How Did Akhenaten Change Of Religion

of the world and retreated into the heavens, leaving Shu to reign in his place.

In addition, it was an effort to institute a monotheistic tradition in the country that was quite unfamiliar for that era and unexpected for that level of the expansion of ancient Egyptian philosophy and evolution. In fact, religion was extremely important to ancient Egyptian society because people at the era deeply trusted on the natural forces and they created different cults worshiping gods of the sun, earth, and water. In such a way, they believed that through reverencing these gods they could merit their provision and, therefore, ancient Egyptians totaled for higher harvests, revenue and improved existence which they could achieve only with the support of various deities. Moreover, it is obvious the amount to which the attempt of Akhenaten to introduce monotheism in ancient Egypt was radical. It is obvious that the honoring of one god, Aten, should change the opinion of the surrounding world and the position of gods in the life of ancient Egyptian people.

Amenhotep IV commenced his reign in 1353 BCE and was of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. When Amenhotep IV came to power, the priests of Amun had been gradually growing in power and were almost equal with the royal house in terms of wealth and influence. During the 5th year of his reign he outlawed the ancient religion which was centered on the worship and offerings to many Gods in particular those of the composite deity Ra-Amun-Horus (Ra- daytime sun, Amun- underworld sun, - Horus- the sunrise). He then changed his name to Akhenaten, proclaiming himself to be the living incarnation of the all-powerful, single deity known as ‘Aten’ (The visible sun). Traditionally, as described in the Coffin Texts of the Middle kingdom, the ‘Aten’ was the name for the sun-disk and in the "Story of Sinuhe", Amenemhat I is described to have soared into the sky, uniting with the Aten, his creator. The early stages of "Atenism" was as a henotheistic religion (devotion to a single god but recognising the existence of others), but quickly developed into a monotheistic system where the worship of all other Gods was banned, including the making and worship of idols, allowing only the rayed sun-disk to be displayed as a representation of ‘God’, for the ‘Aten' was the sole deity. Ordinary people could not worship the Aten

Akhenaten's ancestry, together with his claimed "unlimited personal force of character" suggested he would not allow himself to be set aside by the priesthood. Breasted says that Akhenaten moved his capital to Amarna "endeavouring to displace it by the nationalism which had preceded it for twenty centuries." This further illustrates the possibility of a feud between the two aspects of Government. Aldred resolutely rejects this suggestion, saying "The idea of a struggle between an enlightened and progressive king on the one side and a reactionary and scheming priesthood on the other, will simply not stand up to closer scrutiny" . Aldred also suggests that a mere technicality in theology was all that separated Akhenaten's religion from that of Egyptian traditionalists . According to Aldred, the priesthood and the administration were as "indissolubly linked as they ever had been" . However he says clear distinction of power still remained, as demonstrated by Akhenaten's ability to subsequently reduce the status of the priesthood, his "mere surrogates" . This is a transparent contradiction, Aldred

When Akhenaten took over the throne he made many religious changes. Firstly, he changed the religion from polytheism to monotheism. The people of Egypt have traditionally worshipped many Gods who were in human or animal forms, but when Akhenaten took over he introduced the idea of worshipping in one God; Aten or sun-disc (BBC). This shows he is a visionary because he is one of the first people in history to introduce such an idea. Now many religions worship one God, but the first person to ever think of this idea was Akhenaten, which shows he thought ahead of his time and developed a new trend. Moreover, he changed the temples to being open to more people and not just high priests. He introduced a new form of temple which had open roofs so the sunlight can shine on the worshippers. The temple was more open to the public and more accessible. In modern society areas of worship are open to the public, this is similar to what Akhenaten tried to accomplish. He tried to show that a place of worship

The Ancient Egyptian were polytheistic most of the time, which means that they believed in multiple gods. When Akhenaten was pharaoh, the Egyptians were monotheistic, meaning they worshiped only one god. He ended the worship of other gods and claimed that Aten, the lord of all was the only god in Egypt. The Egyptians didn't like this idea, so on their own,

The ruler of Egypt noted for his monotheism religious beliefs and relocation of the capital to Amarna was named Akhenaten.

Thus, as shown in the sources above, the religious changes Akhenaten implemented went completely against the ways of previous pharaohs providing proof that Akhenaten was not an archetypal pharaoh.

