ISSN 1018-9556=Ekklesiastikos Pharos 93 (2011) N.S.

22

TRACING THE WAY : ZOROASTRIAN DUALISM AND

THE QUESTION OF A MORAL-ONTOLOGICAL CHOICE
FOR ETERNITY

Răzvan Tatu

University of South Africa

Abstract

One of the most interesting and still actual problems in the field of
comparative religion is the nature of Persian dualism and its implication in
the Zoroastrian concept of end, viewed finally as a tradition of monotheistic
tendency. In this article, we present the essence of Zoroastrian dualism,
emphasising the fact the very idea of end depends upon this doctrine.
Speaking from a technical point of view, comprehending the doctrine of
dualism in Zoroastrianism, that is a moral-ontological dualism, we relevate
its manifestation in the choice of the two spirits (entities), Ahura Mazda and
Angra Mainyu, and the human choice in life, which generates cosmic
consequences.
Keywords: dualism, end, choice, destiny, history, monotheism

The general history of religions and ideas shows that, while Christianity, Judaism and
Islam are guided by the idea of a single God, Zoroastrianism (or Mazdaism, from
Ahura Mazda, the supreme divinity in the Zoroastrian pantheon)1, while initially
manifesting a monotheistic tendency, comes finally to be regarded as more probably
an antithetical dualism2, in that it professes the existence of two primeval spirits,

1 F. B. J. Kuiper, Avestan Mazdā, in ‘Indo-Iranian Journal’, Vol.1, No.1, 1957, pp. 86-95. Here we would like to
express our deep gratitude to Professor Emeritus Mac Linscott Ricketts, former Professor of History of
Religions at Duke University and Louisburg College, North Carolina, who was so kind to revise our text and
give suggestions. We are indebted also to the Honorable Prof H. C. Steyn (University of South Africa,
Department of Religious Studies and Arabic) and to the Honorable Dr Thekla Sansaridou-Hendrickx
(University of Johannesburg, Institute for Afro-Hellenic Studies) for their support in publishing this article. Last,
but not least, we are indebted also to our Magister, Prof. Dr. Doc. Remus Rus from the University of
Bucharest, for the permission to publish the present text.
2 Dr. Phiroze Vasunia, Zarathushtra and the Religion of Ancient Iran: The Greek and Latin Sources in
Translation, The K.R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai, 2007, 444 pages (for the question of Zoroastrian

54
Ahura Mazda (the supreme, good principle) and Angra Mainyu (the evil principle),
who will confront each other at the end of times, reiterating the story from illo
tempore, related in the Bundahishn. Each of them is eternal and posseses creative
power, but Angra Mainyu’s power is limited and his domination noneternal. Evil is not
eternal a posteriori, but is eternal a priori. With both of them, we find connected
certain powers or beings, which play the role of instruments for their work, a fact that
gives also a certain henotheistic color to the Zoroastrian theology. Ahura Mazda is
assisted by the six holy immortals, Amesha Spenta, embodiments or prsonifications of
the highest ideas or virtues : goodness, purity, absolute sovereignity, wisdom,
wholeness and immortality ; and, together with these, Fire (Atar), servant or son of
Ahura Mazda. Angra Mainyu’s servants are the daevas (demons), drujas (the
deceptive ones) and paraikas (the seductive ones). History of the world is the history
of the antagonism between these two forces.
However, in the Gathas hymns, attributed, according to tradition, to
Zarathushtra, we can decipher a monotheistic tendency rather than a true dualism,
especially if Ahura Mazda’s enemy, Angra Mainyu, not be considered a divinity, since
the final victory belongs to Mazda. But, as Professor Ugo Bianchi, the famous Italian
historian of religions, used to remark, especially in the Avesta we find developed a
radical dualism :
“(...) Ahura Mazda (poi Ohrmazd) e lo Spirito distruttore, Angra Manyu, poi
Ahriman, vengono direttamente affrontati e contrapposti: il che si verifica
pienamente con la teologia attestata dai trattati zoroastriani medievali (che
riprendono e sviluppano posizioni anche dei trattati avestici perduti). Con
questa, la contrapposizione simmetrica dei due ragiunge il suo culmine; come si
esprime uno di questi trattati, il Bundahishn, Ohrmazd è fin dall’inizio, in alto,
pienno di onniscienza, nella luce; Ahriman, con caratteristiche contrarie, in
basso, nelle tenebre”3.

