A Church to Surpass All Churches : Manichaeism as a Test Case for the Theory of Reception

En vue de tester la viabilité de la théorie de la réception pour l’étude du manichéisme, cette étude examine comment l’effort manichéen d’établir des liens culturels et linguistiques dans les milieux où s’exerça la mission manichéenne n’a pas suffi à assurer le maintien de la Religion de Lumière. Le fait que Mani considérait sa révélation comme supérieure aux autres a au contraire empêché sa réception par les cultures chez lesquelles elle voulait être accueillie.In order to test the utility of the theory of reception for the study of Manichaeism, this paper examines how Manichaean efforts to establish cultural and linguistic continuities in their various missionary environments were not enough to sustain the Religion of Light. Instead, the fact that Mani considered his revelation as superior to others ultimately seems to have hindered its reception by a variety of host cultures

Heracleon: Fragments of early Valentinian exegesis. Text, translation, and commentary

This thesis offers an in-depth study of Heracleon, an early Christian writer from the second century CE, who wrote the earliest known commentary on the Gospel of John. The text of this ancient commentary, written in Greek from the perspective of Valentinian theology, is known only from fragmentary citations made from it by Origen in his own later commentary on the same gospel. Although long-known as a representative of the Valentinian schools, Heracleon has often been neglected due to scholarly preoccupations with his teacher, Valentinus, as well as an ever-increasing emphasis on the Valentinian writings found within the Nag Hammadi codices. This thesis attempts to fill a gap in Valentinian scholarship by closely re-examining the fragments of Heracleon in an effort to gain a clearer picture of his principal teachings. In order to do so, the Greek text of each fragment is provided along with an original English translation and accompanying analysis and commentary. In addition to the original text provided in Chapter 2, Chapter 1 discusses what is known about Heracleon’s biography and situates him within the early Christian exegetical tradition. Finally, Chapter 3 supplies an integrative analysis of the major themes found within the fragments and suggests directions for further research. After close examination, Heracleon can be seen not only as an important representative of Valentinian theology but as a significant witness to early Christian allegorical exegesis. The surviving fragments reveal that Heracleon’s reading of the Gospel of John places emphasis on a number of key issues, such as the metaphysical opposition between the “eternal” and the “worldly,” the accessibility of salvation to a variety of human dispositions, and the nature of “true worship.” Unlike earlier studies on the fragments that have placed primary emphasis on their more abstract implications, this thesis demonstrates through his exegetical readings of the gospel, that Heracleon engages in a polemical discussion with a number of contemporary religious groups about how most authentically to worship God. As a result, a clearer picture of the social world in which Heracleon and other Valentinians were engaged begins to emerge

Women in the Coptic Manichaean 'Homilies'

This article examines the surprising role played by women in the Coptic Manichaean text known as The Sermon on the Great War. Even though Manichaean rhetoric often attributes feminine characteristics to cosmic evil, in this apocalyptic text female ascetics are awarded a special place at the end of time. This language is then situated in its historical context as a reflection of the ascetic priorities of a religious movement experiencing marginalization and persecution

Many faced gods: Triadic (proto-)structure and divine androgyny in early manichaean cosmogony

This paper gathers together evidence that the Manichaean cosmogony was originally based on a trinitarian structure (Father, Mother, Child). This basic triad was subsequently expanded into various hypostases as the Manichaean myth evolved over time and across linguistic contexts