Pious Citizens by Ringer Monica M.;

Author:Ringer, Monica M.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 2021-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

It was not only the priests’ ignorance and commitment to orthodoxy, however, that threatened their position. Dhalla agreed with the scholarly consensus concerning the intrusion of foreign priests, the magi, into Zoroastrian tradition. Like other Reformists, he also stressed individual relationship to God, rather than priestly intermediation.

Dhalla was not alone. One of the sharpest criticisms of the Reformist position by the Orthodox, as most fully articulated by Sanjana, was the lessening of religious commitment that inevitably resulted.103 Others were also cognizant of the tightrope that they walked between recovering “true” religion and dismantling faith altogether.104 One of the most vehement critics of the Reformist threat was Ardaser Sorabjee N. Wadia. “Sometime” professor of English and history at Elphinstone College, Wadia was deeply critical of the Reformists who engaged in “metaphysical subtleties and philological disputes” that left the community confused and spiritually bereft .105 As discussed above, Dastur Sanjana was also concerned with divisiveness in the community caused by Reformist denunciation of tradition and ritual and believed that it was tantamount to “racial suicide.” J. J. Modi took a moderate position, advocating cautious change. He understood the intellectual and theological rationale for reform, yet also appreciated the needs of the Parsi community. Modi recognized that “original good simple ideas of purity . . . are, at times, carried to tiresome extremes [that] tend to obscure the original good object.”106 Yet reform could be taken too far. Reiterating the words of French religious scholar Ernest Renan, Modi warned that “I fear that the work of the twentieth century will consist in taking out of the waste paper basket a multitude of the excellent ideas which the nineteenth century has heedlessly thrown into it.”107

Juggling theological imperatives with the needs of the community would remain a thorny issue for Reformists—particularly since they advocated a new conception of religion grounded not in identifiable practice but rather in an intellectualized, internalized consciousness. Reformists and Orthodox sought to make religion a more conscious spiritual relationship between individuals and God. Yet such a reconceptualization of living a religious life depended on moving away from ritual as representative of a simplistic understanding of God. The internalization of piety led to the de-emphasis of ritual performance.

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