Teresa Merrifield, age 15, of Brownsville, Texas, for her question:
WHAT IS MANICHAEISM?
Manichaeism is an ancient religion that was named for its founder, the Persian sage Mani. Starting in the first century and lasting for several centuries, Manichaeism presented a major challenge to Christianity for a time.
Mani was born into an aristocratic family in southern Babylonia (now in Iraq). At the ages of 12 and 24 he experienced visions in which an angel designated him the prophet of a new and ultimate revelation.
On his first missionary journey, Mani reached India where he was influenced by Buddhism. With the protection of the new Persian emperor, Shapur I, Mani preached throughout the empire and sent missionaries to the Roman Empire. The rapid expansion of Manichaeism provoked religious leaders of other faiths.
Mani proclaimed himself the last prophet in a succession that included Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus. Enemies eventually had Mani arrested as a heretic.
The fundamental doctrine of Manichaeism is its dualistic division of the universe into contending realms of good and evil: the realm of Light (spirit), ruled by God, and the realm of Darkness (matter), ruled by Satan.
Originally the two realms were entirely separated, but in a primal catastrophe the realm of Darkness invaded the realm of Light and the two became mixed and engaged in a perpetual struggle. The human race is a result of a microcosm of this struggle.
The human body is material, therefore evil. The human soul is spiritual, a fragment of the divine Light, and must be redeemed from its imprisonment in the body and the world. The path of redemption is through knowledge of the realm of Light imparted by the succession of divine messengers that ends in Mani. With this knowledge the human soul can conquer the carnal desires that perpetuate its imprisonment and ascend to the divine realm.
During the century after Mani's death, Manichaeism spread as far as China in the East and gained followers throughout the Roman Empire, especially in North Africa. The fourth century theologian St. Augustine was a Manichaean for nine years before his conversion to Christianity. He subsequently wrote polemics against the movement, which was also condemned by several popes and Roman emperors.
Although Manichaeism as a distinct religion had disappeared in the West by the early Middle Ages, its continuing influence can be traced in the medieval dualistic heresies of the Albigenses, Bogomils and Paulicians.
Also, much of the Gnostic Manichaean world view survives in many modern religious movements and sects.
Mani, believing that the failure of previous prophets to write down their teachings led to their dilution and distortion by disciples, wrote several books to serve as the scripture of his religion. Fragments of these, along with hymns, catechisms and other texts, were discovered in Chinese Turkestan and Egypt during the early 20th Century.