Answer to Faustus, a Manichean (Contra Faustum Manichaeum)
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Written probably at the very end of the fourth century, the Answer responds to a certain Faustus, a Manichean bishop, who objects to the Old Testament and questions how Christians can claim it for themselves. Augustine’s Answer to Faustus, a Manichean is the most extensive attack on the Manichean religion that the early Church produced. Since Augustine himself had been associated with Manicheanism for nearly a decade before his conversion, his writing displays an insider’s knowledge of Manichean teaching. Augustine cites Faustus’ arguments at length, thus giving the reader a useful insight into the Manichean mentality. The Answer is valuable for its reasoned and still-relevant defense of Hebrew Scripture and of its patriarchs and prophets, and also for the opportunity that it gives Augustine to draw connections between the Old and the New Testaments and to show how, in Christian eyes, the latter is the fulfillment of the former.
Top Highlights
“A sin, therefore, is a deed, word, or desire contrary to the eternal law. But the eternal law is the divine reason or the will of God, which commands that the natural order be preserved and forbids that it be disturbed.” (Page 317)
“We have him, indeed, as God and as Lord and as Father: as God because we were created by him by means of human parents, as Lord because we are subject to him, and as Father because we were reborn by being adopted by him.” (Page 79)
“woman who marries because she cannot observe continence were to dress as a virgin” (Page 104)
- Title: Answer to Faustus, a Manichean (Contra Faustum Manichaeum)
- Authors: Augustine of Hippo, Roland J. Teske
- Series: The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century
- Volume: 20
- Publisher: New City Press
- Print Publication Date: 2007
- Logos Release Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Theology › Early church, ca. 30-600
- ISBNs: 9781565480551, 9781565482647, 1565480554, 1565482646
- Resource ID: LLS:NSWRFSTSMNCHN
- Resource Type: text.monograph.collected-work
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:28:27Z