Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Religion of Ancient Egypt. Delivered in May and June, 1879

This book is a collection of lectures on Religion of Ancient Egypt, which was published in 1880 and written by Peter le Page Renouf. He was a British Egyptologist and professor, as well as director of the museum. These of his "Hibbert lectures” on the religion of the Egyptians, given in 1879, are the most important of his contributions to Egyptology. The religion of Ancient Egypt is known from reliable sources of various kinds, covering a period of at least three thousand years. Perhaps this religion existed for many centuries before the earliest surviving monuments. Origins the religion of Ancient Egypt is not a matter of history, but of speculation. The last centuries of the religion of the ancient Egyptians coincide with the first centuries of the Christian religion, which gradually supplanted it. During this period, zoolatism, or the worship of sacred animals, was the feature that mainly attracted the attention of Christian apologists who made any observations on this matter.