Jan Assmann

German Egyptologist and religion scholar (1938–2024) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johann Christoph "Jan" Assmann (7 July 1938 – 19 February 2024) was a German Egyptologist, cultural historian, and religion scholar.

Born

Johann Christoph Assmann

7 July 1938

Langelsheim, Gau Southern Hanover-Brunswick, Germany

Died19 February 2024 (aged 85)

Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

SpouseAleida Assmann

Alma mater

Quick facts Born, Died ...

Jan Assmann
Assmann in 2018
Born	Johann Christoph Assmann (1938-07-07)7 July 1938 Langelsheim, Gau Southern Hanover-Brunswick, Germany
Died	19 February 2024(2024-02-19) (aged 85) Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Spouse	Aleida Assmann

Academic background
Alma mater	University of Munich University of Heidelberg University of Paris University of Göttingen
Academic work
Discipline	Egyptology cultural history religious studies
Sub-discipline	Ancient Egyptian religion cultural memory monotheism
Institutions	University of Heidelberg University of Konstanz

Life and works

Assmann studied Egyptology and classical archaeology in Munich, Heidelberg, Paris, and Göttingen. In 1966–67, he was a fellow of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, where he continued as an independent scholar from 1967 to 1971. After completing his habilitation in 1971, he was named a professor of Egyptology at the University of Heidelberg in 1976, where he taught until his retirement in 2003. He was then named an Honorary Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Constance.^[1]^[2]

In the 1990s, Assmann and his wife Aleida 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 of monotheism, which he considers as a break from earlier cosmotheism, first with Atenism and later with the Exodus from Egypt of the Israelites.^[3]

Assmann died on 19 February 2024, at the age of 85.^[4]

Writings on Egyptian and other religions

Assmann suggested that the ancient 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 by Manetho which was used by Maimonides in his references to the Sabians. His book The Price of Monotheism received some criticism for his notion of The Mosaic Distinction.^[6] He too no longer held this theory, at least not in its original form (specifically, the mosaic aspect).^[7]

Awards

1996 Max Planck Award for Research
1998 German Historians' Prize
1998 Honorary Doctorate in Theology from the Theology Faculty, Munster
2004 Soc.Sc.D. (honoris causa), Yale University
2005 Ph.D. (honoris causa), Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2006 Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, First Class
2006 Alfried Krupp Prize for Scholarship
2011 Großer Literaturpreis der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste
2016 Sigmund Freud Prize
2017 Balzan Prize for Collective Memory together with his wife Aleida Assmann
2018 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade together with his wife Aleida Assmann
2020 Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts together with his wife Aleida Assmann^[8]

Publications

Re und Amun: Die Krise des polytheistischen Weltbilds im Ägypten der 18.-20. Dynastie (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 51). Fribourg and Göttingen 1983.
Ägypten: Theologie und Frömmigkeit einer frühen Hochkultur (Urban-Bücherei, vol. 366, Stuttgart 1984).
- The Search for God in Ancient Egypt trans. David Lorton (2001) ISBN 0-8014-8729-3
"Maât: l'Égypte pharaonique et l'idée de justice sociale" in: Conférences, essais et leçons du Collège de France. Paris: Julliard, 1989.

German: Ma`at: Gerechtigkeit und Unsterblichkeit im alten Ägypten. Munich 1990 (Arabic Translation 1996).

Stein und Zeit: Mensch und Gesellschaft im Alten Ägypten. Munich 1991.
Das kulturelle Gedächtnis: Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen. Munich 1992. ISBN 3-406-36088-2 ASIN B001C84TR4

trans.: Cultural Memory and Early Civilization: Writing, Remembrance, and Political Imagination. Cambridge University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-521-18802-9

Monotheismus und Kosmotheismus (1993) ISBN 3-8253-0026-9
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] ISBN 0-7103-0465-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) ISBN 0-674-58739-1

Weisheit und Mysterium: Das Bild der Griechen von Ägypten. Munich 2000. ISBN 3-406-45899-8
Herrschaft und Heil: Politische Theologie in Altägypten, Israel und Europa. Munich 2000. ISBN 3-596-15339-5
Religion und kulturelles Gedächtnis: Zehn Studien (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2000). ISBN 3-406-45915-3

