Jan Assmann

"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."

Moses the Egyptian

Comment une société se souvient-elle? Quel rôle joue la mémoire dans la construction d'une identité culturelle? En quoi l'invention de l'écriture a-t-elle modifié en profondeur le rapport que les civilisations antiques entretenaient avec leur propre mémoire? Ce sont ces questions qu'examine ici jan Assmann, à travers l'étude comparée de plusieurs grandes civilisations de l'Antiquité - l'Egypte, les Hittites, la Mésopotamie. Israël et la Grèce. La notion de "mémoire cultrelle" est au coeur de ce grand livre, devenu depuis sa parution en Allemagne une référence pour tous les historiens, sociologues, ethnologues qui s'intéressent au thème de la mémoire.

écriture, souvenir et imaginaire politique dans les civilisations antiques

La mémoire culturelle

From one of the world's greatest Egyptologists, an original and brilliant study of the inner life of ancient Egypt The Mind of Egypt presents an unprecedented account of the mainsprings of Egyptian civilization-the ideals, values, mentalities, belief systems, and aspirations that shaped the first territorial state in human history. Drawing on a range of literary, iconographic, and archaeological sources, renowned historian Jan Assmann reconstructs a world of unparalleled complexity, a culture that, long before others, possessed an extraordinary degree of awareness and self-reflection. Moving through successive periods of Egyptian civilization, from its beginnings in the fifth millennium b.c.e. until the rise of Christianity 4,500 years later, Assmann traces the crucial roles of the pharaohs, the priests, and the imperial bureaucracy. He explores the ideal relation of man to God and explains monumental architecture and ritual celebrations as expressions of that ideal. Most strikingly, he focuses on the meaningful world of ancient Egypt-the multiple notions of time, the structures of immortality, and the commitment to the principle of social justice and human fellowship. Widely acclaimed for his cross-disciplinary approach, Assmann has produced a tantalizing study of an ancient civilization, even as he has opened new directions in historical investigation.

History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs

The Mind of Egypt

Nothing has so radically transformed the world as the distinction between true and false religion. In this nuanced consideration of his own controversial Moses the Egyptian, renowned Egyptologist Jan Assmann answers his critics, extending and building upon ideas from his previous book. Maintaining that it was indeed the Moses of the Hebrew Bible who introduced the true-false distinction in a permanent and revolutionary form, Assmann reiterates that the price of this monotheistic revolution has been the exclusion, as paganism and heresy, of everything deemed incompatible with the truth it proclaims. This exclusion has exploded time and again into violence and persecution, with no end in sight. Here, for the first time, Assmann traces the repeated attempts that have been made to do away with this distinction since the early modern period. He explores at length the notions of primary versus secondary religions, of "counter-religions," and of book religions versus cultic religions. He also deals with the entry of ethics into religion's very core. Informed by the debate his own work has generated, he presents a compelling lesson in the fluidity of cultural identity and beliefs.

The Price of Monotheism

Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen

Das kulturelle Gedächtnis

الذاكرة الحضارية

The shift from polytheism to monotheism changed the world radically. Akhenaten and Moses-a figure of history and a figure of tradition-symbolize this shift in its incipient, revolutionary stages and represent two civilizations that were brought into the closest connection as early as the Book of Exodus, where Egypt stands for the old world to be rejected and abandoned in order to enter the new one. The seven chapters of this seminal study shed light on the great transformation from different angles. Between Egypt in the first chapter and monotheism in the last, five chapters deal in various ways with the transition from one to the other, analyzing the Exodus myth, understanding the shift in terms of evolution and revolution, confronting Akhenaten and Moses in a new way, discussing Karl Jaspers' theory of the Axial Age, and dealing with the eighteenth-century view of the Egyptian mysteries as a cultural model.

