Manichaeism

 

(măn'ĭkēĭzəm) or Manichaeanism (mănĭkē'ənĭzəm) , religion founded by Mani (c.216–c.276).

Mani's Life

Mani (called Manes by the Greeks and Romans) was born near Baghdad, probably of Persian parents; his father may have been a member of the Mandaeans. After wandering for several years as a meditative ascetic he came forward (c.240) as the inspired prophet of a new religion. He went to Bactria in NW India, where he came in contact with Buddhism.

He returned to Persia after the coronation (241) of Shapur I, who was tolerant of new religious movements; at the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon he began preaching (c.242) the doctrine that was to become Manichaeism, a great synthesis of elements from Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism, other Persian religions, Christianity, Buddhism, and Taoism, as well as from the teachings of Marcion. Rejecting all of the Old Testament and parts of the New Testament, Mani claimed Buddha, Zoroaster, Hermes, and Plato as his predecessors. He always called himself “Mani, Apostle of Jesus Christ” and held that he was the Paraclete promised by Jesus.

During the long reign of Shapur I (d. 272), Mani was free to travel about the realm making converts. However, the accession of Bahram I brought a reaction against the Manichaeans (or Manichees) from orthodox Zoroastrian religious circles, and, after 272, Mani and his followers met with increasing persecution. He died while imprisoned (c.276) in SW Persia.

The Religion

Due to Mani's organizational abilities, the simplicity of his dualistic theology, and his incorporation of elements from other religions, Manichaeism spread rapidly, and it was soon disseminated throughout the Roman Empire and into China.

Beliefs

Basic to the religion's doctrine was the conflicting dualism between the realm of God, represented by light and by spiritual enlightenment, and the realm of Satan, symbolized by darkness and by the world of material things. To account for the existence of evil in a world created by God, Mani posited a primal struggle in which the forces of Satan separated from God; humanity, composed of matter, that which belongs to Satan, but infused with a modicum of godly light, was a product of this struggle, and was a paradigm of the eternal war between the forces of light and those of darkness. Christ, the ideal, light-clad soul, could redeem for each person that portion of light God had allotted. Light and dark were seen to be commingled in our present age as good and evil, but in the last days each would return to its proper, separate realm, as they were in the beginning. The Christian notion of the Fall and of personal sin was repugnant to the Manichees; they felt that the soul suffered not from a weak and corrupt will but from contact with matter. Evil was a physical, not a moral, thing; a person's misfortunes were miseries, not sins.

Classes of Followers

Mani's followers were divided into two classes: the elect, or perfect, were assured of immediate felicity after death because of the resource of light they had acquired through strict celibacy, austerity, teaching, and preaching; and the auditors, or hearers, the laity who administered to the elect, and who could marry. Believing in metempsychosis (see transmigration of souls), the auditors hoped to be reborn as elect. All other were sinners, doomed to hell.

Decline

Several Christian emperors, including Justinian, published edicts against the Manichees. St. Augustine, in his youth a Manichee, describes in his Confessions his conversion to Christianity. Little is heard of the Manichees in the West after the 6th cent., but their doctrines reappear in the medieval heresies of the Cathari, Albigenses, and Bogomils. It was the practice in the Middle Ages to call by the name of Manichaeism any dualist Christian heresy. The young religion of Islam was also challenged by the Manichean sect in Africa and Asia. The sect survived in the East, notably in Chinese Turkistan (Xinjiang), until about the 13th cent.

Bibliography

The prime sources for the study of Manichaeism are the so-called Turfan (Turpan) texts, named after the Dunhuang region where they were found in 1904–5. These include fragments of Mani's long-lost bible and portions of Manichaean literature written in Pahlavi, Saghdian, Old Turkish, and Chinese. Other sources are a collection of documents found in Egypt in 1933 and refutations of Manichaeism by Christian, Islamic, and Zoroastrian polemicists. See also F. C. Burkitt, The Religion of the Manichees (1925); A. V. W. Jackson, Researches in Manichaeism (1932, repr. 1965); S. Runciman, The Medieval Manichees (1947, repr. 1961); S. N. C. Lien, The Religion of Light (1979) and Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China (1985).