Religion and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies (Cultural Memory in the Present) trans. Rodney Livingstone, SUP (2005) ISBN 0-8047-4523-4

Der Tod als Thema der Kulturtheorie (2000) ISBN 3-518-12157-X
Tod und Jenseits im Alten Ägypten (Munich 2001). ISBN 3-406-49707-1

Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt, trans. David Lorton (2006) ISBN 0-8014-4241-9

Altägyptische Totenliturgien, Bd.1, Totenliturgien in den Sargtexten (2002) ISBN 3-8253-1199-6
Die Mosaische Unterscheidung oder der Preis des Monotheismus. Munich 2003.

trans. Robert Savage: The Mosaic Distinction or The Price of Monotheism (SUP, 2009) ISBN 0-8047-6160-4

Ägyptische Geheimnisse (2003) ISBN 3-7705-3687-8
Theologie und Weisheit im alten Ägypten (2005) ISBN 3-7705-4069-7
Die Zauberflöte (2005) ISBN 3-446-20673-6
Thomas Mann und Ägypten: Mythos und Monotheismus in den Josephsromanen (Munich 2006).
Monotheismus und die Sprache der Gewalt (2006) ISBN 3-85452-516-8
Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism (University of Wisconsin Press, 2008)
From Akhenaten to Moses. Ancient Egypt and religious change (The American University in Cairo Press 2014). Book Review by Paul Sanders (Protestant Theological University)
Exodus: Die Revolution der Alten Welt (Munich 2015) ISBN 978-3-406-67430-3

Books in English

Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom, trans. Anthony Alcock (1994) ISBN 0-7103-0465-X
Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism (Harvard University 1997)
Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt trans. (Cornell University Press 2005)
The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs, trans. Andrew Jenkins (2003) ISBN 0-674-01211-9
Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism (2008) ISBN 0-299-22554-2
Cultural Memory and Early Civilization: Writing, Remembrance, and Political Imagination (Mũnchen 1992; Cambridge University 2011)
From Akhenaten to Moses: Ancient Egypt and Religious Change (American University in Cairo 2016)
The Invention of Religion: Faith and Covenant in the Book of Exodus. Princeton University Press. 2018. ISBN 9780691157085.

