Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China (Reprint editions of Manchester University Press) [Hardcover]

Samuel N. C. Lieu (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Manchester Univ Pr (December 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0719010888
• ISBN-13: 978-0719010880
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,508,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lieu is the Best, September 29, 2005

By 

Eric Cason (Citizen of the World!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China (Reprint editions of Manchester University Press) (Hardcover)

All of his major books are exceptional reading and extremely informative. They aren't for someone who wants a casual understanding of Manichaeism, but they are never unreadably obtuse or so loaded with jargon as to be incomprehensible. I used them extensively in university and was sad when I had to return them to the library.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best introduction to Mani and his religion available...period, July 11, 2005

By 

Peter D. Glickenhaus (Morrisville, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China (Reprint editions of Manchester University Press) (Hardcover)

If you're interested in Late Antique religion of the Roman Empire and Syria, early Christianity, or Manichaeism, you must hunt this book down. It is not only the best introduction to Manichaeism available to date, but every page drips with the astounding erudition and expertise of the author. Thus, it is inspiring academically as well as an invaluable historical reference work. I paid $100 for this book, and, after having read it, I think every penny was well spent.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great little "particle of Light", August 15, 2009

By 

David Burch (Australia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China (Reprint editions of Manchester University Press) (Hardcover)

In the third century AD a Syro-Persian, Mani, founded a highly evangelistic Gnostic religion in Mesopotamia which was to claim among its converts in the Roman Empire the young Augustine, and which was later to be seen as the inspiration for Paulicians, Bogomils and Cathars in medieval West. It became a world religion with followers spread across Central Asia as far as China it was suppressed as a rebel ideology. Professor Lieu, an international Authority on Manichaeism, presents the first full account of its origins and history, its persecution in the Roman and Chinese Empires and its extraordinary survival in Egypt, North Africa, Central Asia and China, and provides the first English translations of many Greek, Latin, Syriac and Chinese texts. It will appeal to both specialist and general readers in the history of Rome, China and Iran, in theology and comparative religion, and anyone with an interest in the history of contacts between ancient civilisations.

Manichaeism was a third century dualistic religion, founded by Mani, who fused Persian, Christian, and Buddhist elements into a major new faith. It was fought in the West as a virulent Christian heresy. Mani's religion was a complex Gnostic system offering salvation by knowledge. The main features of Manichaeism were enunciated in an elaborate cosmogonical myth of two absolute and eternal principles which manifest themselves in three eras or "moments." The first moment describes a radical dualism in a previous age. Light and darkness (good and evil), personified in the Father of Lights and the Prince of Darkness, were both coeternal and independent. In the middle moment Darkness attacked and became mixed with Light in a precosmic fall of primal man. This resulted in a second creation of the material world and man by the evil powers in which Light is trapped in nature and human bodies. Redemption of Light occurs by a cosmic mechanism in the heavens by which particles of Light (souls) are drawn up and fill the moon for fifteen days. In the last phases of the moon Light is transferred to the sun and finally to Paradise.

Short Passage:

"At death, the soul of the Elect returns direct to the Kingdom of Light and is received with great honour. The soul of the Hearer however, has to remain on earth and by a series of reincarnations in the luminous bodies of fruits and finally in the body of the Elect it too will return to the Kingdom of Light. How soon this final liberation is achieved depends on how devoted the Hearer has been to the service of the Elect. The souls who have not awakened by the Nous are reincarnated in the souls of beasts..."