Akhenaten and the Religion of Light [Paperback]

Erik Hornung (Author), David Lorton (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2001

Akhenaten, also known as Amenhotep IV, was king of Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty and reigned from 1375 to 1358 b.c. Called the "religious revolutionary," he is the earliest known creator of a new religion. The cult he founded broke with Egypt's traditional polytheism and focused its worship on a single deity, the sun god Aten. Erik Hornung, one of the world's preeminent Egyptologists, here offers a concise and accessible account of Akhenaten and his religion of light.

Hornung begins with a discussion of the nineteenth-century scholars who laid the foundation for our knowledge of Akhenaten's period and extends to the most recent archaeological finds. He emphasizes that Akhenaten's monotheistic theology represented the first attempt in history to explain the entire natural and human world on the basis of a single principle. "Akhenaten made light the absolute reference point," Hornung writes, "and it is astonishing how clearly and consistently he pursued this concept." Hornung also addresses such topics as the origins of the new religion; pro-found changes in beliefs regarding the afterlife; and the new Egyptian capital at Akhetaten which was devoted to the service of Aten, his prophet Akhenaten, and the latter's family.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 146 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press (February 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801487250
• ISBN-13: 978-0801487255
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > History > Ancient > Africa
  • #17 in Books > History > Africa > Egypt
  • #40 in Books > History > Ancient > Egypt

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book on the subject, May 4, 2000

By 

Francesca Jourdan (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Akhenaten and the Religion of Light (Hardcover)

Amenhotep IV (later known as Akhenaten) reigned during the Eighteenth Dynasty. He defied tradition and centered worship upon one deity, the sun god Aten. In this book, the author provides a concise, accurate and very readable account of his reign. A summary is also provided of the nineteenth-century scholars (Lepsius and Champollion to name a few) who discovered and first interpreted the ruins of Akhenaten. The author gives a religious background of Akhenaten and his father's beliefs; he also discusses the founding of the city of Akhenaten, the belief in monotheism and the processes by which Tutankhaten becomes Tutankhamen the successor. The book offers an excellent bibliography for further consultation of the subject. It is one of the best books on the subject of this heretic pharaoh. Recommended reading for all.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too scared of clichés, March 13, 2006

By 

Paulo Schmidt (S. Paulo, Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Akhenaten and the Religion of Light (Paperback)

Although very short and readable, this book is not recommendable to those who never read anything about Pharaoh Akhenaten and his place in Egyptian history. Retrieved from a lecture given by the author, it works best as an inventory of all that was ever written about Egypt's "Heretic King" and his religious revolution, since his discovery by German scholar Lepsius in 1843, down to 1995, when it was published. And, as its title proclaims, the book focuses on Akhenaten's doctrine, the Amarna theology.

Aware that Egyptologists usually infer too much from too little, Herr Hornung is excessively cautious in his approach, always avoiding any labeling of his biographee, whether as the tragic saint glorified by Breasted and Weigall, whether as the decadent fanatic despised by Redford and Aldred, whether as the true founder of Judaism hailed by Freud and the Rosicrucian. He has no opinion about Akhenaten's possible co-regency with his father or with his successor, whoever he (Smenkhkare?), or she (Nefertiti?), might be; he doesn't know what happened in his last years, ignores the debate over the mummy found at Tomb 55 in the Valley of Kings, and has no idea where Tutankhamun came from. He is not sure of anything, though he mentions most of the theories proposed by other authors. All he seems sure of is the basic tenets of Akhenaten's religious ideas.

And this is very interesting, because one of the author's most avoided "clichés" is precisely the pre-Christian feature of this very dramatic character. "Akhenaten as a pacifist who ruined Egypt as a world power in Dinasty 18, as a king caught up in the unreal, sham world of the Horizon of Aten, his new capital, where he lived out his teaching and conducted his search for the divine - these were clichés that would have long-lasting influence. Though Tomas Mann overcame these clichés in his nuanced treatment of the king, he succumbed to the parallels with Christianity and attempted to categorize Akhenaten as an early Christian figure." Yet, Akhenaten's religion is based on a Holy Trinity to begin with, composed by Aten, himself and Nefertiti, what drives Hornung to question the monotheistic character of Atenism, although he doesn't seem equally willing to dispute Christianity's monotheism. Besides, Aten, the One God, shines only over the King and his family, and the King and son of God is reported to have said to his Father: "There is no other who knows you." Thirteen centuries later, another Son of the One God proclaimed in the very same way: "No one comes to the Father but by me."

At the Epilogue, the author fell into the precipice of sheer speculation he avoided so carefully, by writing on page 121 that "Akhenaten had founded no congregation; he had no disciples or apostles to carry on his work after his death. There was only his small circle of followers, who were now bereft of a reference point." How can he be so sure of that, we wonder, specially since he mentions in the next page some "undercurrents that remain hidden to us might certainly have exercised an influence"?

Hornung's one serious mistake was stating, on page 116, that shortly after Akhenaten's disappearance the royal court moved to Memphis, and he persists on this absurdity by adding, on page 121, that following the abandon of Akhetaten, the new city build by the King, "Thebes would never again be the capital".

His final remarks on the character he treated so impersonally are positive at first. "Here we come to the critical point. In Amarna religion, for the first time in history, an attempt was made to explain the entire natural and human world on the basis of a single principle. Like Einstein, Akhenaten made light the absolute reference point, and it is astonishing how clearly and consistently he pursued this concept in the fourteenth century BC, making him in fact the first modern human being. Indeed, modernity also strives to describe the universe with a single formula, to explain it on the basis of a single principle; the attempts to do so do not cease."

And then:

"But Akhenaten demonstrated with unusual clarity that such one-sidedness is doomed to failure; all we repress and ignore will overtake and overshadow us. Akhenaten was perhaps the first fundamentalist in history, and for this reason, he remains even today a very contemporary figure who can scarcely be denied respect and sympathy in any critique of him."

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must for Egyptophiles interested in Amarna, January 30, 2000

By 

Brian V. Hunt "Brian V. Hunt" (Bellevue, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Akhenaten and the Religion of Light (Hardcover)

Hornung once again demonstrates his ability to pull together nuances of abstruse facets of Egyptian theology. I only wish this book was about twice as long with more extensive footnotes. Nevertheless, I couldn't put it down until it was finished and it provided me with new ways of looking at Akhenaten's extraordinary reign and its place, not only in Egyptian history, but in world History