CONTENT:
Introduction
Beginnings
Formative Period.
The conflicts and persecutions:
The End
Manichaean theology
The battle of Intermingling
Teachings
Notes
References
Introduction.
Figure 1 shows the Mediterranean Sea on the left and India on the far right. The darkened area outlines the extent of the area in which Mani traveled during his lifetime, spreading his message. He was twenty-four years of age when he started his mission and about sixty when he died a martyr's death in 277 AD. However, his syncretic message spread in time to Spain in the West and China in the East, where Portuguese sailors encountered Manichaean ideas in the seventeenth century.
Therefore, Manichaeism as it is called, was a world religion before Christianity and Islam, but ceased to exist as such about one thousand years after it started in 240. This raises questions as to why it spread so far and wide and then disappeared into apparent oblivion. The short answers are that Mani combined popular ideas from existing, but older religions into a new belief and secondly that Manichaean practice became controversial in the end to the religions from which it borrowed.
These short answers are insufficient to give us an understanding of the influence that Manichaeism had in Antiquity and still has to this day. For example, there is the case of the Christian Roman Saint Augustine who was a Manichaean believer (373-382) early on and after his conversion influenced Christianity with his ideas and theology. Secondly, there are the references in Islamic literature that point to the Manichaean aspects of some Shiite traditions.
A more general consideration is that beliefs adapt and change with time and circumstance, which means that the influence of older traditions continue to affect and inform present day practices and beliefs. The New Thought movement today is an example of a modern tradition that combines Christian with Buddhist and Hindi teachings, among others. Other 'spirituality' movements combine various religious ideas into a variety of modern syncretic assemblies for guidance and inspiration in our world to day.
Hence, we may gain a better understanding of the various beliefs of today by studying the development of an early syncretic movement that Manichaeism was from 240 for more than a thousand (1 000) years, still being of relevance today.
TopBeginnings:
The city of Ctesiphon was an active urban center among several in the 'land between the rivers', meaning Mesopotamia. In it, influences from Greek philosophy, Christianity, Gnosticism and Buddhism mingled with the religion of Zoroastrianism, which was native to Persia itself.
Mani was born on April 14, 216 in the city of Ctesiphon, Mesopotamia, see map 1, close to the present location of Bagdad, Iraq. He grew up in a community of Judeo-Christian baptizers called Elkesaites who were spread throughout Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia at the time. At the age of twelve (12) Mani had a revelation instructing him to break with that tradition, which was followed by another one at the age of twenty-four (24) telling him to make his teachings public as the "Apostle of Light".
Mani traveled to the eastern regions near India early on and later to the western districts near the Roman Empire limits over the years from 240 to 273, returning at times to the capital. His Emperor protector Shapur I dies in 272, which opened up the opportunity of the sidelined Zoroastrian Magi priests ( Kerder) to convince the new Emperor Bahram to imprison Mani, who died as a result in 277. Persecutions of the Manichaean believers followed, which in turn resulted in the belief spreading into the Roman Empire, which was itself the political enemy of Persia and its Sassanid rulers.
Mani as prophet:
From the "Shahpurakan2", written by Mani the following:
'From aeon to aeon the apostles of God did not cease to bring here the Wisdom and the Works. Thus … into the countries of India through the apostle Buddha, into the land of Persia through Zoroaster; into the land of the West through Jesus. After that, in this age, this revelation came down and this prophethood arrived through myself, Mani, the apostle of the true God, into the land of Babel.'
This was Mani's claim in an old tradition of continuing messengers for humankind. Mani simply took his place in the tradition on the strength of the revelations3 he experienced.
In his teachings, Mani used a modified version of the much older teachings of prophet Zoroaster4 as the core of his theology. To these central ideas he added some well accepted Gnostic concepts, supplementing these with Christian and Buddhist ideas and practices.
Many of these ideas already circulated in Mani's cultural environment, but separately. It was Mani's genius, drive and mission to forge a combination that simplified this 'massa confusa', as the later Alchemists might have called this religious mixture.
TopFormative Period.
Influences and borrowings:
The idea monasticism, celibacy and vegetarianism are all aspects encountered in Buddhism5, but absent from Zoroastrianism. The concept of rebirth and the accumulation of merits came from India.
The idea of a manifested Saviour, not just one expected, is unique to Christianity6, as are the teachings of charity, but the latter did not figure into Manichaeism. Mani was selective in what he borrowed from other traditions, as is shown by the absence of Moses as prophet.