Manichaeism (in Modern Persian آیین مانی Āyin e Māni; Chinese: 摩尼教) was one of the major dualistic religions, originating in Sassanid Persia.

Although most of the original writings of the founding prophet Mani (Syriac, ܡܐܢܝ, c. 210–276 A.D.) have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived. At its height, Manichaeism was one of the most widespread religions in the world, with Manichaean churches and scriptures being found as far east as China, and as far west as the Roman empire. Although its last organized form appears to have died out before the 16th century in southern China, a modern revival has been attempted under the name of Neo-Manichaeism.

The original six sacred books of Manichaeism, composed in Syriac Aramaic, were soon translated into other languages to aid in the spread of the religion. As they spread to the east, the writings of the religion passed through Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, and ultimately Uyghur Turkish and Chinese translations. As they spread to the west, they were translated into Greek, Coptic, and Latin. The spread and success of Manichaeism was seen as a threat to other religions, and it was widely persecuted by Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and later, Islam.

Origins

Mani lived approximately 210–276 A.D. and resided in Babylon, which at the time was one of the many provinces of the Persian Empire. The primary language of Babylon at that time was Eastern Middle Aramaic, which included three main dialects: Judeo-Aramaic (the language of the Talmud), Mandaean Aramaic (the language of the Mandaean religion), and Syriac Aramaic - which was the language of Mani, as well as of the Assyrian Christians. Mani is a Persian name and, found as it is in all three Aramaic dialects, fairly common among its speakers. Mani composed seven writings, six of which were written in Syriac Aramaic. The seventh, the Shabuhragan, was written by Mani in Middle Persian and dedicated to the contemporary King of Sassanid Persia, Shapur I, who was a strong supporter of Manichaeism and encouraged its spread throughout his empire. Mani also created a distinctive version of the Syriac script - Manichaean script - which was used in all of the Manichaean works written within the Persian Empire, whether they were in Syriac or Middle Persian, and also for most of the works written within the Uyghur Empire, which also included eastern Iranian languages and Uygur Turkish.

One of the tenets of Manichaeism was that it presented the complete version of teachings only revealed partially by teachers such as Zoroaster, Buddha, and Jesus. Accordingly, as Manichaeism passed through time, location, and language, it adapted new religious deities from the surrounding religions into the Manichaean scriptures. So, while the original Aramaic texts already contained stories of Jesus, as they moved eastward and were translated into Iranian languages, the names of the Manichaean deities (or angels) were often transformed into the names of Zoroastrian yazatas. Thus Abbā dəRabbūṯā ("The Father of Greatness" - the highest Manichaean deity of Light), in Middle Persian texts might either be translated literally as pīd ī wuzurgīh, or substituted for by the name of the deity Zurwān. Likewise, the Manichaean primal figure Nāšā Qaḏmāyā "The Original Man" was rendered "Ohrmazd Bay", after the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda. This development continued to Manichaeism's ultimate meeting with Chinese Buddhism, where, for example, the original Aramaic "karia" (the "call" from the world of Light to those seeking rescue from the world of Darkness), becomes identified in the Chinese scriptures with Guan Yin (觀音, literally, "hearing sounds [of the world]", the Bodhisattva of Compassion in Chinese Buddhism).

