The aim of Assmann's book on "Moses the Egyptian" is not the quest for a historical person at the end of the 2th millenium BCE but a description, far stretched and exciting to read, of the effect of the Mosaic distinction in Western culture, i.e. the clear-cut contrast between religion and what Assmann calls counter-religion, the monotheistic faith with its exclusiveness and hatred against idolatry as religion of common man. The main part of the book deals with the time from John Spencer until German romanticism and lastly S. Freud, when the Egyptian roots of 'Moses' convictions were discovered and his counter-religion was finally connected with the mysterious Pharao Echnaton. In the course of these investigations a return to the traditional Egyptian "cosmotheism" became the ideal of Western scholars; it is the aim of Assann still today. According to his view monotheism as counter-religion must be intolerant and aggressively by its nature, whereas polytheism is cosmically orientated and therefore tolerant. His verdict on monotheism corresponds, therefore, to some trends among modern philosophers who use this interpretation of the Bible as the scapegoat for all of that which has gone wrong in Western history including the Holocaust. However, does the history of religion deliver sufficient proofs for this theory? Polytheistic religions are, indeed, often open to alien cults and myths because of the fear to miss the acceptance and veneration of hitherto unknown superhuman powers. Does such behaviour really imply tolerance? The wars between peoples were always wars between deities too, and the polytheistic warriors were at all times as cruel as the monotheistic ones. Moreover, apropos the clear cut distinction between religion and counter-religion as "Relevation" - was it not only the invention of a Protestant theology in our 20th century called "Dialektische Theologie"? Does Assmann identify "Western Monotheism" with this theological position? It was scarcely the dominant view of all Christian centuries.

Enthalten in:
Theologische Literaturzeitung; 1999/Nr.9 Monatsschrift für das gesamte Gebiet der Theologie und Religionswissenschaft (1999)

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Serie / Reihe: Theologische Literaturzeitung

Personen: Koch, Klaus

Schlagwörter: Monotheismus