Amenhotep even changed his name to Arkhenaten which means, servant of Aten. Before the consideration of monotheism, Atenism was a henotheistic religion, the honoring and respect to one god but knowing there are others also. When praying or practicing this religion, it was done in the sunlight rather than in dark temple which was the common doing. Aten became the supreme god, with Akhentaten being the only other consideration. Although Atenism is considers to be a Monotheistic religion, it falls on the border line because Akhentaten was believed to be both man and a type god. Akhentaten closed all other temples making Aten the only god that can be worshipped. Unlike the other two religions mentioned, most of the population did not accept their kings religion simply for the fact that, it was not that simple to erase the other gods and pretend they never existed. This is a fact because as soon as Akhenaten died, his religion went with him. The Egyptians simply went back to their own religions and Akhenaten became known as a heretic king. Atenism is one of the shortest religion ever, which only lasted about twenty

Pu, Muzhou. In Search of Personal Welfare: A View of Ancient Chinese Religion. Albany: State

     During the New Kingdom of Egypt (from 1552 through 1069 B.C.), there came a sweeping change in the religious structure of the ancient Egyptian civilization. "The Hymn to the Aten" was created by Amenhotep IV, who ruled from 1369 to 1353 B.C., and began a move toward a monotheist culture instead of the polytheist religion which Egypt had experienced for the many hundreds of years prior to the introduction of this new idea. There was much that was different from the old views in "The Hymn to the Aten", and it offered a new outlook on the Egyptian ways of life by providing a complete break with the traditions which Egypt held to with

Although Egyptians were polytheistic, they worshiped the sun god, Atum or Re, as he was the source of life. This is important because the Egyptian king took the title of “Son of Re”. The king, hence the descendant of the god, was the mother and father of all men without equal. The king akin to the living god, and his rule was law. Despite there being no laws, the words out of the king’s mouth were the law. As a king, he handles the army to protect his possessions and people.

Tell el-‘Amarna, the city built by Heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten was located between Luxor and Cairo along the Nile. The city was occupied during the reign of Akhenaten and abandoned after his death by his son, Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Although the city was along occupied for a short period of time, archaeologists have been able to reconstruct a fairly accurate representation of the city. However, because the city was associated with Aten and the religion of the heretic king, the city was partially destroyed and nearly all evidence of the culture during the reign of Akhenaten was destroyed. Although the Egyptian people attempted to erase this pharaoh from history, the city tells the story of the time through the few pieces of art, the tombs, and the city plans. The articles written by Croker and one of the ones written by Kemp discuss the value of architecture and how it related to status within the society of the time. The other articles written by Ikram, and Kemp, Stevens, Dabbs, Zabecki, and Rose discuss the art, religion, and ritual practices. The city of Amarna was created on the basis of abandoning the old gods in favor of the worship of a single god, Aten. Societies in ancient history were based primarily on religion, and while archaeologists try to use Amarna as a basis for the study of New Kingdom Egypt because the religions changed Amarna should not be used as a template. Akhenaten aimed to abandon the old ways

Amenhotep IV was the first pharaoh to challenge the Egyptian culture and religious beliefs. His decision to make Aten, “The God of the Sun Disk”, the only god, took power away from the temple priests. Before Amenhotep IV made the changes, Egypt practiced polytheism not only worshiping the Sun Disk God, but around 12 other gods with roles such as fertility, the sky, the Nile River, childbirth, etc. With Egypt practicing monotheisms the temple priest have lost control of any political or religious gain they once held. This will be the first time Egypt practices monotheism. In making this change Amenhotep IV became known as Akhenaten, “Shining Spirit of Aten”. Becoming Akhenaten was not the only changes reflected from his reign as pharaoh.

Compelling enough, The Book of Isaiah, showed how Israel was chosen to be made better by Isaiah. But what makes me compelled is that the words of God were never taken literal by all just because the words of wisdom were thought to be too go to be true. In addition, God didn’t want anyone to know his plans, all he wanted was trust from his people which made me realize that Isaiah shows us we can trust God’s promises even when others don’t. Comparing the Egyptian Aten to the Hebrew God, Yahweh, one can see that they are quite different. Aten cares for every creature and created a Nile river in the sky, rain, for the Syrians. Aten is believed to be the creator of all countries and people. The beliefs include that when a good person dies, he or she continues to live in the City of Light for the dead in Akhetaten. This is similar to what we believe in with the concept of the dead either going to Heaven or Hell. On the other hand, Yahweh, a divine warrior who led an army against the enemies of Israel. Unlike Aten, Yahweh never depicted a life after