The original six Syriac writings are not preserved, although we have their Syriac names, as well as fragments and quotations from them. A lengthy quotation, brought by the Syrian Nestorian Christian, Theodor bar-Khonai, in the 8th century, shows clearly that in the original Syriac Aramaic writings of Mani there was absolutely no influence of Iranian or Zoroastrian terms. The terms for the Manichaean deities in the original Syriac writings are purely in Aramaic. The adaptation of Manichaeism to the Zoroastrian religion, however, appears to have begun in Mani's lifetime, with his writing of the Middle Persian Shabuhragan, his book dedicated to the King Shapuhr. In it, we find mention of Zoroastrian deities such as Ohrmazd, Ahriman, and Az. Manichaeism is often presented as a Persian religion, mostly due to the vast number of Middle Persian, Parthian, and Soghdian (as well as Turkish) texts discovered by German researchers near Turfan, in the Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan) province of China, during the early 1900s. Looking at the phenomenon of Manichaeism from the point of view of its origins, however, it is no more accurate to say that Manichaeism is a Persian or Iranian religion than it is to say that Talmudic Judaism or Babylonian Mandaeism (which were also written in Aramaic in Babylon in roughly the 3rd century A.D.) are Iranian religions.

Mani was likely influenced by Mandaeanism and began preaching at an early age. According to biographical accounts preserved by Ibn al-Nadim and the Persian polymath al-Biruni, Mani received a revelation as a youth from a spirit, whom he would later call his Twin, his Syzygos, his Double, his Protective Angel or 'Divine Self'. This 'spirit' allegedly taught him divine truths which developed into the Manichaean religion. His 'divine' Twin or true Self brought Mani to Self-realization and as such he becomes a 'gnosticus', someone with divine knowledge and a liberating insight into things. He claimed to be the 'Paraclete of the Truth', as promised in the New Testament: the Last Prophet and Seal of the Prophets that finalized a succession of men guided by God and included figures such as Zoroaster, Hermes, Plato, Buddha, and Jesus.

Another source of Mani's scriptures, was a section of the original Aramaic "Book of Enoch", entitled the "Book of Giants". This book was quoted directly, and expanded on by Mani, to become one of the original six Syriac writings of the Manichaean Church. Besides brief references by non-Manichaean authors through the centuries, we had no original sources of "The Book of Giants" (which is actually part six of the "Book of Enoch"). Then, with the discovery in the twentieth century of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Judaean Desert, and of the Manichaean writings of the Uyghur Manichaean kingdom in Turfan, we came into possession of some scattered fragments of both the original Aramaic "Book of Giants" (which were analyzed and published by J. T. Milik in 1976), and of the Manichaean version of the same name (analyzed and published by W.B. Henning in 1943). Henning writes there:

It is noteworthy that Mani, who was brought up and spent most of his life in a province of the Persian empire, and whose mother belonged to a famous Parthian family, did not make any use of the Iranian mythological tradition. There can no longer be any doubt that the Iranian names of Sām, Narīmān, etc., that appear in the Persian and Sogdian versions of the Book of the Giants, did not figure in the original edition, written by Mani in the Syriac language.

From a careful reading of the Book of Enoch and Book of Giants, alongside the description of the Manichaean myth, it becomes clear that the "Great King of Glory" of the Manichaean myth (this is a being that sits as a guard to the world of light at the seventh of ten heavens in the Manichaean myth, see Henning, A Sogdian Fragment of the Manichaean Cosmogony, BSOAS, 1948), is identical with the King of Glory sitting on the heavenly throne in the Book of Enoch. In the Aramaic book of Enoch, in the Qumran writings in general, and in the original Syriac section of Manichaean scriptures quoted by Theodor bar-Khonai, he is called "malka raba de-ikara" (the great king of glory).

While Manichaeism was spreading, the large existing religious groups such as Christianity and Zoroastrianism were gaining social and political influence. Although having fewer adherents than either group, Manichaeism won the support of many high-ranking political figures. With the aid of the Persian Empire, Mani initiated missionary excursions. After failing to win the favor of the next generation, and having the disapproval of the Zoroastrian clergy, Mani is reported to have died in prison awaiting execution by the Persian Emperor Bahram I. The date of his death is fixed at 276–277 A.D.

