group topic “Manichaesim”

02Feb10

This is a Persian Iranian religious belief system originating with the prophet Mani in the 3rd century A.D. It is an elaborate religious tradition with a duality basic to it – that of the opposition between good (light) and evil (darkness).
It is a religion which spread widely across both the East and West, reaching China, where in the medieval period Christians like Marco Polo mistook it for a Christian religion. In fact there are reasons why Christians would have thought it was related to or a version of Christianity, like Nestorian Christianity because it was a religious tradition that incorporated into it Jesus, Buddha and other “God” figures. In this way, like Islam, it does not emerge out of totally separate traditions, and as a result links between many ancient religions that were prominent in the early centuries A.D. can be established, even though Manichaeism was seen as more of a threat than able to be embraced or exist alongside other religious traditions.
The Mani-Codex, as Aitke writes, shows that Mani came himself from some variant of Christian-Judaism cult, at a time when the two religions shared traditions directly rather than were separated out from each other. Mani in fact competed directly with the Christian Church which banned the religion from Rome after Rome became Christian. Its appeal lies in its discussion of good and evil existing in every one rather than outside of man, giving it an almost psychological nature in the war in the soul. (Aitke)
While it incorporated ideas and symbols from any religion dominating in the region it spread to, revealing a high degree of scholarship on the part of Mani and his main followers, there is a question about whether it is syncretic or not. Syncretic religions usually mean that there are two or more systems that become joined, like Native people in Canada transforming Catholic Saints into or alongside of nature spirits, finding harmony or intermingling, but in Manichaeism there is more of a constant core of set beliefs (the duality principle) that still underlies and gives the religion its uniqueness. If anything it seems to suggest a way to find a universal set of religious symbols in all religions and then how to integrate those concepts into its overarching and complex system, perhaps as a means to try to show its superiority over other religions, or to prove it is the true, one system that all others belong to.

Advertisement

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Leave a Comment