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Example research essay topic: The Role Of Temple In Mesopotamia And Egypt - 1,706 words

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The religions of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt have long been studied by fascinated students, scholars, and the like. The remains left behind from these civilizations have provided great insight into their culture, philosophy, and religion. For these and most ancient cultures, the temple was the center of the city, often playing many roles - religious, social economic, etc. It is important to view the religious concepts of these civilizations in light of their environment. Religion evolves in the context of the need for survival, and such needs are unique to a civilization given their environment. People believe in what they need to believe in order to survive.

The Egyptians had two types of temples - cultic and funerary. Central to their religion were the concepts of divine kingship and con substantiality. Mesopotamian religion tended to center around lament as well as the division between the earthly and the cosmos. Although the temples of the Mesopotamia and Egypt had significant similarities, the main disparities in the roles they played for each civilization mainly stems from (1) the challenges each had to face as well as (2) the resulting differing concepts of divine kingship and human existence. Before discussing the specifics of the role of the temple, it is important to understand the source of the conceptual disparities, beginning with Egypt.

Egypt was a civilization blessed with life-giving Nile, fertile soil and consequently, an abundance of agricultural and other survival necessities. The Egyptians' more sheltered and prosperous presence predisposed them to a sort of smugness of their own impressive existence. Their great success and stability were attributed to the ruler of the united Egypt. As mentioned earlier, the Egyptians operated on the concept that the Pharaoh was a divine entity. The essentiality of this concept of divine kingship in Egypt can be well demonstrated by looking at what happened when the concept was in question. During the Intermediate periods, when divine kingship was in doubt, Egypt's once stable nation was in chaos without this god-king, or Pharaoh.

The belief in the divinity of the king seems to be almost essential to the success of their civilization. The Egyptian Pharaoh is referred to as the "god in residence", and he ruled and blessed the country as he was appointed to do by his father, the chief deity of the land Amon-Re. It seems that the concept of divine kingship was at least in part, a result of the environmental conditions in which the Egyptians lived. The Mesopotamian environment, on the other hand, was less stable. "The Tigris and the Euphrates are not like the Nile; they may rise unpredictably, breaking man's dikes and submerging his crops. " The Mesopotamian's were faced with the harsh reality that they were powerless over whatever great forces surrounded him. There was no divine king to offer him security and shelter. Unlike Egypt, the Mesopotamian's had a more direct relationship with god.

They did eventually evolve a divine king concept, but it was much later, probably borrowing it from the Egyptians. Originally, the king was not divine himself, but instead looked to the gods for guidance and release from whatever difficulties were being faced on earth. Unfortunately, even the gods were not always reliable: "The power of even the strongest gods could not prevail against the combined will of the divine assembly; and the assembly, swayed by inscrutable motives, might order death and destruction of its own. " Mesopotamian deity worship often included lamentation of adverse conditions and prayer for divine intervention. Once again, it is probable that the challenges the environment imposed upon the Mesopotamian's greatly influenced these religious practices. To begin comparing the differing religious structures, one may start with the physical temple structure itself. The Egyptians were a people proud of their success and continuity.

Egyptian architecture tended to be durable, usually "built of stone to last 'for eternity. '" The great stone temples, both funerary and cultic, almost always represented the eternal (continuity of life after death as well as the embodiment of the gods). The Mesopotamian's, however, did not have access to sufficiently durable materials and were forced to build temples with mud-brick. Naturally, they did not hold up very long; temples were constantly being rebuilt or repaired. While much information on Mesopotamian culture is forever lost to us in the rubble of the remains, many ancient Egyptian structures are still standing strong. While these physicalities do not say very much about the cultures or religions of these two civilizations, it certainly is symbolic of the differences in environmental challenges they faced. When discussing temples, one of the first things one must consider is the purpose and role of temple itself.

