Religious Conceptions and the World of Nature in Ancient Egypt

Abstract

<p>This dissertation has two major aims. The first is to achieve a fresh understanding of the relationship between the natural environment and religious conceptions in ancient Egypt. The second is to demonstrate that religious studies have to be both more consciously interdisciplinary and more deliberately comparative. The foundations for the inquiry are laid by a critical analysis of the theories put forward by J. H. Breasted, Henri Frankfort, and John A. Wilson concerning the relationship between nature and ancient Egyptian religion. The general assumption of these three scholars that nature directly influenced Egyptian religious beliefs is found to be untenable. The analysis also reveals the dangers of ignoring comparative material and the great need for an interdisciplinary perspective. Certain selected ideas of Peter L. Berger, a sociologist, are then used to open up a new approach to ~he problem under investigation. A distinction is made between natures- it-is and "the world of nature" created by the ancient Egyptians, and evidence is provided to show how Egyptian religious beliefs were affected by the latter.</p>