The Avestan Hymn to Mithra, written in the fifth century BC, is the one extensive, ancient literary record of the attributes, companions and cult of the Iranian god whose worship spread, five or six centuries later, as far as Britain. Dr Gershevitch here reproduces Geldner's text and critical apparatus of the Hymn, adding his own introduction, translation and commentary. The introduction offers an orientation on the main problems concerning Mithra: how the god came to be included in the Zoroastrian religious system, his relation to Zarathustra's god Ahura Mazdah, his functions, his development from the stage at which the Indian Mitra is found in the Rig Veda, and the extent to which the Western Mithras has preserved the characteristics of the Avestan Mithra. The text is faced by the English translation, and is followed by Dr Gershevitch's exhaustive commentary.

Christian communities flourished during late antiquity in a Zoroastrian political system, known as the Iranian Empire, that integrated culturally and geographically disparate territories from Arabia to Afghanistan into its institutions and networks. Whereas previous studies have regarded Christians as marginal, insular, and often persecuted participants in this empire, Richard Payne demonstrates their integration into elite networks, adoption of Iranian political practices and imaginaries, and participation in imperial institutions. The rise of Christianity in Iran depended on the Zoroastrian theory and practice of hierarchical, differentiated inclusion, according to which Christians, Jews, and others occupied legitimate places in Iranian political culture in positions subordinate to the imperial religion. Christians, for their part, positioned themselves in a political culture not of their own making, with recourse to their own ideological and institutional resources, ranging from the writing of saints' lives to the judicial arbitration of bishops. In placing the social history of East Syrian Christians at the center of the Iranian imperial story, A State of Mixture helps explain the endurance of a culturally diverse empire across four centuries.

This book, first published in German in 2005, offers a compact, concise and accessible survey of Zoroastrianism. This tiny religious community traces its root to Zarathustra who lived some 2,500-3,500 years ago. Chapters address Zarathustra and the origins of the religion, religious concepts and narratives, ethics and gender, priesthoods and rituals, transitions and festivals. A postscript by Anders Hultgard, one of the leading experts on this field, discusses the influences of Zoroastrianism on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Hakon Naasen Tandberg explores how, when, and why humans relate to the non-human world. Based on two ethnographic fieldworks among the Parsis in Mumbai, the research focuses on the role of temple fires in the lives of present-day Parsi Zoroastrians in India as an empirical case. Through four ethnographic portraits, the reader will get a deeper look into the lives of four Parsi individuals, and how their individual biographies, personalities, and interhuman relationships, along with religious identities and roles, shape -- and to a certain extent are shaped by -- their personal relationships with non-human entities. The book combines affordance theory, exchange theory, and social support to analyse such relationships, and offers suggestive evidence that relationships with non-human entities -- in this case the Zoroastrian temple fires -- can be experienced as no less real, important, or meaningful than those with other human beings. The book also provides evidence not only that non-human entities such as the temple fires must be considered relational entities analogous to humans, but also that the kind of support provided by the fires and their availability in providing it is experienced as comparable -- and in some cases, superior -- to support received from human peers. The findings demonstrate that future approaches to religion as a social phenomenon will benefit from moving beyond mere interaction to exploring how and when engagement with religious entities can lead to long-term and emotionally satisfying personal relationships, thus paving the way for a more nuanced and relevant theory of religion as something interwoven into people's everyday lives.

At the center of this book stands a text-critical edition of three chapters of the Gathas, exemplifying the editorial methodology developed by the "Multimedia Yasna" (MUYA) project and its application to the Old Avestan parts of the Yasna liturgy. Proceeding from this edition, the book explores aspects of the transmission and ritual embedding of the text, and of its late antique exegetical reception in the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) tradition. Drawing also on a contemporary performance of the Yasna that was filmed by MUYA in Mumbai in 2017, the book aims to convey a sense of the Avestan language in its role as a central element of continuity around which the Zoroastrian tradition has evolved from its prehistoric roots up to the modern era.

This book is a multi-faceted study of the Sros Dron, comprising chapters 3 to 8 of the Yasna ceremony, the core ritual of the Zoroastrian religion. It provides a critical edition produced with the electronic tools of the project The Multimedia Yasna, and a study of the performative aspects of the Sros Dron both through the lens of the ritual directions and in comparison with the Dron Yast ceremony. By analysing the Sros Dron both as a text attested in manuscripts and as a ritual performance, Celine Redard applies a new approach to unlock the meaning of these chapters of the Yasna.

Paths to the Divine: An Introduction to World Religions expertly combines original writing and engaging primary source texts to familiarize students with the basic tenets of a variety of world religions. Beyond presenting foundational knowledge on religious traditions, the volume demonstrates how belief systems can shape both an individual's and a society's culture, worldviews, and sense of belonging. The book features distinct emphasis on the religious traditions of Asia, presenting readers with information on beliefs and practices that may be unfamiliar or new to them, expanding their understanding and appreciation of others' traditions. The book begins by introducing students to the basics of religion, including key concepts and features of religion, representations of the divine, and the connection between nature and religion in early traditions. Additional chapters provide students with valuable insight and enlightening readings on Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Chinese religion, Shinto, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Throughout, key terms, contextual introductions, discussion questions, and suggestions for further reading are provided. Written to expand students' knowledge and understanding of global traditions, Paths of the Divine is an ideal text for introductory courses in humanities, theology, and world religions.