Chapter One

The Three-Dimensional Structure of the Divine World

Any reflection on the nature of those new religious movements that since the eighteenth century have been subsumed under the term "monotheism" should be preceded by an attempt at a better understanding of the term "polytheism." Up to now there has been no valid theory of polytheism. There are, of course, many descriptions and histories of such polytheistic religions as the Indian, Greek, Babylonian, and Egyptian, but nowhere can one find a coherent theory, a systematic "theology" of polytheism-at least of one particular polytheistic religion. The only exception is that of ancient Greece, but Greece, with its elaborate aestheticized mythology, seems to be a rather special case that does not lend itself to generalizations. In studying ancient Egyptian religious texts (mostly hymns), my ambition has always been to detect the system behind this vast amount of material. These studies first led me to a more systematic understanding of what Egyptian polytheism-and, to a certain degree, polytheism in general-is all about, and from there to a new appraisal of its counterpart and opposite, namely, monotheism.

By way of explanation, let me offer up some biographical reminiscences. Over thirty years ago I was asked by the editors of the Lexikon der Aegyptologie to contribute an article on the entry "God." In looking for categories to use in describing an Egyptian deity, I analyzed hundreds of Egyptian hymns and came across a number of texts that distinguished three major forms of divine