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Lecture Series 2004 - Hebrew University
The Mosse Lectures at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
November 30, December 2, December 6, 2004
7 PM
The Van Leer Institute
43 Jabotinski St,
Jerusalem
The Rise of Monotheism in the Ancient World
By Jan Assmann, Professor of Egyptology
The University of Heidelberg
November 30
I What is Polytheism?
Any reflection about the nature of these new religious movements which we subsume under the term "monotheism" should start with an attempt towards a better understanding of "polytheism". This will be topic of my first lecture. Ancient Egypt will serve as a paradigm of polytheism. The basic idea is that a polytheistic "pantheon" is not a random accumulation of deities but a structured system giving structure and meaning to the human world in its three dimensions of nature, polity and personal biography.
December 2
II All Gods are One: Evolutionary and Inclusive Monotheism
Already in the 17th century when the terms "monotheism" and "polytheism" were not yet coined, R. Cudworth stated that all religions were basically monotheistic in that they acknowledged only one supreme deity as origin or creator of the universe. In our time, C. S. Lewis said that monotheism should be regarded not as the opposite but as the maturity of polytheism. This holds true for an evolutionary trend that can be observed in Indian, Mesopotamian, Greek and Egyptian religions. Again, the lecture will concentrate on Egypt to show the various steps this "evolutionary monotheism" took to evolve around the basic idea of divine unity, which Cudworth was right to postulate.
December 6
III No god but God: Revolutionary and Exclusive Monotheism
Starting with the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten in the 14th c. BCE, and continuing with those movements in Biblical history which the name "Moses" stands for, the ancient world saw the advent of a form of monotheism which - at least in its own understanding - opposed traditional religion and related to what went before in terms of revolution rather than evolution. The lecture will concentrate on the most problematic aspect of revolutionary and exclusive monotheism which is the language of violence, trying to show that violence is not a necessary consequence but only an implicit potentiality of monotheism.
Jan Assmann studied Egyptology, Archaeology and Greek philology at Heidelberg, Munich, Göttingen and Paris. Dr. phil. 1965, Dr. phil. habil. 1971 (both Egyptology, University of Heidelberg). 1976 - 2003 full professor of Egyptology (Heidelberg).
His main fields of research are Ancient Egyptian literature and religion in the context of Comparative Literature and Religious Studies, Egyptian funerary beliefs and practices, Theban tombs of the Ramesside period; cultural theory (especially "cultural memory"); history of religion, especially the rise of monotheism in the ancient world; early modern concepts of Egyptian culture (?Egyptomania").
He has been visiting professor at Collège de France, Paris (May-June 1988), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris (1998); Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris (1999); Yale (September-October 1988, spring term 2002), Rice (Oct 2000); Hebrew University, Jerusalem (1990), Dormitio Abbey, Jerusalem (September-October 1996, April 2000); Fondazione San Carlo, Modena (May 2000), Houston (Rice: Oct 2000), Yale (spring 2002, 2003).
He is a member of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities Heidelberg and of the Academia Europea; correspondent member of the German Archaeological Institute since 1973; Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (1984/85); Scholar, Getty Center for the History of Arts and the Humanities (1994/95); fellow, C.F. von Siemens-Stiftung Munich (1998/99); fellow, IFK Vienna (2004).
Awards: Max-Planck-Forschungspreis 1996; Deutscher Historikerpreis 1998. Prix Psyché 2000; D. theol.h.c. (Münster, 1998); PhD h.c. (Yale, 2004)..
Field-work at Thebes, Upper Egypt, since 1966, concentrating on tombs of the 25th and 26th dynasties (1966-1974) and on tombs of the "Ramesside" period, 19th and 20th dynasties (since 1977).
Select Bibliography
32 books, including Ägyptische Hymnen und Gebete (Zurich 1975, 2 nd ed. Fribourg 1999); Zeit und Ewigkeit im alten Ägypten. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Ewigkeit . Heidelberg 1975); Re und Amun. Die K(rise des Polytheismus (Fribourg 1983), engl. Solar Religion in the New Kingdom , (London 1995); Ägypten: Theologie und Frömmigkeit einer frühen Hochkultur (Stuttgart 1984 trans. into Japanese, Russian and Hebrew), engl. The Search for God in Ancient Egypt , Ithaca 2000 ; Maât, l'Égypte pharaonique et l'idée de justice sociale. Conférences, essais et leçons du Collège de France (Paris: Julliard, 1989; trans. into Arabic); Ma'at. Gerechtigkeit und Unsterblichkeit im Alten Aegypten , Munich 1990; Stein und Zeit. Mensch und Gesellschaft im Alten Ägypten (Munich 1991); Das kulturelle Gedächtnis. Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen (Munich 1992; trans. into Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Turkish, Bulgarian, Arabic); Ägypten. Eine Sinngeschichte , (Munich 1996), engl: The Mind of Egypt. History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs (New York 2002); Moses the Egyptian. The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism (Cambridge, Mass. 1997); German: Moses der Ägypter, Munich 1998, trans. into Italian and French); Weisheit und Mysterium. Das Bild der Griechen von Ägypten (Munich 2000); Der Tod als Thema der Kulturtheorie (Frankfurt 2000); Herrschaft und Heil. Politische Theologie in Altägypten, Israel und Europa (Munich 2000); Images et rites de la mort en Egypte ancienne . L'apport des liturgies funéraires (Paris 2000); Religion und kulturelles Gedächtnis . Zehn Studien (Munich 2000); Tod und Jenseits im alten Ägypten , Munich 2001; Altägyptische Totenliturgien vol. I (Heidelberg 2002); Die Mosaische Unterscheidung oder der Preis des Monotheismus , Munich 2003.
Coeditor (with Aleida Assmann) of the series ?Archäologie der literarischen Kommunikation": Schrift und Gedächtnis (1983), Kanon und Zensur (1987), Weisheit (1990), Text und Kommentar (1995), Schleier und Schwelle I-III = Geheimnis und Öffentlichkeit (1997), Geheimnis und Offenbarung (1998), Geheimnis und Neugierde (1999); Einsamkeit (2000) and Aufmerksamkeiten (2001), and (co)editor of more than 20 other books including: Kultur und Gedächtnis. (Frankfurt 1988); Kultur und Konflikt (Frankfurt 1990), Das Fest und das Heilige (Gütersloh 1991); Revolution und Mythos (Frankfurt 1992); Die Erfindung des Inneren Menschen . (Gütersloh 1993); Gerechtigkeit. Richten und Retten in der abendländischen Tradition und ihren altorientalischen Ursprüngen (Munich) 1998; Self, Soul & Body in Religious Experience (Leiden 1998); Transformations of the Inner Self in Ancient Religions (Leiden 1999); Representation in Religion . Studies in Honor of Moshe Barasch (Leiden 2001).
Roughly 450 articles, reviews, essays, contributions to Lexica etc.