Manichaeism is something that is rarely talked about today. And yet, it was kind of a big deal.
It was an ancient religion, this Manichaeism. It was not just a mystery religion. It was not just an enlightenment religion. In all actuality, it was a giant synthesis of the various gnostic near-east religious sects, a giant, moralistic machine that exerted such a force on the early church that few have overestimated it's prowess.
And why was it so attractive? This sect offered a worldview far superior to that of the Christian: it offered ancient thinkers real, concrete, reasonable ways in which to view the natural world through his sense of reason. Furthermore, it contended that even God could be immanent and personal, if only one possessed the Manichean secret knowledge. Its cosmology offered a way to understand basic ontology as good and evil, physical and immaterial, Good God and Bad God. And within this ontological-cosmological reality, it proposed to do the unthinkable: it attempted to solve the problems of evil in the individual, in the scriptures, and in the world.
And so, it is once again our work to understand the mechanism behind this great gnostic worldview, and perhaps its most interesting feature (it's cosmological myth), so that we might understand but one example of the gnosticism that latched itself on to the early christian message.
Of course, this is begging the question: what is Manichaeism?
Manichaeism was a religion originally taught by a Persian prophet named Mani around 216 A.D. Mani spend some time in India after being persecuted in his homeland, but returned home and found favor with the ruling family. However, when the ruler of Persia died, he was replaced by a man unsympathetic to Mani's interpretation (or lack of regard) for traditional Persian religion, and the prophet was condemned to be flayed alive. His skin was then stuffed with straw and crucified to the main gate, where it was guarded by his decapitated head (which was placed on a spike). This began the great persecution of his disciples, that is, the Manicheans, persecution which would follow them practically everywhere they went from then on. Eventually, the Manicheans sought refuge in the Roman Empire (especially Imperial Africa), and that is where they enter in to Church History textbooks.
Now, though, let's move on to their complex cosmology. The Manichean traditional myth (though there was, perhaps, hardly a monolithic tradition) was a series of complex and, frankly, extravagant stories. The entire religion revolved around two kingdoms: the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness. The Kingdom of Light was ruled by the Father of Greatness, who was, with his kingdom, a passive force. The Kingdom of Darkness, on the other hand, was ruled by five very active rulers who ruled five gulfs, each containing a certain form of matter. The Kingdom of Light extended from the east and the west, and then to the north, whereas the Kingdom of Darkness cut like a wedge through the middle of the Kingdom of Light, extending to the South (though both kingdoms were entirely separate).
Unfortunately, this geography gave the convenient opportunity for the rulers of the Kingdom of Darkness to wage war upon the Kingdom of Light, and so attempt to defile the Father of Lights. In response to this threat, the Father of Greatness evoked a being from his very essence: the Mother of Life, who, in turn, evoked another being called “Primal Man.” Primal Man, being clothed in the soul of the Father of Greatness (the five elements), went out to the boarder of the kingdoms and waged war with the rulers of the Kingdom of Darkness. The evil rulers left him beaten senseless and unconscious on the field, devouring the soul of the Father of Greatness. However, in devouring the soul of the Father of Greatness, these archons sealed their own demise; light was mixed with their darkness, and their ruin was upon them.
The remainder of the myth focused on the work of the Living Spirit. The Living Spirit was evoked by the Father of Greatness in order to rescue Primal Man from the Kingdom of Darkness. Once this was completed, it was left for the Living Spirit to once again separate the soul of The Father of Greatness from the evil darkness and matter in which it was lodged. The demons, however, thwarted the Living Spirit’s efforts, and through copulation trapped the light within their offspring, Adam and Eve. Therefore, the Father of Greatness had to send Jesus Christ to rouse Adam from his sleep, awaken him to the previously described cosmology, and warn him against the folly of copulating with his wife, Eve (for this would only prolong the mixture of darkness and light). Eve, of course, being the weaker being (and filled with more darkness), seduced her husband to disobey the command of Christ, and thus the human race was propagated.
And this concludes the basic structure of the cosmological myth.
One can see, upon first glance, that this myth is one based entirely on revelation - you cannot know it without being taught it. The Father of Greatness has revealed all of these things to us: but because of our natural darkness (which was propagated by Eve), the human race was trapped in the chains of bafflement until that time.
A second observation is that Manichaeism is inherently dualistic (insightful, I know!). The Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness are inherently opposed to each other. They are locked in a cosmic struggle of good versus evil. And as a result, one must conclude that he is both good and evil, and that the world around him is both good and evil. The material world is evil. The spiritual world is good.
Along with this goes the answer to the age old question: whence cometh evil? The cosmological myth of the Manichees allows a pious reply: Not from God. In fact, it's not even of God's substance. In fact, it's from the evil rulers of the Kingdom of Darkness. This, however, will run into problems when one considers the Hebrew and Greek conceptions of God's Transcendence and Immutability.
A fourth observation is that the Manichees can speak of the Father of Light as having almost endless evocations (or, possibly, emanations). All good things are an emanation of the Father of Goodness, whereas all bad things are emanations from the Kingdom of Darkness.
One final observation should be more than enough for our purposes: in this myth, Jesus is not the savior one finds in the scriptures, or in the traditional Niceno-Constantinopolitan confessions of faith. Though he is sent from the Father of Greatness, he is not the Father of Greatness. And, though he is sent to earthy Adam, Christ is spiritual, not physical or human. He wakes Adam from his sleep in the same way he has roused us from our unenlightened state, so that we may now walk in the ways prescribed by the Prophet of the Manichean Religion, Mani himself.
There are many other observations that could be made concerning the Manichean religious movement. It is far more complex than we know, even today, so all such observations must be qualified as "generalizations." Among the literature that has survived down through the ages, we have preserved Manichean hymns, dedicated to the Father of Lights and even to the revelation of the Father, Jesus Christ. We know of its extreme asceticism from its own writings and the writings of the church's saints, especially St. Augustine. And we know that it did not collapse with the fall of Africa - rather, it survived, allegedly, well past the fall of Carthage to the Visigoths.
However, this is once again getting ahead of ourselves, and is most certainly beyond the scope of this brief article. This should suffice for a first-glance treatment of the Manichean cosmological myth.
