Theodicy and Mani
Those who seek not after a god can go the road of favor,
Those who pray to a goddess have grown poor and destitute,
Indeed, in my youth I tried to find out the will of my god,
With prayer and supplication I besought my goddess.
I bore a yoke of profitless servitude,
My god decreed for me poverty instead of wealth
A cripple rises above me, a fool is ahead me,
Rogues are in the ascendant, I am demoted.
- The Babylonian Theodicy, Babylon, circa 1400 BCE
To whom can I speak today?
Hearts are rapacious
And there is no man's heart in which one can trust.
To whom can I speak today?
There are no just persons
And the land is left over to the doers of wrong.
- Dispute of a Man with His Ba, Egypt, 12th Dynasty
During these few weeks, Just like Augustine of Hippo, I think a lot on the problems of the existence of Evil. Why bad things happened to good people? Why we have to suffer?
Is it because God wills it? How would an all-loving God conceives Evil? Is it because the world is marred by the sin of our first forefather? Is it because there's an omnimalevolent Devil? Is it because of good and evil are purely the work of our mind, and suffering is merely māyā, an illusion caused by our own ignorance, our avidyā?
Like Augustine, I look for Manicheanism for answer, unlike Augustine, I am deeply moved by the real answers given by the prophet Mani, instead of the superficial explanations received by the church father.
Not so long ago, I bought a copy of Christ in Dispute (論戰中的基督), an apologetic book on Augustinian christology by Quah Cheok Hooi (柯哲輝), published by Bridge Communication (文橋傳播中心)，a local Chinese Christian publisher with strong fundamentalist leaning.
The first section of the book is devoted into Augustine's assault to Manicheanism, but what C.H. Quah and Augustine himself know about Manicheanism is best to say, skin-deep. Quah's knowledge on Manicheanism, just like almost all of the Christian apologists, are based on second-hand or even third-hand information. Quah's information on Augustinian attack on Manicheanism are best, repetition of previous Christian authors.
Manicheanism is such a beautiful religion, but unfortunately, the campaigns against this religion are so successsful that it is deeply misunderstsood, even the word "manichean" is enough to evoke pejorative meaning.
While searching for information on the Persian prophet's religion of light, I was thrilled when I found the blog of François Favre, an eminent French scholar on Manicheanism. Monsieur Favre's blog generously provide us a library of thought provoking articles and extracts on various topics regarding Manicheanism and gnosticism in general. Almost all of the articles are in French, but a few have been translated into other languages.
Monsieur Favre wrote in his blog, that "plus que jamais, en cette époque incertaine qui est la nôtre, leur (i.e. Mani's) enseignement révolutionnaire mérite d'être entendu".
Truly, in this age chaos, Mani's message is worth to be listend. Mani teaches us that in the beginning, there are two principles: Light and Darkness. Darkness is absent of Light, it is a substance of its own. Then Light and Darkness mingle with each other. Evil and suffering exist not because of some "fruit eating incidents", but because the world is created imperfectly. That does not mean we do not have our own responsibility. Our purpose is to seperate these two. Mani teahces us love, and even though the world is created imperfectly, it contains the substances of Light.
In the year 1215, Bái Yùchán (白玉蟾)，a Taoist priest correctly told his students that Manicheans teach that the earth, the mountains, the rivers, the plants, the fire and the water are the manifestation of Vairocana (毗盧舍那), a Manichean borrowing from the Buddhist term to describe the Pillar of Glory.
Therefore, this is an imperfect world, full of suffering, and our own Light is Jesus Patibilis, the sufferng Christ. And we, are responsible to free our own suffering, and back to the realm of Light. Not only the world, but our flesh, our body, even though it is thane result of the mating of the archons, but we can transform it into a state of health and peacefulness, as indicated in Middle Persian, Sogdian and Chinese Manichean texts.
And yes, there's Evil and there's suffering. The world is created this way, because Evil exists since eternity. But our world is a mixture of both Good and Evil, while we always have to endure the Evil and suffering, let us not forget that there's Light here, and beyond this world, the kingdom of the Father of Greatness lies waiting.
This say, I am not fully converted to Manicheanism, but I am deeply symphatic to its teaching. Who knows, one day I might ot might not become a Manichean?
