Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-mwx4w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T01:46:41.494Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Christianity and Manichaeism

from Part II - Christianity Contested

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Samuel N. C. Lieu
Edited by
Augustine Casiday  and
Frederick W. Norris
Augustine Casiday
Affiliation:
University of Wales, Lampeter
Frederick W. Norris
Affiliation:
Emmanuel School of Religion
Get access

Summary

The religion of Mani arose from a Judaeo-Christian milieu in southern Mesopotamia in the third century – a time of both cultural and religious syncretism. When it was first proclaimed in the Roman empire by missionaries from the Syriac-speaking parts of the Persian empire it was attacked by pagan emperors as a Persian religion bent on destroying the moral fabric of the empire and by Christian leaders as a Gnostic-type heresy embodying a strong element of Marcionism as well as numerous pagan and foreign (mainly Iranian) features. The discovery of genuine Manichaean sources, from Turfan in Central Asia and from Medinet Madi and Kellis (Ismant el-Kharab in the Dakhleh oasis) in Egypt, has shown that Manichaeism was a universalist religion founded not to imitate but to surpass other major religions of late antiquity in order to absorb their followers into its fold. In an important mission statement preserved in a Coptic text from Medinet Madi, Mani declares:

The church that I have chosen is superior in ten aspects over the first churches. So, one: [… the apostles] that were sent to them chose a church with much toil. Some of them came in … only; others among them have come in … alone; and each of them came in, [they chose the] churches that they chose in the places and the cities where they were disclosed. The one who chose his church in the west, his church did not reach to the east; the one who chose his church in the east, his election did not come to the west. Thus, there are some of them: their name did not display in other cities.

However, my hope, mine: It is provided for it to go to the west and also for it to go to the east; and in every language they hear the voice of its proclamation, and it is proclaimed in all cities. In this first matter my church surpasses the first churches: Because the first churches were chosen according to place, according to city. My church, mine: It is provided for it to go out from all cities, and its good news attains every country.

Keywords

Manichaean canonJudaeo-Christian milieuchurch fathersRoman empire
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Christianity , pp. 279 - 295
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

,Alexander of Lycopolis. Contra Manichaei opiniones disputatio, ed. Brinkmann, A. (Leipzig, 1895).
Codex Justinianus (Codex Justinianus). Codex Theodosianus (Codex Theodosianus). Eds. Mommsen, T. and Meyer, P., Theodosiani libri XVI cum Constitutionibus Sirmondianis et leges novellae ad Theodosianum pertinentes (Berlin, 1954).
Codex Theodosianus (Codex Theodosianus). Eds. Mommsen, T. and Meyer,, P. Theodosiani libri XVI cum Constitutionibus Sirmondianis et leges novellae ad Theodosianum pertinentes (Berlin, 1954).
Cologne Manichaean Codex. Eds. Koenen, L. and Römer,, C. Der Kölner Mani-Kodex (über das Werden seines Leibes), Kritische Edition aufgrund der von A. Henrichs und L. Koenen besorgten Erstedition (Opladen, 1988).
Fitschen, K. Serapion von Thmuis, Echte und Unechte Schriften sowie die Zeugnisse des Athanasius und Anderer, Patristische Texte und Studien 37 (Berlin, 1992).
Gardner, I. M. F., and Lieu, S. N. C., eds. Manichaean texts from the Roman empire (Cambridge, 2004).
Gardner, I. M. F., Alcock, Anthony and Funk, Wolf-Peter, eds. Coptic documentary texts from Kellis, 1, Dakhleh Oasis Project: monograph 9 (Oxford, 1999).
Gardner, I. M. F., ed. Kellis literary texts, 1, Dakhleh Oasis Project: monograph 4 (Oxford, 1996).
Klein, W. Die Argumentation in den griechisch-christlichen Antimanichaica (Wiesbaden, 1991).
Lieu, S. N. C. ‘An early Byzantine formula for the renunciation of Manichaeism’, Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 26 (1983).Google Scholar
Lieu, S. N. C. Manichaeism in Mesopotamia and the Roman East (Leiden, 1994).
Lieu, S. N. C. Manichaeism in the later Roman empire and medieval China (Tübingen, 1992).
MacKenzie, D. N. ‘I, Mani …’, in Preißler, H. and Seiwert,, H. eds., Gnosisforschung und Religionsgeschichte, Festschrift für Prof. Kurt Rudolph (Marburg, 1994).Google Scholar
Mani, , Kephalaia, eds. Polotsky, H.-J., Böhlig, A. and Funk, W.-P. (Stuttgart, 1940–).
Nagel, P. ‘Neues griechisches Material zu Titus von Bostra’, in Ibscher,, H. ed., Studia Byzantina (Berlin, 1973), 11.Google Scholar
Prayer of the Emanations. Ed. Jenkins, R. G., ‘The Prayer of the Emanations in Greek from Kellis’, Le muséon 108 (1995).Google Scholar
Roberts, C. H., ed. and trans. Catalogue of the Greek and Latin papyri in the John Rylands Library Manchester, Vol. III: Theological and literary texts (Manchester, 1938).
Schipper, H. G. and Oort, J.. Leo Magnus, sermones et epistulae, Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum, Series Latina 1 (Turnhout, 2000).
,Serapion of Thmuis. Contra Manichaeos. Ed. Casey, P. P., Serapion of Thmuis against the Manichees, Harvard Theological Studies 15 (Cambridge, MA, 1931).
,Titus of Bostra. Adversus Manichaeos. Ed. Lagarde, P. A., Titi Bostreni quae ex opere contra Manichaeos edito in codice Hamburgensis servata sunt (Berlin, 1859).
Vermes, M. Hegemonius, Acta Archelai, Manichaean Studies 4 (Turnhout, 2001).

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×