Episodes

  • 17. Scripture. Avesta.

    17. Scripture. Avesta.
    Jul 3 2025
    17. Scripture. Avesta.
    The Avesta, Book Pahlavi: is the text corpus of religious literature of Zoroastrianism. All its texts are composed in the Avestan language and written in the Avestan alphabet. Modern editions of the Avesta are based on the various manuscript traditions that have survived in India and Iran.
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    3 mins
  • 16. Practices and rituals.

    16. Practices and rituals.
    Jul 2 2025
    16. Practices and rituals.
    Throughout Zoroastrian history, shrines and temples have been the focus of worship and pilgrimage for adherents of the religion. Early Zoroastrians were recorded as worshiping in the 5th century BCE on mounds and hills where fires were lit below the open skies. In the wake of Achaemenid expansion, shrines were constructed throughout the empire and particularly influenced the role of Mithra, Aredvi Sura Anahita, Verethragna and Tishtrya, alongside other traditional Yazata who all have hymns within the Avesta and also local deities and culture-heroes. Today, enclosed and covered fire temples tend to be the focus of community worship where fires of varying grades are maintained by the clergy assigned to the temples.
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    4 mins
  • 14. Principal beliefs, Tenets of faith.

    14. Principal beliefs, Tenets of faith.
    Jul 1 2025
    14. Principal beliefs, Tenets of faith.
    In Zoroastrianism, Ahura Mazda is the beginning and the end, the creator of everything that can and cannot be seen, the eternal and uncreated, the all-good and source of Asha. In the Gathas, the most sacred texts of Zoroastrianism thought to have been composed by Zoroaster himself, Zoroaster acknowledged the highest devotion to Ahura Mazda, with worship and adoration also given to Ahura Mazda's manifestations (Amesha Spenta) and the other ahuras (Yazata) that support Ahura Mazda
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    8 mins
  • 13. Etymology & Theology.

    13. Etymology & Theology.
    Jul 1 2025
    13. Etymology & Theology.
    The theological category of Zoroastrianism is hard to define. The reasons are the difficulties in assigning precise dates to the principal texts and the fact that many contain much older material. Furthermore, Zoroastrianism shaped only slowly over time and was not complete even by the time of the Muslim conquest of Persia. Polytheistic, monotheistic, and dualistic strands can be identified in the wider Zoroastrian tradition, with dualism being the dominant tendency. The major difference to Manichaeism lies in the insistence of good in the creation account.
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    5 mins
  • 12. ZOROASTRIANISM.

    12. ZOROASTRIANISM.
    Jun 30 2025
    12. Zoroastrianism.
    Zoroastrianism (Persian: Dīn-e Zartoshtī), also called Mazdayasnā (Avestan) or Beh-dīn, is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster (Greek: Zōroastris). Among the world's oldest organized faiths, its adherents exalt an uncreated, benevolent, and all-wise deity known as Ahura Mazda, who is hailed as the supreme being of the universe. Opposed to Ahura Mazda is Angra Mainyu, who is personified as a destructive spirit and the adversary of all things that are good. As such, the Zoroastrian religion combines a dualistic cosmology of good and evil with an eschatological outlook predicting the ultimate triumph of Ahura Mazda over evil. Opinions vary among scholars as to whether Zoroastrianism is monotheistic, polytheistic, henotheistic, or a combination of all three. Zoroastrianism shaped Iranian culture and history, while scholars differ on whether it significantly influenced ancient Western philosophy and the Abrahamic religions, or gradually reconciled with other religions and traditions, such as Christianity and Islam.
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    5 mins
  • 11. Western references to Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism.

    11. Western references to Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism.
    Jun 30 2025
    11. Western references to Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism.
    In the modern era.
    An early reference to Zoroaster in English literature occur in the writings of the physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne who asserted in his Religio Medici (1643):
    I believe, besides Zoroaster, there were divers that writ before Moses, who notwithstanding have suffered the common fate of time.
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    2 mins
  • 10. Western references to Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism.

    10. Western references to Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism.
    Jun 30 2025
    10. Western references to Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism.
    In classical antiquity.
    The Greeks—in the Hellenistic sense of the term—had an understanding of Zoroaster as expressed by Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, and Agathias that saw him, at the core, to be the "prophet and founder of the religion of the Iranian peoples," Beck notes that "the rest was mostly fantasy". Zoroaster was set in the ancient past, six to seven millennia before the Common Era, and was described as a king of Bactria or a Babylonian (or teacher of Babylonians), and with a biography typical of a Neopythagorean sage, i.e. having a mission preceded by ascetic withdrawal and enlightenment. However, at first mentioned in the context of dualism, in Moralia, Plutarch presents Zoroaster as "Zaratras," not realizing the two to be the same, and he is described as a "teacher of Pythagoras".
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    9 mins