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This article reviews recent survey indicators on religi˙ous life in America. Generally the surveys reveal a rising tide of religious interest. The "highly spiritually committed" are more satisfied with their lives, more tolerant of others, and more concerned with the betterment of society. Despite the high interest in religion, there are glaring inconsistencies: levels of morality and ethics remain low, hunger is a reality for many Americans, and levels of self-esteem are low for many persons.

This article discusses the reasons why Ferdowsi does not begin theShahnamehwith the episode of Zoroaster, which he quotes from the version of Daqiqi, but rather with an account of the creation of the world that, in contrast to Islamic historians writing before Ferdowsi, does not attempt to accommodate a Qur'anic view of creation and human history, but neither does he give a cosmology dominated or well informed by Zoroastrian theology. Similarly, Ferdowsi tends to present pre-Islamic Iran as having a consistent religious history, and perhaps avoids beginning with Goshtāsp's conversion to the religion of Zoroaster, as he makes Daqiqi appear to do, in order to minimize the role of religious conflict in Iranian history, again diverging from historians of the Islamic period writing before him. The article also explores the role of God in theShahnamehand the absence of theodicy.