The following outline provides a basic introduction to Zoroastrianism. The bibliography can provide some good starting points to studying this religion. While the bibliography does not rely heavily upon primary Zoroastrian scripture, it is hoped that with exposure to these secondary sources, the reader can go further in his or her studies and will have a good starting point from which to begin.

Zoroastrianism

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I. Zoroaster

A. "Lived between 1700 and 1500 BC" (18).

B. "Was Iranian" (2).

C. "Was a Priest" (3).

Above quotes from Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices by, Mary Boyce

II. Revelations

A. Zoroaster..."spent years wandering in a quest for truth
....Saw war bands...pillage,slaughter, take cattle" (Boyce, 19)

B. "Had a vision"(Boyce, 19-20). "One God, Ahura Mazda 'Lord
Wisdom'(Vajifdar 1) "instead of three" (Boyce, 19-20).

C. "...Zoroaster saw Ahura Mazda in vision, or felt conscious of his
presence, or heard his words calling him to his service, a summons which he
whole-heartedly obeyed"(Boyce, 19).

III. Zoroaster's Message

A. "...Primarily from the Gathas, seventeen great hymns which he composed..."(Boyce, 17).

1. Message: "Humata 'Good Thoughts',
Hukhata 'Good Words', Huvereshtn 'Good Deeds'"
(Irani).
2. "All righteousness of action, all Wisdom of the Good Mind
That I may thereby bring joy to the soul of creation"(Irani quoting
Y 28-1).

B. Two Beings: Ahura Mazda, Good. Angra Mainyu, Evil.

C. Different views about Angra Mainyu.

1. Boyce: "An essential element in this revelation is that the two primal Beings
each made a deliberate choice (although each,it seems, according to his
own proper nature) between good and evil, an act which prefigures the identical
choice which every man must make for himself in this life"(20).

2. Choksy: "...it is therefore unlikely that early Zoroastrianism
focused narrowly on the grand battle between two supernatural forces or the spiritual entities
associated with those forces. Nowhere in the Gathas does the prophet propose a total
partition of the cosmos into two groups of good and evil."

IV. Scripture

A. Known as "Avesta" The following quotes are derived from the website www.avesta.org

1. Yasna: Sacred Liturgy and Gathas/Hymns of Zarathustra.
2. Khorda Avesta: Book of Common Prayer.
3. Visperad: Extensions to the liturgy.
4. Venidad: Myths, code of purification.religious observances.
5. Fragments: Fate of the soul, Blessings etc.

V. Death and the Afterlife

A. Judgment:

"After death:...Mithra presides over the tribunal,
flanked by Sraosha and by Rashnu, who holds the scales of justice. In
these are weighed the soul's thoughts,words,and deeds, the
good on one side,the bad on the other. If the good are heavier,
the soul is judged worthy of Paradise; and it is led by a beautiful maiden
,the personification of its own conscience ('daena') across
the broad bridge and up on high. If the scales sink on the bad side,
the bridge contracts to the width of a blade-edge, and a horrid
hag,meeting the soul as it tries to cross, seizes it in her arms
and plunges with it down to hell... Those few souls 'whose
false (things) and what are just balance'(Y 33.1)
go to the 'Place of the Mixed Ones'...where...
they lead a grey existence. lacking both joy and sorrow."(Boyce, 27)

B. Paradise:

"Even for souls in Paradise bliss is not perfect during this time of Mixture, for
complete happiness can come again only at Frashegird. The pagan Iranians had
presumably held, like the Vedic Indians, that soon after each blessed soul reached
Paradise it was reunited with its resurrected body, to live again a happy life full of
sensation; but Zoroaster taught that the blessed must wait for this culmination till
Frashegird and the 'future body' (Pahlavi 'tan i pasen'), when the earth will give up
the bones of the dead (Y 30.7). This general resurrection will be followed by the
Last Judgement, which will divide all the righteous from the wicked, both those who
have lived until that time and those who have been judged already.
Airyaman, the Yazata of friendship and healing, together with Atar, Fire, will
melt all the metal in the mountains, and this will flow in a glowing river over the earth.
All mankind must pass through this river, and it is said in a Pahlavi text, 'for him who is
righteous it will seem like warm milk, and for him who is wicked, it will seem as if he
is walking in the flesh through molten metal'(GBd XXXIV. 18-19). So at this last
ordeal of all the wicked will suffer a second death, and will perish off the face of the
earth"(Boyce 27,28).

VI. The Influence of Zoroastrianism

A. Scholars' Perspectives.

1. David Friedrich Strauss: "Satan,the evil being and enemy of mankind, borrowed
from the Persian religion..."(259).

2. Mary Boyce: "Zoroaster was thus the first to teach the doctrines of an individual
judgment, Heaven and Hell, the future resurrection of the body, the general Last Judgment,
and life everlasting for the reunited soul and body. These doctrines were to become familiar
articles of faith to much of mankind, through borrowings by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam;"(29).

3. Jakob J. Petuchowski: " When they saw the Zoroastrian priests praying to the
rising sun as a manifestation of the god Mazda, they the Jewish Pietists, would pray
to the One God who is both the Fashioner of light and the Creator of darkness"(Petuchowski
quoting Kohler, 310)

4. James Barr: "...if the Jews had actually known the nature of Iranian religion
(in any or all of its forms), would they have regarded it with sympathy? Would
they have seen in it something in common with their own religion? Might they, for
instance, have perceived it as another basically monotheistic religion, largely aniconic,
with one single prophet comparable to Moses, and with a strong emphasis on ritual cleanliness?"(221).

Bibliography

Avesta--Zoroastrian Archives. (Ancient scriptures of Zoroastrianism) http://www.avesta.org.

Barr,James. 1985. The Question of Religious Influence: The Case of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Jun., 1985), pp. 201-235. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1464919.

Boyce, Mary. 2001. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Routledge: London and New York.

Choksy, Jamsheed K. The Notion of Dualism. The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies online.http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Zarathustrian/notion_dualism.htm.

Irani, Dinshah. 1934. "Studying the Gathas as a Practical Guide to a Blissful Existence." Gathic Illustration. Online. http://www.zoroastrian.org.uk/vohuman/Article/Studying%20the%20Gathas%20as%20a%20Practical%20Guide%20to %20a%20Blissful%20Existence.htm.

Kohler, Kaufmann. The Origins of the Synagogue and the Church. New York: Macmillan. 1929. Cited in: Petuchowski,Jakob Josef. 1979. "The creation in Jewish liturgy." Judaism 28, no. 3: 309-315. ALTA Religion Database with ALTASerials, EBSCOhost.

Petuchowski, Jakob Josef. 1979. "The creation in Jewish liturgy." Judaism 28, no. 3: 309-315. ALTA Religion Database
with ALTASerials, EBSCOhost.

Strauss, David Friedrich. 1902. The life of Jesus critically examined. Fourth Ed. Trans. George Eliot. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Lim.

Vajifdar, Farrokh. Zoroastrianism-a vanishing faith? Vohuman UK, online. http://www.zoroastrian.org.uk/vohuman/Article/Zoroastrianism%20--%20A%20vanishing%20Faith.htm.