Zoroastrianism knows good and evil as powers in their own right. Evil is not just the absence of good as we see that in the West today, but rather evil is a power to be defeated. Mani replaced this good versus evil conflict with the Gnostic version of Light versus Darkness. This allowed him to include many other gnostic concepts in his theology.
Greek influence shows in the use of rational the approach and scientific concepts. These combined with religious ideas to form a Theosophy that explains the Cosmos and the human position in rational terms. This is the approach that attracted Augustine originally to Mani's teaching.
Mani did not accept the New Testament or Zoroaster's scripture7, but wrote his own instead, consisting of about half a dozen works8. His purpose was to prevent the disagreements that existed in Christianity at the time about the nature of the Christ and the origin of the various Christian writings.
Manichaean would examine that kind of religious literature to sort out what they considered 'the truth' and reject the rest as 'ignorance'. The ultimate authority on this was Mani himself and his writings. Later, this tactic became a source of irritation with other believers, leading to persecution of Manichaean believers when the authorities perceived Mani's teachings as a threat.
The conflicts and persecutions:
In most cases, Mani's teachings were well received at the start as the various rulers gave the new teachings their blessing. This occurred with Shapur I, the early ruler of the Sassanid Empire in Persia in 240 and later, when Manichaeism became the state religion of the Uigur Empire in 7629.
The Manichaean teachings appealed because of the syncretic and a-political in nature, aiming at an other worldly existence as the ultimate goal.
However, over time conflicts would arise for several reasons. For example, as the new religion gained influence, it would become a threat to the older established order. This happened during Mani's lifetime in his own country, after the death of his protector Shapur I. Conflict with the new ruler Bahram and the chief priest Kerder, reformer of the national Zoroastrian religion, led to Mani's death in chains ca 27710.
Conflicts and disputes arose with the religions from which Manichaeism had borrowed as it acquired its syncretic teachings and those established beliefs were losing members.
Another problem was the political reliability of the Manichaean believer, because religious beliefs were often aligned the state. A believer who held Christian ideas while living in the Persian Empire could easily be suspected of colluding with the hostile Roman state.
In addition, Manichaean were allowed to deny their faith when in dire need and under threat, which made them subject to suspicions even by their neighbours.
The persecutions that started in Persia under Bahram resulted in Manichaean fleeing into the hostile Roman Empire. This is how Augustine11 learned about the Manichaeism and became a believer. Once the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as its state religion, the Manichaean were targeted as 'heretics' and persecuted as such.
Over time, with the Islam spreading, Mani's beliefs were again tolerated in Iran (Persia) and spread further east all the way into China and the mentioned Uigur Empire.
TopThe End
Everywhere the Manichaean belief spread it was well received at first because of its syncretic nature, but after some time would come into conflict with the local religion from which it had borrowed. This conflict was due in part to the mentioned Manichaean policy of rejecting other people's teachings as 'ignorance' when those did not fit.
This then would combine with the mentioned lack of reliable political adherence, which gave their enemies a point of advantage with the local ruler. It is my own opinion that the mentioned factors combined against the Manichaean and with time led to the disappearance of the religion itself, though many of its ideas and concepts are still with us in the various other religions.
The last vestiges of Manichaeism12 were in West China around 1400, while in the West the last of the Manichaean (Paulicians) were absorbed into the Bulgarian Roman Catholic church in ca 1700.
Yet many ideas of this syncretic early world religion are still in circulation today in the established world religions, as well as in the modern day Spirituality movements, which again look for a syncretic belief for our modern age with its diversity of value frameworks.
TopManichaean theology.
.Foundation:
Like Mani, Zoroaster was a religious innovator about 1 500 years earlier from North East of the modern city of Kabul in Afghanistan. Zoroaster took his husbanding and hunting people away from the sacrifice-centered cult of that time, to an ethics based framework.
It centered on the two principles of good and evil and the three stages in time progressing from a beginning state, through a state of intermingling, to one of salvation in the end. Mani adapted the two principles and the three stages in the following way.
The two principles became 'Light' and 'Darkness', a Gnostic way of viewing the old problem of 'good' and 'evil'. 'God' corresponds to light, while evil equates to 'matter' or the devil. Both are of equal origin - coeval -, which resolves the problem of the origin of evil found in Christianity.
Instead, evil is accepted as being present everywhere, but can be defeated by 'knowledge' - this is very Gnostic. This knowledge brings about the separation of light and dark, leading to salvation.
The three stages are as follows: a). Light and Dark exist in an initial state of separation. Change comes due to Darkness and disorder moving towards Light, to which the Light reacts. This results in a state (b.) of Light and Dark intermingling, which is our world at present, a battleground between the forces of Light and Darkness.
