Manicheanism and St Augustine - Essay Example

Manicheanism and St. Augustine. Manicheanism is an ancient Gnostic religion which took root in Babylon and Central Asia in the third century A.D. It was founded by Mani, as an eclectic synthesis of Christianity, Buddhism and Zoroasterianism. Manicheanism is irretrievably linked to its’ most renowned, though temporary, believer: St. Augustine of Hippo, who was arguably “the most influential Christian thinker of all time outside of the New Testament” (Samples, Facts for Faith Web site). Augustine’s adherence to Manicheanism was but a passing phase in his intellectual quest for the truth and was rejected by him once his intellectual and spiritual conflicts were resolved by Christianity. The fortuitous discovery of Manichean manuscripts in Turfan in the beginning of the twentieth century has thrown light on the history of the religion and its’ founder. Mani was born in Mardinu, a village in Babylon, in 215 – 216 A.D. to Fatak Babak and Marmajam, of noble Iranian lineage. Mani was a honorific and his true name does not survive, although it is postulated to be Shuraik. At twelve, Mani apparently had a revelation, in which the angel, ‘At Taum’ or ‘the Twin,’ urged him to embrace chastity, and later, to spread the doctrine of his new religion to others. On March 20, 242 A.D. when Sapor 1 was crowned King of Babylon, Mani proclaimed the birth of his new religion to the public: “As once Buddha came to India, Zoroaster to Persia and Jesus to the lands of the West, so came in the present time, this prophecy through me, the Mani, to the land of Babylonia” (Arendzen, The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies Web site). Mani’s teachings found little acceptance in Babylon, until he gained access to the royal court. Later, he was exiled and spread his message to foreign lands, as afar as India and China. He was reinstated in court by Ormzud in 274. However, the machinations of the Zoroasterian priests led to King Bahram ordering him to be tortured and killed in 276 - 277. His corpse was publicly flayed, stuffed and crucified as a deterrent to other followers of this ‘heretical religion.’ The teachings of Manicheanism centered on the distinct dualism of mind and matter, of light and darkness, of good and evil. Salvation can be attained by liberating light from the engulfing darkness. Mani used an effective combination of myth, preaching and reasoning to spread his new religion. At the origin of the universe, the eternal Paradise of Light extended limitlessly towards the North, West and East, presided over by the Father of Greatness and the five Aeons of ether, air, wind, water and fire, or intelligence, thought, reason, reflection and will. The Hell of Darkness extended southwards, ruled by the Devil or Prince of Darkness, with his five Archons: smoke, fire, storm, mud and darkness, represented by a demon, a lion, an eagle, a fish and a dragon. The Devil attacked the Realm of Light with his demons. In response, the Father of Greatness evoked the Great Spirit, the Mother of the Living and the First Man. Armed with the five light elements, which constituted his armor and his soul, the First Man battled the forces of Evil and contained their spread. However, he was finally overwhelmed by the demons which engulfed his soul, and light and darkness intermingled. The First Man called for help. The Father now evoked the Friend of Light, the Great Builder and the Living Spirit, with his five sons: the Keeper of Splendor, the King of Honor, the Adamas of Light, the King of Glory and Atlas. The forces of evil were vanquished. Then, in conjunction with all the preceding emanations and the redeeming Third Messenger and the Maiden of Light, the earth was created, with the sun, moon, stars and all life on earth, which was the New Paradise, with the First Man as its’ ruler. Adam and Eve were the result of demons swallowing light, with a Light Soul denoting virtue and a Dark Soul denoting greed, envy and lust, which perpetuated the human bondage through regeneration. Salvation was attained by knowledge brought by the prophets and by repentance and determination. Manicheanism postulated reincarnation until the soul realized perfect virtue. After Judgment Day, the New Paradise would become one with the Paradise of Light and Hell would be finally sealed (Boyce and Apiryon, The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies Web site). The Manichean ethic promoted chastity and virtue, citing lust as the cause of perpetuating the bondage of light to darkness. The Community was divided into the Elect, who embraced a monastic life of ascetism and preaching and the Hearers, who were concerned with the necessary toil of daily life. Prayers, hymns, fasting and penitence were part of the creed. After Mani’s death, though subject to persecution and proscription, his religion survived in Cental Asia and parts of China until it died out in the fourteenth century. Mani deliberately incorporated some aspects of Christianity into his new religion, in order to enhance its’ appeal. He considered Jesus to be his forerunner and included in his pantheon Jesus the Splendor - a redeeming God, Jesus the Sufferer - the Living Spirit and Jesus the Prophet - the Son of God. The Father of Greatness, the Mother of the Living and the First Man constitute a Trinity, resembling the Father, Son and Holy Spirit of Christianity. Manicheanism followed baptism and the Eucharist. Mani declared himself to be the Paraclete or Prophet promised by Jesus, styling himself “Apostle of Jesus Christ by the providence of God the Father (Arendzen, The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies Web site).” Mani rejected the validity of the historical Jesus of Nazereth and denounced him as “a devil who was justly punished for