Surrounded by steep escarpments to the north, south and east, Ethiopia has always been geographically and culturally set apart. It has the longest archaeological record of any country in the world: indeed, this precipitous mountain land was where the human race began. It is also home to an ancient church with a remarkable legacy. The Church of Ethiopia is the only pre-colonial church in sub-Saharan Africa; today it has a membership of around forty million and is rapidly growing. This book ...

Despite its rich history in the Latin tradition, Christian monasticism began in the east; the wellsprings of monastic culture and spirituality can be directly sourced from the third-century Egyptian wilderness. In this volume, John Binns creates a vivid, authoritative account that traces the four main branches of eastern Christianity, up to and beyond the Great Schism of 1054 and the break between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.Binns begins by exploring asceticism in the early ...

This book is a long awaited update to the first major study of a Christian community which has developed an approach to faith and life which is different from all other churches.Situated on a high plateau surrounded by steep escarpments, Ethiopia has a unique geography which saw the beginnings of the human race. Its culture is nurtured by its links with Europe, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia. This has contributed to one of the longest archaeologi...