In Egypt a minuscule codex was found and became known via antique dealers in Cairo. It was purchased by the University of Cologne in 1969, and two of its scientists Henrichs and Koenen produced the first edition of this ancient manuscript known since as the Cologne Mani-Codex, which they published in four articles in the Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. The content of the small papyrus manuscript contained a Greek text describing the life of Mani. From this recent discovery, we know much more about the man who founded one of the most influential world religions of the past.

Theology

The most striking principle of Manichaean theology is its dualism. Mani postulated two natures that existed from the beginning: light and darkness. The realm of light lived in peace, while the realm of darkness was in constant conflict with itself. The universe is the temporary result of an attack from the realm of darkness on the realm of light, and was created by the Living Spirit, an emanation of the light realm, out of the mixture of light and darkness.

A key belief in Manichaeism is that there is no omnipotent good power. This claim addresses a theoretical part of the problem of evil by denying the infinite perfection of God and postulating the two equal and opposite powers mentioned previously. The human person is seen as a battleground for these powers: the good part is the soul (which is composed of light) and the bad part is the body (composed of dark earth). The soul defines the person and is incorruptible, but it is under the domination of a foreign power, which addressed the practical part of The Problem of Evil. Humans are said to be able to be saved from this power (matter) if they come to know who they are and identify themselves with their soul.

Following Mani's travels to the Kushan Empire (several religious paintings in Bamiyan are attributed to him) at the beginning of his proselytizing career, various Buddhist influences seem to have permeated Manichaeism:

Buddhist influences were significant in the formation of Mani's religious thought. The transmigration of souls became a Manichaean belief, and the quadripartite structure of the Manichaean community, divided between male and female monks (the "elect") and lay followers (the "hearers") who supported them, appears to be based on that of the Buddhist sangha. (Richard Foltz, Religions of the Silk Road)

In some Gnostic writings of the Death of Mani, Mani attains Parinirvana. The word "Buddha" is frequently used in Manichean writings of later centuries according to the same work.

Other Indian religions might have influenced Manicheasm. In the 4th century, Ephraim criticized Mani for adopting "the Lie" from India, promoting "two powers which were against each other".

In the story of the Death of Mani (according to the Gnostic Bible by Willis Barnstone, here is one of many authenticating references proving the centrality of Buddhism in Mani's formulation of Gnosticism):

It was a day of pain

and a time of sorrow

when the messenger of light

entered death

when he entered complete Nirvana"

Also, in the Great Song of Mani (13th–14th century) Mani is many times referred to as Buddha Mani.

In China Manichaean theology featured structural repetitions of images of woken light liberated from darkness^{[citation needed]}: the Son of God was woken from demonic imprisonment by the Holy Spirit and escaped its darkness; conversion to Manicheanism was depicted both as an awakening and an illumination; and in death the converted spirit would escape the darkness of the body. Converts were only guaranteed salvation if they could continue this repetition and convert another in turn.^{[citation needed]}

The Manichaean cosmogony

From its inception, one of the striking features of Manichaeism is that it presents an elaborate description of the conflict between the spiritual world of light and the material world of darkness. The beings of the world of darkness all have names, and the beings they attack in the world of light also have names. There are numerous sources for the details of the Manichaean myth (see "Sources for Manichaeism", below). We do have two portions of Manichaean scriptures, however, that are probably as close as we will ever come to the original Manichaean writings in their original languages. These are the Syriac-Aramaic quotation by the Nestorian Christian Theodor bar-Konai, in his Syriac "Book of Sects" (8th century), and the Middle Persian sections of Mani's Shabuhragan discovered at Turfan (a summary of Mani's teachings prepared for Shapur I; published in BSOAS, 1979). It is very likely that these two sections are the original Syriac and Middle Persian written by Mani himself.

