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J K Elliott, Ethiopian Christianity: History, Theology, Practice. By Philip F. Esler, The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 71, Issue 1, April 2020, Pages 401–403, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flaa029
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Extract
A statue of Field Marshal the first Lord Napier of Magdala and Caryngton proudly occupies one of the plinths in London’s Trafalgar Square. As part of Napier’s spoils, brought to England after his defeating Emperor Theodore (Tewodros II) of Ethiopia, were manuscripts and other artefacts. Some were shown in 2018–19 at an exhibition in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to mark the 150th anniversary of his victory. That display is reported in the present book—although Napier’s name is, strangely, omitted from its index.
Thanks to Napier’s efforts, scholars in the West became increasingly aware of Ethiopian manuscripts. Since his day a few academics, notably Edward Ullendorff, have helped to popularize this ancient independent African orthodox (Tewahedo) church—now, at last, finally freed from links to Alexandria and the Coptic Christian Patriarch based in Egypt. More recently, others have looked carefully at its unique miaphysite Christianity: Judith McKenzie and Francis Watson’s study of the early Garima Gospels from Aksum, and Mary Anne Fitzgerald and Philip Marsden, Ethopia: The Living Churches of an Ancient Kingdom, a book on the country, its churches, and practices; these works were reviewed in the TLS in June 2017 and in Novum Testamentum in 2019 respectively and are worthy of our study. Both are excellent predecessors to Esler’s examinations here.
