Neither Zarathushtra nor Pope: Zoroastrianism as a Front for the Anglican Church’s Attacks on Catholicism

This paper scrutinizes how three seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century authors associated with the Anglican Church - Henry Lord, Thomas Hyde, and Humphrey Prideaux - inserted their understanding of the teachings of Zoroaster and the religion of the Parsis into the argumentative arsenal they regu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Entangled Religions
Main Author: Cucu, Ionuț-Valentin (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Ruhr-Universität Bochum 2023
In: Entangled Religions
Year: 2023, Volume: 11, Issue: 4
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Lord, Henry ca. 1563-? / Hyde, Thomas 1636-1703 / Prideaux, Humphrey 1648-1724 / Church of England / Zoroastrianism / Anti-catholicism / Polemics / History 1630-1730
IxTheo Classification:AX Inter-religious relations
BC Ancient Orient; religion
CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations
KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history
KBF British Isles
KBM Asia
KDB Roman Catholic Church
KDE Anglican Church
Further subjects:B Anglican Authors
B Colonialism
B Zoroastrianism
B Anti-Catholic Polemics
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Summary:This paper scrutinizes how three seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century authors associated with the Anglican Church - Henry Lord, Thomas Hyde, and Humphrey Prideaux - inserted their understanding of the teachings of Zoroaster and the religion of the Parsis into the argumentative arsenal they regularly employed against what they perceived as the rigidity, excessive ritualization, and incomprehensible language found in contemporary Roman Catholic practices. These authors are tied to and reflect the consolidation of the Anglican Church and British colonial expansion. The two processes not only overlapped for a considerable period, but were also entangled, indirectly leading to an increase in scholarly knowledge about different cultures and religious communities, while in the long term also providing discursive ammunition against the Catholic Church and the Pope. This enquiry seeks to contribute towards a better understanding of an often-neglected middle ground between inter- and intra-religious debates, on one hand, and missionary activity, on the other.
ISSN:2363-6696
Contains:Enthalten in: Entangled Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.46586/er.11.2023.10810