Manichaeism During The Middle Ages

We also see that new ideas of faith would rise during this time such as the Monothelite profession of

Christianity is divided into thousands of denominations across the world, each denomination has a specific set of beliefs and norms which contribute to, and sometimes challenge the overarching themes of Christianity and The Bible. Christopher M. Moereman in his book, Beyond the Threshold explains Normative Christianity, and the specific beliefs and practices within. Kyriacos C. Markides in this book, The Magus of Strovolos uses the teachings of Dr. Stylianos Atteshlis, also known as Daskalos, to further illustrate the specific beliefs and practices within Esoteric Christianity. After reading and understanding the writings of both Moreman and Markides, it is clear to see there are ideas which distinguish Esoteric Christianity from Normative Christianity. This essay will explore these ideas which include the idea soul, the idea life after death, and the teachings of Daskalos.

The Manichees was a well known altered form of Christianity. Augustine came across the Manichee in Carthage. The Manichee believed that all sex even when married including the birth of a child was a sin and evil and also that the God in the Old and the New Testament was different. Augustine was attracted to how the manichee compared good and evil he then began to question their views because he wanted to know where evil initiated from and how did the evil make it’s way into the world when God made everything good.

Manicheism- a new religion, Augustine became part of this religion when he was about 20 years old.

Egypt is considered the birthplace of many world religions. It contains some of the oldest religious artifacts, texts, and art that can be traced to modern religions. Signs of early Egyptian religion date back to the Predynastic period, beginning with evidence of polytheistic worship. Many scholars have researched the development of Ancient Egyptian religion over the centuries and have studied the direct correlation between it and the modern religions of Judaism and Christianity. Questions arise as to whe Judaism developed because of social and political conditions of Ancient Egypt or rather through conscious adaptation of Egyptian stories, values, and traditions. Was it through divine inspiration that the faiths formed, or was it simply

The first chapter “Religion: Divine Presence and Transcendence” establishes the topic of this book, summarizing the theme of ‘divine presence’ and the concept of a single god and multiple gods (essentially monotheism vs polytheism). Divided into 2 main parts, the first, aptly named “The Dimensions of Divine Presence: The Implicit Theology of Egyptian Polytheism”, mainly revolves around implicit theology and what Assmann considers to the be the three dimensions of Egyptian religion: the local and cultic dimension, the dimension of cosmos (The visible elements), and the mythic dimension. These three aspects form the implicit theory, activities or notions that are associated with divine beings, and serves to realize in religion the

The Christian communities in Mesopotamia and Iran were very sizable with the number on converts until the seventh century C.E. There we also Nestorian communities in India, central Asia and China which emphasized human nature of Jesus. Unfortunately, Mediterranean church authorities rejected Nestorius’s views. Another religion that was founded was Manichaeism. Prophet Mani, whom was a sincere Zoroastrian from Babylon in Mesopotamia, founded Manichaeism. Mani was inspired by Buddhist, Christian and Zoroastrian and

In the wake of the Scientific Revolution, the world was plunged into the Age of Reason, otherwise known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was a time period that stretched from approximately 1685 to 1815 and focused on human reason. By the time the enlightenment came to a close, it had birthed countless discoveries and revolutions in science, philosophy, and government. Influential figures of this time period included John Locke, Rene Descartes, and Thomas Jefferson, to name a few. With the Enlightenment’s priority on reason and science, it is not surprising that many Enlightenment thinkers had a difficult time accepting religions like Christianity. Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine are excellent examples of the relationship that

Religion experienced a lot of progress and transformation throughout the Middle Ages. Christianity held consistent popularity and other religions such as Islam were on the rise in participation. After the fall of Rome, there was no unified state or government in Europe and the Catholic Church used that opportunity to become a large powerhouse. The Roman Empire had effectively split into three different worlds: Muslim, Byzantine, and western European. Various Kings, Queens, and other leaders looked to the Catholic church for power and protection in exchange for alliances. Meanwhile, the Islamic religion was growing in wealth, power, and people. With the prophet Muhammad’s death in 632, Muslim groups took under large parts of land and united them under a single caliph. The Byzantines were still operating from Constantinople, just under a smaller rule and rural life assumed greater importance in the backbone of their society. Religion was largely involved in the Middle Ages’ art and architecture. Massive Cathedrals were built and even books were a work of art before the invention of the printing press. In addition, their economy was directly affected by religious activity such as missions and conquests. Overall, the general trends marking the progress religion in the Middle Ages are inclusion of everyone, a building of a community, and the opportunity of becoming equals with other practitioners.

