Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt
Lectures Delivered on the Morse Foundation at Union Theological Seminary

This 1912 work discusses the significance of the 'Pyramid Texts' to the understanding of Egyptian religious thought.

James Henry Breasted (Author)

9781108081993, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 May 2018

404 pages
21.5 x 13.9 x 2.5 cm, 0.5 kg

The American archaeologist James H. Breasted (1865–1935) is best remembered for his 1906 four-volume Records of Egypt, which contains fresh readings and translations of almost all of the ancient Egyptian historical inscriptions available at the time, and remains an important resource. In this 1912 work, originally delivered as lectures, Breasted discusses the significance of the 'Pyramid Texts', preserved on fifth- and sixth-dynasty pyramids at Saqqara, and recently published in full, to the understanding of ancient Egyptian religious thought. He argues that mortuary practice as revealed by archaeology gives indications of the beliefs of a pre-literate society, but that by the time of the earliest inscriptions the Egyptian belief system was well established. He is particularly interested in the development of a moral sense in the context of the traditional pantheon with its multiple aspects of human/animal divinities, and in the influence of the developing Egyptian empire on its religion.

Preface
1. Nature and the state make their impression on religion
2. Life after death
3. Realms of the dead
4. Realms of the dead (cont.)
5. The Osirianization of the hereafter
6. Emergence of the moral sense
7. The social forces make their impression on religion
8. Popularization of the old royal hereafter
9. The imperial age
10. The age of personal piety
Index.

Subject Areas: Egyptian archaeology / Egyptology [HDDG]