Conceptions Of God In Ancient Egypt

Author : Erik Hornung
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt written by Erik Hornung and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An excellent historical overview of the gods... It is a recommended necessary reading for those studying Ancient Egyptian religion.―Frankie's Reviews in Egyptology A work of extraordinary distinction, Hornung's book will appeal to anyone interested in ancient Egypt, in ancient religion, and in the history of religion, as well as students and scholars of ancient history, anthropology, and archaeology. Osiris, Horus, Isis, Thoth, Anubis - the many strange and compelling figures of the Egyptian gods and goddesses seem to possess endless fascination. The renowned Egyptologist Erik Hornung here studies the ancient Egyptians' conceptions of god, basing his account on a thorough reappraisal of the primary sources. His book, now available in English for the first time, is the most extensive exploration yet undertaken of the nature of Egyptian religion. Hornung examines the characteristics, spheres of action, and significance of Egyptian gods and goddesses, analyzing the complex and changing iconography used to represent them, and disentangling the many seemingly contradictory aspects of the religion of which they are a part. He seeks to answer two basic questions: How did the Egyptians themselves see their gods? Did they believe there was an impersonal, anonymous force behind the multiplicity of their deities? Throughout, he attempts to evoke the complexity and richness of the religion of the ancient Egyptians and of their worldview, which differs so greatly from our own. Sensitively translated by John Baines and with a new preface by the author, this edition has been amplified and updated with an English-language audience in mind.

Author : Jan Assmann
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801487293
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Search for God in Ancient Egypt written by Jan Assmann and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First English-language edition, with revisions and additions by the author.This classic work by one of the world's most distinguished Egyptologists was first published in German in 1984. The Search for God in Ancient Egypt offers a distillation of Jan Assmann's views on ancient Egyptian religion, with special emphasis on theology and piety. Deeply rooted in the texts of ancient Egypt and thoroughly informed by comparative religion, theology, anthropology, and semiotic analysis, Assmann's interpretations reveal the complexity of Egyptian thought in a new way.Assmann takes special care to distinguish between the "implicit" theology of Egyptian polytheism and the "explicit" theology that is concerned with exploring the problem of the divine. His discussion of polytheism and mythology addresses aspects of ritual, the universe, and myth; his consideration of explicit theology deals with theodicy and the specifics of Amarna religion.

Author : Richard H. Wilkinson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780500284247
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Complete Gods and Godesses of Ancient Egypt written by Richard H. Wilkinson and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-12 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive guide to the deities of ancient Egypt: their origins and their central role in the lives of the Egyptian people

Author : Françoise Dunand
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801488535
Total Pages : 404 pages
Book Rating : 4.32/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Gods and Men in Egypt written by Françoise Dunand and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In their wide-ranging interpretation of the religion of ancient Egypt, Françoise Dunand and Christiane Zivie-Coche explore how, over a period of roughly 3500 years, the Egyptians conceptualized their relations with the gods. Drawing on the insights of anthropology, the authors discuss such topics as the identities, images, and functions of the gods; rituals and liturgies; personal forms of piety expressing humanity's need to establish a direct relation with the divine; and the afterlife, a central feature of Egyptian religion. That religion, the authors assert, was characterized by the remarkable continuity of its ritual practices and the ideas of which they were an expression.Throughout, Dunand and Zivie-Coche take advantage of the most recent archaeological discoveries and scholarship. Gods and Men in Egypt is unique in its coverage of Egyptian religious expression in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Written with nonspecialist readers in mind, it is largely concerned with the continuation of Egypt's traditional religion in these periods, but it also includes fascinating accounts of Judaism in Egypt and the appearance and spread of Christianity there.

Author : Jan Assmann
Publisher : Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN 13 : 0299225534
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Of God and Gods written by Jan Assmann and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2008-06-17 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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

Author : John Baines
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801497865
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.68/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Religion in Ancient Egypt written by John Baines and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lectures given at a symposium held in 1987, sponsored by Fordham University.

