The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism

Blackwell Companions to Religion

by Anna Tessmann (Primary Contributor), Michael Stausberg (Editor), Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina (Editor)

This is the first ever comprehensive English-language survey of Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest living religions

Genres: Religion, History, Theology, Iran

704 pages, Hardcover

First published April 27, 2015

Reviews

[Sense of History]

36 articles by academic specialists on all possible aspects of Zoroastrianism. There is quite a bit of overlap, and even some contradiction between the authors. And that's quite understandable, because, as the introductory articles clearly indicate: our knowledge of this religion is very uncertain, inevitably there is some reasoned speculation involved, and so opinions can vary considerably, even among serious academics. To give an idea: based on linguistic criteria and geographical references, the origin of the core texts of early Zoroastrianism (the two versions of the Avesta) is situated somewhere between the beginning and the end of the 2nd millennium BCE, while they were only put into writing in the 5th-6th century of our era, a gap of almost 2 millennia. Incidentally, the first real historical references are only found in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, when the Persian rulers made it their court religion, and imposed a standardization. And even then, the sources are scarce for that period. That may explain why so much nonsense is sold about Zoroastrianism in non-scientific publications. This publication has the merit to indicate what is probable and what not. Another plus: it also tries to give an idea of the influence of Zoroastrianism on Jewish, Greek, Roman and Christian and Islamic thought, and that seems quite substantial. Certainly a valuable contribution!

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most essential reference work for anyone interested in Zoroastrianism. Now that it's 10 years old, I'd be interested to see what direction the scholarship has gone, but it's hard to find anything as a layman.