Explain Manichaeism and its challenges to the Church?

Manichaeism originated from a man named Mani. Mani believed he had a divine twin who was telling him that he was in fact the last of prophets. That was the first issue the chu…rch would have seen with Manichaeism. He believed that there was a world of dark and a world of light. The darkness became aware of the light and became envious, capturing certain parts of the light. The darkness created a prison to keep the light in. That prison being the world around us. Evil=matter. Good=light, the soul. The light is trapped within our bodies. Reproduction is seen as a method that divides and weakens the light as it creates more prison. Methods to help the light escape this world include: 1) Being aware that light is trapped in this world. 2) Having "Elects" who abstain from reproduction and eat as much as possible. Light is thought to be in food. Once the elect dies, the light that they accumulated would then be liberated. This religion originated in China and went west to Spain. It has currently faded in popularity and is no longer followed. (MORE)