Moses and Monotheism

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"To deny a people the man whom it praises as the greatest of its sons is not a deed to be undertaken lightheartedly--especially by one belonging to that people," writes Sigmund Freud, as he prepares to pull the carpet out from under The Great Lawgiver in Moses and Monotheism. In this, his last book, Freud argues that Moses was an Egyptian nobleman and that the Jewish religion was in fact an Egyptian import to Palestine. Freud also writes that Moses was murdered in the wilderness, in a reenactment of the primal crime against the father. Lingering guilt for this crime, Freud says, is the reason Christians understand Jesus' death as sacrificial. "The 'redeemer' could be none other than the one chief culprit, the leader of the brother-band who had overpowered the father." Hence the basic difference between Judaism and Christianity: "Judaism had been a religion of the father, Christianity became a religion of the son." Freud's arguments are extremely imaginative, and his distinction between reality and fantasy, as always, is very loose. If only as a study of wrong-headedness, however, it's fascinating reading for those who want to explore the psychological impulses governing the historical relationship between Christians and Jews. --Michael Joseph Gross

Book Description

Freud's speculations on various aspects of religion where he explains various characteristics of the Jews in their relations with the Christians.

Customer Reviews:

Terrific Insights.......2007-03-27

Like all of Freud's books, this one will change the way you look at things.

In the first part (written in Vienna as the Nazis approached), Freud essentially analyzed Judaism into 2 component parts.

First was the Moses religion--a strict monotheism deriving from Egypt (via Moses, who was an Egyptian) and Ikhnaton: this monotheism was universal, ethical, stripped of priestcraft and magic, retaining circumcision (an Egyptian custom).

Second was the tribal religion of Jahve (Yahweh)--a volcano god of one of the Canaanite tribes: not monotheistic, punitive, exclusivist, loaded with incessant in-group rules and rituals.

Naturally, these two don't fit together well, and this explains why the Old Testament presents such a crazy picture of God: sometimes impersonal and ethical and absolutely fair; most times homicidal (even genocidal), bad tempered, vindictive, given to human sacrifice, obsessed with punctilious rules.

In the second part of the book (written in Freud's last year--after he had escaped to England), Freud talks about the psychodynamics of such a religion, mainly in terms of father-murder.

While I don't agree with some of Freud's assumptions (particularly the idea that monotheism is an "advance" on polytheism), this is still brilliant work.

Reading Freud is always an education (he knows so much) and always a pleasure (he is a wonderful writer).

Can't go wrong on this one.

let my people go - all of them.......2006-08-18

Reading through the many wonderful reviews here, one gets the picture of what it is with this book: love it or hate it, believer or skeptic, even telling people the gist of the thesis and the story (the book is magnificently both), this work never fails to evoke a strong reaction. Look at the reviews. What is evident is that the book is truly provocative - rare for any book - no less a slight, speculative work of less than 200 pages, written somewhere in the middle of the twentieth century. Who would really care? But as you can see from this representative sample, people do.

Despite the ongoing controversy regarding, increasing skepticism towards, and perhaps dismissal of his major ideas, Freud still engages us as one of the most influential thinkers of the past century, and this work, which, surprisingly, may come to be regarded as his masterpiece (it is a masterpiece - do not doubt that), written as he was dying of cancer of the jaw and fleeing from the Nazis (Freud was Jewish - and among all the things that it is, the book is his response to that singular experience), is his signal contribution to religious studies.

The story is that:

1) Moses was an Egyptian, likely of royal birth, that he learned monotheism from the renegade Egyptian monarch, Akenaton, who, during his brief and probably aborted reign, unsuccessfully attempted to displace the long-standing polytheism and its attendant institutions with a unitary sole deity - a sun god - not represented in any form or art .

2) - That he may have been the proprietor or governor of a fringe province, the Biblical "land of Goshen" with a population of Hebraic or Semitic descent, to whom he taught the new religion. At some point during the exodus, Moses was murdered by his followers. The new God was rejected in favor of a tribal deity, a bloodthirsty, local lunar God, Jahve. However, his immediate entourage, also of the Egyptian court or priesthood, were established as the Levites, or priestly caste, and their descendents eventually revived the ancient monotheism, which we know as the religion of the ancient Hebrews.

