Zoroastrianism: An Introduction

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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 & 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 & Canada where western cultural contexts have shaped the religion in intriguing ways & directions This new thorough & wide-ranging introduction will appeal to anyone interested in discovering more about the faith that bequeathed the contrasting words ' Magi' & 'magic' & 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' & 'evil' represented by the contrasting figures of Ahura Mazda & Ahriman inspired thinkers as diverse as Voltaire Mozart & Nietzsche Jenny Rose shows why Zoroastrianism remains one of the world's most inspiring & perennially fascinating systems of ethics & belief