From these alone we can derive a short example of the detailed nature of the Manichaean vision: At one point, the God of Light sends a representative Nāšā Qaḏmāyā ("original man", in Aramaic), to battle with the attacking powers of Darkness, which include the Demon of Greed. The original man is armed with five different shields of light, which he loses to the forces of darkness in the ensuing battle. A call is then issued from the world of Light to the Original Man ("call" thus becomes a Manichaean deity), and an answer ("answer" becoming another Manichaean deity) returns from the Original Man to the world of Light. The myth continues with many details of how light is captured into the world of matter, and eventually liberated by entrapping some great demons and causing them to become sexually aroused by "Twelve Virgins of Light", and expelling, against their will, the light from within their bodies. The light, though, is again entrapped in the world of darkness and matter, and the myth continues, eventually arriving to the creation of living beings in the material world, Adam and Eve, and Jesus appearing at the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.

The complete Manichaean story of the creation and purpose of the universe, from beginning to end, has been reconstructed from numerous original Manichaean sources, and can be read about in the works in the bibliography and in the external links (below).

Sources for Manichaeism

Until discoveries in the 1900s of original sources, the only sources we had for Manichaeism were descriptions and quotations from non-Manichaean authors, either Christian, Muslim, or Zoroastrian. While these writers were often criticizing Manichaeism, they also brought many quotations directly from Manichaean scriptures. Thus we have always had quotations and descriptions in Greek and Arabic, as well as the long quotations in Latin by Saint Augustine, and the extremely important quotation in Syriac by Theodor bar-Khonai.

Then, in the early 1900s, German scholars excavated at the ancient site of the Manichaean Uyghur Kingdom near Turfan, in Chinese Turkestan (destroyed around 1300 A.D.). While most of the writings they uncovered were in very bad shape, there were still hundreds of pages of Manichaean scriptures, written in three Persian languages - Middle Persian, Parthian, and Sogdian, as well as in old Turkish. These writings were taken back to Germany, and were analyzed and published at the Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin. While the vast majority of these writings were written in a version of the Syriac script known as Manichaean script, the German researchers, perhaps for lack of suitable fonts, published most of the writings using Hebrew letters (which could easily be substituted for the 22 Syriac letters). Perhaps the most comprehensive of these publications was Manichaeische Dogmatik aus chinesischen und iranischen Texten (Manichaean Dogma from Chinese and Iranian texts), by Waldschmidt and Lentz, published in Berlin in 1933. More than any other research work published before or since, this work printed, and then discussed, the original key Manichaean texts in the original scripts, and consists chiefly of sections from Chinese texts, and Middle Persian and Parthian texts transcribed with Hebrew letters. (It is interesting to note that after the Nazi party attained power in Germany, while the Manichaean writings continued to be published during the remainder of the 1930s, the publishers no longer used Hebrew letters, but instead transliterated the texts into Latin letters.)

Additionally, in the early 1900s, German researchers in Egypt found a large body of Manichaean works in Coptic. Though damaged as well, many complete pages survived and were also published in Berlin before World War II. Unfortunately, some of these Coptic Manichaean writings were destroyed during the war.

After the success of the German researchers, French scholars went into China and discovered perhaps the most complete set of Manichaean writings ever, written in Chinese. These three Chinese writings are today kept in London, Paris, and Beijing. The original studies and analyses of these writings, along with their translations, originally appeared in French, English, and German, before and after World War II. The complete Chinese texts themselves were originally published in Tokyo, Japan in 1927, in the Taisho Tripitaka, volume 54. While in the last 30 years or so they have been republished in both Germany (with a complete translation into German, alongside the 1927 Japanese edition) and China, the Japanese publication still remains the standard reference for the Chinese texts.

In the latter part of the 20th century another Manichaean work, written in Greek and describing the life of Mani, was discovered.

Manichaean sacred books

There were seven (or according to other lists, eight) books originally written by Mani, which contained the teachings of the religion. Only scattered fragments and translations of the originals remain.

