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The Orthodox Church of Ethiopia. A history. By John Binns. Pp. xxii + 297 incl. 42 figs, 3 maps and 2 tables. London–New York: I.B.Tauris, 2017. £62. 978 1 7453 695 4
Scholarship, like nature, abhors a vacuum. In the absence of a comprehensive history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo Church, it can truly be said that such a volume is overdue. While books about the Church usually include a least one historical chapter, and volumes on Ethiopia inevitably deal with the national Church, a comprehensive history of the Church has been lacking. Similarly, there are several volumes which offer overviews of the Church's role in society in specific periods. John Binns, a Visiting Professor at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies and Vicar of Great St Mary's, the University Church, Cambridge, whose involvement with Ethiopia stretches over a quarter century, now fills this gap.
A major challenge of writing such a volume is, of course, that one wishes to do justice both to the ‘flow’ of history and at the same time, provide insight into a range of thematic issues such as Church and State relations, organisational hierarchies, rituals and liturgy, art and architecture, relations with other religious groups, etc. Binns has sought to resolve this by dividing his work into ten chapters bookended by an introduction and a conclusion. Each chapter surveys a particular period while also focusing on a particular theme. Thus chapter ii on pre-Aksumite civilisation (pp.17–37) examines the interaction between Semitic and Cushitic (African) elements in the formation of Ethiopian culture. Chapter iii (pp.39–60), which covers the period from the rise...