricula. Indeed, it may well be that in the future it will be the Copts themselves who will determine what 'Coptic studies' means...The future of Coptology may lie in the hands of the Coptic Coptologists. If the Coptic people themselves do not take hold of this field it may well eventually die out."