Manicheanism

Howard Gruber, a founder member of Psychologists for Social Action, reviewed the dissertation. His review, dated May 7, 1978, as Parkovnick (2015) points out, "... is worth quoting in full, as it captures the very essence of the dissertation":
“This is an effective dissertation and could become an important book. I began reading it very favorably disposed to it. Then I got more and more riled up, made many hostile notes. By the end I found myself almost won over, certainly illuminated. Francks [Gruber’s spelling] has a style that gets under your skin and stays there. This is a good thing and should not get lost in the process of expansion, rewriting, and editing. It will take some work to make it a persuasive book to a less sympathetic reader, and to reduce its present excessive vulnerability to academic criticism. Its very sweep opens many avenues to criticism, crit. of a kind that detracts the reader and potential reader from the central ideas. But all this can be worked out. As an academic type, I often find myself cringing, wanting things toned down. But by the time I finished, I felt that the direction of the change should be to strengthen the tone of the book, to make its central, disturbing message more apparent, bring it more up front.”  Gruber, H. (1978). Review of A history of American social psychology up to the Second World War by Peter Francks [Gruber’s spelling] for Ablex Publishing Corporation, May 7.

Readers should also look at: https://www.academia.edu/60033912/The_Psychology_of_Participation_Revisited_1984_2021

from the 2010 conference, to be published in in ‘And God Breathed into Man the Breath of Life’ – Dust of the Ground and Breath of Life (Gen 2.7): The Development of a Dualistic Anthropology in Early Judaism and Christianity, and Their Umwelts (ed. J.T.A.G.M. van Ruiten and G.H. van Kooten; Themes in Biblical Narrative; Leiden: Brill, forthcoming)

The present paper, as the first Persian writing in this regard, intends to publish and comment on four newly-found Manichaean documents that emerged in 2008, in Xiapu region- Fujian province, southeast China. Based on these unique relics, the article not only interprets the characteristics of one of the most important Manichaean temples, so-called Dragon Head Temple (Lóngshǒu sì) in Southeast China, but also documents the monastic life of one of the most famous Chinese Manichaean Monks Lín Dèng, after his death reached the level of divinity, and his name even recorded in the official memory of Chinese history.

L’objet de ce livre consiste en une éludication croisée de la philosophie organique whiteheadienne et de la gnose thomasienne. Il cherche à répondre à deux questions. La philosophie de l’événement, du processus ou du procès, d’Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) possède-t-elle, volens nolens, un fond gnostique syrien ? L’évangile apocryphe de Thomas, le gnostique juif qui a couché par écrit l’enseignement de Jésus probablement trente ans après son décès, offrant ainsi une source qui pourrait être plus ancienne que les évangiles canoniques et leur hypothétique texte-racine Q, gagne-t-il a être lu à partir de prémisses whiteheadiennes ?

The sacrifice of the sacred bull/calf deep in the underground cave, underlines the dualistic nature of the Mitraic Cult. The sacred bull was in its true nature a fetishist manifestation - phallus, of a multitude-form creator solar deity, a symbol of the sky and heavens, which through this ritual sacrifice ejaculates its seeds (blood) of life. While the underground cave , where Mitra was born from a stone, symbolized the interior (uterus) of the mother earth, which is about to be fertilized by the blood/seed of the celestial bull deep inside her.  The death was the symbolic rebirth in the same time, as the sexual culmination is often compared with the “small death.”
This symbolic sexual “penetration” of the celestial bull/phallus deep into the underground womb of the mother earth, can be deduced also from the unmistakably Phallus-like shape of the Mitraeums, the cave-like shrines of Mitra, where at the end of each the altar represented the ‘glans’ of these penis-shaped structures, and where the “celestial sperm” was spilled in the form of the bull’s blood. Moreover, in the famous Ostia’ Mitraeum in Italy, where was performed the symbolic “ejaculation” of the sacrificial seed  (i.e. bull’s blood and most probably the real ejaculation of the adepts and Paters, which was mixed with the “celestial seed” of the slain bull), there’s a very intuitive and proper inscription in Latin: “FELICISSIMUS EXVOTO” - ‘a maximum felicity from a vow’, with an urn-vessel (a mosaic image on the floor) for the ejection of the spilled blood/semen.
Mitraism was actually the most Chauvinistic and primitive predecessor of the 10th century dualistic movements, Bogomilism/Catharism and later Protestantism...

By looking at the similarities between various philosophies which influenced Augustine's life - e.g. Platonism, Valentinianism and Manichaeism - and Augustine's developing theology, we will develop a preliminary hypothesis as to how Augustine came to his views on time and predestination. In this essay we argue that Augustine had been influenced by extra-biblical sources, rather than by biblical sources to form his blueprint theology.

