Augustine in His Own Words
Paul. Still, they denied that Jesus had truly become human (and thus rejected the Incarnation) and interpreted Jesus' death as purely symbolic. Manichean congregations had two levels or ranks: Elect and Hearers.6 The Elect were the evangelists. They committed themselves to a life of wandering and spreading the Manichean message of salvation. They were austere ascetics, and practiced disciplines of celibacy and vegetarianism. Hearers, by contrast, were allowed to marry and hold jobs but were expected to provide hospitality for wandering Elect.
For centuries, much of what was known of Manicheism came from what could be reconstructed from Augustine's polemic. That changed in the early twentieth century. Archeologists discovered the ruins of Manichean monasteries and remnants of Manichean manuscripts in Turfan in central Asia, where eighth-century Uighur Turks had adopted Manicheism as the state religion. This was the first of a series of key discoveries. In 1929, workmen stumbled upon a cache of papyri in Medimet Madi in Egypt. These included a remarkable Manichean Psalm Book and a theological tract called the Kephalaia of the Teacher. In 1969, there was another remarkable discovery, a manuscript known as the Cologne Mani Codex. This pocket-size booklet contained Mani's purported autobiography, Concerning the Origin of His Body.7 Archeologists have recently uncovered remains of a thriving Manichean community in Kellis in Egypt.
Augustine converted to Manicheism during his student days in Carthage and remained a Hearer for some years (he says nine).8 In Confessions, he says that he became increasingly dissatisfied with Manicheism intellectually but continued to rely on Manichean contacts for his career, including when he moved to Rome in 383 and again when he sought the position of orator for Milan in 384. Only after arriving in Milan and after hearing the preaching of Ambrose and reading the books of the Platonists did he make his decisive break. Some of Augustine's earliest works, written in the aftermath of his baptism, confront Manicheism. He continued to compose anti-Manichean treatises after his ordination as a presbyter in Hippo and during his early years as bishop. Debate with Manicheism forms a central thread running through his Confessions.
Manicheism may seem a rather arcane religion, of little interest to any except historians of antiquity. One might presume, therefore, that Augustine's polemic against it would be of little long-term theological significance. The
6. See Jason D. BeDuhn, The Manichaean Body in Discipline and Ritual (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).
7. For a translation of the Cologne Mani Codex, see Gardner and Lieu, Manichaean Texts, 46–84. 8. De utilitate credendi 1.2 (CSEL 25.1:4); conf. 3.11.20 (CCL 27:38). See O'Donnell, 2:297–98.