But this dualism is not an anticosmical one, like in Manichaeism or the gnostic
systems of ideas, but pro-cosmic, since the whole creation is desired to be saved by
Ahura Mazda.

dualism, v. p. 137-140); R. C. Zaehner, The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism, Weidenfeld and Nicolson,
London, 1975, p. 50; Mircea Eliade, Ioan Petru Culianu, Dictionary of Religions, tr. by Cezar Baltag, 2nd
Edition, Ed. Humanitas, Bucharest, 1996, p. 118; cf. J. Duchesne-Guillemin, The Religion of Ancient Iran, in
Historia Religionum: Handbook for the History of Religions, ed. by C. Jouco Bleeker and Geo Widengren, vol.
I: Religions of the Past, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1969, pp. 323-324; H.-P. Hasenfratz, Iran und der Dualismus, in
‚Numen’, Vol. 30, No.1, 1983, p. 39; Yuri Stoyanov, The Other God: Dualist Religions from Antiquity to the
Cathar Heresy, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2000, pp. 3-4.
3 Ugo Bianchi, Il bene e il male nelle religioni, p. 19; cf. S. G. F. Brandon, Creation Legends of the Ancient Near
East, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1963, p. 206; U. Bianchi, Zamān i Ōhrmazd: Lo zoroastrismo nelle sue
origini e nella sua essenza, Società Editrice Internazionale, Torino, 1958, p. 59; Idem, Il dualismo religioso:
saggio storico ed etnologico, Edizioni dell’Ateneo, Roma, 1983, p. 27; Idem, Prometeo, Orfeo, Adamo:
Tematiche religiose sul destino, il male, la salvezza, Ed. dell’Ateneo, Roma, 1991, pp. 95-102; Idem, Il bene e
il male nelle religioni, in „Dispense di storia delle religioni I”: La soteriologia del cristianesimo. Ricerche
storico-comparative, Anno accademico 1991-1992, Università degli Studi di Roma „La Sapienza”, Edizioni
Nuova Cultura, Roma, 1992, pp. 16-21; see also Edwin M. Yamauchi, Religions of the Biblical World: Persia,
in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. G. W. Bromiley et al., Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1988,
vol. IV, p. 125.

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 Still the publication, between 1988 and 1991, of the three volumes of Les textes
vieil-avéstiques, by Jean Kellens and Eric Pirart, signified an almost fatal challenge for
the traditional perception of the main character of the Zoroastrian faith. Not only
Zarathushtra’s importance as a founder or religious reformer were minimized, but even
certain results of the previous research done on the texts of the Gathas were to be
rejected. Essentially speaking, Kellens and Pirart consider that these texts cannot be
attributed to Zarathushtra and one can’t speak about a cosmical-ethical dualism
between good and evil in these texts4. The famous Gathic passage, Yasna 30.35, which
the majority of researchers have considered a strong argument in support of the idea of
the two spirits opposed on a cosmic, metaphysical level, is interpreted by the two
Belgian professors as referring to two mental states, during the sacrificial ritual—those
who choose between them being classified in two groups, according to their desire to
bring ofrande to the divinity:
“(Je vais dire aussi) les deux états d’esprit fondamentaux qui sont connus pour
être des songes jumeaux lors de la pensée et de la parole. Lors de l’acte
(rituel), ce sont le meilleur (acte) et le mauvais (acte). Entre ces deux (états
d’esprit), les généreux distinguent bien, non les avares”6.

