Style
Putting in mind that he wrote his books to be read mainly by non-academic readers without disregarding academic ones, and that he wrote it in the early 1920s, his style is elegant yet easy to read and his work would be of good use for any person interested in this church's history from the beginnings til early 1920s . He tried to give a history of the Coptic church in a way that is easy to understand and relate. In his attempt to do this he used simple yet correct language, and he tried to put the names in a standardised form; for example, when wrote about the Popes with the Name John he used the name Youhanna and not Youannis so the reader can relate that the name is the same but can be put in different versions
When comparing his work with the History of the Coptic Church by Iris Habib Elmasry, Abouna Menassa's account is more concise and neutral, although leaving out some details included in Miss Elmasry's books, which made her work of use to both academic and non academic readers. Miss Elmasry used his work as one of her sources.
One of the notable differences between the two historians is the way the history of Pope Cyril III is presented in Miss Elmasry's book in comparison to the way it was presented in Abouna Youhanna's book.
Although both of them had notable affection towards the Coptic Church, Abouna Menassa's account was more neutral when approaching the matter of selection of this Pontiff to be the Pope.
Read more about this topic: Menassa Youhanna
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