ABSTRACT
The subjects treated in the foregoing chapters had a common source and were connected with each other. We began with the Egyptians’ gods and their worshippers, moved on to the vital relationship between God and man, and came finally to their ideas on creation and evolution, death and eternity – ideas which, though they had an enduring quality, were nevertheless real to the men who lived in each period of Egyptian history. It cannot be denied that our next field of inquiry is, in a sense, independent of what has gone before. By sacred writings we mean the religious literature of the Egyptians. Even to provide a brief account of these texts and to single out their chief characteristics would be a major task. But if we are to keep to our aim of evaluating various religious phenomena, we must ask ourselves what function such sacred writings served and what significance they had. This will enable us to see them, not in isolation, but in their relationship to other aspects of our subject. To anticipate, they can tell us much about Egyptian religion, dominated as it was by cult, and thus also about popular piety and the workings of God.
