"The Price of Monotheism was originally published in German under the title Die Mosaische Unterscheidung oder der Preis des Monotheismus, c2003, Carl Hanser Verlag"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references.

The mosaic distinction and the problem of intolerance. How many religions stand behind the Old Testament? -- What is truth? -- Intolerance, violence, and exclusion -- Constructions of the other : religious satire -- Monotheism, a counter-religion to what? Monotheism versus polytheism -- Akhenaten and Moses : Egyptian and Biblical monotheism -- Monotheism as anti-cosmotheism -- Monotheism as political theology : ethics, justice, freedom -- Law and morality in the "pagan" world and the theologization of justice in monotheism -- The clash of memories : between idolatry and iconoclasm. The legend of the lepers and the Amarna trauma in Egypt -- Iconoclasm and iconolatry -- Prisca theologia and the abolition of the mosaic distinction -- The tightening of the mosaic distinction and the rise of paganology -- Sigmund Freud and progress in intellectuality. The Jewish and Greek options -- The trauma of monotheism : analytic hermeneutics and mnemohistory -- The ban on graven images as progress in intellectuality -- The psychohistorical consequences of monotheism. The "scriptural turn" : from cult to book -- Into the crypt -- The invention of the inner self -- Counterreligion and the concept of sin.

Description based on print version record.