Tractates on the Gospel of John (continued)
INTRODUCTION 15
Manichaeism in the ancient world. Augustine himself, as is well known, was for nine years a Manichee; as everything that Augustine did had a profound effect upon his intellectual development, this period of his life is obviously very important for understanding the growth of his theological thought.
Many of Augustine's writings are directed against the Manichaean teachings and against Manichaeans such as the renowned Manichaean theologian, Faustus, and the priest, Fortunatus, who, after his debate with Augustine, is said to have left Carthage and never returned. Some of Augustine's views developed out of his reflections upon and debates with Manichaean doctrine, as, for example, the wrongness of the dualistic world view, the perfection and incorruptibility of God, the necessity that God be the sole creator of the world, the nature of evil as the privation of good, and sin as the act of weak but free wills.
(17) As one reads these Tractates, however, the impression is left that Manichaeism was not a very grave danger among
Augustine's congregation; it was, nonetheless, quite persistent in its missionary zeal and Augustine does refer to it on occasion in these sermons. Although Manichaean ideas lay in the background of some of his discussions, in direct confrontation with it here, his chief aim is to expose the absurdity of its Christian elements, such as identifying Jesus with the sun,^^
50. See F. Burkitt, The Religion of the Manichees (Cambridge, 1935), 42-43, 66-67, Widengren, Mani and Manichaeism, tr. C. Kessler (London, 1965), 72 — 73, 122 — 123, although L. Koenen, "Augustine and Manicheism in light of the Cologne Mani Codex," Illinois Classical Studies 3 (1978) 154—195, shows that there was a considerable Christian element in Manichaeism from its beginnings.
51. A good brief summary of Augustine and Manichaeism is provided by S. Hopper, "The Anti-Manichaean Writings," in A Companion to the Study of St. Augustine, ed. R. Battenhouse (New York, 1955), 148-178. Augustine's intellectual development was a complex and prolonged process and one must be cautious of overly simple summaries. He was widely read in ancient philosophy as it was available to an educated man of the Latin West; so, for example, Neo-Platonism heavily influenced his critique of Manichaeism, and while it led him toward his later Christian positions, it also put his thought into a cast that must be considered carefully for an exact understanding and presentation of his views, as his rejection of Manichaean dualism did not remove from his thought a Neo-Platonic dualism.
52. See Tractate 34.2.