Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest religions, though it is not among the best understood. Originating with Iranian tribes living in Central Asia in the second millennium BCE, Zoroastrianism was the official religion of the Iranian empires until Islam superseded it in the seventh century AD. Centered on the worship of Ahura Mazda, the All-knowing Ruler, Zoroastrianism follows the practices and rituals set out by the prophet Zarathustra, according to the indigenous tradition. As one of the world's great religions, Zoroastrianism has a heritage rich in texts and cultic practices. The texts are often markedly difficult to translate, but in this volume, Prods Oktor Skjærvø, professor of ancient Iranian languages and culture at Harvard, provides modern and accurate translations of Zoroastrian texts that have been selected to provide an overview of Zoroastrian beliefs and practices. In a comprehensive introduction to these sacred texts, Skjærvø outlines the history and essence of Zoroastrianism and discusses the major themes of this the first fully representative selection of Zoroastrian texts to be made available in English for over a century.

Entries include: Absurdism, Altruism, Antidisestablishmentarianism, Atheism, Bohemianism, Bonapartism, Buddhism, Capitalism, Careerism, Chauvinism, Colonialism, Cubism, Darwinism, Defeatism, Deism, Determinism, Eclecticism, Epicureanism, Eurocentrism, Expressionism, Fanaticism, Feminism, Freeganism, Freudianism, Futurism, Germanism, Globalism, Gnosticism, Hedonism, Heightism, Historicism, Hitlerism, Humanitarianism, Idealism, Imperialism, Institutionalism, Islamism, Isolationism, Jacksonianism, Jingoism, Judaism, Keynesianism, Lancastrianism, Leninism, Libertarianism, Localism, Maoism, Masculism, Mazdaism, Militarism, Modernism, Multiculturalism, Nazism, Neoconservatism, Nihilism, Nudism, Optimism, Orientalism, Paganism, Pan-Africanism, Phallocentrism, Poststructuralism, Quietism, Racism, Rastafarianism, Realism, Republicanism, Romanticism, Sikhism, Stoicism, Structuralism, Surrealism, Symbolism, Teaism, Taoism, Thatcherism, Unionism, Utilitarianism, Veganism, Vegetarianism, White Nationalism, Zionism, Zoroastrianism.

Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism offers a compact, concise and accessible survey of Zoroastrianism. Chapters address Zarathustra and the origins of the religion, religious concepts and narratives, ethics and gender, priesthoods and rituals, transitions and festivals.

This volume traces the history of Zoroastrianism at times and places where its existence has previously been largely ignored, or treated only episodically. Literary, archaeological and numismatic evidence has been drawn on (some of it only recently brought to light), and local developments are distinguished. In Iran itself some 200 years of Macedonian rule had little effect on the national religion. To the east, Zoroastrianism survived in the Greco-Bactrian kingdoms and under Mauryan suzereinty, where it came into contact with Buddhism. In Eastern Mediterranean lands it was maintained by Iranian expatriates well down into Roman imperial times. They adopted Greek for their written tongue, and Zoroastrian doctrines thus became known in the Greco-Roman world. Study is made accordingly of Zoroastrian contributions to Hellenistic thought, and to Judaism, Christianity and Mithraism; and an excursus provides a thorough reassessment of the Zoroastrian pseudepigrapha.

This obscure and ancient religion is receiving more and more attention in modern times due to its claimed influence upon Christianity. This author, however, focuses upon the relationship between Zoroastrianism and Judaism, & sets out to prove that Christianity received influence from Zoroastrianism, but that it was transmitted through Judaism.

