Editing Zoroastrianism (section)

== Theology ==
{{See also|Criticism of Zoroastrianism|Religious influences on Zoroastrianism}}
The theological category of Zoroastrianism is hard to define. The reasons are the difficulties in assigning precise dates to the principal texts and the fact that many contain much older material. Furthermore, Zoroastrianism shaped only slowly over time and was not complete even by the time of the [[Muslim conquest of Persia]]. Polytheistic, monotheistic, and dualistic strands can be identified in the wider Zoroastrian tradition, with dualism being the dominant tendency. The major difference to [[Manichaeism]] lies in the insistence of good in the creation account.<ref>Berkey, Jonathan P. The formation of Islam: Religion and society in the Near East, 600–1800. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, 2003. p. 27</ref>

Some scholars believe Zoroastrianism started as an Indo-Iranian polytheistic religion: according to Yujin Nagasawa, {{qi|like the rest of the Zoroastrian texts, the Old [[Avesta]] does not teach monotheism}}.<ref>{{Citation |last=Nagasawa |first=Yujin |title=Panpsychism Versus Pantheism, Polytheism, and Cosmopsychism |date=10 December 2019 |work=The Routledge Handbook of Panpsychism |pages=259–268 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781315717708-22 |isbn=978-1-315-71770-8}}</ref> By contrast, Md. Sayem characterizes Zoroastrianism as being one of the oldest monotheistic religions in the world.<ref name="auto">{{Cite journal |last=Sayem |first=Md. Abu |year=2011 |title=A Brief Historical Survey Of The Monotheistic Concept In Religious Belief |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=33–44 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/216576996 |journal=International Journal of History and Research |via=ResearchGate}}</ref>

Zoroastrians treat [[Ahura Mazda]] as the supreme god, but believe in lesser divinities known as [[Yazata|yazatas]] ("beings worthy of worship"), who share some similarities with the [[angels]] in Abrahamic religions.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1007/s41412-021-00113-4 | title=From Polytheism to Monotheism: Zoroaster and Some Economic Theory | date=2021 | last1=Ferrero | first1=Mario | journal=Homo Oeconomicus | volume=38 | issue=1–4 | pages=77–108 | doi-access=free }}</ref> These yazatas include [[Anahita]], [[Sraosha]], [[Mithra]], [[Rashnu]], and [[Tishtrya]]. Historian [[Richard Foltz]] has put forth evidence that [[History of Iran|Iranians of the pre-Islamic era]] worshipped all these figures; especially the gods [[Mithra]] and [[Anahita]].{{sfn|Foltz|2013|p=xiv}} 

[[Prods Oktor Skjærvø]] states Zoroastrianism is henotheistic, and {{qi|a dualistic and polytheistic religion, but with one supreme god, who is the father of the ordered cosmos}}.{{sfn|Skjærvø|2005|p=15 with footnote 1}} Brian Arthur Brown states that this is unclear, because historic texts present a conflicting picture, ranging from Zoroastrianism's belief in {{qi|one god, two gods, or a best god henotheism}}.<ref>{{cite book|author=Brian Arthur Brown|title=Four Testaments: Tao Te Ching, Analects, Dhammapada, Bhagavad Gita: Sacred Scriptures of Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_MsvDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA347|year=2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-1-4422-6578-3|pages=347–349}}</ref> Economist Mario Ferrero suggests that Zoroastrianism transitioned from polytheism to monotheism due to political and economic pressures.<ref name="Ferrero-2021">{{cite journal |last1=Ferrero |first1=Mario |date=2021 |title=From Polytheism to Monotheism: Zoroaster and Some Economic Theory |journal=Homo Oeconomicus |volume=38 |issue=1–4 |pages=77–108 |doi=10.1007/s41412-021-00113-4 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

In the 19th century, through contact with Western academics and missionaries, Zoroastrianism experienced a massive theological change that still affects it today. The [[John Wilson (Scottish missionary)|Rev. John Wilson]] led various missionary campaigns in India against the Parsi community, disparaging the Parsis for their "[[Dualistic cosmology|dualism]]" and "polytheism" and as having unnecessary rituals while declaring the Avesta to not be "divinely inspired". This caused mass dismay in the relatively uneducated Parsi community, which blamed its priests and led to some conversions towards [[Christianity]].{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

The arrival of the German orientalist and philologist [[Martin Haug]] led to a rallied defense of the faith through Haug's reinterpretation of the Avesta through Christianized and European orientalist lens. Haug postulated that Zoroastrianism was solely monotheistic with all other divinities reduced to the status of angels while Ahura Mazda became both omnipotent and the source of evil as well as good. Haug's thinking was subsequently disseminated as a Parsi interpretation, thus corroborating Haug's theory, and the idea became so popular that it is now almost universally accepted as doctrine (though being re-evaluated in modern Zoroastrianism and academia).<ref name="Hinnells-2007" /> It has been argued by Almut Hintze that this designation of monotheism is not wholly perfect and that Zoroastrianism instead has its "own form of monotheism" which combines elements of dualism and polytheism.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=HINTZE|first=ALMUT|year=2014|title=Monotheism the Zoroastrian Way|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43307294|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|volume=24|issue=2|pages=225–49|jstor=43307294|issn=1356-1863|access-date=5 April 2021|archive-date=22 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422024327/https://www.jstor.org/stable/43307294|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Farhang Mehr]] asserts that Zoroastrianism is principally monotheistic with some dualistic elements.<ref>{{cite book|author=Mehr|first=Farhang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g53XAAAAMAAJ|title=The Zoroastrian Tradition: An Introduction to the Ancient Wisdom of Zarathushtra|publisher=Mazda Publishers|year=2003|isbn=978-1-56859-110-0|page=44|access-date=7 April 2021|archive-date=31 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240331132945/https://books.google.com/books?id=g53XAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

Lenorant and Chevallier assert that Zoroastrianism's concept of divinity covers both being and mind as [[immanent]] entities, describing Zoroastrianism as having a belief in an immanent self-creating universe with consciousness as its special attribute, thereby putting Zoroastrianism in the [[pantheistic]] fold sharing its origin with [[Hinduism in India|Indian Hinduism]].<ref>François Lenormant and E. Chevallier [https://books.google.com/books?id=l0NtAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA38 ''The Student's Manual of Oriental History: Medes and Persians, Phœnicians, and Arabians''], p. 38</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mwIkZaZvItAC&pg=PA81|title=General Sketch of the History of Pantheism|author=Constance E. Plumptre|page=81|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press |access-date=14 June 2017|isbn=9781108028011}}</ref>