Originally written in Syriac

• The Evangelion: Quotations from the first chapter were brought in Arabic by al-Nadim, who lived in Baghdad at a time when there were still Manichaeans living there, in his book the "Fihrist" (written in 938), a catalog of all written books known to him.
• The Treasure of Life
• The Treatise
• Secrets
• The Book of Giants: Original fragments were discovered at Qumran (pre-Manichaean) and Turfan.
• Epistles: Augustine brings quotations, in Latin, from Mani's Fundamental Epistle in some of his anti-Manichaean works.
• Psalms and Prayers. A Coptic Manichaean Psalter, discovered in Egypt in the early 1900s, was edited and published by Charles Allberry from Manichaean manuscripts in the Chester Beatty collection and in the Berlin Academy, 1938-9.

Originally written in Middle Persian

• The Shabuhragan, dedicated to Shapur I: Original Middle Persian fragments were discovered at Turfan, quotations were brought in Arabic by al-Biruni.

Other books

• The Ardahang, the "Picture Book". In Iranian tradition, this was one of Mani's holy books which became remembered in later Persian history, and was also called Aržang, a Parthian word meaning "Worthy", and was beautified with paintings. Therefore Iranians gave him the title of "The Painter".
• The Kephalaia, "Discourses"

Non-Manichaean works preserved by the Manichaean Church

• The Acts of Thomas

Later works

In later centuries, as Manichaeism passed through eastern Persian speaking lands and arrived to the Uyghur Empire, and ultimately the Uyghur kingdom of Turfan (destroyed around 1335), there were also long hymn cycles and prayers composed in Middle Persian and Parthian. A translation of one of these produced the Manichaean Chinese Hymnscroll (the 下部贊), which we have today in its entirety (see the external links section).

Expansion

Manichaeism spread with extraordinary rapidity throughout both the east and west. It reached Rome through the apostle Psattiq by AD 280, who was also in Egypt in 244 and 251. The faith was flourishing in the Fayum area of Egypt in 290 A.D.. Manichaean monasteries existed in Rome in 312 A.D.during the time of the Christian Pope Miltiades. By 354 A.D., Hilary of Poitiers wrote that the Manichaean faith was a significant force in southern France.

The Manichaean faith was also widely persecuted. Mani was martyred by the Persian religious establishment in 277 A.D., which ironically helped to spread the sect widely. In 291, persecution arose in the Persian empire with the murder of the apostle Sisin by Bahram II, and the slaughtering of many Manichaeans. In 296 A.D., Diocletian decreed against the Manichaeans: "We order that their organizers and leaders be subject to the final penalties and condemned to the fire with their abominable scriptures.", resulting in numerous martyrs in Egypt and North Africa. In 381 A.D. Christians requested Theodosius I to strip Manichaeans of their civil rights. He issued a decree of death for Manichaean monks in 382 A.D.

The faith maintained a sporadic and intermittent existence in the west (Mesopotamia, Africa, Spain, France, North Italy, the Balkans) for a thousand years, and flourished for a time in the land of its birth (Persia) and even further east in Northern India, Western China, and Tibet. While it has long be thought that Manichaeism arrived in China only at the end of the 7th century, a recent archaeological discovery demonstrated that it was already known there in the second half of the sixth century.^{[citation needed]} The religion was adopted by the Uyghur ruler Bugug Khan (759–780 A.D.), and it remained state religion for about a century before the collapse of the Uyghur empire. In the east it spread along trade routes as far as Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty in China. In the 9th century, it is reported that the Muslim Caliph Ma'mun tolerated a community of Manichaeans.

In the Song and Yuan dynasties of China remnants of Manichaeanism continued to leave a legacy contributing to the variety of religious thought represented by sects like the Red Turbans.

