Paradise and Paradigm : Key Symbols in Persian Christianity and the Bahá'í Faith

Symbols enshrine ideas. Sacred symbols present an explorable treasury of religious thought--an information-rich, condensed language of spirituality. "We can see that an essential ingredient of the modern study of religion," writes Ninian Smart, "is symbolic analysis, which tries to throw light on the various themes which an be discovered cross-culturally through the exploration of various worldviews." An experiment in comparative method, reflecting the author's research interests in "Persian" religious from Zarathustra to Baha'ullah, this study compares "key symbols" in early Syriac Christianity and the Baha'i Faith. Historically, as the "Church of Persia" in Sasanian Iran, the East Syrian (Nestorian) "Church of the East" was the pre-Islamic antecendent to the Baha'i religion. During preliminary research, this finding fell into focus: In both traditions, many dominant symbols related to notions of Paradise. Why? Because Paradise allegorizes ideals. Visions of Paradise are the stained-glass windows of worldviews, encompassing most of the imagery--or "key symbols"--to be analyzed in this study. Adequate description is a requisite for explanation. Smart's "Dimensional Model" assigns six "dimensions" to each religion. For mnemonic purposes, the present writer has coined the acronym "DREEMS" (Doctrinal, Ritual, Ethical, Experiential, Mythic, Social) to represent these dimensions. Defining religions as systems of symbols (Geertz), this study focuses on "key symbols" (Ortner), comprised of thought-orienting "root metaphors" and action-incentive "key scenarios." Providing wholistic descriptions of religions as symbol systems for worldview analysis, the invention of a "symbolic profile" orders an array of dominant, ideationally indexed images within respective "dimensions." These "symbolic profiles" are synoptic mappings of dominant "key symbols" within each tradition. Key symbols for the various dimensions of the DREEMS map are charted. Formally affine and distinctive symbols are compared by an inventory of features, with respect to superordinating paradigms of each religion. Paradigms render parallels intelligible. Syriac Christianity exhibits a paradigm of transformational purity. A paradigm of concentric unity structures the Baha'i worldview. As an added agenda for what William Paden has recently called the "new comparativism," this study proposes the following axiom for further research and refinement: "Parallels yield paradoxes of commensurability resolvable by paradigm "logics" within religious systems, resulting in symbolic transformation.