 In the "Avesta", the sacred scriptures of Zoroastrianism, fasting and mortification are forbidden.Early 20th-century German sociologist Max Weber made a distinction between "innerweltliche" and "ausserweltliche" asceticism, which means (roughly) "inside the world" and "outside the world", respectively.Talcott Parsons translated these as "worldly" and "otherworldly"—however, some translators use "inner-worldly", and this is more in line with inner world explorations of mysticism, a common purpose of asceticism.