The first part of this paper will explore the mystery-religions, the reasons behind their popularity, and the Hellenistic world in which they grew that began with Alexander the Great. Next, their characteristics and connections first with Judaism and later with Christianity will be more deeply discussed. In the second part it will be shown that the mystery-religions helped to clear the pathway for the Christianization of the Greco-Roman world by men such as Paul the Apostle. Finally, the Emperor Constantine’s role in this story will be mentioned, during whose reign the mystery-religions declined and Christianity became the major religion of Europe and the near east. The paper will conclude with a brief speculation about the significance of

This paper would focus on the growth of the mystery cult of Mithraism and its popularity in Ancient Rome. Mithraism was popular in Ancient Rome for its similarity in views that the actions and lifestyle of a person determined whether a person would be a reward or punished in the afterlife. A reward is happiness and peace and being able to ascend to the stars while a punishment is being tortured somewhere underground. It is hard to understand why Mithraism became popular in Ancient Rome or is there is any actual textual evidence that can link the religion origin. All the information gather is derived from depiction on monuments and the limited mentions of the cult in literary sources. We see mention of the cult in the Persian religion

Gnosticism is nearly as old as Christianity and some would argue very similar to Christianity in beliefs. However, there are distinct differences to Gnosticism in beliefs, doctrines, and practices from, and practices of Christianity. Gnosticism had several key leaders during its early years, few of whom we will discuss at further length later in this paper. There were also several key leaders of the early Christian church who denounced Gnosticism for heresy and claimed that it was pseudo way to Christianity. Up until the 1900’s, very little was known about the precise beliefs of Gnosticism, then this changed with the discovery of the Nag Hammadi works which may have been written by Valentinus. Gnosticism is a more distinct religion than it

Religion has existed for countless centuries. Christianity is one of the major religions in this world, which had people be criticized, battle in wars, and killed for, but it still survived to this day. The purpose of this paper is to study the source of the religion, recognize the teachings, observe its spread throughout the world, and to identify how it stands among people today. Approaching this paper by a factual report I will explain these major points and why we need to know about this religion and other religions that existed before our generation.

He was profoundly influenced by the philosophical treatise Horentsius, written by the Roman statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero. When questioning his parents’ religion, he was particularly drawn to Manichaeism, also known as the Manichees. Manichaeism is a dualistic philosophical religion based on a God of Good and a God of Evil. This religion, at first, seemed to correspond to most of the plausible hypothesis’s Saint Augustine created to conclude a philosophical and ethical system. The Manichees claimed to have found contradictions in Holy Writ, also known as the Bible. He was so astonished by this he couldn’t help but dedicate his time and study’s to the book of the Manichees. The Manichees believed that there was contradiction in the scriptures of the Bible. They did not believe that the earth and the human race were created as it was written in Genesis. But when Saint Augustine questioned the Manichees concerning the movements of the stars, none of them could answer him. Disappointed, Saint Augustine turned skeptic about the religion and so he left the Manichees.

There is irrefutable evidence that over the period of the Middle Ages, both Christianity and Islam have been anchors in both shaping and influencing governance of kingdoms and empires comprising Western Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and territories ruled by Islam. Religion during this period was widely used to set laws, influence culture, justify armed conflicts, and pronounce punishment on citizens domiciled within the geographies depicted within this essay. I will attempt to illuminate the geopolitical climate, territorial demarcation, and religious influences that depicted life circa 500 – 1517 CE. From the background material submitted, I will directly answer the following questions: