An Introduction to Ancient Mesopotamian Religion
Overview
In her Introduction to Ancient Mesopotamian Religion, Tammi J. Schneider offers readers a compact guide to the historical religions of Tigris and Euphrates regions, covering everything from the beginning of the Bronze Age through the time of Alexander the Great and Darius III. Drawing on extant texts, artifacts, and architecture, Schneider uncovers both an intriguing pantheon of deities—including Marduk, Ishtar, and many others—and the complex, fluid, and highly ritualized religious experience of the people who spent their lives serving and appeasing them.
Tammi J. Schneider brings the ancient Near East to life with a fresh and original perspective making An Introduction to Ancient Mesopotamian Religion a must-have for anyone interested in the Second Temple Period. Produced with scholarly rigor yet accessible to nonspecialists and students this volume is, with the Logos Bible Software, completely searchable and fully linked to the original-language texts in your library. This makes the Logos edition of An Introduction to Ancient Mesopotamian Religion useful and accessible for students, pastors, academics, and laity.
- Maintains an academic yet readable style
- Contains a timeline of ancient Mesopotamian religious milestones
- Includes bibliographical references and an index
Top Highlights
“The basic operating premise for the ancient Mesopotamians throughout all periods of their history is that humans were created and placed on earth so the gods did not have to work. Each deity controlled different elements of the world order, so no one god had full control, and which deity was in charge fluctuated over time and place.” (Page 1)
“One of the most important religious issues concerns how a group thinks the world was created, its cosmogony. How is the universe constructed and where and how do people fit into it? This is addressed in a number of ancient Mesopotamian myths. While the specific texts may vary in their details, the general idea that humans were created to serve the deities does not change radically.” (Page 40)
“Jean Bottéro suggests that in societies that can only think in images and not in abstract terms all those operations (presumably operations forced to think in the abstract) derive from a type of ‘calculated imagination’ we call mythology. He defines myth as ‘an intellectual procedure which consists of responding to the great questions about the origins and the meaning of the universe and our existence, as well as the role and the activity of the gods, who are considered to have directed everything.’” (Page 37)
“From an anthropological perspective, ‘myth’ is usually treated in terms of its function in ordering or explaining the world for the society in which it was produced.” (Page 35)
“The mythological texts will be treated here as literary documents addressing both fundamental issues pertaining to the nature of the universe and the role of humans within it, while at the same time understanding they are literary documents, produced by scribes with literary aspirations as well as individuals situated in a time and a place where politics or pride in one’s own city may take precedence over tradition or earlier belief systems.” (Page 38)
Tammi Schneider has done us all a great service by writing this attractive overview of Mesopotamian religions. The book is encyclopedic in the best sense of the word: comprehensive, reliable, in-depth, and up-to-date, with notes that invite further inspection. It should be useful to students learning about the cultures of the ancient world as well as to teachers in allied specialties. Both length and price are just right.
—Jack M. Sasson, Vanderbilt University
Tammi Schneider has provided an extremely useful initiation into the very complex world of ancient Mesopotamian religion. Students will benefit from the clear presentation and writing style of the author and will, undoubtedly, be challenged to dig deeper into the intricacies of the various topics and issues that are introduced.
—K. Lawson Younger Jr., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Schneider's state-of-the-art introduction is bound to become a standard textbook on Mesopotamian religion.
—Karel van der Toorn, University of Amsterdam
Scholars of the ancient Near East have only recently begun to attempt syntheses of their material for the public. Not only does Tammi Schneider take the very complicated topic of Mesopotamian religion and make it understandable to the beginning student, but she also provides a solid framework for understanding the wider context of the Judeo-Christian religious traditions. In addition, her detailed and erudite notes will help the reader who is interested in pursuing further research on the subject of comparative religions. She is to be commended!
—Mark W. Chavalas, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse
- Title: An Introduction to Ancient Mesopotamian Religion
- Author: Tammi J. Schneider
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2011
- Logos Release Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Iraq › Religion
- ISBNs: 9780802829597, 0802829597
- Resource ID: LLS:INTROMESOREL
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:46:04Z
Reviews
2 ratings
Adam Olean
5/13/2019
Ricardo de Paula Meneghelli
1/6/2014
