Zoroastrianism Essay -- essays research papers

ZoroastrianismZoroastrianism is the ancient pre-Islamic righteousness of Iran that survives there in isolated areas and, more prosperously, in India, where the descendants of Zoroastrian Persian (Persian) immigrants are known as Parses, or Pareses. In India the faith is call Parsiism. Founded by the Iranian prophet and reformer Zoroaster in the 6th century BC, the religion contains both monotheistic and dualistic features. It influenced the other major Western religions &8211 Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The ancient Greeks saw in Zoroastrianism the archetype of the dualistic view of the world and of mans destiny. Zoroaster was supposed to go instructed Pythagoras in Babylon and to have inspired the Chaldean doctrines of astrology and magic, could be considered the arch-heretic. In more recent times the study of Zorastrianism has played a decisive ploughshare in reconstructing the religion and social structure of the Indo-European peoples. Though Zoroastrianism was never, ev en off in the thinking of its founder, as aggressively monotheistic as, for instance, Judaism or Islam, it does represent an sea captain attempt at unifying under the worship of one supreme god a polytheistic religion comparable to those of the ancient Greeks, Latins, Indians and other betimes peoples.Its other salient feature, namely dualism, was never understood in an absolute, rigorous fashion. Good and Evil fight an unequal battle in which the former is certain of triumph. Gods omnipotence is thus only temporarily limited. In this struggle man must enlist because of his capacity of free choice. He does so with his soul and body, not against his body, for the immunity between good and evil is not the same as the one between spirit and matter. Contrary to the Christian or Manichaean attitude, fasting and chastity are proscribed, except as part of the purifacatory ritual. Mans fight has a negative aspect, nonetheless he must keep himself pure i.e., avoid defilement by the forc es of death, contact with dead matter, etc. Thus Zoroastrian ethics, although in itself lofty and rational, has a ritual aspect that is all percading. On the whole, Zoroastrianism is optimistic and has remained so even though the hardship and oppression of its believers. The religion of Iran before the time of Zoroaster... ...tises pen during the brief renascence under Islam in the 9th century. Finally there are books written in Persian, either in verse or in prose. The latter include the correspondence exchanged between the Aoroastirians of Iran and India and the teatise.Zoroastrianism is not the purely ethical religion it may at first seem. In practice, despite the doctrine of free choice, a Zoroastrian is so constantly involved in a punctilious struggle against the contamination of death and the thousand causes of defilement, and against the threat, even in his sleep, of ever present demons, that he does not often believe that he is leading his feel freely and morally.Apart fr om this attitude, the belief in the power of destiny sometimes culminates in fatalism. The latter is easily associated with Zurvanism, itself sometimes tainted with materialism. In the it is stated that though one be armed with the valor and strength of wisdom and knowledge, yet it is not possible to strive against the fate. On the whole, however, as RC Zeahner notes, the theological premisses of Zorastrianism are ground on an essentially moralistic view of life.