Three steps are necessary for a study of the presence of possible Manichaean influence on the first generation of monastic and eremitical life of what is commonly known as the Coptic Orthodox tradition, and to study the interactions of Manichaeans with Coptic Orthodox, Origenists, Meletians and others: (1) Show the availability of Manichaean materials, teachers or communities, temporally, geographically and culturally, to the Egyptian desert communities and hermits. This would, in effect, be a Manichaean prosopography. (2) Show evidence of actual contacts between Manichaeans, "Orthodox" Christian ascetics, and others. (3) Discover in the texts of the Apophthegmata Patrum (The Sayings of the Desert Fathers) evidence of Manichaean themes, images, etc. This would require distinguishing actual and verifiable Manichaean literature and theology from that claimed by heresiologists, without other substantiation. The current study considers the evidence available for each of the areas above, and makes a judgment as to the probability of the thesis: The relationship of the Manichaeans to the "Orthodox" appears to have been substantially different than that between the "Orthodox" and other groups. There is evidence of occasional cooperation between Coptic Orthodox, Meletian and Origenist ascetics, but as yet no evidence of a cooperative connection between Manichaeans and these other groups, although emerging textual evidence from new finds will be helpful in seeking literary and spiritual connections in future research. La Première Génération De Manichéens et Autres Communautés Dans les Déserts Egyptiens: Méthodes de Recherche, l'Evidence Disponible et les Conclusions Sommaire: L'étude de la présence éventuelle d'une influence manichéenne sur la première génération de vie monastique et érémitique de ce que l'on appelle communément la tradition Copte Orthodoxe ainsi que l'étude des interactions entre les Manichéens et les Coptes Orthodoxes, Origenistes, Mélétiens et autres, demande trois étapes: (1) Montrer la présence d'écrits, de maîtres ou de communautés associées dans le temps, géographiquement et culturellement avec les communautés et les ermites du désert Egyptien. Ceci en effet serait une prosopographie Manichéenne. (2) Montrer l'évidence de contacts réels entre Manichéens, ascètes orthodoxes chrétiens et autres. (3) Découvrir dans les textes du Apophthegmata Patrum (Les Paroles des Pères du Désert) évidence des thèmes et des images Manichéennes. Ceci demanderait de faire la distinction précise et vérifiable entre la littérature et la théologie Manichéennes et ce que les partisans des hérésies supportent sans autre justification. Cette étude considère l'évidence disponible dans chacun des thèmes ci-dessus et fait un jugement quant a

This article investigates the language of heresy in the Liber Pontificalis (LP), a collection of papal biographies first compiled in the context of the sixth-century Symmachian/Laurentian Schism. More specifically, it considers the reported actions of the bishops of Rome in opposition to the heresy of Manicheanism, focusing on the biographies of Gelasius (492-496), Symmachus (498-514), and Hormisdas (514-523). It is argued that these accounts are best understood as a heresiological motif employed by the compiler(s) of the LP in order to emphasize and reinforce the authority and the legitimacy of those who were said to have opposed it. This conclusion is suggested by the nature of the Liber Pontificalis itself, which was only one of a set of conflicting polemical sources that debated the recent past of Rome’s episcopacy. Moreover, as it was employed by Christian controversialists, ‘Manichean’ had, by the sixth-century, become an epithetical term of approbation rather than an accurate descriptor of a particular sect or system of belief. Taken together, the depiction of the fight against Manicheanism in the LP was a small part of a larger discursive project intended to represent the Roman Church – and Gelasius, Symmachus and Hormisdas in particular – as the consummate enemies of heresy, the defenders of orthodoxy, and the locus of authentic and legitimate authority.

part one - The Congress. Generalities - Sections of the Congress - The theme of the Congress.Events. Acknowledgements - Committees - Report by the Secretary-General, prof.M. Pye - Prof.U.Bianchi, Perspectives du Congrès - Index of invited papers - Index of selected papers - The Congress scientific chronicle - List of participants - List of represented countries - Part two - Invited papers - Selected papers - Oceania, Africa, Mesoamerica - East Asia, India - Iran, Egypt - Greece, Rome, Hellenism, Pre-Christian Europe - Judaism - Christianity in the first centuries.Christianity in modern times - Gnosticism, Manichaesim - Islam - Buddhism - New religions - Metholodogy of comparative research - Phenomenology of religion - Anthropology of religion, Philosophy of religion - Concluding session. Retrospect and prospect/ The History of religions.

What is your view after reading this paper? Email your views to collegemhc@gmail.com

THE HEART OF THE MATTER:
The idea that every conceived human being is naturally evil, guilty, a sinner, or sinful, is itself child abuse and a blasphemous charge against God.