In the third stage (c.), Darkness is overcome and locked into a deep pit, where it still exists but with its powers gone. Light is triumphant and the state of complete separation is restored resulting in clearness and understanding.
The battle of Intermingling
Cosmogony and Anthropogeny.
The apostle Paul14 in about 40AD refers to the need to fight the principalities of darkness. Two hundred years later Mani develops an elaborate scheme of this battle consisting of three creations with which the 'Father of Greatness' counters the advances of the Prince of Darkness.
First Creation:
'The Father of Greatness' calls forth the 'Mother of Life', who in turn calls forth 'Primal Man'. The Persian Manichaean called him "Ormuzd15", which links the 'Primal Man' to Zoroastrianism. He is defeated by the powers of Darkness, losing his soul (light) and becoming imprisoned in Darkness, which so acquires light.
Second Creation:
Upon regaining consciousness the 'Primal man' prays to the 'Father of Greatness', who responds with creating 'Friend of Lights' who calls forth the 'Great Architect', in turn calling forth the 'Living Spirit'. It descends into Hell, finds the 'Primal Man' and calls out to him. This restores the 'Primal Man' who ascends, but leaving behind the Soul (light), which was too much intermingled with darkness. In a following action, 'King of Light' orders certain powers of Darkness (Archons16) to create the Macrocosmos.
This sets some light free - the stars! -, but most still remains imprisoned.
Third Creation:
The Mother of Life, Primal Man and Living Spirit now beseech the 'Father of Greatness' to create cycles of revolution for the motionless Moon and Sun to affect the transport of light. The 'Father of Greatness' responds with the creation of the 'Messenger', who sets the ships of Light - Moon, Sun and Zodiac - in motion, resulting in a process of cosmic salvation through the transport upward of the light trapped in Nature.
This initial light, so shipped on high is contaminated with impurities, which fall back to earth as seeds growing into plants, trees and animals. This keeps the light from these seeds trapped in earthly existence.
To counter further loss of light due to the ships of Light, the Prince of Darkness now creates Adam and Eve to trap the light that remains to him. The human is now the battle ground in which Light seeks restoration and Darkness survival.
The 'Messenger' is now persuaded by the other powers of light to make 'innocent' Adam aware of the dangers of seduction. The Messenger, as the 'Luminous Jesus' meets Adam in Paradise and instructs him to eat the fruit of the Knowledge tree. This ensures that the light in the fruit's seed enters into Adam. The Saviour also warns Adam not to be seduced by Eve, as this would lead to procreation and the further trapping of light in material human off spring.
TopTeachings
The daily path of Light and Knowledge:
The three creations describe the Manichaean worldview how light has become trapped in material existence through the state of intermingling and needs to be freed. However, the primal counter aim of Darkness is to remain in possession of the light it has in this intermingled state of general existence. Therefore it uses the light in its possession to create the physical world to keep its light trapped in matter and ignorant. This darkness must be defeated and humans are the actors in this struggle, who are instructed and informed by Mani's teachings.
The culture in which Mani's teachings were set is called Antiquity, which lasted for centuries. At that time the Greek scholar Ptolemy from Alexandria was the dominant authority on Astronomy, Geography and the physical world. It was his theory that humans saw because light came from their eyeballs, not correct, but not disproven until many centuries later by Ibn al-Haytham17 ca 1 000AD.
This erroneous theory of sight supported the widely held Gnostic idea that the soul was like a spark of light within human. This made Mani's teachings that the light of the soul was in the body a natural concept, easily accepted.
The Manichaean community held that there were three types of people. First were the elect or the 'true', which followed a celibate life style dedicated to the teachings. Second came the 'hearers' or 'soldiers', they were married following the rules of the community. The third group was called the sinners, whose souls would fall into the power of darkness.
After death the souls of the elect would go to the 'Paradise of Light', while the Soldier's soul would return to the 'world and its terrors' until it too would achieve the status of the elect. During life the human Soldier could gain merit points by helping the elect, living piously, praising others, practicing pure words, thoughts and by abstaining from meat, but eating fruit and vegetables instead.
Upon death of the purified human, the elect, its soul would as light ascend to the sphere of the Moon, which received them 'incessantly from the first to the middle of the month' - full Moon - 'and then it guides them to the Sun until the end of the month'. The Sun in turn transmits the Light to the Light above - the Zodiac - arriving at the highest Light.
This process was in evidence for everyone to see in the night sky and during daytime. Its appeal is expressed in the following quote: "this matter is obvious even to the blind"18
This process of the ships of Light ferrying the souls to the highest Light above was destined to continue as follows: