Ancient Iranian prophet who founded Zoroastrianism — the first monotheistic or dualistic religion — teaching that the world is a battlefield between a supreme good deity (Ahura Mazda) and an evil principle (Angra Mainyu), that humans have free will to choose between them, and that history will culminate in the triumph of good.
Created the religious framework that decisively shaped all three Abrahamic religions — Zoroastrianism's cosmic dualism (good god vs. evil principle), individual judgment after death, resurrection, heaven and hell, and linear history moving toward a final apocalypse all entered Jewish theology during the Babylonian exile and thence into Christianity and Islam.
Discussing
Ask anything about Zoroaster — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.
Sign in to start a conversation.