Egyptian Solar Relgion in the New Kingdom. Re, Amun and the Crisis of Polytheism.

Kegan Paul, London / New York, 1995. XIII,233p. Original grey cloth with dust wrps. Nice copy. Translated from the German by A. Alcock. ?Jan Assmann of Heidelberg University is one of the world?s leading authorities on ancient Egyptian religion and kingship, but his work is not well known among scholars who do not read German. This book on New Kingdom solar hymns is a welcome first step towards remedying the lack of English translations of his writings. A ? direct sequel?. To his annotated edition of all known sun hymns from Theban tombs, Solar Religion examines the changing theology embedded in these and other Egyptian religious texts produced between 1500 and 1200 B.c. Assmann?s analysis, crammed with original insights into the meaning and significance of these texts, is highly technical and assumes that readers are already familiar with the broad outline of his thought. (?) Throughout their history ancient Egyptians tended to view the gods not only as being in the world but also as constituting the world. Behind the multiplicity of deities lay the oneness of a creator god who remained a singularity at the same time that he turned himself into all the other gods and the whole of creation. Yet only in Akhenaten?s solar cult did this lead to denying the existence of the other gods. After Akhenaten?s reign, Amun-Re was even more insistently glorified as a creator god who manifested himself not just in the sun but in all life-giving elements including air and water. Amun not only created and sustained all Devine and mortal live but lived in every person?s heart and determined his of her fate. In the early New Kingdom the king sponsored cults that maintained the cosmos by strengthening the sun and defeating the sun?s cosmic enemies, while at the same time maintaining order and upholding standards of justice (?) on earth. By the late New Kingdom order and success were no longer equated with obeying the king; kings and commoners alike depended on the favour of a creator god who was a source of cosmic as well as personal prosperity and wellbeing. (?) No one questions Assmann?s linguistic competence or his detailed knowledge of New Kingdom religious texts. Yet social scientists and general readers will be disappointed that in this book he offers no explanation for changing religious views (?). Assmann seeks to justify dealing with changing religious ideas from a purely conceptual point of view by stating that it would be a ?reductionist fallacy? to see in these changes ? nothing but the expression of political and economical tensions? (p.XII). To try to understand changing religious concepts in their economic, political, and social contexts does not eliminate the role played by intellectual factors in this change. One hopes for the translation of additional works in which Assmann?s views on these issues are more apparent.? (BRUCE G. TRIGGER in The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 1996, pp.424-426).