In other words, what did the temple mean to the worshipper and what was his goal in going there? For both the Mesopotamian's and the Egyptians, the temple was the home of the deity and the place where divinity was accessible to all. This house of god welcomed worshippers inside from the mundane human world, almost playing the role of a sanctuary. Apart from this shared ground, the Egyptian and Mesopotamian temples differed considerably in specific purpose. The Egyptians had two types of temples: (1) Cultic temples, which were the home of the deity and (2) Funerary temples for the worship of the dead, assuring the "eternal existence of the human soul. " It was natural that the Egyptians, in their relatively secure existence, looked to the numinous for continuity of this "good life." In fact, we have little evidence that the Egyptians ever conceived of an end or destruction of their world; their only myths regarding this are attempts by the gods that fail to destroy mankind. Evidently, the purpose of the Egyptian temple and cosmos were a response to the daily situations that they faced on earth.

For the Mesopotamian's, the temple was a powerful "visible assurance that the god was present. " As mentioned earlier, the relationship with god was a much more tangible one for the Mesopotamian temple-goer. Jacobsen points out that they were inclined to "experience the Numinous as immanent in some specific feature rather than as all transcendent. " The staged towers called Ziggurats were a staple of the Mesopotamian temple complex. The exact function is unclear to us, but they may have represented the thrones of the gods or the tomb of a dying / resurrected god. Despite this prayer and glorification, the gods did not always provide the city protection from famine, flood, invasion and the like. When their cities were plundered, the temples left in ruins, the Mesopotamian's were left with "the terrible reality of being abandoned by their gods. " For the Mesopotamian, the temple was a place to lament. Lament was central to a religion of a people constantly being faced with outside forces against which they seemed to be helpless.

The Egyptian temples symbolized continuity, while the Mesopotamian's went to temple to lament. What does this mean in terms of how they viewed their world? Jacobsen has proposed that the Egyptians thought and experienced life at the human level more so than the Mesopotamian's. Faced with the incredible powers of nature around him, the Mesopotamian man saw his human weakness and vulnerability. The Egyptians, on the other hand, more secure from nature's sometimes relentless hand of fate, had more of a grip on their surroundings. They did not see themselves as helpless and subordinate humans but instead as self-reliant, without the need for constant intervention by the distant gods.

The Egyptian conception of the cosmos "was eminently reliable and comforting. " Even death was not something to be feared; it was but a passage into another life in another world. Jacobsen goes on to suggest that Mesopotamian's had a somewhat opposite perspective to the notion of the Egyptian human self-reliance. The Mesopotamian sought the numinous to save him in some way. To him, the cosmos were a whole other level than the mundane human world. The temple was the embodiment of whatever patron god guarded the city. By tending to the temple's grounds and worshipping one's deity, man could seek to serve and please the god in the hopes of divine intervention.

They saw that they had no control over the powers that be; they could not seek to control the floods or the storms. They were faced with their own limited and unprotected humanness. The Mesopotamian concept of death was not quite as optimistic as the Egyptian, as an awareness of human vulnerability also suggests an awareness of the inevitability of death. All of this suggests that Mesopotamian's felt more aware of their fleeting and mediocre human existence on earth, and that it was a far cry from the great cosmos in which the gods resided. The notion of divine kingship comes in when we consider these two differing perspectives of human existence. If the Egyptians were more inclined towards human self-reliance, it is reasonable that their Pharaoh would be a divine entity although living on earth.

In fact, the principle of con substantiality puts forth the idea that man, gods, and all things natural and supernatural are of but one substance. "Between god and man there was no point at which one could erect a boundary line. " The Egyptian culture is well-known for its views on death and the afterlife. Death was simply a passage to the next world, and material goods were just as able to pass to the next world as human life. Consequently, in Egyptian funerary temples, many offerings and letters were left to the dead, perhaps to coax them into intervention. Unlike the Mesopotamian's who were well aware of their mediocrity, the Egyptians sought almost to deny their mortality. With a mentality such as this, divine kingship seems to cement the importance of human life to the Egyptians. One last point about Egyptian con substantiality involves the origins of the concept of divine kingship.

The Egyptian Pharaoh was originally considered to be a servant of god, appointed by god to be the caretaker of the earth. Eventually, the Pharaoh came to be looked upon as a divine entity. In fact, the operating words for "servant" and for "majesty" were the same. How did this change evolve? It would no...


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