Those who pray to a goddess have grown poor and destitute,
Indeed, in my youth I tried to find out the will of my god,
With prayer and supplication I besought my goddess.
I bore a yoke of profitless servitude,
My god decreed for me poverty instead of wealth
A cripple rises above me, a fool is ahead me,
Rogues are in the ascendant, I am demoted.
- The Babylonian Theodicy, Babylon, circa 1400 BCE
To whom can I speak today?
Hearts are rapacious
And there is no man's heart in which one can trust.
To whom can I speak today?
There are no just persons
And the land is left over to the doers of wrong.
- Dispute of a Man with His Ba, Egypt, 12th Dynasty
During these few weeks, Just like Augustine of Hippo, I think a lot on the problems of the existence of Evil. Why bad things happened to good people? Why we have to suffer?
Is it because God wills it? How would an all-loving God conceives Evil? Is it because the world is marred by the sin of our first forefather? Is it because there's an omnimalevolent Devil? Is it because of good and evil are purely the work of our mind, and suffering is merely māyā, an illusion caused by our own ignorance, our avidyā?
Like Augustine, I look for Manicheanism for answer, unlike Augustine, I am deeply moved by the real answers given by the prophet Mani, instead of the superficial explanations received by the church father.
Not so long ago, I bought a copy of Christ in Dispute (論戰中的基督), an apologetic book on Augustinian christology by Quah Cheok Hooi (柯哲輝), published by Bridge Communication (文橋傳播中心)，a local Chinese Christian publisher with strong fundamentalist leaning.
The first section of the book is devoted into Augustine's assault to Manicheanism, but what C.H. Quah and Augustine himself know about Manicheanism is best to say, skin-deep. Quah's knowledge on Manicheanism, just like almost all of the Christian apologists, are based on second-hand or even third-hand information. Quah's information on Augustinian attack on Manicheanism are best, repetition of previous Christian authors.
Manicheanism is such a beautiful religion, but unfortunately, the campaigns against this religion are so successsful that it is deeply misunderstsood, even the word "manichean" is enough to evoke pejorative meaning.
While searching for information on the Persian prophet's religion of light, I was thrilled when I found the blog of François Favre, an eminent French scholar on Manicheanism. Monsieur Favre's blog generously provide us a library of thought provoking articles and extracts on various topics regarding Manicheanism and gnosticism in general. Almost all of the articles are in French, but a few have been translated into other languages.
Monsieur Favre wrote in his blog, that "plus que jamais, en cette époque incertaine qui est la nôtre, leur (i.e. Mani's) enseignement révolutionnaire mérite d'être entendu".
Truly, in this age chaos, Mani's message is worth to be listend. Mani teaches us that in the beginning, there are two principles: Light and Darkness. Darkness is absent of Light, it is a substance of its own. Then Light and Darkness mingle with each other. Evil and suffering exist not because of some "fruit eating incidents", but because the world is created imperfectly. That does not mean we do not have our own responsibility. Our purpose is to seperate these two. Mani teahces us love, and even though the world is created imperfectly, it contains the substances of Light.
In the year 1215, Bái Yùchán (白玉蟾)，a Taoist priest correctly told his students that Manicheans teach that the earth, the mountains, the rivers, the plants, the fire and the water are the manifestation of Vairocana (毗盧舍那), a Manichean borrowing from the Buddhist term to describe the Pillar of Glory.
Therefore, this is an imperfect world, full of suffering, and our own Light is Jesus Patibilis, the sufferng Christ. And we, are responsible to free our own suffering, and back to the realm of Light. Not only the world, but our flesh, our body, even though it is thane result of the mating of the archons, but we can transform it into a state of health and peacefulness, as indicated in Middle Persian, Sogdian and Chinese Manichean texts.
And yes, there's Evil and there's suffering. The world is created this way, because Evil exists since eternity. But our world is a mixture of both Good and Evil, while we always have to endure the Evil and suffering, let us not forget that there's Light here, and beyond this world, the kingdom of the Father of Greatness lies waiting.
This say, I am not fully converted to Manicheanism, but I am deeply symphatic to its teaching. Who knows, one day I might ot might not become a Manichean?
posted by Nishiki at
11:36 PM
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