In the reign
of Akhenaten (c. 1353 - 1336 BC) in the mid-New Kingdom, a single solar deity,
the Aten, became the sole focus of the state religion.
Akhenaten ceased to fund
the temples of other deities and erased the gods' names and images on
monuments, targeting Amun in particular.
This new religious system, sometimes
called Atenism, differed dramatically from the polytheistic worship of many
gods in all other periods. Whereas, in earlier times, newly important gods were
integrated into existing religious beliefs, Atenism insisted on a single
understanding of the divine that excluded the traditional multiplicity of
perspectives.
Yet Atenism
may not have been full monotheism, which totally excludes belief in other
deities. There is evidence suggesting that the general populace was still
allowed to worship other gods in private. The picture is further complicated by
Atenism's apparent tolerance for some other deities, like Shu. For these
reasons, the Egyptologist Dominic Montserrat suggested that Akhenaten was monolatrous,
worshipping a single deity, but not necessarily monotheistic. In any case,
Atenism's aberrant theology did not take root among the Egyptian populace, and
Akhenaten's successors returned to traditional beliefs.
Reference
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