The thesis (more complex) quite briefly is:

Akenaton possibly adopted monotheism as adjunct to Egypt's imperialist expansion in the 18th century B.C. Circumcision, which first evolved among the Egyptians (there is the pictoral evidence, as far back as it goes), is rooted in the idea of prehistoric enforced fidelity to the clan father under threat of castration thus symbolized (the primal "covenant" between father and sons). Moses was murdered because he restricted access to the women of the tribe, in repetition of the totemic archetype. The Pentateuch is a palimpsest, references the original monotheistic religion inscribed under references to the later religion of Jahve, and then again, the revival, written over those references in the Levitical Law. The revival was spurred by long, pent up guilt over the collective memory of the death of Moses. And well, Papa don't take no mess! The religion of the Levites, developed during the Babylonian exile, represents a return to the Father dominance. The Messianic trend represents yet another turn away from this father dominance toward the Son, away from circumcision, and toward social decentralization, eventually a priesthood of all believers. There's a lot more to it - but these are the bare bones.

I don't believe anyone would want to make absolute claims as to what went down thirty-eight centuries ago - but, all considered, Freud's thesis has its moment, and that moment is now. Could it be that the Jews and Arabs are one people - Semites - who have been divided over time by those with ulterior motives? Resoundingly, yes, the possibility must be considered. Freud wrote this remarkable text at a time when the Nazis were beginning to fund the Islamic Brotherhood (after they themselves had been funded by Prescott Bush and the Union Bank). Ironically, Freud's thesis suggests that the current situation in the Middle East has apparently brought this world to the edge of annihilation, may involve combatants who have no conception of their true origins or the basis of what they are fighting for, but, from the standpoint of carefully fostered illusions, merely believe, in an all too human way, that they do. Freud argues closely and pervasively enough to raise and honest doubt in our minds. Well worth the read.

Freud's Last Act.......2006-03-29

Freud's Last Act

Who founded Judaism and monotheism is indeed a tricky but nevertheless intriguing question? Tom Cahill, in his wonderful and lyrical piece "The Gift of the Jews," lists monotheism as an important Jewish contribution to civilization. On the other hand, Dr. Frances Cress Welsin, in the Isis Papers, and others of her Africanist cohorts, suggest that Judaism -- as well as Christianity -- are but off-shoots of well-established Egyptian myths, rituals and religions.

While it is one thing for free-lance interlopers on either side of this issue to speculate on these matters, it is quite another when the father of modern psychology himself, Sigmund Freud, does so -- even if it is done as his last professional act.

Using his earlier work, Totem and Taboo as the psychological foundation and backdrop, Freud in his final book, spins out a not altogether unconvincing tale that Moses was an Egyptian Prince who was killed by his sons, and that monotheism was the necessary cultural invention and outcome that ultimately prevented the cycle of fratricide from continuing.

It is a fascinating read even if not up to Freud's normal high standards of analytical rigor. Despite its speculative nature, this thesis has global implications for contemporary religion, the Western worldview, and for how our current structure of morality was established and continues to work. Five stars

Kemet-Moses & Akhenatens religion.......2005-02-07

Kemet-Moses:
Who founded Judaism is a tricky question. More tricky is, who founded Monotheism, Moses or Akhen-Atun? There are several people who were essential to the creation of Judaism, Egypt served as a womb, in a nascent stage, where the Jewish people were formed as a nation, within four centuries of their soujourn in the land of Goshen (North-eastern Egyptian province), by training in civilized traditions and worthy articrafts.
The Bible shows Moses as the founder of the faith, while Abraham was the root of the nation. Moses, the greatest of the Hebrew prophets, has protected the Jews from the wrath of God, and negotiated with God on their behalf, according to the Torah, is an Egyptian Princely sage, according to Sigmund Freud.

Philo to Assmann's Moses:
Philo Judeas of Alexandria mentioned that some Jews doubted the historical reliability of their scriptures and considered part of their content as myth. Aristobulus, Philo's Alexandrian predecessor moved beyond the literal to the hidden meaning, allegorical and philosophic, similar to the treatment of texts of classical mythology, as was the tradition in their megalopolis (Great City).
Origen, who wrote Contra Celsius, refuted Celsius argument that the Mosaic book of Genesis was based on borrowed sources like the Ducalion narrative for the flood story, known as such to the Greeks.
Assmann starts with the definition of Egyptian thought construction as Mnemo-history, a 'Suppressed history of Repressed memory' of Akhenaten in Moses conscience. His ultimate thesis, srarting from Spencer's findings as 'before the Law,' is based on his analytical review of eighteenth century historical discourse on Moses. Freud shows up in his spear headed psychological idea; 'the Return of the repressed.' The roots of Egyptian monotheism of the enlightened elite, was conceived in the 'One,' Amon-Ra'e, and Aten, consecutive masters of Theban and Heliopolitan Pantheons, which echoes in Psalm 82, Concluding into what JH Breasted elaborated eighty years ago. freud followed him in abolishing Mosaic primacy of monotheistic revelation.

