Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia

There are several excellent reviews of this book (although one review posted here appears to be of Black and Green's "Illustrated Dictionary: Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia" - another excellent but very different book). Nevertheless, I thought I'd add my two cents worth. This book is very verbally descriptive and packed with facts by an expert. The facts are embedded in the text mostly, there isn't much "at-a-glance" information. However, when you get into the text, it is extremely worthwhile - clear, beautifully written, informative, packed with information, but factual. The author clearly has a deep empathy and understanding of the worldview of this most ancient of cultures (even though he obviously is himself from and assumes his reader is from a Judeo-Christian worldview), and through his elegant writing he is able to transport the reader into that world. In the final analysis, there aren't many academics who can do this. Many books either venture into the fantastic or too far into speculation on the one hand, or on the other hand refuse to enter into the experience the facts present leaving the reader with a dry summary. This book manages to remain with the factual while transporting the reader into the experience.For those who know either of the extremely ancient languages of Mesopotamia, throughout, both Sumerian and Akkadian names are given for various deities, priesthoods, religious elements etc. The book is not a compendium of myths or texts although the most important myths are explained and used to situate cosmology with relation to the religion. Also, quite a number of samplings of texts (in English) are given which enable the reader to experience firsthand through example the principle being illustrated by the author. Chapter 6 p152 gives the standardized Mesopotamian calendar from which the ancient but later Hebrew calendar is partially derived. A few of the most important festivals are described with explication of what is known, what can be guessed at, what is unknown.If you like reading text, then this is a very good book and you will come to a good feeling for Mesopotamian religion backed up by facts. There is a respectable bibliography at the end and notes.

Interesting and readable book. I have had some negative experiences trying to work my way through other academic studies translated from a foreign language. This book does not have that kind of a problem. As has been noted by an earlier reviewer, this study has a beautiful flowing narrative. The work is also exceptionally well organized. The author further tries to answer some important and enduring questions such as how and why belief in diverse gods came into existence. He additionally deals with how religions evolve and how different religions and religious doctrines interact. A thoughtful book well worth reading. Not only for other academics

i very much liked this book. I do wish there was a little more examples given when the author made sweeping statements, but I’m aware that he’s attempting to explain a religion that existed and survived for more or less 3-4 thousand years. It’s a very good starting point for anyone who doesn’t know much about Mesopotamian religion.

After wading through a number of books on this topic that were rather rough and fragmented, this book was a delight. It begins with a nice thumbnail sketch of the history of the region. Unlike many books on the topic which seem to highlight the various myths and fragments of writings, this author creates an understandable framework within which the myths are hung. Having an overarching framework is key to understanding the myths, and hymns presented. It cleared up much confusion I had in reading other texts that presented the material in a fragmentary manner.

It seems a bit outdated now as today's scholars are reticent about religion in ancient Mesopotamia. There is not enough evidence, but plenty of conjecture.

great book

Bottero offers a fairly concise review of Mesopotamian history and religion. The book is a good introduction to the topic for both students of religion, as well as general readers. My original interest in the book pertained to the correlations between Mesopotamian mythology and the stories found in the `Old Testament,' i.e. my interests were more literary than historical. Bottero does discuss some of the myths, etc.; yet his main focus is on religious practices and/or behavior. It's still an interesting read, and, overall, I enjoyed the book. But if you are, like I was, looking for an analysis of the Mesopotamian myths themselves and how said myths influenced the entire Mediterranean basin, I recommend the book "Slaying the Dragon" by Bernard F. Batto.

This is an excellent book. For a course I just completed on Mesopotamian religion, we frequently read small sections of this book as introductions to topics we studied each week, finishing all sections of the book by the end of the course. It is very well written and intelligent. I always looked forward to reading the sections from this book first, before tackling published essays and primary source material. The author has written many books on the subject. You would also never know that it had been translated from French.

one of the classics of ancient near east studies so a little dated now; his style is a bit condescending 'how could these poor ancient people have understood anything better..?' Also I found it a bit wordy - the key part of the book is the middle chapters which could usefully be edited. Timely for someone to revisit the territory anew and write a more up to date text, I think

If you want to get the idea as to how religion seems to originate, what it was like in the early historical stage and how ancient Mesopotamian people reflected into words what they thought of as gods, this is the right book you can start. This book does not need any background knowledge. It is very easily read though it is based on academic researches and citations from original texts. The author's explanation and argument is very well balanced, coherent and objective.