Manichaeism

Manichaeism is a gnostic religion that originated in Babylonia in the 3d century AD. Its founder was a Persian of noble descent called Mani (or Manes), c.216-c.276.

Manichaeism was long treated as a Christian heresy, but it is more clearly understood as an independent religion, drawing on the diverse resources of Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism.

At about the age of 24, Mani received a special revelation from God, according to which he was called to perfect the incomplete religions founded by earlier prophets--Zoroaster, Buddha, and Christ.

Around the year 242, he undertook an extensive journey as an itinerant preacher, proclaiming himself the "Messenger of Truth," the Paraclete promised by Christ. Traveling throughout the Persian Empire and as far as India, he gathered a considerable following. He met with increasing hostility from the Zoroastrian priests and was finally executed for heresy.

The essence of Manichaeism was the principle of absolute Dualism: the primal conflict between God, represented by light and spirit, and Satan, represented by darkness and the material world. Human beings, created by God, were divine in spirit but they carried within them seeds of darkness, sown by Satan, because of their material bodies.

Salvation, as taught by Mani, requires liberating the seed of light, the soul, from the material darkness in which it is trapped. This is achieved by strict celibacy and ascetic practices. Those who would become perfect are to set three "seals" on their lives: on the mouth, to speak only truth and to abstain from meat or impure food of any kind; on the hands, to refrain from war, killing, or injuring life; on the breast, to render impossible the works of the flesh. This triple seal applies only to the elect or pure; hearers follow a less demanding code. The imperfect are destined to continual rebirth in a world of material bodies.

Manichaeism, which denied the reality of Christ's body and rejected the notion of free will, adapted from Christianity baptism, the Eucharist, and a third sacrament of remission of sins at the time of death. Because of its attitude toward the material world, Manichaeism regarded evil as a physical rather than a moral entity. Women were considered forces of darkness, binding men to the flesh.

The Byzantine emperor Justinian issued an edict against the Manichaeans, and Saint Augustine, who for 9 years had been a Manichee, wrote and spoke against this heresy, as well as described his own experience in his Confessions.

Manichaeism disappeared in the West in about the 6th century, although its doctrines reappeared in the teachings of the Bogomils, Albigenses, and other sects during the Middle Ages. In the East, Manichaeism survived until the 13th century.

- Asmussen, J. P., Manichaean Literature (1975)

A third century dualistic religion, founded by Mani, who fused Persian, Christian, and Buddhist elements into a major new faith. It was fought in the West as a virulent Christian heresy. Mani's religion was a complex Gnostic system offering salvation by knowledge. The main features of Manichaeism were enunciated in an elaborate cosmogonical myth of two absolute and eternal principles which manifest themselves in three eras or "moments."

The first moment describes a radical dualism in a previous age. Light and darkness (good and evil), personified in the Father of Lights and the Prince of Darkness, were both coeternal and independent. In the middle moment Darkness attacked and became mixed with Light in a precosmic fall of primal man. This resulted in a second creation of the material world and man by the evil powers in which Light is trapped in nature and human bodies. Redemption of Light occurs by a cosmic mechanism in the heavens by which particles of Light (souls) are drawn up and fill the moon for fifteen days. In the last phases of the moon Light is transferred to the sun and finally to Paradise. Ever since the fall prophets have been sent by the Father of Lights, such as Zoroaster in Persia, Buddha in India, and Jesus in the West.

But Mani was the greatest prophet who, as the paraclete, proclaimed a salvation by knowledge (gnosis) consisting of strict ascetic practices. In the last days of the second moment a great war is to be concluded with judgment and a global conflagration lasting 1,468 years. Light will be saved and everything material destroyed. In the third moment Light and Darkness will be separated forever as in the primordial division.

In Mani's myth man is lost and fallen in existence, but in essence he is a particle of Light and thus one in substance with God. Individual salvation consists in grasping this truth by illumination from God's Spirit. Christ appears as merely a prophet and is not really incarnate. His teaching about Light and Darkness was falsified by his apostles, who came from Judaism. Mani restored his essential teachings.

Salvation was exemplified in the Manichaen community, a hierarchy of two classes: the Elect, who consisted of Mani's successor, 12 apostles, 72 bishops, and 360 presbyters; and the Hearers. The Elect were "sealed" with a threefold preservative: purity of mouth, abstaining from all ensouled things (meat) and strong drink; purity of life, renouncing earthly property and physical labor which might endanger Light diffused in nature; and purity of heart, forswearing sexual activity. The lower class of Hearers who lived less strenuous lives hoped for later liberation through reincarnation.

Manichaean worship included fasting, daily prayers, and sacramental meals which differed greatly from the Lord's Supper. Hearers served the Elect "alms", fruit such as melons believed to contain great amounts of Light. Baptism was not celebrated since initiation into the community occurred by accepting Mani's wisdom through preaching. Hymn cycles extolling redeeming knowledge were sung to focus believers' attention on the beauty of Paradise, where rescued souls dwelt.

Manichaeism spread both east and west from Persia. In the West it was vigorously fought by both the Christian church and Roman emperors. Opposition was especially strong in Africa under Augustine, who for nine years had been a Hearer. Augustine challenged Manichaeism by denying Mani's apostleship and condemning his rejection of biblical truth. Other critics accused him of inventing fables which made his ideas not a theology or philosophy but a theosophy. Manichaeism survived into the Middle Ages through such sects as the Paulicians and Cathari, which probably developed from the original tradition.

Reference: J. P. Asmussen, Manichaean Literature 1998