Prof. Scott B. NoegelChair, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and CivilizationUniversity of Washington

Book note:Assmann,Jan. Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in WesternMonotheism. Cambridge, MA:Harvard UP, 1997.

First Published in:Religious Studies Review 24 (1999), 434-435.

-MOSES THE EGYPTIAN: THE MEMORYOF EGYPT IN WESTERN MONOTHEISM.ByJan Assmann. Cambridge.MA:HarvardUni-versity Press. 1997. pp. x + 276. $18.95. ISBN0-674-58739-1.

An impressive and impassionedinvestigationinto lhe ways in which Egypt. as an imageanti-lhetical to monod1eism.and Moses.a figurecen-tral to monotheism. were transfonned in severalcenturies of religious belief and interpretadon.Placing lhe development of monotbeisminto afascinating historiographic framework.

,Assmann's study moves us away fromquestionsof historicity and into lhe hisuxy of culturalmemory. Thus, Moses lhe Egyptian. as someearly traditions remember him. "embodies theinversion or at least the' revision of the Exodusmyth. ... symbolizing a first distinction.thecut-ting of an umbilical cord." By challengingFreud's. understanding of the relationship be-tween Alhcnaten and Moses and by refininghisconcepts of latency and the return of the re-pressed within a theory of culture. Assmannof-fers a subtle revaluation of the historyof mono-theism. His exploration of ancient distinctionsbetween fact and fiction. his insightsin1othereli-gious reforms of Ahkenaten. and his sophisti-cated treatment of lhe Egyptophilic movementthaiswept the West since Horapolloalldemanda

VoJame"as Number 4 / October 1999

,. 't.atiooof the concept of complex poIythe-". .ssmann's understandingof the oneness ofcI 5 implicitly valuable to contemporary~theists. Eruditeand accessible. this is a bril-liant book..

Scott B. No~gelUniversityo/WashingtonSealtu. WA98195 RSR