Christine Chaillot’s new book, The Traditional Teaching of the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwahedo Church: Faith and Spirituality, presents a topic that is little – if at all – known outside Ethiopia, even in Christian circles. Moreover, it is a much neglected field in the wider study of African education. It is a teaching based on ancient texts and books, taught orally to the students who will become the future clergy and who will then share their knowledge with the faithful in Church life. The studies of the different disciplines are pursued at different schools and at different levels, in liturgy, theology with commentaries of books (Old and New Testaments, books of the Church fathers and monks) as well as composition of poems (qenes) and iconography. All this teaching presented in the present volume is deeply related to the faith and spirituality of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. This teaching is a unique intangible cultural heritage. One wonders, however, what its future will be in the context of the modern educational methods and social attitudes that have evolved in Ethiopia over the last half-century.

Right now, there is a bloody civil war in Ethiopia that is discussed on CNN, BBC and FOXNEWS. And this book aims to shift these discussions back to the late antique period, when Ethiopia was one of the greatest empires in the world and to 1930's when the fascists entered Ethiopia, because that is the root cause of the war that is happening today. Ethiopia has a secret history, and no one is focusing on this. The book attempts to shed light on these points by surveying historical events which leads up to about the sixteenth century-with few exceptions. This time period was selected as the termination point because many sources are available for events dealing with the past two to three centuries of history. Hence, people who are interested in this timeline can easily access the particular era that interests them. In this early part of history, we see how Ethiopia was a great superpower who traded with Egyptians, the Middle East, India, Greeks, Romans and Persians. Trading with such influential regions made the country rich and powerful. This nation was so great that the third century prophet Mani mentioned that Ethiopia was one of the four great empires of the time (along with Rome, China and Persia). Regrettably, this great story is seldomly related to our generation because fascists who came into Ethiopia in the 1930's, with the intent of forcefully taking natural resources (ex. ivory, gold, copper), stole the history of Ethiopia. The second aim of the book deals with how in the late 19thcentury as the Europeans started to carve up Africa, Italy chose Ethiopia. Unfortunately for the colonizers, Italy became the only European country to lose to an African nation. As a result, Italy lost respect from other European nations. Newspapers at the time shamed Italy for losing to a nation of black people. Needless to say, Italy wanted revenge. They got their chance with Benito Mussolini and the fascists. Mussolini sent researchers like Carlo Conti Rossini and Enrico Cerulli to study the best way to conquer Ethiopia. These men studied Ethiopian religion, ethnicity and language the same way the Nazis studied the Jewish community, to see the most efficient way to divide and conquer them. The real tragedy happened when the original research of - Conti Rossini and Cerulli - became seen as the official history. The research they conducted, unfortunately found its way into western universities wherein they are being studied to this day. Their writings became the authoritative history of Ethiopia. Regrettably, present-day Ethiopians are now killing each other because of ethnic and religious differences which the Italians wrote was the central cause of conflict in their country. The second section of the book is a fable meant to highlight the negative impact of ethnic divisions in Ethiopia. As the reader will recognize, the style and voice of this section is unique compared with the previous sections. Perhaps the most distinctive feature is that the fable's main character is a fictional talking mouse named Sammy. This mouse and the journey he embarks on are meant to serve as a metaphor for our present state of affairs. The secondary goal of this book is to change our attitude of learning about history. Often times history is told in a dry and uninteresting way that is off-putting to young people. Especially when it comes to the history of Ethiopia, we often shy away from telling our story for fear of insulting others. In reality, history does not have to be dull or contentious. It can be enjoyable and unifying. The way a story is told is arguably just as important as the story being told. With that being said, the author has decided to tell the story of Ethiopia through the symbolic lens of the love that exists between a husband and wife. By employing such a rhetorical device, the author attempts to tell the story of Ethiopia in a way that is digestible for everyone. After all, who doesn't love a good love story?

Faith is the means by which we understand "the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible" (Heb 1:2-3)

Ephraim Isaac sketches the history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahido Church and also that of Christianity as a whole in Ethiopia. As the reader will discover, not only are there strong Biblical Hebraic elements in the theology, political theory and liturgical calendar of the Ethiopian Church but there is also a strong influence from Beta Israel and Ethiopian Jews. Besides Jews and Christians, there are also very large numbers of Muslims and various native beliefs in Ethiopia.

The Orthodox Tewahedo Christian doctrine in Ethiopian practice has different possibilities: (a) within church compounds the protection of nature (respect of creation), (b) outside the submission of nature, as the Bible demands – both are Christian behaviors! Church is not pro-nature. The Church itself has set up a partition into sacred and profane, with different rule for both spheres; both systems of rules exist parallel. The followers respect the plants and animals in the church compound as end by themselves than a means to their economic objectives; they respect them not for their economic value rather for their perceived duty; respect to God as Church is the house of God. The people do not consider the plants and animals in the Church as simply normal animals rather they are believed to have a metaphysical divine power. Hence, it is impossible to put the follower's ethical perspective in exclusive manner rather it is both anthropocentristic and deep ecological which can be determined by the nature of the space occupied by the recourses.

The nature of Christ is a very important subject that caused a serious dissension within the Church in the fifth century, in 451 AD. When the theological dialogue started as an effort towards the unity of churches, the subject had to be discussed. Therefore, our Orthodox Church found it necessary to issue a book which presents its concept in this regard in a language fit for theological dialogues. This subject (the Nature of Christ) was taught by me to the students of the Seminary "St. Mark Theological College" in 1984 in the form of lectures which I delivered to them in St. Bishoy Monastery, Sheheit Desert, as part of the courses of comparative Theology. The lectures were printed merely for the use of the students. The same lectures were afterwards translated into English in Ottawa, Canada, in 1980 and became available in English only for six years... We had to print them in Arabic for the students of the Seminary and its branches and for the benefit of those who are interested in theological studies whether ministers or ordinary individuals.. and whoever has the desire-from other churches to be acquainted with our concept of Christology. The first theological dialogue we attended on this subject was in Vienna, Austria in September 1971 AD convened by the ProOriente Group. In this dialogue we reached a theological formula that was accepted by our Catholic brothers and those in the old Oriental orthodox churches: the Syrians, Arminians, Ethiopians and Indians. It was an important dialogue indeed, for the dissension that occurred in the fifth century had distorted the face of every church before the other.. But now the way is open for a common understanding. Then, there was an official agreement with the Catholic churches after 17 years of differences (since 1988), based on the previous understanding. The agreement was recorded in a concise "Statement" which you will find at the end of this book. There was another dialogue, in more detail, with our brothers in the Byzantine Orthodox Churches in St. Bishoy Monastery, Sheheit Desert in 1989 AD. It was attended by the theologians of twenty Orthodox Churches and was followed by another meeting of the priestly representatives of the Orthodox churches in Chambesy, Geneva, in 1990. Now, seeing it is necessary to make our people acquainted with the details and evidences that prove our concept of the Nature of Christ, and since the Pro-Oriente Group is convening a religious conference for the representatives of all Churches at the end of October 1991 to present to them the Agreed Statement on Christology. And since we were asked to present a paper on the subject and deliver it as a lecture in the conference. Therefore, we proceeded to print the former lectures delivered in the Seminary in 1984 as a book to be presented to the conference and to be available in Arabic and in English for all who are interested. Pope Shenouda III