Ancient Egypt and Religious Change

From Akhenaten to Moses

"Human beings," the acclaimed Egyptologist Jan Assmann writes, "are the animals that have to live with the knowledge of their death, and culture is the world they create so they can live with that knowledge." In his new book, Assmann explores images of death and of death rites in ancient Egypt to provide startling new insights into the particular character of the civilization as a whole. Drawing on the unfamiliar genre of the death liturgy, he arrives at a remarkably comprehensive view of the religion of death in ancient Egypt. Assmann describes in detail nine different images of death: death as the body being torn apart, as social isolation, the notion of the court of the dead, the dead body, the mummy, the soul and ancestral spirit of the dead, death as separation and transition, as homecoming, and as secret. Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt also includes a fascinating discussion of rites that reflect beliefs about death through language and ritual.

Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt

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

Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism

Of God and Gods

Ayşe Tekin

Eski yüksek kültürlerde yazı, hatırlama ve politik kimlik

Kültürel bellek

Tradition und Schriftkultur im frühen Judentum und seiner Umwelt ; Vortrag anlässlich der Promotion zum D. theol. ehrenhalber vor der Evangelisch-Theologischen Fakultät der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster am 12. Januar 1998. Mit einer laudatio von H.-P. Müller

Fünf Stufen auf dem Wege zum Kanon

Aleida Assmann

Einsamkeit

Theo Sundermeier

religiöse Kontrapunkte zur Alltagswelt

Das Fest und das Heilige

Beethovens «Missa solemnis», sein oft unterschätztes Spätwerk, ist große Kunst und feierlicher Gottesdienst in einem. Jan Assmann zeigt, warum das Werk einen Höhepunkt in der langen Geschichte des Gottesdienstes darstellt und zugleich den Punkt markiert, an dem aus religiösem Kult autonome Kunst wird. Eine meisterhafte Etüde über die Geburt der Kunst aus der Religion, die uns Beethovens Musik und zugleich den christlichen Gottesdienst besser verstehen lässt. Missa solemnis, «feierliche Messe»: So wurde seit dem Mittelalter das katholische Hochamt genannt. Jan Assmann nähert sich Beethovens «Missa» vom Ursprung des christlichen Gottesdienstes her und schlägt einen eindrucksvollen historischen Bogen über zwei Jahrtausende: vom letzten Abendmahl Jesu und den Gedächtnisfeiern der frühen Christen über die Entstehung fester liturgischer Formen, die im Hochmittelalter durch den mehrstimmigen Gesang zu Musik wurden, bis hin zu neuzeitlichen Vertonungen. Auch noch Beethovens «Missa» war für den liturgischen Gebrauch gedacht, hat diesen Rahmen aber gesprengt, nicht nur durch ihre Länge, sondern vielmehr noch durch ihre ungeheure Intensität. Es ist brillant und ein Lesevergnügen, wie Jan Assmann musikalische Details mit den großen historischen Linien in Beziehung setzt und uns anhand von Beethovens «Missa» die Geburt der Kunst aus dem Geiste des Gottesdienstes vor Augen führt, ja geradezu hörbar werden lässt.

Beethovens Missa Solemnis als Gottesdienst

Kult und Kunst

مصر الفرعونية وفكرة العدالة الاجتماعية

ماعت

A groundbreaking account of how the Book of Exodus shaped fundamental aspects of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam The Book of Exodus may be the most consequential story ever told. But its spectacular moments of heaven-sent plagues and parting seas overshadow its true significance, says Jan Assmann, a leading historian of ancient religion. The story of Moses guiding the enslaved children of Israel out of captivity to become God's chosen people is the foundation of an entirely new idea of religion, one that lives on today in many of the world's faiths. The Invention of Religion sheds new light on ancient scriptures to show how Exodus has shaped fundamental understandings of monotheistic practice and belief. Assmann delves into the enduring mythic power of the Exodus narrative, examining the text's compositional history and calling attention to distinctive motifs and dichotomies: enslavement and redemption; belief and doubt; proper worship and idolatry; loyalty and betrayal. Revelation is a central theme--the revelation of God's power in miracles, of God's presence in the burning bush, and of God's chosen dwelling among the Israelites in the vision of the tabernacle. Above all, it is God's covenant with Israel—the binding obligation of the Israelites to acknowledge God as their redeemer and obey His law—that is Exodus's most encompassing and transformative idea, one that challenged basic assumptions about humankind's relationship to the divine in the ancient world. The Invention of Religion is a powerful account of how ideas of faith, revelation, and covenant, first introduced in Exodus, shaped Judaism and were later adopted by Christianity and Islam to form the bedrock of the world's Abrahamic religions.

