Johann Christoph " Jan" Assmann (7 July 1938 – 19 February 2024) was a German Egyptologist, Cultural history, and religion scholar.
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.
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.
Assmann died on 19 February 2024, at the age of 85.[ Jan Assmann ist tot (Jan Assmann ist dead) Zeitonline]
Writings on Egyptian and other religions
Assmann suggested that the ancient Egyptian religion had a more significant influence on Judaism than is generally acknowledged.
[Jan Assmann, Moses The Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt In Western Monotheism (Harvard University Press, 1997). ] 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.
[ 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)] He too no longer held this theory, at least not in its original form (specifically, the mosaic aspect).
Awards
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1996 Max Planck Award for Research
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1998 German Historians' Prize
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1998 Honorary Doctorate in Theology from the Theology Faculty, Munster
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2004 Soc.Sc.D. (honoris causa), Yale University
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2005 Ph.D. (honoris causa), Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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2006 Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, First Class
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2006 Alfried Krupp Prize for Scholarship
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2011 Großer Literaturpreis der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste
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2016 Sigmund Freud Prize
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2017 Balzan Prize for Collective Memory together with his wife Aleida Assmann
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2018 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade together with his wife Aleida Assmann
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2020 Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts together with his wife Aleida Assmann
Publications
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Re und Amun: Die Krise des polytheistischen Weltbilds im Ägypten der 18.-20. Dynastie (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 51). Fribourg and Göttingen 1983.
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(Urban-Bücherei, vol. 366, Stuttgart 1984).
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The Search for God in Ancient Egypt trans. David Lorton (2001)
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"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).
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Stein und Zeit: Mensch und Gesellschaft im Alten Ägypten. Munich 1991.
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Das kulturelle Gedächtnis: Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen. Munich 1992.
- trans.: Cultural Memory and Early Civilization: Writing, Remembrance, and Political Imagination. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
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Monotheismus und Kosmotheismus (1993)
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Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun, and the Crisis of Polytheism (Studies in Egyptology) (1995) Translation
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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).
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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)
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Weisheit und Mysterium: Das Bild der Griechen von Ägypten. Munich 2000.
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Herrschaft und Heil: Politische Theologie in Altägypten, Israel und Europa. Munich 2000.
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Religion und kulturelles Gedächtnis: Zehn Studien (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2000).
- Religion and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies (Cultural Memory in the Present) trans. Rodney Livingstone, SUP (2005)
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Der Tod als Thema der Kulturtheorie (2000)
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Tod und Jenseits im Alten Ägypten (Munich 2001).
- Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt, trans. David Lorton (2006)
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Altägyptische Totenliturgien, Bd.1, Totenliturgien in den Sargtexten (2002)
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Die Mosaische Unterscheidung oder der Preis des Monotheismus. Munich 2003.
- trans. Robert Savage: The Mosaic Distinction or The Price of Monotheism (SUP, 2009)
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Ägyptische Geheimnisse (2003)
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Theologie und Weisheit im alten Ägypten (2005)
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Die Zauberflöte (2005)
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Thomas Mann und Ägypten: Mythos und Monotheismus in den Josephsromanen (Munich 2006).
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Monotheismus und die Sprache der Gewalt (2006)
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Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism (University of Wisconsin Press, 2008)
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From Akhenaten to Moses. Ancient Egypt and religious change (The American University in Cairo Press 2014).
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Exodus: Die Revolution der Alten Welt (Munich 2015)
- Books in English
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Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom, trans. Anthony Alcock (1994)
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Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism (Harvard University 1997)
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The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs, trans. Andrew Jenkins (2003)
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Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism (2008)
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Cultural Memory and Early Civilization: Writing, Remembrance, and Political Imagination (Mũnchen 1992; Cambridge University 2011)
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From Akhenaten to Moses: Ancient Egypt and Religious Change (American University in Cairo 2016)
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External links
