The price of monotheism - Assmann, Jan (Stanford University Press, 2010)
"The Price of Monotheism was originally published in German in 2003 under the title Die mosaische Unterscheidung oder der Preis des Monotheismus 2003, Carl Hanser Verlag.". - Includes bibliographical references (p. [121]-140). - The mosaic distinction and the problem of intolerance. How many religions stand behind the Old Testament? -- What is truth? -- Intolerance, violence and exclusion -- Constructions of the other : religious satire. Monotheism, a counter-religion to what? Monotheism versus polytheism -- Akhenaten and Moses : Egyptian and Biblical monotheism -- Monotheism as anti-cosmotheism -- Monotheism as political theology : ethics, justice, freedom -- Law and morality in the "pagan" world and the theologization of justice in monotheism. The clash of memories : between idolatry and iconoclasm. The legend of the lepers and the Amarna trauma in Egypt -- Iconoclasm and iconolatory -- Theologia prisca and the abolition of the mosaic distinction -- The tightening of the mosaic distinction and the rise of paganology. Sigmund Freud and progress in intellectuality. The Jewish and the Greek option -- The trauma of monotheism : analytic hermeneutics and mnemohistory -- The ban on graven images as progress in intellectuality. The psycho-historical consequences of monotheism. The "scriptural turn" : from cult to book -- Into the crypt -- The invention of the inner self -- Counter-religion and the concept of sin