Les polémiques syro-orientales contre le zoroastrisme et leurs contextes politiquesÉtudes syriaques 13Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/HRIFNQET/tei
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.Richard E.PayneLes polémiques syro-orientales contre le zoroastrisme et leurs contextes politiqueshttp://syriaca.org/cbss/HRIFNQEThttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/HRIFNQEThttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/HRIFNQETFlaviaRuaniLes controverses religieuses en syriaqueParisPaul Geuthner2016239-260Études syriaques 13The paper provides an account of the evolution of East Syrian polemics against Zoroastrianism from their fitful origins in late fourth- and early fifth-century hagiography to the more complex works of the late Sasanian era. It argues that the chronological correspondence between the beginning of polemical production and the institutionalization of the Church of the East in the Iranian Empire is not accidental. The shift away from Judaism to Zoroastrianism as the primary polemical concern of ecclesiastical leaders took place just as they were becoming dependent on a Zoroastrian court for patronage. With the rise of the Church of the East, East Syrian secular elites and ecclesiastical leaders could participate in the institutions of a Zoroastrian Empire qua Christians, and polemical texts aimed to define relations between Christians and Zoroastrians in the overarching political context of increasing interreligious collaboration. The early East Syrian representation of Zoroastrianism as a peculiarly Iranian form of Greco-Roman polytheism gave way, by circa 500, to more nuanced accounts of Zoroastrian ritual and cosmology—notably in the Martyrdom of Pethion, Adurohrmazd, and Anahid and the History of Mar Qardagh—that outlined political space, practices, and identities that Christians and Zoroastrians could share. At the same time, the catholicos-patriarch Mar Aba attacked Christians for adopting Zoroastrian practices necessary for the political participation of would-be aristocrats and, in so doing, distinguished ascetic ecclesiastical leaders from secular elites through their wholesale rejection of the Good Religion. Polemics emerge from this paper as instruments for the creation of the boundaries required for workable cooperation between Christians and Zoroastrians, and their development provides an index of Christian assimilation and acculturation from the fourth throuh early seventh centuries.
Payne, Richard E. “Les Polémiques Syro-Orientales Contre Le Zoroastrisme et Leurs Contextes Politiques.” In Les Controverses Religieuses En Syriaque, edited by Flavia Ruani, 239–60. Études Syriaques 13. Paris: Paul Geuthner, 2016.
Richard E. Payne, Les Polémiques Syro-Orientales Contre Le Zoroastrisme et Leurs Contextes Politiques, in Les Controverses Religieuses En Syriaque, ed. Flavia Ruani, Études Syriaques 13 (Paris: Paul Geuthner, 2016), 239–60.IV-VII CEIranNestoriansPersian martyrsSassaniansZoroastrianismhagiographyidentitypolemicpolitics