Lived religion in the ancient Near East — Beate Pongratz-Leisten
Scholar Beate Pongratz-Leisten examines how monotheism emerged through lived religious practice in ancient Near Eastern societies before the Common Era.
Why we picked this
How did one god become the god? Pongratz-Leisten traces the shift from polytheism to monotheism not through theology but through the messy reality of daily worship — a perspective that reframes one of history's most consequential transitions.
The origins of monotheism are usually told as a story of great prophets and revelation. Beate Pongratz-Leisten tells it differently — as a slow transformation driven by imperial politics, local administration, and the everyday religious lives of ordinary people across the ancient Near East.
Drawing on archaeological and textual evidence spanning centuries before the Common Era, Pongratz-Leisten examines how individual identity and self-definition emerged through lived practice in specific social, political, and religious settings rather than through doctrinal decree.
This free lecture at ISAW offers a rare window into the deep history of how human societies organized their relationship with the divine — and why the political and the sacred have always been intertwined.