4
Most of the historians of religions admit that, historically speaking, dualism appears in the Zoroastrian system,
though even in the preliterate beliefs there can be a certain form of dualism detected. For example, here what
Gerardus Van der Leeuw considers: ‘Die historische Gestalt des Dualismus aber zeigt sich in der persischer
Religion des Zarathustra. Hier hat die Schau eines großen Stifters und Reformators aus dem Naturdualismus,
einen solchen des Handelns gemacht: das ganze Leben der Welt wie der Menschen ist ein unausgesetzter
Kampf’, see Phänomenologie der Religion, Mohr – Siebeck, Tübingen, 1970, p.682; cf. Jamsheed K. Choksy,
Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism. Triumph over Evil, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1989, pp. .2-5. A
close opinion is shared also by R. C. Zaehner in his The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism, p.42; Michael
Stausberg, Faszination Zarathustra. Zoroaster und die Europäische Religionsgeschichte der Frühen Neuzeit,
in Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten, herausgegeben von Fritz Graf, Hans G. Kippenberg &
Lawrence E. Sullivan, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin-NY, Band 42, Teil 2, pp. 616-618.
5 But this passage, however, can be properly understood if we follow the next two ones. Here we give Irach J.
S. Taraporewala’s translation from The Divine Songs of Zarathustra, D. B. Taraporevala Sons & Co., Ltd,
Bombay, 1951, pp. 136-144: ‘Now, in the beginning (were) these two Spirits, who (-two) had revealed
themselves (as) Twin, well-working; in (their) thoughts and in (their) words also in (their) deeds these two
(show themselves as) Good (and) Bad; and of these two the Wise rightly do choose, but not so the
Unwise./And now when these Two Spirits together did foregather, they created first of all Life and Not-Life;
and thus Creation’s purpose shall be (fulfilled), the worst for the followers of Untruth, but for the followers of
Truth the Best (state of) Mind./Of these Two Spirits did choose he, the False One, doing the worst (deeds),
(but) the Holiest Spirit (chose) Truth; whoso would clothe himself in Light Imperishable, and whoso would
please Ahura, through deeds of Truth let him choose Mazdā’.
6 Yasna 30, 3, in J. Kellens & E. Pirart, Les textes vieil-avéstiques, vol. 1: Introduction, texte et traduction, Dr.
Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1988, p. 110; for the philological study of this cardinal passage, see also
Ilya Gershevitch, Approaches to Zoroaster’s Gathas, in ‘IRAN’ (ed. by the British Institute of Persian Studies),
Vol. 33, 1995, pp. 15-17. Prof. Kellens goes finally to suggest the idea of a henoteism, see his discussion in
Characters of Ancient Mazdaism, in Essays on Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism, tr. and ed. by Prods Oktor
Skjærvø, (Bibliotheca Iranica, Zoroastrian Studies Series, No. 1, P. O. Skjærvø, General Editor), Mazda
Publishers, 2000, pp. 15-24; this fact is confirmed by E. Pirart as well, the henotheistic character of
mazdayasna at least during its first period of development: „L’univers divine gâthique est riche et bien articulé.
La prééminence d’Ahura Mazdā ne peut être niée, mais elle ne doit pas non plus masquer le fait qu’il y a, en
dessous de lui, un véritable panthéon”; J. Kellens & E. Pirart, Les textes vieil-avéstiques, vol. 1, p. 31.

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Parenthetically, the term dualism was coined by the English orientalist Thomas Hyde,
in 1700, to characterize the doctrine of the two spirits found in the religious thought of
the Magi (associated with a heretical branch within Zoroastrianism, called dualistae):
‘Haeretici autem fuere tam alii qui in processu hujus Operis enumerantur,
quam Magi dualistae (ut vocantur,) statuentes haec duo Principia fuisse
coaeterna (...)’7; (...)nam alias Dualistae Diaboli coaeternitatem afferunt. Sunt
enim ex Indo-Persis & Dualistis Manichaeis aliisque Haereticis (ut quidam
sunt in omni Religione,) qui opinantur Diabolum a seipso processisse, ut
loquuntur, i.e. aeternum fuisse, & malos Angelos sibi creasse...’8.

