Group Topic 3: Manichaeism

Before we examine whether Manichaeism is a “syncretic” religion, we must first understand the meaning of syncretism.

The term syncretism refers to the combination of different forms of beliefs and practices. As a result, it creates a new teaching or belief system.

This is what makes Manichaeism so interesting to look because it is a syncretic tradition. In Hans-Joachim Klimkeit’s Gnosis on the Silk Road, it provides a detailed outline of the Manichaeism Doctrine including the basic concepts, principles, creation of the world and man, and salvation and damnation. Mani, the founder of Manichaeism basically, drew parts of beliefs from Christianity, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism and combined them together to make his own religion. He portrays Jesus into three figures, 1. “Jesus the Splendor,” from Christianity 2. “The Messiah Buddha,” from Buddhism and 3. “The suffering Jesus,” captured by darkness from Zoroastrianism. Therefore, he refers himself as the prophet, having all these advanced knowledge and called to preach about it.

H.J. Polotsky points out, “is a remarkably unified, symmetrical system in spite of the great diversity of sources from which it may be gleaned.”

In the end of the day, I can understand Mani’s purpose for creating this ‘new’ religion called Manichaeism. It all comes down to, the attempt to answer the unknown. Who created the world? Who created humans? Which religion in world is correct? These questions can be answered depending on the religion each individual believe in. However, for Mani, he realized that all three religions made sense and if you combined them together, we can get a definite answer and everyone would believe in the same thing. His purpose was to unify all the people in world through a common belief system by syncretising all the major religions in the world.