Christian Texts

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. IV: Writings in Conn...

DonatismManichaeismSt. Augustine

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This is an excerpt from Augustine's *Against Faustus the Manichaean*, a late 4th/early 5th-century theological polemic structured as a point-by-point rebuttal of the Manichaean bishop Faustus. Faustus argues that the Manichaeans, not the Catholics, are the genuine followers of the Gospel, on the grounds that they actually practice its commands — poverty, renunciation of family, abstention from wealth — while Catholics merely profess belief in doctrines like the incarnation without obeying Christ's precepts. He marshals an extended catena of Gospel passages (the Beatitudes, the Great Commission, the sheep-and-goats judgment, the rich young man) to argue that salvation is promised exclusively to those who *do* Christ's will, not to those who confess he was born of a woman. Augustine's rebuttal operates on two fronts: first, he defends the theological necessity of believing in Christ as true Son of man and true Son of God, arguing that the Manichaean cosmology (with its false "First Man" and its denial of the real incarnation) constitutes a fundamentally different and false Christ; second, he argues that ascetic practice without orthodox faith is worthless, citing Paul's warning that giving away all one's goods without charity profits nothing. A pointed historical detail closes the argument: Augustine notes that a Roman gathering of Manichaeans attempting to actually live by Faustus's praised precepts collapsed in failure, undermining Faustus's central boast about Manichaean obedience.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. IV: Writings in Conn...

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