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The Kephalaia of the Teacher: The Edited Coptic Manichaean Texts in Translation With Commentary (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies)

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Since its liberation from heresiology the study of Manichaeism has been driven by philological experts and historians of religion. This has tended towards a dominating interest in the texts in themselves, and in the various strands of Manichaean teaching. However, Mani's vision and the worlds of his followers must also be comprehended as integrated wholes. Mani believed himself to be the recipient of, and owner of, truth.

For Mani truth can both be assessed and comprehended. Error attacks and mingles with it in history, but revelation from the eternal world illuminates the good, and offers the sure hope of final victory. Revealed truth is the same as that good that has always been present in the universe, which holds it together, proving life and coherence within death and disorder. Thus, on their own terms, Mani's teachings can not be regarded as eclectic. If his revelations accord with those of earlier apostles it is because they derive from the same source. Where they differ the prior apostolic teaching has been corrupted. Thus Mani reiterates and reveals Zarathustra, Buddha and Christ. Other Buddhisms or Christianities can only be dull reflections of this truth.

In his lifetime Mani devoted himself to the building up of the true church. The superficiality of religious terminology ('church') is important to an understanding of Manichaeism, for as a persecuted minority the community was accused of dissimulation and subversion. Mani wrote his inspired scriptures so that the truth could never again be corrupted by error. He sent out missionaries to east and west, and claimed that no previous revelation had been universal and thus final, as was the one that had been given to him.

From the late third century Manichaeism challenged the Christian hierarchy of the Mediterranean world; but with the triumph of catholic Christianity in the Roman empire, and the common interest of church and state, these western communities gradually failed and died under persecution. In west Asia Manichaeism remained a vibrant force well into the Abbasid era, and Arabic authors had access to the canonical scriptures. However, the religion of light had its longest history in central and east Asia, perhaps surviving in south China until the early modern period. Despite the widely varied cultural forms in which it represented itself, Manichaeism retained an essential unity of vision and expression, and acted as an important conduit for the transmission of cultural ideas between east and west.

For additional reference, see Gardner's: Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire.