ATEN-tion!: Ancient Egypt's Monotheistic Faith

ATEN-tion!: Ancient Egypt's Monotheistic Faith

From History Loves Company by Chester Sakamoto

April 24, 2026 · 8 min

About this episode

This episode explores Atenism, Ancient Egypt's monotheistic faith, and the pharaoh Akhenaten who introduced it.

Despite three of the world's main religions being monotheistic in nature, they were not the first to adopt such a concept. The belief in a sole or chief deity is decidedly older, with roots in Persia and, perhaps surprisingly, in Egypt, where one pharaoh dared to topple the age-old religious order in favor of something new and radical. Tune in this week to learn about Atenism, Ancient Egypt's monotheistic faith, as well as the man behind it, the great Akhenaten!

People in this episode

Host: Chester Sakamoto

Topics covered

  • monotheism
  • Atenism
  • Ancient Egypt
  • Akhenaten
  • religious history

Keywords

  • Atenism
  • monotheism
  • Akhenaten
  • Ancient Egypt
  • religion

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Egypt, Persia

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