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by dc-programmer
1220 days ago
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The theory I’ve heard is that Christianity’s dualism was inherited from Second Temple Judaism’s cosmology. During that time there was a lot more interest in angels and demons among certain Jewish sects. In turn these beliefs may have been a result of syncretism with Zoroastrianism. |
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The easy answer regarding adoption of angels is simply that angels figured prominently in multiple religions and cultures in that region for at least as long as we can look back; what would be surprising is any religion from that region lacking angels. Angels may have been a background fact that you might not think to question at all, even if you sat down to deliberately concoct a religion.
I'm curious what everybody means when they refer to dualism in this thread, because AFAIU there are several different kinds of philosophies that can be called dualist, and while we can connect dots between them, some of them are arguably contradictory. A theistic dualism as in traditional Judaism and Christianity which merely posits that the essence (or at least an essence) of the godhead is distinct from physical creation (cf. pantheism) is quite different from a moralist dualism that posits a universe defined by a struggle between goodness and evil. Elements of the latter can also be found in Christianity and Judaism, but that results in tension, and for that reason moral dualism is less prominent in those religions notwithstanding that some sects and strains (present and historic) really embrace it.