Influence on Christianity

Early 3rd-4th century Christian writers such as Hippolytus and Epiphanius write about a Scythianus, who visited India around 50 AD from where he brought "the doctrine of the Two Principles". According to these writers, Scythianus' pupil Terebinthus presented himself as a "Buddha" ("He called himself a Buddas", writings of Cyril of Jerusalem). Terebinthus went to Palestine and Judaea where he met the Apostles "becoming known and condemned", and ultimately settled in Babylon, where he transmitted his teachings to Mani, thereby creating the foundation of Manicheism.

The Manichaeans made every effort to include all known religious traditions in their faith. As a result, they preserved many apocryphal Christian works, such as the Acts of Thomas, that otherwise would have been lost. Mani was eager to describe himself as a "disciple of Jesus Christ", but the early Christian church rejected him as a heretic. Mani declared himself, and was also referred to as, the Paraclete: a Biblical title, meaning "comforter" or "helper", which the Orthodox Tradition understood as referring to God in the person of the Holy Spirit.

When Christians first encountered Manichaeism, it seemed to them to be a heresy, as it had originated in a heavily Gnostic area of the Persian empire. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.) converted to Christianity from Manichaeism, in the year 387. This was shortly after the time that the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, prompted by Catholics, had issued a decree of death for Manichaeans (in 382 A.D.), and shortly before he declared Christianity to be the only legitimate religion for the Roman Empire (in 391). According to the Confessions of St. Augustine, after eight or nine years of adhering to the Manichaean faith (as a member of the Manichaean group of "hearers"), Augustine became a Christian and a potent adversary of Manichaeism, seeing their beliefs that knowledge was the key to salvation as being too passive and not being able to effect any change in one's life.[1]

"I still thought that it is not we who sin but some other nature that sins within us. It flattered my pride to think that I incurred no guilt and, when I did wrong, not to confess it... I preferred to excuse myself and blame this unknown thing which was in me but was not part of me. The truth, of course, was that it was all my own self, and my own impiety had divided me against myself. My sin was all the more incurable because I did not think myself a sinner". (Confessions, Book V, Section 10)

Until the 20th century, most of the Western world's concept of Manichaeism came through Augustine's polemics against it after his conversion to Christianity, which included long theological debates with Manichaeans, which were completely recorded in writing. It is speculated by some modern scholars (Alfred Adam, for example), that Manichaean ways of thinking had an influence on the development of some of Augustine's ideas, such as the nature of good and evil, the idea of hell, the separation of groups into elect, hearers, and sinners, the hostility to the flesh and sexual activity, and so on.

The extent of influence that the Manichaeans actually had on Christianity is still being debated. It has been suggested that the Bogomils, Paulicians, and the Cathars were deeply influenced by Manichaeism. However, the Bogomils and Cathars, in particular, left few records of their rituals or doctrines, and the link between them and Manichaeans is tenuous. Regardless of its historical accuracy the charge of Manichaeism was levelled at them by contemporary orthodox opponents, who often tried to fit contemporary heresies with those combatted by the church fathers. The Paulicians, Bogomils, and Cathars were certainly dualists and felt that the world was the work of a demiurge of Satanic origin (Cross), but whether this was due to influence from Manichaeism or another strand of Gnosticism is impossible to determine. Only a minority of Cathars held that the evil god (or principle) was as powerful as the good god (also called a principle) as Mani did, a belief also known as absolute dualism. In the case of the Cathars, it seems they adopted the Manichaean principles of church organization, but none of its religious cosmology. Priscillian and his followers apparently tried to absorb what they thought was the valuable part of Manichaeaism into Christianity.

References

This article or section includes a list of references or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.

