It draws very heavily on Qabalah and the rest of Jewish mythology. I'm tempted to spoiler it, but let's just say if you're familiar with Jewish mythology you will have a lot of kneeslapper moments as you read through Unsong.
Yes but the interesting thing is how much cultural currency the Biblical tales may have lost (in days gone by, it was a case of 'there's Christianity/Judaism, and then there's everything else').
I'll leave the sources up to other people, but the general idea is that the more dualistic parts of later Jewish theology might have originated with Zoroastrianism. Heaven, hell and the devil as God's antagonist supposedly weren't part of the story originally: the devil used to be an angel with a job description that placed him in opposition to humanity, but not God, and everyone went to Sheol after death.
IIRC yahwism came from the canaanite polytheism and while that god is very similar to zeus it is actually a different and unrelated tradition.
Similarly certain numbers and especially the flood theme recur across mythologies that are proven to be unconnected.
You can't take even very clear similarities and use them alone to draw connections between traditions like that. In fact the allure and inevitable failure of this approach was at one point enough of a cliche that the reader's awareness of it is assumed for a major plot point in the novel middlemarch, written 150 years ago.
The TV show "Supernatural" heavily features themes of spirituality and daemons that are lifted from Islamic culture. The recent remake of Clash of the Titans also feature similar themes; the Jin, desert scorpions, Jin riding camels, etc.
Oh hey, I was raised Mandaean. Neither of my parents spoke the language and were some of the first immigrants to America so I didn't really participate in the community much. A priest visited the area in my youth and I was baptized.
Later in life I came into possession of a translated copy of the Ginza Rba. It's a pretty cool holy book, lots of interesting symbolism and mystery. Light and darkness intermingle in interesting ways in these texts. Since most of the significance of these religious elements is taught priest-to-priest and through oral traditions I did not take part of, it's difficult to examine it more deeply.
Although I don't practice religion these days, on occasion I'll reflexively mutter a prayer under my breath. In a more secular light, being a Mandaean strongly informed my material circumstances due to geopolitics and I'm always struck by the weirdness of being part of a dwindling ethnic group swept up by the tides of history.
If i recall correctly zensunni in the book also used/read the orange-catholic bible.
Overall I think the topic of religion stays vague apart from Herbert making use of the trope of a Messiah and using syncretism as a symbol that major shifts happened in the human societies that brought opposing religions together.
most famous is flood story and creation myth which have big similarity with the bible. also Habiru/afiru people have been theorized to be ancient Hebrew. also big parallax between Baal and the bible god and many traditions that were common all over the ancient near east, as well as myths.
I'm not well versed in ancient Middle Eastern mythology, but what point are you trying to make? If these ideas were New Testament would it be more acceptable or less likely to occur or what?
A myth is an attempt to explain mysteries, supernatural events, and cultural traditions. Sometimes sacred in nature, a myth can involve gods or other supernatural creatures.
The fact that the same sources that assert the existence of figures such as Abraham and Ishmael also state that an angel talked to Ishmael's pregnant mother and that the Sakina (a spirit sent by God) or Gabriel guided father and son to the location of the Kaaba, etc. make this story mythical.
Reads like pantheism or similar, which AFAIK it’s fair to say is not considered orthodox by the overwhelming majority of Christian and Jewish religious philosophies or denominations.
Sorry, I'm not too much of a reader myself. I also am not constantly thinking in terms of flagging content as "Zoroastrian or not" so its hard to recall in this moment.
I'd say in terms of short stories read "The Last Question - Asimov" its very helpful to my understanding of Zoroastrianism.
I also struggle to suggest anything. Most of these things would be very much my interpretations of the art in too nuanced a way to evoke the same connections for others. e.g. I found the most recent Marvel's Eternals film to have a lot of Zoroastrian reflections within them (like around God's creation of and struggle against the Devil). In Eternals (spoiler alert) is it better to sacrifice the Earth to create a net-positive Reverse Entropy Machine or better to keep the Earth? It is a serious struggle to weigh those outcomes and try to know which outcome is "more Zoroastrian" and "aligned with God vs the Devil".
My dad actually wrote a book about "Zarathustra in a Space Age" (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1980264627). I hesitate to share, I haven't read this book - yet - I suppose I'm a not so great son. I also hesitate to share because as I understand it there are a lot of "hot takes" - my grandma who is more orthodox would disagree some of these ideas are Zoroastrian.
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