The Birth of Monotheism

The Birth of Monotheism
Author: André Lemaire
Publisher:
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2007
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

"In this groundbreaking book accessible to laypeople and scholars alike André Lemaire, a world-renowned expert on the ancient world, explores the development of perhaps the most important idea in the history of humankind: the concept of a single, universal God. Lemaire traces this key idea from its precursor the religion of ancient Israel, which worshiped a single God but accepted the idea that other nations would have gods of their own to worship to the development of classic, universal monotheism during the crisis of the Babylonian Exile and after"--Amazon.com.

Moses and Monotheism

Moses and Monotheism
Author: Sigmund Freud
Publisher: Leonardo Paolo Lovari
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2016-11-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 8898301790

The book consists of three essays and is an extension of Freud’s work on psychoanalytic theory as a means of generating hypotheses about historical events. Freud hypothesizes that Moses was not Hebrew, but actually born into Ancient Egyptian nobility and was probably a follower of Akhenaten, an ancient Egyptian monotheist. Freud contradicts the biblical story of Moses with his own retelling of events, claiming that Moses only led his close followers into freedom during an unstable period in Egyptian history after Akhenaten (ca. 1350 BCE) and that they subsequently killed Moses in rebellion and later combined with another monotheistic tribe in Midian based on a volcanic God, Jahweh. Freud explains that years after the murder of Moses, the rebels regretted their action, thus forming the concept of the Messiah as a hope for the return of Moses as the Saviour of the Israelites. Freud said that the guilt from the murder of Moses is inherited through the generations; this guilt then drives the Jews to religion to make them feel better.

A History of God

A History of God
Author: Karen Armstrong
Publisher: Gramercy
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2004
Genre: God
ISBN: 9780517223123

A study of the deity of the world's three dominant monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In a dynamic interplay between religion and society's ever-changing beliefs, values, and traditions, human beings' ideas about God have been transformed. Ideas about God have been molded to apply to the spiritual needs of the people who worship him in a particular place and time. The author explores and analyzes the development and progression of the various perceptions of God from the days of Abraham to present times--Adapted from book jacket.

God Against the Gods

God Against the Gods
Author: Jonathan Kirsch
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2005-01-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1440626588

"Lively… points out that the conflict between the worship of many gods and the worship of one true god never disappeared." —Publishers Weekly "Jonathan Kirsch has written another blockbuster about the Bible and its world." —David Noel Freedman, Editor-in-Chief of the Anchor Bible Project "Kirsch tackles the central issue bedeviling the world today - religious intolerance… A timely book, well-written and researched." —Leonard Shlain, author of The Alphabet and the Goddess and Sex, Time and Power "An intriguing read." —The Jerusalem Report "A timely tale about the importance of religious tolerance in today’s world." —San Francisco Chronicle "Kirsch is a fine storyteller with a flair for rendering ancient tales relevant and appealing." —The Washington Post

The Discovery of God

The Discovery of God
Author: David Klinghoffer
Publisher: Image
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2007-12-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0307423921

Fifty-three percent of the world’s population practices Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, religions that all trace their lineage to the towering, quasi-mythological figure of Abraham. In this reverent biography of the man who invented–or discovered–God, David Klinghoffer disentangles history from myth and uncovers the profound impact of Abraham’s message on his time and on the development of the modern world. The Discovery of God chronicles Abraham’s life from his birth in Mesopotamia through his travels as preacher and missionary throughout the Middle East. Many of the primary sites of Abraham’s life and career still exist, and Klinghoffer describes what they were like in ancient times and how they appear today. The tangible details of the polytheistic culture are re-created, showing how Abraham challenged the most basic beliefs of his contemporaries. He did not set out to establish the Jewish religion, but rather to spread the message of ethical monotheism as it was revealed to him–a powerful message that deepened over time, as did his faith and relationship with God. In contrast to many scholars who, troubled by its contradictions and apparent errors, see the Bible as the work of a series of scribes and editors, Klinghoffer argues that the Bible should be viewed as an esoteric text that an only be comprehended in light of the oral tradition from which it emanated. Combining rigorous scholarship and interpretive ingenuity, he draws on biblical commentary and the Jewish oral tradition as preserved by sages from the Talmudic scholars to Maimonidies to explore and explain the miraculous origins of monotheism. At a time when the world seems to moving toward a renewed confrontation between the three great Abrahamic faiths, The Discovery of God is a potent reminder of the history and beliefs that unite them.

From Akhenaten to Moses

From Akhenaten to Moses
Author: Jan Assmann
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2014
Genre: History
ISBN: 9774166310

The shift from polytheism to monotheism changed the world radically. Akhenaten and Moses--a figure of history and a figure of tradition--symbolize this shift in its incipient, revolutionary stages and represent two civilizations that were brought into the closest connection as early as the Book of Exodus, where Egypt stands for the old world to be rejected and abandoned in order to enter the new one. The seven chapters of this seminal study shed light on the great transformation from different angles. Between Egypt in the first chapter and monotheism in the last, five chapters deal in various ways with the transition from one to the other, analyzing the Exodus myth, understanding the shift in terms of evolution and revolution, confronting Akhenaten and Moses in a new way, discussing Karl Jaspers' theory of the Axial Age, and dealing with the eighteenth-century view of the Egyptian mysteries as a cultural model.

Jesus Monotheism

Jesus Monotheism
Author: Crispin Fletcher-Louis
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2015-07-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1620328895

This is the first of a four-volume groundbreaking study of Christological origins. The fruit of twenty years research, Jesus Monotheism lays out a new paradigm that goes beyond the now widely held view that Paul and others held to an unprecedented "Christological monotheism." There was already, in Second Temple Judaism and in the Bible, a kind of "christological monotheism." But it is first with Jesus and his followers that a human figure is included in the identity of the one God as a fully divine person. Volume 1 lays out the arguments of an emerging consensus, championed by Larry Hurtado and Richard Bauckham, that from its Jewish beginnings the Christian community had a high Christology and worshipped Jesus as a divine figure. New data is adduced to support that case. But there are weaknesses in the emerging consensus. For example, it underplays the incarnation and does not convincingly explain what caused the earliest Christology. The recent study of Adam traditions, the findings of Enoch literature specialists, and of those who have explored a Jewish and Christian debt to Greco-Roman Ruler Cult traditions, all point towards a fresh approach to both the origins and shape of the earliest divine Christology.

Birth of God

Birth of God
Author: Jean Bottéro
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2010-11-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780271040301

Jean Bottero, one of the world's leading figures in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, approaches the Bible as an astounding variety of documents that reveal much of their time of origin, historical events, and climates of thought.

The Abrahamic Religions

The Abrahamic Religions
Author: Charles L. Cohen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 175
Release: 2020
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190654341

Connected by their veneration of the One God proclaimed by Abraham, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share much beyond their origins in the ancient Israel of the Old Testament. This Very Short Introduction explores the intertwined histories of these monotheistic religions, from the emergence of Christianity and Islam to the violence of the Crusades and the cultural exchanges of al-Andalus.