The Social Forces Make Their Impression on Religion — The Rise of Social Reformers

The Social Forces Make Their Impression on Religion—The Earliest Social Regeneration

(Period: 22d to 18th century B.C.)

Appearance of the capacity to contemplate society—Discernment of the moral unworthiness of society—Scepticism—A royal sceptic—Earliest social prophets and their tractates—Ipuwor and his arraignment—The dream of the ideal ruler—Messianism—The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant and propaganda for social justice—Maxims of Ptahhotep—Righteousness and official optimism—Social justice becomes the official doctrine of the state—The "Installation of the Vizier"—Dialogue form of social and moral discussion and its origin in Egypt—Evidences of the social regeneration of the Feudal Age—Its origin in the Solar faith—Deepening sense of moral responsibility in the hereafter both Solar and Osirian.