How our understanding of the ancient Egyptian afterlife was shaped by Christianity.
Many of us are familiar with the ancient Egyptians’ obsession with immortality and the great efforts they made to secure the quality of their afterlife. But, as Rune Nyord shows, even today, our understanding of the Egyptian afterlife has been formulated to a striking extent in Christian terms. Nyord argues that this is no accident, but rather the result of a long history of Europeans systematically retelling the religion of ancient Egypt to fit the framework of Christianity. The idea of ancient Egyptians believing in postmortem judgment with rewards and punishments in the afterlife was developed during the early modern period through biased interpretations that were construed without any detailed knowledge of ancient Egyptian religion, hieroglyphs, and sources.
As a growing number of Egyptian images and texts became available through the nineteenth century, these materials tended to be incorporated into existing narratives rather than being used to question them. Against this historical background, Nyord argues that we need to return to the indigenous sources and shake off the Christian expectations that continue to shape scholarly and popular thinking about the ancient Egyptian afterlife.
Review: \”Nyord provides an intricate account of how Egyptian mortuary practices have been transformed in the Western imagination to fit Christian archetypes. . . . Exploring why Western misinterpretations of ancient Egyptian death practices persist, the author points to an enduring ‘universal human longing for transcendent, eternal life,’ as well as documentaries, film exhibits, and books that reinforce entrenched ideas about the Egyptian quest for immortality. Dense and methodical, Nyord’s history meticulously probes the challenges of cultural transmission. Serious Egyptologists will be edified.\” * Publishers Weekly *
\”Despite the familiarity of ancient Egypt’s human mummies, how to interpret the culture’s attitude to immortality is still controversial. Egyptologist Rune Nyord analyses European ideas about ancient-Egyptian mortuary religion, ‘construed in terms of a belief in a personal afterlife.’ He notes that early scholars considered it as fitting a Christian framework. This erroneous perception persisted even after the hieroglyphs were deciphered in the nineteenth century. Nyord argues that it must be corrected, drawing on hieroglyphic sources.\” * Nature *
Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Publication date: 05/03/2025
