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Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt

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The author, founder of the Oriental Institute in Chicago, opened the doors to all subsequent studies in ancient religion. This is a classic, to be read before anything else on the subject of ancient Egyptian religion. The author describes how the Egyptians developed at an early date a sense of the moral unworthiness of man and a consciousness of deep-seated moral obligation. This is a deep work into the minds of the Ancient Egyptians.

Breasted, the great Egyptologist who, after perhaps 40 years of exploring Egypt, really knows his stuff, was asked to give some lectures at Union Theological Seminary in 1910(?). This is the result. In some regards, it is similar to Wm James' Variety of Religious Experiences", the publishing of his lectures given in 1899 (?)in Edinburgh. Insightful, and absorbing. (The dates are approximate because I don't have the books in front of me.)

Breasted work was in what might be considered the golden age of archeology. Napoleon had discovered and retrieved the Rosetta stone in 1798, enabling Egyptian heirogliphs to be translated. Schliemann (a remarkable man!) discovered "Illium" (Troy) in the late 1800's. And the race was on among the diggers of the world! Lord Cardovan opened King Tut's tomb in 1912 (?), and Egypt became everyone's fascination. (See Arnold Toynbee's, Study of History). The dead sea scrolls were discovered much later, but the fascination with Egypt was punctuated by the fact that how the pyramids were built is still a mystery. "Slave labour" became the common explanation, and is still considered probable by some today. but how did the accuracy of these pyramids result from the work of slaves?? (e.g., over the 750 foot bases of the Cheops pyramid, the vertical and horizontal lines waver by about only 1/2 inches"! With no optics or surveyor's tools. 2 1/2 football fields! There is no mortar in the stone stucture; These stones were cut at the quarry several hundred miles away, and today it is still difficult to put a knife edge in the joints. This is the work of slaves????) [See, Sarton's, 2 Vol. History of Science.]

What Breasted has proposed here in these lectures is a framework of thought that suggests the belief system that supports this remarkable outcome. And remember, these edifices were completed in the life time of the person entombed! Moreover, readers familiar with the Bible, Judaism and Christianity, will be led into an understanding of the background and possible roots of their foundation. This is time when Joseph was in Egypt, and Moses led the Exodus. Read on, good reader!

This book is probably not meant for the casual reader, but for those who want a deeper understanding of the spiritual basis of this remarkably long and elevated civilization, this is a pretty good start.

Even though this was written 90 years ago this is as current as one might hope for. In anticipation of a visit to Egypt in a couple of months I wanted to learn something of the history and motivation for the sights we are about to see. This provided that and much more. One slight draw back was the abilty to cross reference the footnotes. They refer to pages in the document...but, of course, with Kindle no pages are listed or indexed. Even with that slight problem, it was well worth my while to read every footnote.