My awareness of the Coptic textual universe began as early as in high school when I was a rather countercultural individual: my fascination with the music and art of David Tibet introduced me to the strange allure of the Coptic codices from Nag Hammadi. This passion motivated me to pursue a B.A. and M.A. in Egyptology and Coptic Studies at the University of Göttingen in Germany.

Recently, I earned my doctorate at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, focusing on the 19th to 20th century reception and reimagination of the Patristic heresiological reports and the Coptic texts “Pistis Sophia” and “The Books of Jeu”. Therein I have elaborated how 19th century Coptic Studies have been instrumental to the formation of the so-called “French Gnostic Movement”. What is more, I have analyzed the movement’s aftermath and how the alleged return of Gnosticism influenced internal discussions about heresy within the Roman Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council.

My current projects encompass a study on the emergence of the early modern distinct identity of Coptic Catholics, on Clement of Alexandria’s stromateis as a mnemohistorical quarry, and a reworking of my doctoral thesis into a monograph.

Apart from my research interests, I’m an adopted son of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church with a profound theological interest in the question of apokatastasis as developed not only throughout late antiquity by Origen of Alexandria or Gregory of Nyssa, but also in Sergei Bulgakov’s modern theology.