Autor: Voegelin, Eric

Buch: Israel and Revelation

Titel: Israel and Revelation

Stichwort: Kurz: Eigenart der ägyptischen Kultur

Kurzinhalt: sudden birth, experiences which point beyond the limits of cosmology, Egypt has produced neither epics like the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh or Enuma elish

Textausschnitt: The Egyptians experienced the order of their society as part of cosmic order. The expression of the experience in symbols belongs, therefore, to the same general type as the Mesopotamian. Nevertheless, from the interpenetration of experiences and institutions there resulted a civilizational form, unique in all of its principal aspects. The form is peculiar because of its sudden birth, which must be considered a flashlike outburst of creativity even if we generously accord a century or more to this "flash" for bringing the form into definitely recognizable existence. Furthermore, the form is peculiar because of several elements of structure which distinguish it from the Mesopotamian, and for that matter from the form of any other cosmological civilization. And, finally, it is peculiar because within it occurs a rich differentiation of experiences which point beyond the limits of cosmology and are interpreted, therefore,