Zoroastrianism World History/Napp
“By the time of Darius’s rule, about 2,500 years had passed since the first Sumerian city-states had been built. During those years, people of the Fertile Crescent had endured war, conquest, and famine. These events gave rise to a basic question: Why should so much suffering and chaos exist in the world? A Persian prophet named Zoroaster, who lived around 600 B.C., offered an answer.
Zoroaster taught that the earth is a battleground where a great struggle is fought between the spirit of good and the spirit of evil. Each person, Zoroaster preached, is expected to take part in this struggle. The Zoroastrian religion teaches a belief in one god, Ahura Mazda. At the end of time, Ahura Mazda will judge everyone according to how well he or she fought the battle for good. Traces of Zoroastrianism – such as the concept of Satan and a belief in angels – can be found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
After the Muslim conquest of Persia in the A.D. 600s, the Zoroastrian religion declined. Some groups carried the faith eastward to India. Zoroastrianism also was an important influence in the development of Manichaeism, a religious system that competed with early Christianity for believers. The cult of Mithra, a Zoroastrian god, spread westward to become a popular religion among the military legions in the Roman Empire. Today, modern Zoroastrians continue to observe the religion’s traditions in several countries including Iran and India, where its followers are called Parsis.” ~ World History
Identify and explain the following terms:
Zoroaster Battleground between good and evil
Ahura Mazda Manichaeism
Mitrha Parsis
- Explain Zoroastrian funeral rites.
Cosmic Battle / History / Prayers / Worship- Cosmic dualism refers to the ongoing battle between Good (Ahura Mazda) and Evil (Angra Mainyu) within the universe
- It is important to understand that Angra Mainyu is not God’s equal opposite, rather that Angra Mainyu is the destructive energy that opposes God's creative energy
- God created a pure world through his creative energy, which Angra Mainyu continues to attack, making it impure
- Aging, sickness, famine, natural disasters, death and so on are attributed to this
- With cosmic dualism there is life and death, day and night, good and evil.
- Life is a mixture of these two opposing forces / - When Zoroaster was thirty years old he had a divine vision of God during a ritual purification rite
- This vision radically transformed his view of the world, and he tried to teach this view to others
- Zoroaster believed in one creator God, teaching that only one God was worthy of worship
- After twelve years, Zoroaster left his home to find somewhere more open to new ideas
- He found such a place in the land of Bactria
- The King heard Zoroaster debating with the religious leaders of his land, and decided to accept Zoroaster's ideas and made them the official religion of their kingdom.
- By the time of the Persian Empire, Zoroastrianism was a well-established religion / - Zoroastrians traditionally pray several times a day
- Some wear a kusti, which is a cord knotted three times, to remind them of the maxim, “Good Words, Good Thoughts, Good Deeds”
- They wrap the kusti around the outside of a sudreh, a long, clean, white cotton shirt
- They may engage in a purification ritual, such as the washing of the hands, then untie and then retie it while reciting prayers
- Prayers are primarily invocational, calling upon and celebrating Ahura Mazda and his good essence that runs through all things
- Prayers are said facing the sun, fire or other source of light representing Ahura Mazda’s divine light and energy / - Purification is strongly emphasised in Zoroastrian rituals
- Zoroastrians focus on keeping their minds, bodies and environments pure in the quest to defeat evil (Angra Mainyu)
- Fire is seen as the supreme symbol of purity, and sacred fires are maintained in Fire Temples (Agiaries)
- These fires represent the light of God (Ahura Mazda) as well as the illuminated mind, and are never extinguished
- No Zoroastrian ritual or ceremony is performed without the presence of a sacred fire
Zoroastrianism provides a solution to the so-called “problem of evil” by teaching that
A. Ahura Mazda, as ultimate reality, is a force for evil as well as for good
B. evil is only illusory and has no real effect on wise people
C. there are two equally powerful divine beings locked in an eternal struggle of good versus evil
D. ultimately order and goodness will win out over chaos and evil
Zoroastrianism teaches that reality is divisible into two realms:
A. Energy waves / atomic particles
B. Good intention / evil intention
C. Spirit and thought / matter and physicality
D. Sky and heaven / earth and the underworld
In which of the following did Zoroastrianism originate?
A. Pakistan
B. Iran
C. North Africa
D. Afghanistan
The coming of Islam to Iran in the seventh century resulted in
A. civil war between Iranian Muslims and Zoroastrians
B. the rise of dynasties of Zoroastrian rulers who were sympathetic to Islam
C. the marginalization of Zoroastrianism
D. a synthesis of Islam and Zoroastrianism
Today, the largest population of Zoroastrians is in
A. Afghanistan
B. North Africa
C. Pakistan
D. India / Zoroastrianism shares teachings about ______with Christianity and Judaism.
A. dualism and a final judgment
B. Ahuras and the sacredness of fire
C. the daevas and the sacredness of fire
D. the importance of the patriarchs of ancient Israel: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
Zoroastrians in India are known as
A. Parsis
B. Indians
C. Zarathustri
D. Zoroastri
Zoroastrian reverence for fire means that
A. candle flames are not extinguished but rather allowed to burn out
B. cremation is the traditional means of disposing of the dead
C. sacred fires in temples are ritually extinguished and relit at least once per year
D. all of the above
Unlike Hindus, Zoroastrians place corpses on
A. towers of silence
B. on fires
C. in the ground
D. None of the above
Zoroastrians are
A. monotheists and dualists
B. polytheists and dualists
C. atheists and dualists
D. deists and dualists
Zoroastrianism has influenced
A. Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism
B. Confucianism, Daoism and Legalism
C. Judaism, Christianity and Islam
D. Theosophy, Sikhism and Deism
- Identify the percentages of the following religious populations:
Ø Christianity: ______
Ø Islam: ______
Ø Buddhism: ______
- Where do many Muslims live?
- What religion is dominant in the Americas?
- What religion is dominant in sub-Saharan Africa?
- How have religions spread?
- Identify two religions that spread beyond their places of origin?
- Why do religious populations increase and decrease over time?