DeConick A.D

311
PLEASANTVILLE RELIGIONS
heard in a hymn that they sang during this holy ceremony (Medinet Madi
psalmbook 222 8.22–25, translation by Gardner and Lieu 2004, 239):
Forgive the sins of they that know your mystery,
to whom there has been revealed the knowledge of the secrets of the exalted
one,
through the wholesome wisdom wherein there is no error,
of the holy church of the Paraclete, our Father.
Augustine, bishop of Hippo and former follower of Mani, informs us
that the Bema was held at the same time as the Christian Holy Week,
when Christ’s suffering and death was commemorated. To him, now a
Christian convert and zealous advocate for Catholicism, this proved that
Mani’s religion was nothing but a fraudulent imitation of Christianity
(Augustine, Against the Epistle Called Fundamental 8).
Awakened to Real Religion
What exactly was Mani’s religion? This is a highly contested point in the
ancient writings as well as in the modern scholarly histories about him
(see BeDuhn 2015). Was he a Christian reformer who saw his religion as
the true Christianity? Was he a Gnostic heretic who taught some kind of
counterfeit Christianity, a dangerous simulation of Catholicism? Was he
anti-Christian, bent on bringing Christianity down because he thought
it was a fraudulent religion? Was he reforming Zoroastrianism under the
influence of Christianity?
Although there are arguments to be made for each of these scenarios,
it is much more constructive to acknowledge the complex religious buffer
in which Mani was immersed and to realize that his engagement with
particular aspects of this buffer was intentional. He employed Gnostic,
Elchasaite, and Catholic elements, alongside Zoroastrian and Buddhist
elements, and he shaped them to fit his own vision of the truth. With this
religious buffer as his cradle, he was able to present his religion as the new
and final culmination of all religions before him.
Mani’s personal encounter with his angel had awakened him to “real”
religion, and he evangelized everyone who would listen. Before long,
Mani was the “Living Mani,” the final and absolute prophet in charge of