Book contents
- Monotheism, Intolerance, and the Path to Pluralistic Politics
- Monotheism, Intolerance, and the Path to Pluralistic Politics
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Pluralism’s Requisite Intolerance
- 2 Girard’s Mimetic Theory and Monotheism’s Ambivalent Effects
- 3 Monotheism and the Monopoly on Violence
- 4 Containing Violence and Two Entirely Different Kinds of Religion
- 5 Polytheism and the Victim in Ancient Egypt
- 6 A Political Theology of the Mosaic Distinction
- 7 Jesus Christ and Intolerance
- 8 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Polytheism and the Victim in Ancient Egypt
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 June 2021
Book contents
- Monotheism, Intolerance, and the Path to Pluralistic Politics
- Monotheism, Intolerance, and the Path to Pluralistic Politics
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Pluralism’s Requisite Intolerance
- 2 Girard’s Mimetic Theory and Monotheism’s Ambivalent Effects
- 3 Monotheism and the Monopoly on Violence
- 4 Containing Violence and Two Entirely Different Kinds of Religion
- 5 Polytheism and the Victim in Ancient Egypt
- 6 A Political Theology of the Mosaic Distinction
- 7 Jesus Christ and Intolerance
- 8 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 5 uses those terms to describe, through Assmann, a case study of polytheistic political theology in Egypt. This will help illustrate how polytheism (or better, “cosmotheism”) may be understood as rooted in the “victim mechanism,” in Girard’s terms. This puts to rest naïve notions of polytheism’s putative “tolerance,” seeing it more subtly as a socio-political force that “contains” violence, and an invitation to examine biblical monotheism.
Keywords
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- Monotheism, Intolerance, and the Path to Pluralistic Politics , pp. 133 - 150Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021