Mark Swanson

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EDUCATION

• B.S., California Institute of Technology
• M.Div., Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg
• C.A.S.A. certificate (Arabic), American University in Cairo
• M.A.R.S. (Islamic Studies), Hartford Seminary
• Doctorate, Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi
• e d’Islamistica (PISAI), Rome

Biography

An ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Mark Swanson has taught at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago since 2006. Before that he taught at Luther Seminary (1998-2006) and at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, Egypt (1984-1998). He is a student of the history of Christian-Muslim relations, the history of the Coptic Church, and Arabic Christian literature. He has made a number of contributions to the literature of these fields; his book The Coptic Papacy in Islamic Egypt (641-1517) (Cairo: AUC Press, 2010) was recently reissued in paperback (2022) and translated into Arabic (2023). His teaching ventures into various areas of Christian history and spirituality and interfaith engagement. He takes delight in exploring the ecumenical and religious diversity of the North American landscape, starting with Chicago.

PUBLISHED WORKS

Books, co-edited volumes

• Copts in Modernity, ed. Lisa Agaiby, Mark N. Swanson, and Nelly van Doorn-Harder (Leiden and Boston: Brill, forthcoming).
• Heirs of the Apostles: Studies on Arabic Christianity in Honor of Sidney H. Griffith, ed. David Bertaina, Sandra Toenies Keating, Mark N. Swanson, and Alexander Treiger (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2019).
• Non-Muslim Communities in Fatimid Egypt (10th–12th Centuries CE), ed. Maryann M. Shenoda, Johannes den Heijer, Yaacov Lev, and Mark N. Swanson = special issue of Medieval Encounters 21, nos. 4–5 (2015).
• The Coptic Papacy in Islamic Egypt (641-1517), The Popes of Egypt 2 (Cairo and New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2010).
• Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, vols. 1-5 (600-1500), ed. David Thomas, Barbara Roggema, and Alex Mallett, with Juan Pedro Monferrer Sala, Johannes Pahlitzsch, Mark Swanson, Herman Teule, and John Tolan (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2009-2013).
• The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam, ed. Emmanuela Grypeou, Mark N. Swanson and David Thomas, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations 4 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006).
• Folly to the Hunafā’: The Cross of Christ in Arabic Christian-Muslim Controversy in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries A.D., doctoral dissertation, Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Rome, 1992.

Articles and Chapters

• Please reference a full list of Dr. Swanson’s articles and chapters here.