Assmann - Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism (1997)

Jan Assmann, Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism. Harvard University Press, 1997.
ISBN: 9780674587397 | 288 pages | PDF

Jan Assmann, The Price of Monotheism. Translated by Robert Savage. Stanford University Press, 2010.
ISBN: 9780804761598 | 152 pages | PDF

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, the renowned Egyptologist, 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 (1997) 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.

In The Price of Monotheism (2010), a nuanced consideration of his own controversial Moses the Egyptian, 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 distinction between true and false religion 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.

From reviews of Moses the Egyptian:

“A brilliant study... World-renowned as a specialist on Egyptian texts, beliefs, and rituals, Assmann combines great technical virtuosity in his chosen field with wide -- very wide -- theoretical and comparative interests... Elegantly argued, impressively documented, and written in eloquent English, Moses the Egyptian offers challenging new findings on the early history of monotheism, and a new reading of the place of Egypt in modern Western culture -- and it puts both into the larger context of a theory of cultural memory.”—Anthony Grafton, New Republic

“For early writers ... Moses invented a religious tradition that was the deliberate antithesis of that of Egypt. Later, in the period treated here ... they credited Moses with having instructed the Hebrews in a version of Egyptian religion... This is certainly a fascinating work... This account of the theme of Moses the Egyptian should appeal to students of the time period mostly treated here. Moreover ... the volume will serve to introduce any number of students of the Near East to several thinkers who were prominent in their own time but not widely known today.”—David Lorton, Journal of Near Eastern Studies

“Jan Assmann revisits the ground covered by Freud [in Moses and Monotheism], but with important differences. Assmann is no amateur. He is an eminent German Egyptologist, and no one writes with more authority about relations between ancient Egypt and ancient Israel. Equally important, Assmann aspires to something at once more tenable and more valuable than Freud. Freud tried to describe Moses as he really was... Assmann instead chose to write an account of how Moses has been remembered in different times and places... Assmann gives a dazzling account of several centuries of [the Moses-as-Egyptian] tradition... Moses the Egyptian, for all its brilliant erudition, is not simply dispassionate history. It is equally a homily. It is this that makes [it] so rare for an academic monograph -- a profoundly moving book... Assmann argues passionately that we today have much to learn from the ancient Egyptians whom he has spent his life studying... Most moving of all, Assmann is a consummate scholar with courage enough to moralize... Assmann’s reconstruction of an ecumenical tradition of interpreting the Exodus is an important contribution to the history of religion. At the same time, his plea that modern theologians adopt similar views has great moral force. Assmann has done nothing less than suggest that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam be set upon different, more inclusive foundations. By demonstrating that these alternate foundations have long been part of the Judeo-Christian tradition, Assmann makes such sweeping reform almost plausible. Plausible or not, Assmann has written a book that is scholarly and passionate, a book that inspires as well as informs.”—Noah J. Efron, Boston Book Review

“[Moses the Egyptian’s] scholarly depth lends legitimacy to its revisionist claim. [It is not] designed to ignite controversy in the culture wars -- something that cannot be said for some other efforts in the field. This deep seriousness alone is sufficient to recommend Assmann’s study. Assmann tells several interlocking stories. His primary narrative line is the memory of Egypt in the European scholarly imagination. Here he attempts -- with considerable success -- to move beyond a conventional history of scholarship... Assmann moves beyond cultural history to something more subtle: the complex transmission of ideas which are sometimes recorded, sometimes recessive, sometimes almost forgotten. What is striking is not only Assmann’s account of the written record of the Moses and Egypt story but his recovery of the reasons for its historical retention... Assmann has produced a learned study whose theses will themselves endure in the scholarly memory.”—John Peter Kenney, American Historical Review