Monotheism can be simply defined as the belief that there is only one god. While today’s largest religions, Christianity and Islam, are both monotheistic, it has not always the case that most people subscribed to a belief that there is only one god. Ancient men and women often believed in many gods, in some cases they had a god for just about anything that could happen, or not happen. A point of contention in religious debate is which religion is the oldest, or the original, monotheistic religion? Christianity lays claim to the title as it is an extension of Judaism, but Zoroastrianism claims the same title. The importance of this title is no small matter as the first monotheistic religion can state the later religions copied from them and are thus not the one true belief.
Around the twelfth century BCE, a man named Zoroaster lived in a small village in Persia. One day he received a vision from Ahura Mazda in which it was revealed to him that how the world was made, the true status of all the gods people worshipped and the true meaning, or form, of evil. Zoroaster went on to teach first his family, then his village, and ultimately his king, that all of the gods they worshipped were nothing but spiritual beings and demons. They were not in fact gods, the only true god was Ahura Mazda and his nemesis, though not a god, was Angra Mainyu (Dhalla).
Today Zoroastrianism is a modestly sized religion, counting fewer than 200,000 members with most of them living in India. In ancient times Zoroastrianism first gained significant prominence with the Persian king Darius during the fifth century BCE. Through the Persian empire, the religion spread across the middle east and up as far north as at least Macedonia and spread into parts of Chi...
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...rand ride through history. The time frames of how even just these three come together is so close, especially in the grand scheme of history, that it is inconceivable for them to have not influence one another. We can only know which one was first by believing in that particular religion. For those who believe in none of them, pick the one that intrigues you the most, for this mystery will not be solved by the living.
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Between 200 B.C.E and 800 C.E., there was a large development and spread of Universal Religions. The definition of a universal religion is a religion that has these characteristics: believes in one God, promises a type of salvation or after life, and a religion that is open to all people no matter what social class, race, or gender. Two of the large universal religions, Christianity and Buddhism were spread because of Syncretism. Syncretism is the adaptation to a religion by the religious leaders so that their beliefs are close to those of the local population. Although Syncretism is arguably the most important factor for the spread of these universal religions, there were other key reasons as to why these religions spread.
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Judaism is one of the largest and oldest monotheistic religions. It was founded by Abraham in 2500 BC. It is a religion for a Jewish people. Judaism was founded in Mesopotamia. Judaists believe that Jesus of Nazareth is their god and there are like 14 million people who follow this religion.
Cole, Joshua, Judith G. Coffin, Carol Symes, and Robert Stacey. Western Civilizations: Their History & Their Culture. Brief Third ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2012. Print.
Judaism, if history serves, was the first monotheistic religion to come from the holy city of Jerusalem in modern day Israel. Founded by Abraham i...
Conflict in society has many purposes. It is seen as a means of social stability through inequality, and also as a means of interest groups seeking individual needs. This analysis will show the Zoroastrian faith through many conflict theories. These theories include conflict as a source of social disruption, Conflict as a source of integration, and Conflict as pervasive element in all social life.
Wilkie, Brian, and James Hurt. Literature of the Western World: Volume II. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1997. 1134-86.
Zoroastrianism is an ancient religion that is the first religion to develop a monotheistic belief system. Zoroastrianism is heavily influential in the formation of the many religions, but more specifically, Christianity. For example, both religions believe in dualism, which is the concept that there are two original spirits: good and evil. In Zoroastrianism the good god is Ahura Mazda with the evil god being Angra Mainyu (Oxtoby, 5). In Christianity the good god is just referred to as God or Lord while the evil god is simply referred to as the Devil. In class we learned about the founder of Zoroastrianism, Zoroaster who was born into the warrior class who travels from his hometown to convince King Vishtaspa of his message who then converts his kingdom to Zoroastrianism. Mirroring this in Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth, known as Christ is the founder of Christianity spreading his message of resurrection and monotheism (Oxtoby, 143). Additionally, both religions believe that Ahura Mazda and God were the creators of the world, respectively, and how it came to be and also sharing the monotheistic belief that these two gods are the only ones to worship. Both religions have an emphasis on morality and good ethics, with Zoroastrianism having five particular points while Christianity stemmed from this which also has a moral code which is known as the Ten Commandments (Oxtoby, 5). While both religious share the importance of death and reincarnation the two differ on burial rites. In Zoroastrianism the belief is that the dead should be disposed of in the “towers of silence” so that birds of prey can eat their remains (Oxtoby, 5). In Christianity, the belief is to give the person a proper burial ceremony and then to bury the body in a gra...
The peoples of the Silk Road in its early decades followed many different religions. In the Middle East, many people worshiped the gods and goddesses of the Greco-Roman pagan pantheon. Others were followers of the old religion of Egypt, especially the cult of Isis and Osiris. Jewish merchants and other settlers had spread beyond the borders of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judea and had established their own places of worship in towns and cities throughout the region. Elsewhere in the Middle East, and especially in Persia and Central Asia, many people were adherents of Zoroastrianism, a religion founded by the Persian sage Zoroaster in the 6th century BCE. It posited a struggle between good and evil, light and darkness; its use of fire as the symbol of the purifying power of good was probably borrowed from the Brahmanic religion of ancient India. The Greek colonies of Central Asia that had been left behind after the collapse of the empire of Alexander the Great had, by the 1st century BCE, largely converted from Greco-Roman paganism to Buddhism, a religion that would soon use the Silk Road to spread far and wide. In India, on side routes of the Silk Road that crossed the passes to the Indus Valley and beyond, the older religion of Brahmanism had given way to Hinduism and Buddhism; the former never spread far beyond India and Southeast Asia, while the latter eventually became worldwide in extent.
Lynn Hunt et al., The Making of the West: peoples and cultures, a Concise History (Boston:Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003), 43, 45, 132, 136, 179-180