Dualism in Iranian and Christian Traditions

Abstract

Since the time when the human race first began to speculate about the origin of the universe there have been two cosmological models that have seemed particularly attractive to its imagination. One has been to derive everything in the world from a single primal origin, out of which the cosmos, in all its apparent complexity, evolves. The other has been to view the history of the universe as a battle between two opposing forces which contradict and undermine each other. The two views can be called monism and dualism. They are not the only possibilities. There have been systems that posit three, four or an indefinite number of principles, but most of these have also tended to assume one basic pair of opposites with one or more neutral or intermediate principles beside them; this too can be seen as a form of dualism.

Achaemenid Religion

“…At one end of the spectrum of opinions, Widengren (, p. 149, following his teacher Nyberg , p. 416, , p. 373) concluded it was virtually certain that the Achaemenids were not Zoroastrians; at the other end, Duchesne‐Guillemin and Boyce concluded they were Zoroastrians, Shaked (, p. 90) believes the assumption that they were Zoroastrians is correct, while Schwartz () and Schmitt (, p. 424) appear to have taken it for granted that the Achaemenids were Zoroastrians. De Blois (, p. 3) even suggested that “Zoroastrianism was adopted as the state religion of the Achaemenid empire” (cf. Stausberg , p. 157).…”

“…A special problem arose from the fact that about 490 BCE, the calendar known from post-Avestan Zoroastrian texts had been adopted in Cappadocia and, presumably, in the entire empire (de Blois 1996, Panaino 1990, pp. 665-66, 2010.…”

“…The dualist division between good and evil is seen both in this and the other worlds, where all things, notably gods and humans, must choose to side with one or the other. On Iranian dualism, see Gnoli (), de Blois (), Stausberg (, pp. 17–18), Skjærvø (); on the denial of Zoroastrian dualism among early scholars, who advocated Zoroastrianism as a monotheistic faith, see Boyce (, p. 232, bottom), for whom Zoroastrian dualism was taught by Zarathustra (, pp.…”