Moses the Egyptian
Subtitle: the memory of Egypt in western monotheism
By: Jan Assmann.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 276
Subjects: Moses (Biblical leader); Monotheism -- History of doctrines; Egypt -- Religion
Description: To account for the complexities of the foundational event in the establishment of monotheism, 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, and then shows how Moses' followers denied the Egyptians any part in the origin of their beliefs and condemned them as polytheistic idolators.

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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [219]-266) and index.