Zoroastrianism

1. Describe the dual inheritance within Christianity of Greek and Jewish thought. How were these traditions similar? How were they distinct? How did each contribute to the formation of Christian life and belief? Cite MacCulloch in your answer. Investigating the origins of the Bible aids in drawing connections between the demographics that wrote and condoned it, their culture, and how that has influenced Christianity. Recognizing that the books that comprise the Bible were originally written in…

main traders, selling their own souvenirs and items were the Chinese, Persians, Somalis, Greeks, Syrians, Romans, Armenians, Indians and Bactrians and from the 5th to the 8th century, the Sogdians. People believe this is how religions such as Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Buddhism, Manichaeism and Islam spread across the trade networks. They also believed that people found out about new art styles as well. 11. Inventions So next up, are inventions. I’ll just talk about the most important slides.…

Most interpretations of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick have a central focus on the evolution of Captain Ahab’s characterization. However, while Ahab’s journey offers a multitude of allegorical insight, other remarkable characters are disregarded by researchers in favor of Captain Ahab. One such character is the narrator of the story, Ishmael. He is depicted as only a passive viewer in the tale of Ahab and the white whale, but Ishmael has his own development in Moby Dick. Indeed, Ishmael grows as he…

Sometimes, belief is considered beneficial regardless of whether it holds truth or not. For example, if one enters a sports competition as a low underdog, a strong belief in team unity and ability can propel the potentially losing team to victory. This idea that meaningful beliefs overshadow those that are true is called pragmatism. Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, physician, and religious philosopher (Biography.com Editors), took a pragmatic approach to the widely discussed topic of God’s…

The prime objective of this critique is to highlight the various issues related to cultural divergence that Bapsi Sidhwa has dealt with in her fourth novel ‘An American Brat’. An American Brat contrasts the status of women in the Third World and First World countries through a female character Feroza who migrates from Pakistan to America where she finds herself tempted for an inter-community marriage. An assortment of elements such as diaspora, self assertion, female characterization, migration…

The eleven authors we read over the duration of this course left me less than satisfied in my understanding of the relationship between religion and violence (a sentiment I would guess is shared by a majority of our class). I could not locate the source of my discontent. We have been offered numerous models, a variety of solutions, and a definition or two. Yet, I find my thoughts on the relationship between religion and violence more muddled than ever. Surely there is an explanation: a flaw in…

that unlike knights in medieval Europe, the heavily armored soldiers in Sasanian Persia did not feel that they were serving primarily out of the piety for Ahura Mazda, but rather out of political allegiance to the king. However, the importance of Zoroastrianism in this period increased to a point that had never before been seen in Persian history. The prior philosophy of religious tolerance in the name of political benefits was completely abandoned, and…

Free Will in Theology In the Christian faith, it is taught at a young age that God gave man free will in order to make one’s own decisions, however time and time again, both throughout history and the Bible, as well as other religious texts, that man abuses the power to make their own decisions and falls away from their gods in order to do what is superficially beneficial to themselves. From Eve being influenced by Lucifer and eating the apple of her own free will, to more modern examples of…

Cyrus treated his kingship with the Babylonians as a union on behalf of the chief city god of Babylon who was known as Marduk. Cyrus believed that his position as king was destined by Marduk, and that according to the Cyrus cylinder “[Marduk] searched everywhere and then he took a righteous king, his favourite, by the hand, he called out his name. Cyrus, King of Ansan, he pronounced his name to be king all over the world”. The Cyrus Cylinder also states that Marduk encouraged Cyrus to command…

The Birth of Muhammad and Islam Many people are aware of the meaning of the cross, which is a symbol of Christianity as well as the star of David which is a symbol in the Jewish religion. However, very few are knowledgeable about the fact that the crescent moon with the star is a representation of the Islamic religion. Although Islam is not as popularly studied as other various religions, it quickly rose from nothing to one of the most substantially influential religious empires to ever exist.…