interfering with the work of the Aeon Jesus” (Arendzen). Likewise, Mani selectively interpreted the Gospels to suit his religion. Mani viewed the body as inherently evil, as opposed to Christian belief that, as it was created by God, the body was good. Manichean determinism was opposed to Christian support of free will. Ironically, Mani considered himself to be a Christian. Augustine was brought up by a devout Christian mother, but her teachings fell away when he was sent to Carthage to study and found himself “in the midst of a hissing cauldron of lust” (Augustine, qtd. in Samples, Facts for Faith), where he took a mistress at the age of seventeen. Cicero’s Hortensius exerted a strong influence on Augustine, who compared its’ emphasis on wisdom and truth with the ambiguous Christian scriptures and found the latter lacking in worth. This set him on the path to Manicheanism, which promised to “synthesize the true teachings of Christ with Classical wisdom” (Samples). Manicheanisms’ open criticism of the Scripture reflected Augustine’s mind set during that period of doubt. Manicheanisms’ rejection of the humanity of Jesus, holding him to be completely spiritual and only ‘appearing’ to die on the cross, seemed to resolve Augustine’s confusion regarding mind and matter. Its’ clear-cut depiction of evil proposed a solution to his dilemma: if God was good and created everything in his image, how did evil emerge? Manicheanisms’ fatalistic view of man as a helpless pawn in the battle between good and evil gave Augustine a justification to abdicate responsibility for his own sensuality. Above all, it was the intellectual stagnation of the Christianity of that time, which rejected reason and truth for blind, unquestioning faith, which drove Augustine to Manicheanism. The Manichean doctrine of theological vigor, which sanctioned reason and truth as the premise of belief, was more sympathetic to Augustine’s quest for the truth than the hectoring authority of Christianity (Copan, 287-95). Augustine’s disillusionment with Manicheanism paralleled his intellectual and spiritual maturity. His continuing quest for the truth exposed the flaws in Manicheanism. He found Manicheanisms’ ascetic demands to be unrealistic and could not accept its’ affirmation of astrology, which Augustine reasoned to be false. Augustine opposed the fact that the Manicheans, professing to be Christians after all, celebrated the Bema, or death of Mani, on a grander scale than they did the death and resurrection of Christ. While earlier, Manicheanisms’ strict proscription of carnal instincts was sympathetic to Augustine’s own struggle to subjugate his lust, he could now not accept Manicheanisms’ repudiation of marriage and maternity and its’ urge to use chastity as a tool to stop the regeneration of the human race in order to hasten the liberation of light. Previously, Augustine was content to abdicate responsibility for his sensuality and blame Satan, but his newfound belief in free will rejected that premise (Arendzen). Augustine’s rejection of Manicheanism was complete when the Manichean leader, Faustus of Mileve failed to satisfactorily deal with his doubts (The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy). At this juncture, Augustine’s encounter with Bishop Ambrose of Milan, who combined intellectual vigor and faith with moral integrity and an allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures, was the turning point which led irrevocably to Augustine’s conversion to Christianity. His exposure to Neoplatonism helped Augustine to perceive the reason in Christianity’s conception of evil as a deprivation rather than a substance created by God, and to escape the shackles of materialism. Augustine’s intellect and spirit had outgrown the confines of Manicheanism and found a home in the wider horizons of Christianity: It was more a homecoming than a conversion. Works Cited. Arendzen, J.P. Mani and his Message. Iranian Religions: Manichaeism. The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies. Revised 28 November, 2006. 5 December, 2006 < http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Manichaeism/mani_message.htm > Apiryon, T. Mani. Iranian Religions: Manichaeism. The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies. Revised 28 November, 2006. 5 December, 2006 < http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Manichaeism/mani.htm > Augustine 354 - 430. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2006 5 December,2006 < http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/augustin.htm#H2 > Boyce, Mary. An Introduction to Manichaeism. Extracted and Edited from A Reader in Manichaean Middle Persian and Parthian. Iranian Religions: Manichaeism. The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies. Revised 28 November, 2006. 5 December, 2006 < http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Manichaeism/manichaeism.htm > Clark, Gillian. Augustine and Manichaeism. From the Introduction to her Cambridge Latin edition of Confessions, Books 1-1V. Iranian Religions: Manichaeism. The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies. Revised 28 November, 2006. 5 December, 2006 < http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Manichaeism/ augustine_manichaeism.htm > Copan, Paul. St. Augustine and the Scandal of the North African Catholic Mind. Article from the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 41/2 (June 1998): 287-95. 5 December, 2006 < http://www.paulcopan.com/articles/scandal-of-the-north-african-catholic-mind.html > Samples, Kenneth Richard. Augustine of Hippo Part 1: From Pagan, to Cultist, to Skeptic, to Christian Sage. Reasons to Believe: Facts for Faith Issue 5, 2001 5 December, 2006 < http://reasons.org/resources/fff/2001issues05/index.shtml#augustine_pt1 > Read More