Revelation to Akhen-Atun:
Freud is drawn to confirms his discovery of Moses origin and role, in the Jewish traditions, preserved in the Pseudo epigraphic writings, that Moses was murdered by Joshua, who buried him in the wilderness*. "The 'redeemer' could be none other than the one chief culprit, the leader of the brother-band who had overpowered the father." Concluding thatl; "Judaism had been a religion of the father, Christianity became a religion of the son."
The Jewish inter-testiment writing, on the occasion of Moses' impending death, by the rebelling congregation (Numbers 14), and doubting exodus generation with calmination into the revolt of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (numbers 16), support the same concept of authority rejection of a non-Hebraic Moses.
* The Assumption of Moses: Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha

Freud's Moses & Moses Monolatry.......2005-02-04

"One will not easily decide to deny a nation its greatest son because of the meaning of a name," (Moses is an Egyptian name) Sigmund Freud's original draft

Moses & Monotheism:
* Moses of Exodus 2:10, is presented as a derivation from the Hebrew Mashah (to draw) is implied, while Josephus and Church Fathers assign the Coptic mo (water) and uses (saved) as the constituent parts of the name. Contemporary views widely patronized by Egyptologists, tracing the name back to the Egyptian mesh (child), is dominating but nothing could be established as decisive.
*Monotheism:(Gk. monon: single, Theos: Deity.) the belief in a single, an all-encompassing universal, deity.
*Monolatry: The worship of only one god, while admitting the existence of other gods.

What is Your Name?
There are many Jews & Christians alike, who are upset by Martin Buber's interpretation of Moses inquiring from YAHWEH, as showing the influence of the Egyptian 'name magic.' This may have been the reason beyond the strange inquiry of the learned Moses, who may have asked the encountered God of the 'Unconsumed Bush' for His identifying name, and the Lord's mysterious answer, explained in 'The Egyptian Book of the Dead in which (?)-Moses could have been initiated into by the priests of the solar cult of Heliopolis, whose predominant cosmological world view, Moses has presented in the book of Genesis, describes multiple names for Atum, Master of its divine Pantheon, and creator deity, "whose name has been variously interpreted as meaning 'the Completed One,' 'He Who is Entirity,'...or 'The Undifferentiated One.' the last rendering seems the most probable.., i.e., an undifferentiated unity," (The Book of Going Forth by Day, translation by Dr. Raymond Faulklner, with introduction & commentaries by Dr. Ogden Goelet)

Freud's Moses:
In his last written book, completed just before the holocaust, Freud was not the first to argue that Moses was an Egyptian Prince, and that the Hebrew religion that developed into monotheistic Judaism was but an adapted Egyptian thought carried back into Palestine. Freud confirms Jewish traditions found in the Pseudo epigraphic writings (The Assumption of Moses, which echoes in New Testament writings) that Moses was murdered by Joshua who buried him in the wilderness.
Sigmund Freud's controversial and ingenious multi leveled psychological treatise, on the Egyptian roots its and relation with Akhenaten's monotheistic, short lived revelation and Akhetaten's revolution against Amun's polytheistic representation of the Loving and sociable Deity, there overshadows a typically complicated Freudian thesis which endeavored to explain a multi purpose and very complex theory of every thing: all human atrocities and Jewish calamities.
For those who want to explore the psychological impulses governing the historical relationship between Christians and Jews. "The Christ whom Moses foreshadowed seemed eclipsed by him in the minds of the learned. It was, humanly speaking, an indispensable providence that represented him in the Transfiguration, side by side with Elias, and quite inferior to the incomparable Antitype whose coming he had predicted." New Advent

Assmann's Moses:
Assmann starts with a parapsychological definition of Egyptian thought construction as Mnemo-history, advancing into Suppressed history of Repressed memory of Akhenaten in Moses conscience, proceeding to Spencer's findings as 'before the Law.' The crux of his advancement to his ultimate thesis lies in a historical review of eighteenth century discourse on Moses. Freud shows up in a psychological spear head idea; 'the Return of the repressed,' the roots of Egyptian monotheistic theology of the elite was conceived in the 'One,' the master of Egyptian Pantheons, Aten, or Amon-Ra'e. Concluding into what breasted initiated eighty years ago: abolishing the Mosaic monopoly of revelation. Marvelous!

Moses Reinterpreted:
"interpretation and critique of 'Moses and Monotheism' are wide and varied," from Jan Assmann to Yosef Yerushalmi, in 1986 Columbia University Lectures.
Yerushalmi argues forcefully and almost convincingly that "Moses and Monotheism is 'a work neither of negation nor degradation but affirmation and pride in belonging to a people from whom, there rose again and again men who lent new color to the fading tradition, renewed the admonishments and demands of Moses, and did not rest until the lost cause was once more regained."

Anti-Semitism Psychosis:
Freud's analysis is amazingly original though extremely imaginative, and his distinction between reality and fantasy, defies his psychological conclusion, and common sense logic. However, his theory is fascinating, and converts this subject to a 'DaVinci Code' type of reading, 50 years ahead of his time.
Freud's genius has failed him in his thesis of what he presented as a discovery of Hebrew Christian evolution as an analogy with the primitive father/son tribal succession rather than an advancement in Cosmic consciousness from Egyptian liturgical (People Worship) to Hebrew Temple sacrificial Worship. That Rabbinical post Temple Judaism transformed into Messianic Judaism which is Christianity.
Those which emigrated into Arabia developed an Ebiobnite Judaism which reflected a deformed disbelief in Israel's hope in a Davidic kingdom rather than a Kingdom of God that no doubt prevailed, a Kingdom of the Loving Lord.
The undying guilt for Moses killing, proposes Freud, is the basis of Christians conception for Jesus' death as a sacrifice to the Father, Thus the fundamental difference between Judaism and Christianity becomes; "Judaism had been a religion of the father, Christianity became a religion of the son."

Freud's Moses: Judaism Terminable and Interminable

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A fascinating read

Freud's Moses: Judaism Terminable and Interminable
Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0300057563

Book Description

This remarkable book provides fascinating new insights into Freud's intentions in writing Moses and Monotheism-his only work specifically devoted to a Jewish theme. Yerushalmi presents the work as Freud's psychoanalytic history of the Jews, Judaism, and the Jewish psyche-his attempt, under the shadow of Nazism, to discover what has made the Jews what they are. In the process, Yerushalmi's eloquent and sensitive exploration of Freud's controversial final work provides a reappraisal of Freud's feelings toward his own Judaism. "Yerushalmi has written a dazzlingly brilliant book. Reading it is to take an exciting journey through the spaces of mind-an adventure of intellect. This book is an extraordinary achievement, one that will be discussed and debated for many years."-Irving Howe

Customer Reviews:

A fascinating read.......1998-01-05

This is scholarship at its very best. Freud's struggle with his self-identity and the identity of his science is clearly documented in this book. Better than most trained psychoanalysts, the author detects most subtle ripples of the human mind, using clues provided by Freud's language, in his books and in his personal letters. By far the most nuanced study of the most complex personality of the century. I suspect Freud himself, being the cunning self-concealer that he was (like Goethe), would have resisted this interpretation, but to anyone who wants to understand psychoanalysis and its father, this book is indispensable.

Monotheism and Moses: Problems in European Civilization

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Monotheism and Moses: Problems in European Civilization
Robert J. & Hazelton, Harold E. Christen
Manufacturer: D.C. Heath & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000L44IP8

Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism

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Brilliantt and crystal clear historical analysis
Searching Moses in the Memory of Kemetic Egypt
The mnemohistory of Egyptian monotheism
Historical-Philosophical Discourse
Great study, but..

Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism
Jan Assmann
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0674587383

Book Description

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.

Customer Reviews:

Brilliantt and crystal clear historical analysis.......2005-05-24

Jan Assmann is a giant among scholars, and that most incredible find: a man with genius insight who knows how to write! This book is about the story of Moses and how it is told and retold in Western culture. Except for a few untranslated quotes in German, French, etc., this work is beguilingly instructive enough for a beginner, and its points are made with such beauty that they will spur one to further biblical or Egyptian research. I value the book for it's in depth analysis of Akhnaten and the extent of his monotheistic "revolution" as much as anything else. This scholar is also gentle in his approach to all the materials he treats. For that reason he inspires considerable trust. I can not recommend this book and this man too much! The whole subject of the connection between Ancient Israel and Egypt is a rich load of treasure beyond imagining, and here is a great mind to open pathways and draw our attention to things we think we see but perhaps do not. Dazzling work!

Searching Moses in the Memory of Kemetic Egypt.......2005-01-08

"One would call this work monumental if there were no risk of distracting the reader thereby with what might otherwise appear as a facile and predictable pun." T. Lawson; Folklore Bulletin

The Mind of Egypt:
Our western civilization is influenced in many ways by perspectives that originated in the Heliopolitan theology, such as the concept of monotheism. How and why monotheism became what it did has its source in Egypt as well. Without an understanding of how the Egyptians viewed the idea of the unity principle, 'one god, Lord of the Pantheon,' it will be difficult to see how this concept became corrupted through misapplication over time.
The enormous influence of the mind of Egypt on our continuing present is one of the stronger messages here, and this influence has made itself felt in a number of areas, not least the very modern study of religion itself. Assmann points out that even our concepts of monotheism and polytheism were hammered out in the burgeoning discourse of seventeenth century Egyptology. Todd Lawson, Toronto University.

Amarna Monotheism:
The Amarna heresy, or Atenism is the earliest monotheistic religious concept ever, with a wealth of devotion and worship hymns of Aten. Atenism was associated mainly with the eighteenth dynasty Pharaoh and Prophet Amenhotep IV, better known as Akhenaten, the name he adopted. Recent Egyptologists indicate there are proofs that Aten was becoming more known during the eighteenth dynasty - notably Amenhotep III calling of his royal barge as the 'Spirit of the Aten.' Ultimately, it was Amenhotep IV who introduced Aten as the sole deity in his revolution, in a series of decreed steps culminating in the official endorsement of Aten as the sole universal god for the Egyptian Empire, and beyond. It was established as Egypt's state religion for around two decades, in the 14th century BC, before a violent return to the traditional Amen and Egyptian pantheon gods, while the name of the 'heretic Pharaoh' associated with Aten was completely erased from the Egyptian records.

Assmann's Frontiers:
Advancing onto seven consecutive waves, inscribed onto the chapters of his book, Assmann gave his work an Egyptian belief in 'seven perfection'. He starts with a parapsychological definition of Egyptian thought construction as Mnemo-history, advancing into Suppressed history of Repressed memory of Akhenaten in Moses conscience, proceeding to Spencer's findings as 'before the Law.' The crux of his advancement to his ultimate thesis lies in a historical review of eighteenth century discourse on Moses. Freud shows up in a psychological spear head idea; 'the Return of the repressed,' the roots of Egyptian monotheistic theology of the elite was conceived in the 'One,' the master of Egyptian Pantheons, Aten, or Amon-Rae. Concluding into what breasted initiated eighty years ago: abolishing the Mosaic monopoly of revelation. Marvelous!

Scholar's Evaluation:
The Egyptians' experiment and successes with the modalities and rhetoric's of religion and politics would be felt not only by the heroes of the venture of Islam, but also their earlier counterparts amongst the Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans and the Persians. All these various actors and audiences were imbued to some degree or another with something of the Mind of Egypt through the triple agency of what the author calls Traces, Messages and Memories. ... Professor Assmann has fashioned for the scholar and general inquirer a key to ancient Egypt that is a pleasure to read, thrilling in its insights, and awe-inspiring as regards the multiple scholarly tools so clearly and masterfully (that is to say "invisibly") employed in the process.

Heidelberg's Egyptologist in America:
Would you have visited the city, it's castle and university, you will have appreciated the rigor in color of German scholarship in a field that was a quasi monopoly for few European students of the great Civilization, formulated as the science of Egyptology. When Professor Assmann was invited by J. P. Getty center for a sabbatical in California, he decided to explore 'the vast terrain between Akhen'Aten and Freud.' in reply to 'Freud's Moses', and recap on his search of almighty God in Egypt (Assmann's ;The Mind of Egypt), as an introduction to the same author's Moses the Egyptian
The idea of biblical revelation that stunned the young Orientalist J. H. Breasted, when he studied ancient Egypt's moral codes, persuaded him to pursue his great adventure into the dawn of conscience, in ancient Egypt, a comparative study of Hebrew wisdom poetry with its analogous Egyptian parallels; impacted the twenty century religious imagination from Freud to Assmann.

