In the 1990s, Assmann and his wifeAleida Assmann developed a theory of cultural and communicative memory that has received much international attention. He is also known beyond Egyptology circles for his interpretation of the origins ofmonotheism, which he considers as a break from earliercosmotheism, first withAtenism and later with theExodus from Egypt of theIsraelites.[3]
Assmann died on 19 February 2024, at the age of 85.[4]
Assmann suggested that theancient Egyptian religion had a more significant influence on Judaism than is generally acknowledged.[5] He used the term "normative inversion" to suggest that some aspects of Judaism were formulated in direct reaction to Egyptian practices and theology. He ascribed the principle of normative inversion to a principle established byManetho which was used byMaimonides in his references to theSabians. His bookThe Price of Monotheism received some criticism for his notion ofThe Mosaic Distinction.[6] He too no longer held this theory, at least not in its original form (specifically, the mosaic aspect).[7]
Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun, and the Crisis of Polytheism (Studies in Egyptology) (1995) [Translation into English by Anthony Alcock of the German 1983,Re und Amun]ISBN0-7103-0465-X
Ägypten: Eine Sinngeschichte (Munich: Hanser 1996; Frankfurt: Fischer, 1999); trans.The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs (New York : Metropolitan Books, 2002; Harvard University Press, 2003).
Moses der Ägypter: Entzifferung einer Gedächtnisspur. Munich 1998.
Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997; 1998)ISBN0-674-58739-1
Weisheit und Mysterium: Das Bild der Griechen von Ägypten. Munich 2000.ISBN3-406-45899-8
Herrschaft und Heil: Politische Theologie in Altägypten, Israel und Europa. Munich 2000.ISBN3-596-15339-5
Religion und kulturelles Gedächtnis: Zehn Studien (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2000).ISBN3-406-45915-3
Religion and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies (Cultural Memory in the Present) trans. Rodney Livingstone, SUP (2005)ISBN0-8047-4523-4
^Assmann, Jan (2015)."Exodus and Memory"(PDF).Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective. Quantitative Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences. pp. 3–15.doi:10.1007/978-3-319-04768-3_1.ISBN978-3-319-04767-6.In my book Moses the Egyptian, which I wrote in California 20 years ago, I tried to define the conceptual core of the Exodus narrative as the "Mosaic distinction" between true and false religion or true and false Gods (Assmann 1997; see also Assmann 2007, 2010). This theory has met with much criticism and I would not hold it any longer. The distinction as such, and as a defining feature of monotheism, still seems to me irrefutable, but I would no longer call it "mosaic." It is true that the distinction between true and false in religion seems somehow implied in the prohibition of the worship of other gods and images, but it becomes a question of truth only later in antiquity with a certain concept of revelation... Ifthere is any "Mosaic distinction," it is the distinction between matrimonial faithfulness and adultery, political loyalty and apostasy, filial love and rebellion, and, in this sense, between friend and foe, love and wrath.