• (1938) in Allberry Charles R. C.: Manichaean Manuscripts in the Chester Beatty Collection: Vol II, part II: A Manichaean Psalm Book. Stuttgart: W. Kohlammer. 
• Beatty, Alfred Chester (1938). in Charles Allberry: A Manichean Psalm-Book, Part II. 
• Beausobre, de, Isaac (1734–1739). Histoire critique de Manichée et du Manichéisme. 
• BeDuhn, Jason David. The Manichaean Body: in discipline and ritual. ISBN 0-8018-7107-7. 
• Cross, F. L.; E. A. Livingstone (1974). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church.. 
• Favre, Francois (2005-05-05). "Mani, the Gift of Light" in Renova symposium. {{{booktitle}}}. 
• Foltz, Richard C.. Religions of the Silk Road. New York: St Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-23338-8. 
• Gardner, Iain; Samuel N. C. Lieu. Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire. ISBN 0-521-56822-6. 
• Giversen, Soren (1988). The Manichaean Coptic Papyri in The Chester Beatty Library Vol. III: Psalm Book part I., Facsimile, Geneva: Patrick Crammer.  (Cahiers D'Orientalism XVI) 1988a
• Giversen, Soren (1988). The Manichaean Coptic Papyri in The Chester Beatty Library Vol. IV: Psalm Book part II., Facsimile, Geneva: Patrick Crammer.  (Cahiers D'Orientalism XVI) 1988b
• Gulácsi, Zsuszanna (2001). Manichaean art in Berlin Collections.  (Original Manichaean manuscripts found since 1902 in China, Egypt, Turkestan to be seen in the Museum of Indian Art in Berlin.)
• Heinrichs, Albert; Ludwig Koenen, Ein griechischer Mani-Kodex, 1970 (ed.) Der Kölner Mani-Codex ( P. Colon. Inv. nr. 4780), 1975–1982.
• Legge, Francis [1914] (1964). Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity, From 330 B.C. to 330 A.D. (reprinted in two volumes bound as one), New York: University Books. LC Catalog 64-24125. 
• Lieu, Samuel (1992). Manichaeism in the later Roman Empire and medieval China.. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr. 
• Mani (216–276/7) and his 'biography': the Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis (CMC):
• Melchert, Norman (2002). The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy. McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-19-517510-7. 
• Runciman, Steven [1947] (1982). The Medieval Manichee: a study of the Christian dualist heresy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28926-2. 
• Welburn, Andrew. Mani, the Angel and the Column of Glory. ISBN 0-86315-274-0. 
• Wurst, Gregor (July 2001). "Die Bema-Psalmen". Journal of Near Eastern Studies 60 (.3): 203-204. 

See also

• Mandaeanism
• Zoroastrianism
• Zurvanism
• Mazdakism
• Yazdanism
• Gnosticism
• Neo-Manichaeism
• Indo-Iranian religion
• Indo-European religion

External links

Outside articles

• Manichaeism Religions & Beliefs in Ancient Iran (CAIS)
• Catholic Encyclopedia - Manichæism public domain, published 1917.
• International Association of Manichaean Studies
• The Book of the Giants by W.B. Henning, 1943
• Religions of Iran: Manichaeism by I.J.S. Taraporewala
• Manichaeism

Manichaean sources in English translation

• Manichaean Writings
• A summary of the Manichaean creation myth
• Manicheism. Excellent bibliography and selection of Manichaean source texts in PDF format.

Manichaean sources in their original languages

• The Original Chinese Manichaean Scriptures Online: 摩尼教殘經一 ("incomplete sutra one of Manichaeism")& 摩尼光佛教法儀略("The Mani Bright Buddha teaching plan") & 下部贊("The Lower part chant") (Chinese).
• Photos of the Entire Koeln Mani-Kodex (Greek).
• Photos of the Original Middle Persian Manichaean Writings/Fragments Discovered at Turfan (The index of this German site can be searched for additional manichaean material, including photos of the original Chinese manichaean writings)

Secondary Manichaean sources in their original languages

• Augustine's Contra Epistolam Manichaei (Latin)
• St. Augustine Against the Fundamental Epistle of Manichaeus

Manichaean revival movements

• Order of Nazorean Essenesru-sib:Манихейсво

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