Problem śmierci i nieśmiertelności w tetralogii Józef i jego bracia Tomasza Manna

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to reconstruct the ideas of death and eternal life in the novel Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann. The author contrasts the mystical vision of immortality as becoming united with God, preached by pharaoh Akhenaten, with the mythical concept of life after death, typical to folk religion spread by Egyptian priests. Since there is a similar tension in the beliefs of ancient Israelites (Joseph sees eternal life as becoming united with God, even though most people believe in the traditional model of immortality of a nation, not an individual), an understanding between the two spiritual leaders of their nations, Akhenaten and Joseph, turns out to be possible. They both believe that God is inexpressible, and are ready to admit that every religious tradition is one-sided, presenting only one dimension of God; therefore, none can be considered entirely true. Because of that, Akhenaten, and even more so Joseph, lean towards religious syncretism, while believing that converting anyone to their own religion is pointless. Both, as characters in Mann’s novel, also forecast the Christian concept of eternal life as divinization of humans, possible because of Christ’s Incarnation.