As we all know, the entire set of rules that govern the life of a muslim are based on the Quran and the hadeeth corpus (which represents statements regarding the prophet Muhammad's sayings and deeds). Sometimes, despite the uniqueness of these sources, not all their constitutive elements are unanimously accepted. Such is the case of the rhythmic movement, the dance that accompanies God's invocation, called dhikr.

the book of the Teaching of the Light featuring the book of Letters by the Persian prophet Mani AD 225-265

Gnostic chronology of the Order of Nazorean Essenes clip from timeline by Abba Yesai Nasrai, O:N:E: http://essenes.net/chronnaz.html Mani, a disciple of Thomas from the Elchasite monks in Iran, a monk-priest-prophet raised up right after the progress of Bardesanes AD 220, converting a Shah of India to follow the Gospel.
the Teaching of the Light
AD 216 Mar Mani, the promised Paraclete and Maitreya, was born on 8 Nissan, AD 216 in Mardinu, a little village in Iraq, and grows up in the Elchasite monastery after age 4. 222 Bardesanes died about 222, an important mystic and esoteric figure, and credited with the Nazorean essenesque Hymn of the Pearl found in the Acts of Thomas. AD 228 The angel At-Taum appears unto Mani in a vegetarian Elchasite monastery. (at age 12) 240 Mani separated from the Elkasite community in his 24th year, at the end of King Ardashir's reign.

The paper is devoted to a historical reconstruction of cultural and commercial contacts which took place between Egypt and India at the peak of the maritime Silk Road to the West in antiquity, i.e. from the first to the fifth century A.D., and to how these contacts were reflected by the Roman authors of that time. It is shown that in this context the story of Siddhārtha Gautama can have been transmitted to the West from the first to the fifth century A.D. This study is based on the world-systems approach to late antiquity and it has the following two complementary dimensions: (i) reconstructing archeological evidences for the contacts of that time; (ii) cross-cultural textual analysis. As a result, it was detected that almost all the main claims of late antique authors about Buddhism and the ways of its expansion are well confirmed by archeology.

review of A. Hoffmann, Augustinus, De utilitate credendi / Über den Nutzen des Glaubens, Freiburg etc. 1992 & A. Hoffmann, Augustins Schrift De utilitate credendi: Einleitung, Übersetzung, Kommentar, Diss. Münster 1991, in: Vigiliae Christianae. A Review of Early Christian Life and Language 47 (1993) 288-291;

Uzun müddet kayıp bir din sayılan Manihaizm, yalnızca ikincil kaynaklardan edinilen parçalı bilgilerle tanınabilmiştir. Öte yandan, 20. yüzyılın başında hem Turfan ve Dunhuang bölgesinde hem de Mısır’da yapılan arkeolojik keşifler, kaybolmuş bir dinin tarihinin tamir edilerek yeniden yazılabilmesine olanak tanımıştır. Özellikle, Turfan Vadisi metinleri zengin içerikleriyle Manihaizm’in anlaşılmasında ayrıcalıklı bir öneme sahiptir. Bölgede bulunmuş yazmalar elbette, yalnızca Manihaizm için değil aynı zamanda Türk kültür tarihi için de son dere  ce mühimdir. Türkiye’de henüz geniş kitlelerin tanımadığı İpek Yolu’nun altın çağında merkezî konumda yer almış Turfan Vadisi ve burada yazılmış metinler, kent kültürümüzün başlangıcını ve gelişimini içeren son derece önemli araştırma sahalarıdır. Turfan yazmaları arasında onlarca farklı dilde yazılmış eser bulunur. Eserlerdeki bu dil çeşitliliği bile Vadi’nin merkezî konumunu, ticari ve kültürel önemini gösterir niteliktedir. Bölgeden çıkarılmış arkeolojik eserler, bizlere bil  hassa, Eski Türkler ile İrani halklar arasındaki ilişkinin ne kadar yakın olduğunu işaret eder. 8. yüzyıl ortalarında Bögü Kağan’ın Manihaizm’i kabul etmesiyle birlikte pek çok dinî eser İran dillerinden Türkçeye çevrilmiştir. Kitabımızda da bu eserlerden biri olan Huyadagmān işlenmiştir. Partça, Soğdca ve Eski Uygurca Manihaist bir ilahi olan eserin tanıtımı, incelemesi ve Türkçeye çevirisi kitabımızın temel çerçevesini oluşturur. Bu çalışmayı hazırlamaktaki esas amacımız hem 1904’teki ilk yayımından itibaren parçalar hâlinde yayımlanan bu eserin tüm versiyonlarını bir araya getirmek hem de bu önemli eseri Türkçeye kazandırmak idi. Bu yayımla birlikte ilk kez Orta İran dillerinden Partça ve Soğdca olarak yazılmış bir eser doğrudan Türkiye Türkçesine çevrilmiştir.