Articles

State and religion in the New Kingdom, in Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt, editor W.K Simpson (1989), pp.55-88
Death and AND Initiation in the Funerary Religion of Ancient Egypt in: W.K.Simpson (Hrsg.), Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt, Yale Egyptological Studies 3, 1989, pp.135-159
Egyptian mortuary liturgies, in Studies in Egyptology, Presented to Miriam Lichtheim, ed. S.I. Groll (Jerusalem, 1990), pp.1-45
When justice fails: Jurisdiction and imprecation in Ancient Egypt and the Near East, JEA 78 (1992): pp.149-162
Akhanyati's Theology of Light and Time, Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, VII 4, Jerusalem 1992, pp.143-176
Semiosis and Interpretation in Ancient Egyptian Ritual in Shlomo Biderstein, Ben-Ami Scharfstein (Hrsg.), Interpretation in Religion (Philosophy and Religion 2), Leiden 1992, pp.87-109
Ocular desire in a time of darkness. Urban festivals and divine visibility in Ancient Egypt in Oculare desire. Sehnsucht des Auges (Jahrbuch für Religiöse Anthropologie/Yearbook of Religious Anthropology) 1, 1994, pp.13-29
Jehova-Isis: The Mysteries of Egypt and the Quest for Natural Religion in the Age of Enlightenment in Irene. A. Bierman (Hrsg.), Egypt and the Fabrication of European Identity (UCLA Near East Center, Colloquium Series), Los Angeles 1995, pp.35-83
Moses und Echnaton: Religionsstifter im Zeichen der Wahrheit, in Bärbel Köhler (Hrsg.), Religion und Wahrheit. Religionsgeschichtliche Studien ; Festschrift für Gernot Wießner zum 65. Geburtstag, Wiesbaden 1998, pp.33-44
MONO-, PAN-, AND COSMOTHEISM: THINKING THE ‘ONE’ IN EGYPTIAN THEOLOGY in Orient 33, 1998, pp.130-149
Ägyptische Religion in Johann Figl (Hrsg.), Handbuch Religionswissenschaft. Religionen und ihre zentralen Themen, Innsbruck-Wien 2003. pp.104-117
Theological responses to Amarna in Gary N. Knoppers, Antoine Hirsch (Hg.), Egypt, Israel, and the Ancient Mediterranean World. Studies in Honor of Donald B. Redford, Leiden/Boston 2004. pp.179-191
Der hebräische und der ägyptische Mose - Bilder und Gegenbilder in Manfred Oeming, Konrad Schmid, Michael Welker (Hg.), Das Alte Testament und die Kultur der Moderne (Altes Testament und Moderne 8), Münster 2004, pp.147-155
What’s Wrong with Images? in Maria Hlavajova, Sven Lütticken, Jill Winder (Hg.), The return of religion and other myths: a critical reader in contemporary art, Utrecht 2009. pp.16-30
Die Piye (Pianchi) Stele: Erzählung als Medium politischer Repräsentation, in Das Erzählen in frühen Hochkulturen I: Der Fall Ägypten (München: 2009), pp.221-236
Globalization, Universalism, and the Erosion of Cultural Memory, in Memory in a Global Age. Discourses, Practices and Trajectories], Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies (New York: 2010), pp.121-137
Exodus and Memory in Thomas E. Levy, Thomas Schneider, William H. C. Propp (Hg.), Israel’s Exodus in transdisciplinary perspective. Text, archaeology, culture and geoscience, Cham ; Heidelberg ; New York ; Dordrecht ; London 2015. pp.3-15
For ye know the Heart of the Stranger': Empathy, Memory, and the Biblical Ideal of a 'Decent Society' in Aleida Assmann, Ines Detmers (Hg.), Empathy and its limits, Basingstoke, Hampshire 2016. pp.187-201
Monotheism Curse or Blessing? in Pirner, Manfred L. ; Lähnemann, Johannes ; Haussmann, Werner ; Schwarz, Susanne (Hg.): Public Theology, Religious Diversity, and Interreligious Learning. Contributing to the Common Good Through Religious Education (Routledge Research in Religion and Education), New York ; London 2018, pp.94-104
Politics, Religion and Violence: The Maccabean Wars in in: Speight, C. Allen ; Zank, Michael (Hg.): Politics, religion and political theology (Boston studies in philosophy, religion and public life 6), Dordrecht 2017, S. 151-164; Online-Veröffentlichung auf Propylaeum-DOK (2022), DOI: OnlineVeröffentlichung auf Propylaeum-DOK (2022), DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeumdok.00005476
Freud, Selliti, and the Murder of Moses in Gilad Sharvit, Karen S. Feldman (Hg.), Freud and Monotheism. Moses and the Violent Origins of Monotheism, New York 2018, pp.138-156; OnlineVeröffentlichung auf Propylaeum-DOK (2022), DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeumdok.00005620

References

[1]
"Unbenanntes Dokument". Retrieved 21 September 2014.
[2]
"Kurzvita Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jan Assmann". Retrieved 21 September 2014.
[3]
Assmann, Jan. "Monotheism as Anti-Cosmotheism". The Price of Monotheism.
[4]
Jan Assmann ist tot (Jan Assmann ist dead) Zeitonline
[5]
Jan Assmann, Moses The Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt In Western Monotheism (Harvard University Press, 1997). ISBN 978-0674020306
[6]
The God Question: Jan Assmann's 'The Mosaic Distinction' and the Return of the Repressed in the "Post-Secular" Age Hollweck, Thomas. "The God Question: Jan Assmann's 'The Mosaic Distinction' and the Return of the Repressed" (Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, 2 September 2004)
[7]
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. ISBN 978-3-319-04767-6. 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.
[8]
"Assmanns aufgenommen". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Munich. dpa. 23 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.