Manichaeism (WAS predestination & the preterite)

[Vaska]

Doug Millison wrote:
>Didn't Manichaeism feature a belief that the body and all its functions
>were evil from the get-go, which in practice meant go ahead and do what you
>want with it?  I'm on shaky ground here and readily admit the possibility
>that I'm confusing this with something else.

They did have a very nasty view of our corporeal existence, no doubt about
that. Very nasty, indeed.  But the Manichean sect Augustine was involved
with [don't know about the rest] actually had a two-tiered system for its
men: the really *really* good guys, those who could hack it, had to live in
total celibacy, etc.  The other type, like Augustine himself, were allowed
to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh, and quite freely too.  Augustine
was a member in good standing with his Manichean brethren, although he
publicly carried on a long extra-marital relationship with the woman who
bore him a son.  The son, of course, got taken to Rome [together with
Augustine's mama], but the boy's mother was left behind; I'm not sure we
know what happened to her in the end.  

Vaska






>
>Thanks,
>Doug
>
>At 6:22 PM 7/9/97, Monte Davis wrote:
>>Manichaeism
>
>
>D O U G  M I L L I S O N ||||||||||| millison at online-journalist.com
>Today in history (9 July):  1595: Johannes Kepler discovered the perfect
>geometric solid  "construction of universe."
>
>
>