Reviewed by Barry Powell, University of Wisconsin, Madison: "Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt is not an easy book to read, because its topic is highly complex and the data bearing upon it are diverse and open to different interpretations. In fact Egyptian religion is a difficult topic and poorly understood, but in his book A. astounds the reader with his deep knowledge of religious texts from all periods of Egyptian civilization and from the Greeks and Romans too. He is equally familiar with evidence from art and architecture. He does not hesitate to refer to modern commentators (a German bias is hardly surprising). In a curiously discursive style he leads the reader through the maddeningly opaque pronouncements of Egyptian intellectuals about the nature of death, its origin, its meaning, its importance. Every page shines a fresh light on a topic that fascinates us all, but leaves us puzzled. A.'s book will take its place as classic study and shows again why he is justly regarded as one of the great Egyptologists writing today. A. never forgets that, though we have changed since the days of Pharaoh, we too must die.
Jan Assmann, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt. Translated from the German by David Lorton, abridged and updated by the author. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005. Pp. 490. ISBN 978-0-8014-4241-4.
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