The state of research on the Manichaean Bishop Faustus
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Date
Authors
Van Gaans, Gijs M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
AOSIS OpenJournals
Abstract
According to Augustine’s own Confessiones, the Manichaean bishop Faustus of Milevis
played a significant role in his apostasy from Manichaeism. Somehow Augustine became
disappointed with the intellectual explanations Faustus provided for some of Manichaeism’s
fabulous doctrines and thereby with Manichaeism as a religion. That same Faustus published
a work, the Capitula in which he discussed some exegetical controversies. This work has been
preserved, because Augustine cited it in its entirety in his Contra Faustum Manichaeum. In the
last hundred years Faustus and his work have received some significant scholarly attention.
During that period our view of Manichaeism and subsequently on the Manichaean bishop, has
changed. At the beginning Faustus’s exegesis was considered merely a form of Manichaean
propaganda. Its Christian elements were accepted as a tactic tool in order to covert Catholic
Christians to Manichaeism, which was not considered a Christian religion at all. In the course
of the 20th century primary Manichaean sources have been discovered. They have enhanced
our understanding of the ancient religion immensely. Comparing these texts with Faustus’s
Capitula reveals that the Manichaean bishop not only defended well-known Manichaean
dogmas through his exegesis of scripture, he seems to have contributed to Manichaean exegesis
and even Manichaean prophetology. Furthermore, Faustus’s Christian, Pauline language can
no longer be accepted as a mere tactic adaption to Catholic preferences, but seems to have
been his own, genuine language. This article provides an overview of both the research and
the debates on bishop Faustus and his works.
Description
Contribution to ‘Augustine
and Manichaean
Christianity’, the First
South African Symposium
on Augustine of Hippo,
University of Pretoria, 24−26
April 2012. Drs Gijs M. van
Gaans is participating as
research fellow of Prof. Dr
Hans van Oort, Professor
Extraordinarius, Department
of Church History and Polity
of the Faculty of Theology,
University of Pretoria,
Pretoria, South Africa.
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Keywords
Bishop Faustus, Manichaean bishop
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Van Gaans, G.M., 2013, ‘The State of Research on the Manichaean Bishop Faustus’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 69(1), Art. #1921, 11 pages. http://dx.DOI.org/ 10.4102/hts.v69i1.1921