Here we have the very idea of a counter-creation by Angra Mainyu, from whom all the
demons proceed. However, the motif of a counter-creation by an antagonistic entity
which always tries to challenge the divinity’s will or that of its creatures is universally
present, from the nonliterate beliefs and cultures to the great monotheistic systems,
embodied under the classical form of the trickster, who becomes a real anti-theos.
Nevertheless, Zoroastrianism is no less optimistic than the other monotheistic
traditions, postulating the temporary character of hell and its torments (the doctrine of
frašokereti9 or the final rehabilitation of all existences, which has at its very basis the
meaning of a renovation perceived essentially as a reconstruction, the final goal of this
existence), a conception which might have influenced the famous Christian writer
Origen, whose idea of apokatastasis10 was condemned by the Ecumenical Council of
Constantinople (553). The monotheistic and universalistic vision about divinity is of
radical importance, as can be seen from a comparison of Judaism, Christianity and
Zoroastrianism. All these three religious systems conceive history as a movement
towards the future, but the clear dualism between the two spirits Ahura Mazda and
Angra Mainyu11, though it shall be sorted out in the eschaton, through the definitive
victory of the former, constitutes the main difference in understanding the Iranian
vision about the End.
7
T. Hyde, Historia religionis veterum Persarum, eorumque Magorum, Oxford, 1700 (a more recent translation
Tehran, 1976), p. 26.
8
Ibidem, p. 164.
9
Gherardo Gnoli, Considerazioni sulla religione degli Achemenidi alla luce di una recente teoria, in ‘Studi e
Materiali di Storia delle Religioni’, Anno 1964, Vol.35 (fasc.1-2), ed. Dell’Ateneo, Roma, p. 241; the Avestan
fraša is an adjective which means, as the Achaemenid inscriptions show, ‚excellent’; hence the significance of
‚making better’ or ‚making excellent’, like in illo tempore, making a better world, but the role of the human
person is determinant in this regard.
10 Concerning this concept and its influence in the history of the Christian religio-philosophic thought, see
Edward Moore, Origen of Alexandria and St. Maximus the Confessor: An Analysis and Critical Evaluation of
Their Eschatological Doctrines, PhD Thesis, St. Elias School of Orthodox Theology, Seward, 2004, pp. 62-70.
Here we would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Moore, for granting us access to his thesis.
11 Bruce Lincoln, Religion, Empire and Torture: The Case of Achaemenian Persia, The University of Chicago
Press, Chicago, 2007, p. 58; Ezio Albrile, La gnosi iranica ovvero la collisione dei mondi, in „Laurentianum”,
45 (2004), Fasc.1-2, p. 5; Ugo Bianchi, La doctrine zarathustrienne des deux esprits, in Selected Essays on
Gnosticism, Dualism and Mysteriosophy, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1978, p. 368-369; Maria Vittoria Cerutti,
„Dualismo” apocalittico e dualismo gnostico, in Apocalittica e gnosticismo, Atti del Colloquio Internazionale
Roma, 18-19 giugno 1993, a cura di M. V. Cerutti, Gruppo Editoriale Internazionale, Roma, s.a.; Frederic
Spiegelberg, Living Religions of the World, Thames and Hudson, London, 1957, pp. 392-393; Norman Cohn,
Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come, 2nd Edition, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2001, p.
83.

57
 The Christian and Jewish belief in historical progress is due in great part to the
understanding of history as Heilsgeschichte. Ancient Jews and the first Christians
understood time as merging in a straight line, having a beginning and an end, this in
conspicuous contrast with many other ancient people’s Weltanschaaungen, which
consisted of an endless cyclical return. To the Jews and Christians, history meant a
phenomenon deeply connected with the great problem of life and destiny, manifesting
itself as past, present and future. Usually, time was divided into a present era and a
future one, the central point being the coming of the Messiah, the Deliverer, about
which the Old Testament speaks. The God of Israel is not one of the past, but of the
future, a thing that takes contour in the concept of the Covenant from the Old
Testament and later pointed out by the apocalyptic periodization of history in the
intertestamental epoch.
Apart from Judeo-Christianity, the very idea of history seems to be clearly
expressed for the first time in the Near East with Zoroastrianism. In the Zoroastrian
conception, the history of the world has four periods of 3000 years each, altogether
giving 12 00012. In the beginning, Ahura Mazda created his spiritual world, and his
creatures had, for three thousand years, immaterial bodies. The period of the material
creation follows the former for another three thousand years, being the period of
human history, prior to the revelation of true religion. Man still waits, at this stage, the
time when the continuous war between good and evil will intensify. Now, we see
Angra Mainyu’s interference into the material creation, his actions being the origin of
evil and sin, by this generating a time or state of mixture (gumēzagīh). This is how
Zoroastrianism solves one of the most serious questions in the spiritual history of
humanity. The dualist character of this religion is reflected in the importance given to
the dichotomy between the material, visible, dimension of the world and its non-
material, invisible or mental one, expressed in the Pehlevi language by the terms
getig/getik şi menog/menok13. It is very likely that this cosmic dualism was reflected
also in the conception of the two souls possessed by the human being, an idea probably

12 Philip G. Kreyenbroek, Millennialism and Eschatology in the Zoroastrian Tradition, in Imagining the End:
Visions of Apocalypse from the Ancient Middle East to Modern America, ed. by Abbas Amanat and Magnus
Bernhardsson, I. B. Tauris Publishers, London/New York, 2002, pp. 37-39; R. C. Zaehner, Zurvan: A
Zoroastrian Dilemma, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1955, p.99; Louis H. Gray, Cosmogony and Cosmology
(Iranian), in The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. by James Hastings, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark/New
York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1912, vol. 6, p. 161.
13
Shaul Shaked, The Notions menog and getig in the Pahlavi Texts and Their Relation to Eschatology, in “Acta
Orientalia”, XXXIII, 1971, p.61; M. Eliade, I. P. Culianu, op.cit., p. 240; Gherardo Gnoli, Problems and
Prospects of the Studies on Persian Religion, in „Studies in the History of Religions (Supplements to
NUMEN)”, XIX, Problems and Methods of the History of Religions, Proceedings of the Study Conference
organized by the Italian Society for the History of Religions on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the
death of Raffaele Pettazzoni, Rome, 6th to 8th December 1969, Papers and Discussions, ed. by U. Bianchi,
C. J. Bleeker & A. Bausani, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1972, p. 77; Henry Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth.
From Mazdean Iran to Shi’ite Iran, 2nd Edition, tr. by Nancy Pearson, Princeton University Press, Princeton,
1989, p. 10; Giovanni Casadio, Avventure del dualismo sulla via della seta, in „Atti dei Convegni Lincei” 127,
Convegno internazionale sul tema: La Persia e l’Asia Centrale da Alessandro al X Secolo, in collaborazione
con l’Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (Roma, 9-12 novembre 1994), Accademia Nazionale dei
Lincei, Roma, 1996, p. 665; Ugo Bianchi, La soteriologia del cristianesimo. Ricerche storico-comparative,
Anno Accademico 1991-1992, Università degli Studi di Roma „La Sapienza”, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 1992,
pp. 19-20.

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of Iranian origin14. Thus, as a matter of fact, human soul appears ‚divided’, from a
moral point of view, but not a substantial one, in two parts/dimensions, seen as
inclinations, governed by two impulses, one oriented to the good and the other
oriented to the evil, an idea which penetrated the ancient Greek thought as well (for
example, Plato, Orphism, the future forms of gnosis).
In Zarathushtra’s view, the history of universe is conceived as a drama. Ahura
Mazda, being from the beginning considered as a perfection of goodness, then evil
must have come from a source either dependant on him (Ahura Mazda being the
creator of all things) and independent, Ahura Mazda being good on the absolute level.
Here we find the very ontological choice question, technically central to
mazdayasna15, that Angra Mainyu is evil because of a bad choice as the main answer.
The drama divided into three periods, and especially the future era concept when
human beings shall possess pure bodies during the resurrection state, had a great
influence in the history of religious ideas, one being able to identify it in Judaism,
Christianity and Islam as well. At the end of times, a renewal of existence will take
place, the Lie shall be removed forever, and the hostile spirit annihilated. People will
enjoy immortality and full freedom, such ideas following to be developed in time.
The belief in the things beyond this earthly, empirical, life is attested in the
Zoroastrian writings from the first ones, the Gathas. It is testified by all adherents even
until nowadays in a repentance prayer called Patet Erani (a kind of confession of
faith):
“I am wholly without doubt in the existence of the good Mazdayasnian faith, in
the coming of the resurrection and the later body, in the stepping over the bridge
Chinvat, in an invariable recompense of good deeds and their reward, and of bad
deeds and their punishment, as well as in the continuance of Paradise, in the
annihilation of Hell and Ahriman and the Daêvas, that [God] Ahura-Mazda will
at last be victorious and Ahriman will perish together with the Daêvas and the
off-shoots of darkness. (…) All that I ought to have thought and have not thought,
all that I ought to have said and have not said, all that I ought to have done and
have not done, all that I ought to have ordered and have not ordered, all that I
ought not to have thought and yet have thought, all that I ought not to have
spoken and yet have spoken, all that I ought not to have done and yet have done,
all that I ought not to have ordered and yet have ordered; for thoughts, words,
and works, bodily and spiritual, earthy and heavenly, pray I for forgiveness, and
repent of it with Patet’’16.

14
S. Shaked, Dualism in Transformation: Varieties of Religion in Sasanian Iran, School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London, London, 1994, p. 58; Cf. Guy Stroumsa & Paula Fredriksen, The Two Souls
and the Divided Will, in Self, Soul, and Body in Religious Experience, ed. by A. I. Baumgarten, J. Assmann
and G. G. Stroumsa, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1998, p. 200.
15
The faith of Mazda (Ahura Mazda), as is generically called Zoroastrianism in the religious texts, cf. E.
Benveniste, Le term iranien ‚mazdayasna’, in ‚Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies’, Vol. 33,
No.1, 1970, pp. 5-9; Remus Rus, Sensul şi semnificaţia termenului „religie” în marile tradiţii religioase actuale,
in „Glasul Bisericii”, 10-12/1985, p. 692.
16 E. Washburn Hopkins, The History of Religions, Macmillan, New York, 1918, pp. 391-392; vide, in extenso, R.
C. Zaehner, The Teachings of the Magi. A Compendium of Zoroastrian Beliefs, George Allen and Unwin Ltd,
London, 1956, pp.20-28; Mircea Eliade, From Primitives to Zen. A Thematic Sourcebook of the History of
Religions, Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1977, pp. 359-363; pp. 393-396.

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This belief developed, becoming a central one in later Zoroastrianism, so that it gives color to
all aspects of the religious life.
Regarding the theory of an apparent influence of the Zoroastrian system of thought on
the other monotheistic traditions, we think that one should speak rather about independent
developments of ideas than about influences. We speak of phenomenological
correspondences or similarities here, without falling into iranizing or judaizing extremes. If
we take, for example, the shamanic phenomenon, we can observe that it developed
synchronically in totally different areas, as Southern Asia or South America; the same thing
could have happened with the idea of end, afterlife, heaven and hell, Himmelsreise der
Seele17, final salvation, the Savior. However, it is sure that Zoroastrianism exerted a profound
impact over Manichaeism18.
As we mentioned earlier, according to some historians, it was in Zoroastrian writings
that the idea of history as a lineary process seems to have occured for the first time in the Near
East19. The very idea of end is strictly dependent on the dualist character of this religious
system, because the central teaching of Zarathushtra, who is said to have lived in Eastern Iran,
around 5th century b.Ch.20, speaks about Ahura Mazda, creator of heaven and earth, and his
faith (mazdayasna) excluded the adoration of other ancient Iranian deities. In spite of its quite
strict moral and ontological dualism which generates the cosmic choice with deep
implications in the destiny of the world and man, there still can be discerned the monotheistic
tendency, which brings this religion closer to Jahvistic monotheism. Nevertheless,
Zarathushtra emphasized the unsolvable opposition between almighty Mazda and his rival
Angra Mainyu, pure manifestation of evil. Once these spiritual entities (it is just Ahura Mazda
who is considered deity, as the sacred texts seem to suggest) made a moral choice ab initio,
they separated themselves and, consequently, the world confronts herself with a separation
between the sphere of light and the sphere of darkness. The incompatibility of the two entities
(beings) means, to Zarathushtra, the very foundation of his moral conceptions, which remain
valid mostly at a social level, the final goal of religious perfection (becoming) extending itself
into the eschaton. Finally, the case of the Zoroastrian phenomenon still remains quite
paradoxical, since it manifests a protological dualism which, by the dynamics of history and
the work of man, who plays a radical role in the struggle between Ahura Mazda and Angra
Mainyu, culminates in an eschatological monotheism, as we can see from the fact that Ahura
Mazda shall win at last his way through to the total domination.

17
Ascension of the soul through the celestial spheres (Ger.). See, e.g., Carsten Colpe, Die ‘Himmelsreise der
Seele’ als philosophie- und religionsgeschichtliches Problem, in Iranier-Aramäer-Hebräer-Hellenen. Iranische
Religionen und ihre Westbeziehungen. Einzelstudien und Versuch einer Zusammenschau, Mohr Siebeck,
Tübingen, 2003, p.109.
18
A system of beliefs which professed a dualist cosmology, stating that the history of the world means a war
between Light and Darkness, the entire physical creation was evil in its nature, a work of Evil, apart from
spiritual elements (particles of light) which were trapped in it. Manichaean dualism is an anti-cosmic one. In
Zoroastrianism, the material world is the handwork of God and is good.
19 Christopher C. Hong, Eschatology of the World Religions., University of America Press, Washington, 1976, p.
28.
20 Alessandro Bausani, Pre-Islamic Iranian Thought, in A History of Muslim Philosophy, ed. and introduced by M.
M. Sharif, vol.1, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1963, p.57; S. Shaked, Zoroastrian Origins: Indian and
Iranian Connections, in Axial Civilizations and World History, ed. by Johann P. Arnason, S. N. Eisenstadt, and
Björn Wittrock, Brill, Leiden, p.185-186.

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