Ancient Mesopotamian religion offers an under-appreciated body of data to religious studies.Because Mesopotamian religion is ancient and dead, it poses no threat to modern religious con-victions. Students approach it with a curious antiquarian’s interest rather than a threatenedbeliever’s resistance and thus freely adopt through it critical concepts in the study of religion. Tisessay shows how Mesopotamian data can illustrate three such concepts. Moreover, it suggeststhat because Mesopotamian culture is geographically and chronologically proximate to thosethat produced the Bible and Quran, this data can provide a unique bridge to critical discussionsof the major monotheistic religions.