TY - BOOK ID - 77894790 TI - Paradise and paradigm PY - 1999 SN - 0585062463 9780585062464 0791440613 0791440621 0791497941 PB - Albany, N.Y. State University of New York DB - UniCat KW - Heaven KW - Bahai Faith KW - Paradise KW - Baha'i Faith. KW - Doctrines. KW - Christianity KW - History of doctrines KW - Comparative studies. KW - Church of the East KW - Doctrines KW - History. KW - Future life KW - Old East Syrian Church KW - Nestorian Church KW - Assyrian Church of the East KW - Chaldean Catholic Church KW - Religions KW - Religion KW - Persian Christianity KW - the Baha'i faith KW - pre-Muslim Christianity KW - Sassanian Christianity KW - Ephrem the Syrian KW - Persian religion KW - Baha'u'llah KW - Syriac Christianity KW - the Nestorian Chruch of Persia KW - symbolism KW - Syrian church KW - Bahai faith UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77894790 AB - 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. ER -