"Boyce is a, perhaps the, world authority on Zoroastrianism. . . . Prefaced by a 27-page introduction, this anthology contains selections which offer a complete picture of Zoroastrian belief, worship and practice. There are historical texts from the sixth century B.C. onwards, and extracts from modern Zoroastrian writings representing traditionalism, occultism and reformist opinion. Anyone wishing to know more about this 'least well known of the world religions' should sample these selections."—The Methodist Church "Wide-ranging. . . . An indispensable one-volume collection of primary materials."—William R. Darrow, Religious Studies Review

Focusing on the Avestan and Pahlavi versions of the Sīh-rōzag, a text worshipping Zoroastrian divine entities, this book explores the spiritual principles and physical realities associated with them. Introducing the book is an overview of the structural, linguistic and historico-religious elements of the Avestan Sīh-rōzag. This overview, as well as reconstructing its approximate chronology, helps in understanding the original ritual function of the text and its relationship to the other Avestan texts.The book then studies the translation of the text in the Middle Persian language, Pahlavi, which was produced several centuries after its initial composition, when Avestan was no longer understood by the majority of the Zoroastrian community. Addressing the lacuna in literature examining an erstwhile neglected Zoroastrian text, The Sih-Rozag in Zoroastrianism includes a detailed commentary and an English translation of both the Avestan and Pahlavi version of the Sīh-rōzag and will be of interest to researchers and scholars of Iranian Studies, Religion, and History.

The Bundahisn, meaning primal or foundational creation, is the central Zoroastrian account of creation, cosmology, and eschatology. Compiled sometime in the ninth century CE, it is one of the most important surviving testaments to Zoroastrian literature in the Middle Persian language and to pre-Islamic Iranian culture. Despite having been composed some two millennia after the Prophet Zoroaster's revelation, it is nonetheless a concise compendium of ancient Zoroastrian knowledge that draws on and reshapes earlier layers of the tradition. Well known in the field of Iranian Studies as an essential primary source for scholars of ancient Iran's history, religions, literatures, and languages, the Bundahisn is also a great work of literature in and of itself, ranking alongside the creation myths of other ancient traditions. The book's thirty-six diverse chapters, which touch on astronomy, eschatology, zoology, medicine, and more, are composed in a variety of styles, registers, and genres, from spare lists and concise commentaries to philosophical discourses and poetic eschatological visions. This new translation, the first in English in nearly a century, highlights the aesthetic quality, literary style, and complexity and raises the profile of pre-Islamic Zoroastrian literature.

Zoroastrianism is one of the world's great ancient religions. In present-day Iran, significant communities of Zoroastrians (who take their name from the founder of the faith, the remarkable religious reformer Zoroaster) still practise the rituals and teach the moral precepts that once undergirded the officially state-sanctioned faith of the mighty Sasanian empire. Beyond Iran, the Zoroastrian disapora is significant especially in India, where the Gujarati-speaking community of emigrants from post-Sasanian Iran call themselves 'Parsis'. But there are also significant Zoroastrian communities to be found elsewhere, such as in the USA, Britain and Canada, where western cultural contexts have shaped the religion in intriguing ways and directions. This new, thorough and wide-ranging introduction will appeal to anyone interested in discovering more about the faith that bequeathed the contrasting words 'Magi' and 'magic', and whose adherents still live according to the code of 'Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds.' The central Zoroastrian concept that human beings are continually faced with a choice between the path of 'good' and 'evil', represented by the contrasting figures of Ahura Mazda and Ahriman, inspired thinkers as diverse as Voltaire, Mozart and Nietzsche. Jenny Rose shows why Zoroastrianism remains one of the world's most inspiring and perennially fascinating systems of ethics and belief.

In Pious Citizens, Ringer tells the story of a major intellectual revolution in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century India and Iran, one that radically transformed the role of religion in society. At this time, key theological debates revolved around Zoroastrianism’s capacity to generate “progress” and “civilization.” Armed with both the destructive and creative capacities of historicism, reformers reevaluated their own religious tradition, molding Zoroastrian belief and practice according to contemporary ideas of rational religion and its potential to create pious citizens. Ringer demonstrates how rational and enlightened religion, characterized by social responsibility and the interiorization of piety, was understood as essential for the development of modern individuals, citizens, new public space, national identity, and secularism. She argues persuasively that reformers believed not only that social reform must be accompanied by religious reform but that it was in fact a product of religious reform. Pious Citizens offers new insights into the theological premises behind the promotion of secularism, the privatization of religion, and the development of new national identities. Ringer’s work also explores growing connections between the Iranian and Indian Zoroastrian communities and the revival of the ancient Persian past.