For thousands of years, our world has been shaped by biblical monotheism. But its hallmark—a distinction between one true God and many false gods—was once a new and radical idea. Of God and Gods explores the revolutionary newness of biblical theology against a background of the polytheism that was once so commonplace.
    Jan Assmann, one of the most distinguished scholars of ancient Egypt working today, traces the concept of a true religion back to its earliest beginnings in Egypt and describes how this new idea took shape in the context of the older polytheistic world that it rejected. He offers readers a deepened understanding of Egyptian polytheism and elaborates on his concept of the “Mosaic distinction,” which conceives an exclusive and emphatic Truth that sets religion apart from beliefs shunned as superstition, paganism, or heresy.
    Without a theory of polytheism, Assmann contends, any adequate understanding of monotheism is impossible.

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几千年来，我们的世界一直被《圣经》中的一神论所塑造。但是它的特点--区分一个真神和许多假神--曾经是一个新的和激进的想法。神与神》探讨了在曾经如此普遍的多神论背景下，圣经神学的革命性新意。

    扬-阿斯曼（Jan Assmann）是当今研究古埃及的最杰出的学者之一，他将真正的宗教概念追溯到其在埃及的最早开始，并描述了这种新思想是如何在它所反对的旧的多神教世界背景下形成的。他为读者提供了对埃及多神教的深入理解，并阐述了他的 "摩西区别 "概念，该概念设想了一个排他性的、强调的真理，将宗教与被避开的迷信、异教或异端信仰区分开来。

    阿斯曼认为，如果没有多神论的理论，就不可能对一神论有任何充分的理解。

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