Conceiving Reality:
J. H. Breasted (in the narrative of my dad) has preserved my faith in the Lords plan for salvation of his conscious icon, humans of their own inequity. I refrain from my all for Assmann old/new thesis which he perfected to quoting a more informed evaluation of A. Grafton, in New Republic; "A brilliant study...Assmann combines great technical virtuosity in his chosen field with wide-very wide-theoretical and comparative interests... Moses the Egyptian offers challenging new findings on the early history of monotheism, and a new reading in the place of Egypt in Modern Western culture-"
While the Hebrews were collaborative in the Egyptian prince liberation scheme, in both senses of body and soul, their descendants, the Jewish people rejected the Messiah of their national stock!

The mnemohistory of Egyptian monotheism.......2001-12-02

As several readers have pointed out, Assmann's work is not really suitable to the casual reader, nor the reader unlearned in Latin. That said, most reviewers have suggested that the book be reviewed by someone fairly up on the field.

Assmann calls his project a "mnemohistory," meaning by this a history of the way certain aspects of an ancient history are remembered and distorted over time. The central focus of this mnemohistory, as indicated by the title, is Moses and his Egyptian origins. Assmann is a distinguished Egyptologist, so he wants to root this mnemohistory in Egypt, not in any of the numerous pseudo- or para-Egyptian texts (the Hermetica, for example, or Plato's various renderings of Egypt). In short, the question is this: What, if anything, might ancient Egyptian historical events have to do with later Western conceptions of (1) Egypt, (2) Judaism, (3) Moses, and (4) monotheism in general?

Assmann begins with a seemingly radical thesis: that the historical figure(s) represented in "Moses" was an Egyptian priestly exponent of the Akhenaten/Amarna monotheism, which lasted a couple hundred years and ended under the reign of Tutankhamun. The implication of this is that Judaism, and in particular Mosaic Law, was constructed as a counter-religion to normative (i.e. non-Akhenaten) Egyptian religion.

Having demonstrated that this thesis is plausible, Assmann moves on to examine how this peculiar origin of Judeo-Christian ritual and legal prescription was remembered and reinterpreted across the millennia. He examines Maimonides, John Spencer, and Ralph Cudworth, showing them all recognizing the Judaism-equals-Egypt-backwards connection, but interpreting it variously for philoSemitic, antiSemitic, philoEgyptian, or other purposes.

Next, he moves on to examine the flowering and spreading of this debate through the eighteenth century, where it influenced Deist and Masonic discourse, as well as that of major philosophers. Finally, he moves to what seems to me the heart of the book, an analysis of Freud's _Moses and Monotheism_, examining the ways in which Freud utilizes psychoanalytic techniques to reveal the same half-remembered ancient trauma beneath the very origins of monotheism --- that is, Freud realizes that the hideous cultural trauma inflicted upon Egyptian culture by the Akhenaten revolution led to suppression, repression, and thus to expression in not only monotheism but also a violent aversion for monotheism's apparent originators. In short, Freud discovers in the Amarna trauma the repressed origins of anti-Semitism.

The book concludes with an Egyptologist's analysis of the monotheism of Amarna, on which this reader is not able to pronounce; that said, Assmann's credentials certainly suggest that this should be a most expert reconstruction.

_Moses the Egyptian_ is an extraordinary piece of visionary scholarship, wide-ranging and courageous, but copiously annotated and supported. If, having read this review, you think this book sounds like the niftiest approach to Foucaultian archaeology, or some similar theoretical structure, this book is probably for you. If, on the other hand, you want a careful history in the more classic sense of a narrative, with people and events, and some sort of proof of who Moses "really was," you're not going to get much out of this.

