Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism - Softcover

Assmann

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9780674587397: Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0674587391 ISBN 13: 9780674587397
Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1998

Synopsis

Standing at the very foundation of monotheism, and so of Western culture, Moses is a figure not of history, but of memory. As such, he is the quintessential subject for the innovative historiography Jan Assmann both defines and practices in this work, the study of historical memory--a study, in this case, of the ways in which factual and fictional events and characters are stored in religious beliefs and transformed in their philosophical justification, literary reinterpretation, philological restitution (or falsification), and psychoanalytic demystification.

To account for the complexities of the foundational event through which monotheism was established, Moses the Egyptian goes back to the short-lived monotheistic revolution of the Egyptian king Akhenaten (1360-1340 B.C.E.). Assmann traces the monotheism of Moses to this source, then shows how his followers denied the Egyptians any part in the origin of their beliefs and condemned them as polytheistic idolaters. Thus began the cycle in which every "counter-religion," by establishing itself as truth, denounced all others as false. Assmann reconstructs this cycle as a pattern of historical abuse, and tracks its permutations from ancient sources, including the Bible, through Renaissance debates over the basis of religion to Sigmund Freud's Moses and Monotheism. One of the great Egyptologists of our time, and an exceptional scholar of history and literature, Assmann is uniquely equipped for this undertaking--an exemplary case study of the vicissitudes of historical memory that is also a compelling lesson in the fluidity of cultural identity and beliefs.

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About the Author

Jan Assmann is Professor of Egyptology at the University of Heidelberg.

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Publisher
Harvard University Press
Publication date
1998
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0674587391
ISBN 13 
9780674587397
Binding
Paperback
Edition number
1
Number of pages
288
Rating
  • 4.15 out of 5 stars
    182 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780674587380: Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0674587383 ISBN 13:  9780674587380
Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1997
Hardcover