Faith and Covenant in the Book of Exodus

The Invention of Religion

Martin Mulsow

Der biblische Mythos von der Sintflut erzählt nicht nur von einer Katastrophe im Sinne von Schrecken und Strafe, sondern auch von einer Katastrophe des kollektiven Erinnerungsverlustes: Das Gedächtnis der Menscheit mußte sozusagen durch das Nadelöhr der Reduktion auf ein einziges Menschenpaar. Was ging dabei verloren? Was wurde aus dem vollkommenen Wissen Adams und der frühen Patriarchen? Was wurde davon erinnert, überliefert? Und auch von einer anderen Perspektive läßt sich nach der Erinnerung fragen: Wie wurde die Katastrophe der Sintflut selbst erinnert? Wurde ihr Schrecken verdrängt, vergessen? Und lebte das Verdrängte fort, indem es der Kultur der Noachiden um so nachhaltiger seinen Stempel aufprägte? Fragen dieser Art sind keineswegs erst nach Freud gestellt worden. Im 17. und 18. Jh. entwickelte sich eine Aufmerksamkeit für die Sintflut, in der sich naturwissenschaftliche Forschung über Fossilien mit chiliastischer Erwartung, mit der Differenzierung von Esoterik und Exoterik, mit Religionskritik, mit Kulturtheorie und mit politischer Anamnese des Despotismus verband. Boulanger etwa sah die gesamte Kultur der Antike als Bewältigungsversuch einer durch den Sintflut-Schrecken geprägten Menschheit an und deutete die heidnischen Mysterien als Antidotum gegen diesen Schrecken, als >affektive Inversion einer depressiven Mentalität der Angst. Die im Moses-Diskurs transportierten Themen der Idolatrie, des Gesetzes, der Esoterik, der Umkehr und des Spinozismus - allesamt Schlüsselprobleme der frühen Neuzeit - gehen im Sintflut-Diskurs ihre neuen und eigenen Verbindungen ein. Sintflut und Gedächtnis

Erinnern und Vergessen des Ursprungs

Sintflut und Gedächtnis

Sibylle Meyer

The essays in this volume, all written by friends and disciples of the renowned Egyptologist Jan Assmann, reflect his tremendous impact on the scholarly world and encompass a wealth of cultural and religious themes both within and beyond Ancient Egypt.

Temple of the Whole World : Studies in Honour of Jan Assmann = Agypten : Tempel Der Gesammten Welt

Egypt

Der 9. Band der Reihe behandelt das Thema der Identität, allerdings von einer ganz anderen Seite, von seinem Gegenbegriff der Verwandlung aus. Es geht dabei um die Frage: Was ist der Mensch? Ist er der Verwandlungskünstler, Rollenspieler, Maskenträger gegenüber der Welt der Tiere, die sich immer treu bleiben und immer dieselben sind? Hat er sich im Laufe der Kulturgeschichte vom archaischen Menschen, der als Schamane Tiergestalt annimmt, als Benandante zum Werwolf wird, im Ritus ein Leopard ist, zum modernen Menschen entwickelt, der sich festlegen muß und festgelegt wird auf eine Identität, die ihm zum stahlhart unentrinnbaren Gehäuse wird? Und welche Rolle spielt die Schrift in diesem Prozeß? Bedeutet der Gegensatz von Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit zugleich den Übergang von der labilen zur stabilen, zugeschriebenen und festgeschriebenen Identität? Diese und andere Fragen werden an archaischen Gesellschaften und Werken der Hochkultur ebenso erörtert wie an popkulturellen Phänomenen der Gegenwart.

Verwandlungen

The first thematic section of volume 12 of the Archive for Religious History deals with the "names and representations of the gods" in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. The second part contains various contributions on theology and cult practices in the Greek and Roman worlds, all with the specific aim of arriving at a more exact understanding of ancient polytheism and a better understanding of cult rituals.

Jan Assmann

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