Fleeing Herod: A Journey Through Coptic Egypt with the Holy Family

Cowan (A Mapmaker's Dream) follows the itinerary of the Holy Family from Bethlehem through Egypt to escape from murderous King Herod. "The Holy Family's journey was, or is, no ordinary flight from evil," writes Cowan, who follows, too, the Coptic tradition said to have originated in a vision in the 4th century given to Theophilus of Alexandria. Cowan inserts his assumptions, imaginings, and conjectures about what happened to Joseph, Mary, Jesus, and Salome, their servant, as Egypt welcomed, and threatened, these strangers. As Cowan travels from Cairo south via Al-Minya toward Mallawi, he quotes Josephus, Evagrius, and Herodotus in addition to Theophilus' Vision. He meets guides (geographical and spiritual) and then-Pope Shenouda, head of the Coptic Church; monks and nuns address him courteously as "Mr. James." At journey's end, wise Father Angelus grants him succor in Deir al-Muharraq. This author-centered mythography mixes kaffeeklatsch conversation with seminary lingo. Cowan boldly twins his spiritual journey with the Holy Family's, concocts conversations, treads tangents, and describes sites in rouged travelogue-speak ("Brown dust lay over everything, and air conditioners clung to buildings like parasites."). (Apr.)