ENGLISH

Paradise and Paradigm: Key Symbols in Persian Christianity and the Baha'i Faith (Studies in the Babi and Baha'i Religions, V. 10)

By Christopher Buck

Book information

Publisher
State University of New York Press
Year
1999
ISBN
0791440621, 9780791440629
Open Library ID
OL21195608M
Language
english
Format
CHM
Filesize
571 kB (584226 bytes)
Pages
430\0
Topic
Education
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

In a novel approach that the author terms "symbolic paradigm analysis," Paradise and Paradigm offers a "theoretically modular" systematic comparison of two "Persian" religions: early Syriac Christianity as the foundation of the East Syrian "Church of the East" (the Nestorian Church of Persia) and the Baha'i Faith, a new world religion.The author compares the hymns of the greatest poet of early Christianity, Saint Ephrem the Syrian, and the richly imagistic writings of the founder of the Baha'i religion, Baha'u'llah.The book employs an original analytic technique in the creation of "symbolic profiles" constructed on Ninian Smart's dimensional model of religion.As Buck skillfully demonstrates, formal similarities between any two religions are best comprehended in terms of paradigmatic differences, which nuance all parallels through a process of symbolic transformation.Buck also shows the communal reflexivity of paradise imagery in representing the ideal faith-community in both traditions.

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