A concise introduction to fundamental Egyptian theology There is history but this is prehistory Ancient Egypt is unarguably the cradle of all modern civilisations Religion was a fundamental fact in all aspects of life not just from the cradle to the grave but even beyond Study of religion is to study the evolution of the human psyche Which is pretty damn interesting Many beliefs and traditions have their origins in 6000BC beliefs when humans had just started settling down and farming Egyptian civilisation spans an enormous span of time Segmented into dynasties it s possible to track how beliefs and religion evolved over 4000 years and how modern religions came out to be This book talks about beliefs that were already ancient to people we consider ancient Well like an analogy goes In time cleopatra is closer to the moon landing than to the time the great pyramids were built This stuff is old It s mind boggling to imagine Egyptian beliefs in preislamic Arabia and preroman or prehellenic Europe Kindle Edition Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie outlines major themes in religious practice and thought in Ancient Egypt In fifteen chapters the author describes the Nature of Gods Nature of Man Future Life Animal Worship Animal Headed Gods Human Gods Cosmic Gods Abstract Gods Abstract Gods Foreign Gods Cosmogony Ritual and Priesthood Sacred Books Private Worship Ethics and Influence of Egypt I listened to the LibriVox audiobook read by Kajo and Piotr Nater While some readers will disagree with the author s argument that Egyptian culture was a nonnative culture which diffused into North Africa and Asia other readers should be satisfied with the balanced and broad descriptions of the different evolving aspects of contemporaneous circa 1909 scholarship on religion in Ancient Egypt Kindle Edition Originally published in 1906 this short public domain ebook by one of the fathers of Egyptology makes for a fascinating read one worth repeating often. I was not aware of how the fortunes of Egyptian gods waxed and waned through the dynasties reflecting the rise and fall in power of their respective localities and tribal affiliations The author makes clear how the religious mythology may represent actual events and movements of tribes in prehistory leading up to the population of early kingdoms Egypt He also makes clear just how chaotic self contradictory and basically cobbled together in retrospect the whole Egyptian pantheon is Thousands of years of painting over the cracks and trying to explain the inexplicable have created this fascinating mess Looking at it as a whole from the 20th century may give the impression it was all set in stone but it all changed and fluctuated wildly from dynasty to dynasty with each century giving an entirely different picture Similarly Egyptian religious ideas clearly influenced the empires of the Middle East as well as ancient Greece and Rome and can be traced all the way into the foundations of Christianity Isis and Horus have directly given rise to the Madonna and Child The trinity and monasticism also derive directly from Egyptian custom. Quite a brave assertion to make in Edwardian times when Christian and imperial exceptionalism was the norm but one which makes complete sense when one accepts that religion is an ever changing ever mutating and adapting thing rather than an immutable truth. The distinction between ancient religions that tolerated and absorbed and recent monotheisms of jealous gods is particularly interesting as is the theory that localised monotheism is the first true form of religion above animism and that pantheons are representations of how ancient peoples each with their own identifying god came into contact and interacted with each other a sort of historical record embodied in myth. Be that as it may I enjoyed the wealth of details about Egyptian deities and their evolution the Egyptian understanding of the cosmos of the human being of worship morals and society Egyptology has no doubt progressed by leaps and bounds since the author s time but I learned a lot. I was less comfortable with Petrie s theory that certain aspects of ancient Egyptian religion sneaked their way into Christianity and Islam Kindle Edition The ran is the name which was essential to man as also inanimate things Without an name nothing really existed The knowledge of the name gave power over its owner Both in ancient and modern races the knowledge of the real name of a man is carefully guarded and often secondary names are used for secular purposes It was usual for Egyptians to have a great name and a little name the great name is often compounded with that of a god or a king and was very probably reserved for religious purposes as it only found on religious and funerary monuments Kindle Edition
| The Religion of Ancient Egypt By William Matthew Flinders Petrie |
| English |
| 113 |
| Kindle Edition |
.: Definitely a book that encourages further reading and learning Kindle Edition I m not sure why I listed this book as read in 2014 I m sure I haven t read it before