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Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism

by Jan Assmann

University of Wisconsin Press, 2008
eISBN: 978-0-299-22553-7 | Cloth: 978-0-299-22550-6 | Paper: 978-0-299-22554-4
Library of Congress Classification BL221.A88 2008
Dewey Decimal Classification 211.309

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE

ABOUT THIS BOOK

For thousands of years, our world has been shaped by biblical monotheism. But its hallmark—a distinction between one true God and many false gods—was once a new and radical idea. Of God and Gods explores the revolutionary newness of biblical theology against a background of the polytheism that was once so commonplace.
Jan Assmann, one of the most distinguished scholars of ancient Egypt working today, traces the concept of a true religion back to its earliest beginnings in Egypt and describes how this new idea took shape in the context of the older polytheistic world that it rejected. He offers readers a deepened understanding of Egyptian polytheism and elaborates on his concept of the “Mosaic distinction,” which conceives an exclusive and emphatic Truth that sets religion apart from beliefs shunned as superstition, paganism, or heresy.
Without a theory of polytheism, Assmann contends, any adequate understanding of monotheism is impossible.

Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians, and Best Books for Special Interests, selected by the Public Library Association

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jan Assmann is professor emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Heidelberg. He is also Honorary Professor of Cultural Theory at Konstanz University and had been a visiting professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, Yale University, the University of Chicago, and the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. A prize-winning scholar, he has published extensively on religious history and ancient Egypt.

REVIEWS

“An important contribution to the fields of Egyptology, Biblical studies, and the general study of religion.”—Israel Knohl, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

“A masterful achievement—brimming with fundamental and challenging insights about monotheism and polytheism, religious violence and exclusivity. It is a tough-minded inquiry in every sense, with the cultural semantics of theology brought to the center of historical reflection. With this work, Assmann solidifies his stature as one the premier historians of religious ideas in our generation.”—Michael Fishbane, Nathan Cummings Professor of Jewish Studies, The University of Chicago

“Of God and Gods deserves to be studied carefully by all scholars and students of the history of monotheism, and Assmann’s unique ability as a scholar of comparative religion and as an Egyptologist has allowed him to access the biblical texts with an insight and vigour mostly unmatched by those who have attempted to study the Hebrew Bible in isolation on this very relevant topic.”—Brian R. Doak, Religion

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
Acknowledgments		000
Introduction		000
1. Understanding Polytheism: The Three-Dimensional Structure of the Divine World	
	000
2. Seth the Iconoclast: Polytheism and the Language of Violence		000
3. All Gods Are One: Evolutionary and Inclusive Monotheism		000
4. The "Axial Age" and the Separation of State and Religion: Monotheism as an "Axial" 
Movement		000
5. Five Steps of Canonization: Tradition, Scripture and the Origin of the Hebrew Bible	000
6. No Other God but God: Exclusive Monotheism and the Language of Violence		000
Conclusion: The "Mosaic Distinction"		000
Notes		000
Index		000

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