Historical-Philosophical Discourse.......2001-11-24

This book is a scholarly discourse as to how the memory of Egyptian monotheism survived in Western Culture. I use the word scholarly advisedly, not only because the book is well researched and annotated but it is also written for scholars. It does not lend itself to cursory reading but needs to be studied. This may be the reason why previous reviewers, although favorable,did not inform the reader of the points made in the book.
For me the most important aspect was that Assmann clearly distinguishes between Moses as a historic figure and Moses as portrayed in the literature. He calls this phenomenon mnemohistory. Namely history not as it transpired according to current knowledge but history as it is remembered. This is important because we know nothing about the historic Moses. Assmann then goes on to describe previous views held about Moses having been culturally,if not ethnically, an Egyptian and how he had created a counter-religion to Egyptian practices. He reviews the works of authors ranging from the 17th to the 20th century; with a number of them having passed into oblivion over the centuries. Assmann also subscribes to Freud's view that Akhenaten's monotheism was the model upon which Moses had built his own edifice. Others may argue that the biblical Moses was not yet a true monotheist because the god of Moses is still in competition with other existing gods. Had he indeed been the universal cosmic god of Akhenaten he would not need to have been "jealous" or to "magnify" himself on the Egyptians, as the Bible repeatedly tells us. Assmann accepts,furthermore, Freud's idea of repressed trauma which remains latent in the subconcious where it acts as a disturbing element and eventually breaks back into consciousness in distorted form. This is not a biologic fact but merely psychoanalytic theory. Although popular at this time, it has not been proven to occur in individuals let alone ethnic groups or nations.
The book also abounds with Latin and French quotations which are not always translated. The Greek and German ones are. Thus a proper evaluation of this book requires information which the average - even reasonably well educated - American reader does not readily possess. This also highlights the problem one has with a single 1-5 star rating system. For scholarship it deserves the four stars given but for ease of readability I would have to reduce them to about 2. The book will,therefore, be best appreciated by professionals in the field rather than laypersons.

Great study, but.........1999-10-28

First,This is not a historical book. When I decided to readed I did because I thought it deals with theory of the identification of Aknaten as Moses. It doesn't! You'd better check Ahmed Osman books then. Here the author reviews, amply, the western litrature that regarded Moses monotheism as an egyptian invention; the authors who traced Moses religion, not his historical identity, back it's roots in the egyptian religion. He did not come up with anything new, though he did a tremendous job. In brief: this book is not for everyone; it's a study...for those who want to study. A great research..,but.. a very boring book

Early Freud and Late Freud: Reading Anew Studies on Hysteria and Moses and Monotheism (New Library of Psychoanalysis, 29)

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Early Freud and Late Freud: Reading Anew Studies on Hysteria and Moses and Monotheism (New Library of Psychoanalysis, 29)
Grubrich-Simiti
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

As Freud's writings are read less and less and have even sometimes come under attack, how are we to understand the contributions of his work? Ilse Grubrich-Simitis, well-known as an editor of Freud's manuscripts, advocates here a new reading of Freud's texts, so that their exact detail and innovative power be fully realized.

The essays, originally published in German, explore the development of Freud's concept of trauma from his first book to his last one. Through the study of Moses, and the application of psychoanalytic method, Early Freud and Late Freud shows how the contemporary traumatic events in Nazi Germany may have influenced Freud's return to the beginning of his studies, a development which continues to have profound influence on modern psychoanalysis today.

The Birth of God: The Moses Play and Monotheism in Ancient Israel (American University Studies Series Xxvi Theatre Arts)

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The Birth of God: The Moses Play and Monotheism in Ancient Israel (American University Studies Series Xxvi Theatre Arts)
Richard Courtney
Manufacturer: Peter Lang Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0820430552

Moises El Egipcio / Moses The Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism (Historia / History)

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Moises El Egipcio / Moses The Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism (Historia / History)
Jan Assmann
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Binding: Hardcover

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MONOTHEISM & MOSES
Robert J.; Hazelton, Harold E.; Editors Christen
Manufacturer: D.C. Heath & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IP466G

Monotheism and Moses: The Genesis of Judaism

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Monotheism and Moses: The Genesis of Judaism
Robert J., and Harold E. Hazelton, eds. Christen
Manufacturer: D.C. Heath & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NLM80G

Monotheism and Moses: The Genesis of Judaism (Problems in European Civilization Series)

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Monotheism and Moses: The Genesis of Judaism (Problems in European Civilization Series)
Robert J. Christen and Harold E. Hazelton (Editors)
Manufacturer: D.C. Heath & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WBMB9A

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