Manichaeism

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Image:Manicheans.jpg Manichaeism (in Persian آیین مانی Aeen e Mani) was one of the major ancient religions of Iranian origin. Though its organized form is mostly extinct today, a revival has been attempted under the name of Neo-Manichaeism. However, most of the writings of the founding prophet Mani have been lost. Some scholars argue that its influence subtly continues in Western Christian thought via Saint Augustine of Hippo, who converted to Christianity from Manichaeism, which he passionately denounced in his writings, and whose writing continues to be enormously influential among Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox theologians.

Because Manichaeism is a faith that teaches dualism, in modern English the word "manichean" has come to mean dualistic, presenting or viewing things in a "black and white" fashion.

Contents

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Origins

The religion was founded in the third century AD by Mani, who reportedly was born in western Persia and lived approximately 210–276 AD. The name Mani is mainly a title and term of respect rather than a personal name. This title was assumed by the founder himself and so completely replaced his personal name that the precise form of the latter is not known. Mani's holy book was called Arzhang and was beautified with paintings. This gave him the title "The Painter".

Mani was likely influenced by Mandaeanism and began preaching at an early age. According to biographical accounts preserved by Ibn al-Nadim and 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.

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" Isaiah Template:Ref). Terebinthus went to Palestine and Judaea where he met the Apostles ("becoming known and condemned" Isaia), and ultimately settled in Babylon, where he transmitted his teachings to Mani, thereby creating the foundation of Manicheism.

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 AD.

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.

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Theology

The most striking principle of Manichee theology is its dualism, a theme gleaned from the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism. 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 fight with itself. The universe is the temporary result of an attack of 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.

The Manichees 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 Catholic tradition understood as referring to God in the person of the Holy Spirit. Certain Muslim writers claimed it is a prophecy of Jesus regarding Muhammad.

A key belief in Manichaeanism 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. A human is 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 the 4th century, Ephraim criticized Mani for adopting "the Lie" from India, promoting "two powers which were against each other".

In China Manicheanism theology featured structural repetitions of images of woken light liberated from darkness: 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.

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Expansion

Image:ManichaeismSpread.jpg 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. Manichaean monasteries existed in Rome in 312 during the time of the Christian Pope Miltiades. By 354, 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 Perisan religious establishment in 277, 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, 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 Christians requested Theodosius I to strip Manichaeans of their civil rights. He issued a decree of death for Manichaean monks in 382.

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. The religion was adopted by the Uyghur ruler Bugug Khan (759–780), and it remained state religion for about 500 years before the invasion of the Mongols. 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 Manichee.

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Manichaeism and orthodox Christianity

Image:Tiffany Window of St Augustine - Lightner Museum.JPG When Christians first encountered Manichaeism, it seemed to them to be a heresy, as it had originated in a heavily Gnostic area of Persia (Cross). Initially, Augustine of Hippo had been a Manichean. According to his Confessions of St. Augustine, after eight or nine years abiding to the Manichaean faith, he became Catholic and a potent adversary of Manichaeism.

How much long-term influence the Manichees 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 Manichaens 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 Manichee 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.

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Criticisms

Augustine, who was a "hearer" of Manichaeanism for nine years, eventually criticised their beliefs that knowledge was the key to salvation as being too passive and not being able to affect any change in one's life.

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.

Ironically, the terms 'Manichean' and 'dualist' are often used to disparage Christians and others who have no sympathy with Manicheanism, and who in the past persecuted Manicheans as heretics. This followed from the Christian tenet that there can be a Satan that is not of the totality of God, the duality that there can be a God the Creator and that which is not of God the Creator.

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References

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  • Religions of the Silk Road by Richard C. Foltz, St Martin's Griffin, New York, ISBN 0312233388
  • The Manichaean Body: In Discipline and Ritual by Jason David BeDuhn, ISBN 0801871077
  • Mani, the Angel and the Column of Glory by Andrew Welburn, ISBN 0863152740
  • Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire by Iain Gardner and Samuel N. C. Lieu, ISBN 0521568226
  • Mani (216–276/7) and his 'biography': the Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis (CMC):
  • Albert Heinrichs, Ludwig Koenen, "Ein griechischer Mani-Kodex', 1970 (ed.) Der Kölner Mani-Codex ( P. Colon. Inv. nr. 4780), 1975–1982.
  • Sir Alfred Chester Beatty: Charles Allberry (ed.) A Manichean Psalm-Book, Part II, Stuttgart 1938.
  • Isaac de Beausobre, Histoire critique de Manichée et du Manichéisme, Amsterdam 1734–1739.
  • F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. London: Oxford UP, 1974.
  • Zsuszanna Gulácsi, Manichaen art in Berlin Collections, Turnhout 2001. (Original Manichean manuscripts found since 1902 in China, Egypt, Turkestan, China to be seen in the Museum of Indan Art in Berlin).
  • Francois Favre, Mani, the Gift of Light, 5 May 2005, 'Renova' symposium, Bilthoven, The Netherlands
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  • Francis Legge, Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity, From 330 B.C. to 330 A.D. (1914), reprinted in two volumes bound as one, University Books, New York, 1964. LC Catalog 64-24125.
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External links

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