Author : William Matthew Flinders Petrie
Publisher : Binker North
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 120 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Religion of Ancient Egypt written by William Matthew Flinders Petrie and published by Binker North. This book was released on 1906 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Religion of Ancient Egypt is a classic religious studies text by the great pioneering English egyptologist, W. M. Flinders Petrie. Before dealing with the special varieties of the Egyptians' belief in gods, it is best to try to avoid a misunderstanding of their whole conception of the supernatural. The term god has come to tacitly imply to our minds such a highly specialised group of attributes, that we can hardly throw our ideas back into the more remote conceptions to which we also attach the same name.

Author : Geraldine Pinch
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0195170245
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Egyptian Mythology written by Geraldine Pinch and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2004 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spanning ancient Egyptian culture--from 3200 BC to AD 400--Pinch opens a door to this hidden world and casts light on the nature of myths and how they relate to the evolution of Egyptian culture. She includes a timeline covering the seven stages in the mythical history of Egypt and outlining the major events of each stage. A substantial A to Z section covers the principal themes and concepts of Egyptian mythology as well as the most important deities, demons, and other characters. This is an ideal introduction for students interested in learning about Egyptian myths, and the culture that created them.

Author : W.M. flinders Petrie
Publisher : DTTV PUBLICATIONS
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 76 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT written by W.M. flinders Petrie and published by DTTV PUBLICATIONS. This book was released on 2021-02-06 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before dealing with the special varieties of the Egyptians' belief in gods, it is best to try to avoid a misunderstanding of their whole conception of the supernatural. The term god has come to tacitly imply to our minds such a highly specialized group of attributes, that we can hardly throw our ideas back into the more remote conceptions to which we also attach the same name. It is unfortunate that every other word for supernatural intelligence has become debased so that we cannot well speak of demons, devils, ghosts, or fairies without implying a noxious or a trifling meaning, quite unsuited to the ancient deities that were so beneficent and powerful. If then we use the word god for such conceptions, it must always be with the reservation that the word has now a vastly different meaning from what it had to ancient minds.To the Egyptians the gods might be mortal; even Ra, the sun-god, is said to have grown old and feeble, Osiris was slain, and Orion, the great hunter of the heavens, killed and ate the gods. The mortality of gods has been dwelt on by Dr. Frazer (Golden Bough), and the many instances of tombs of gods, and of the slaying of the deified man who was worshipped, all show that immortality was not a divine attribute. Nor was there any doubt that they might suffer while alive; one myth tells how Ra, as he walked on earth, was bitten by a magic serpent and suffered torments. The gods were also supposed to share in a life like that of man, not only in Egypt but in most ancient lands. Offerings of food and drink were constantly supplied to them, in Egypt laid upon the altars, in other lands burnt for a sweet savor. At Thebes, the divine wife of the god, or high priestess, was the head of the harem of concubines of the god; and similarly, in Babylonia, the chamber of the god with the golden couch could only be visited by the priestess who slept there for oracular responses. The Egyptian gods could not be cognisant of what passed on earth without being informed, nor could they reveal their will at a distant place except by sending a messenger; they were as limited as the Greek gods who required the aid of Iris to communicate one with another or with mankind. The gods, therefore, have no divine superiority to the man in conditions or limitations; they can only be described as pre-existent, acting intelligence, with scarcely greater powers than a man might hope to gain by magic or witchcraft of his own. This conception explains how easily the divine merged into the human in Greek theology, and how frequently divine ancestors occurred in family histories. (By the word 'theology' is designated the knowledge about gods.)

Author : Barbara Watterson
Publisher : The History Press
ISBN 13 : 075249502X
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Gods of Ancient Egypt written by Barbara Watterson and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2003-09-04 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illustrated in colour, this is an introduction for the general reader to Egyptian mythology and its mysteries. It includes a concise introduction to general aspects of Egyptian religion, followed by specific sections devoted to the most important of the gods. With sections on personal religion and temple ceremony, there are also accounts of mythological stories associated with the gods, and a map of the principle cult centres.