Reply To Faustus The Manichaean

Written about the year 400. [Faustus was undoubtedly the acutest, most determined and most unscrupulous opponent of orthodox Christianity in the age of Augustin. The occasion of Augustin’s great writing against him was the publication of Faustus’ attack on the Old Testament Scriptures, and on the New Testament so far as it was at variance with Manichaean error. Faustus seems to have followed in the footsteps of Adimantus, against whom Augustin had written some years before, but to have gone considerably beyond Adimantus in the recklessness of his statements. The incarnation of Christ, involving his birth from a woman, is one of the main points of attack. Aeterna Press

Written about the year 400. [Faustus was undoubtedly the acutest, most determined and most unscrupulous opponent of orthodox Christianity in the age of Augustin. The occasion of Augustin's great writing against him was the publication of Faustus' attack on the Old Testament Scriptures, and on the New Testament so far as it was at variance with Manichæan error. Faustus seems to have followed in the footsteps of Adimantus, against whom Augustin had written some years before, but to have gone considerably beyond Adimantus in the recklessness of his statements. The incarnation of Christ, involving his birth from a woman, is one of the main points of attack. He makes the variations in the genealogical records of the Gospels a ground for rejecting the whole as spurious. He supposed the Gospels, in their present form, to be not the works of the Apostles, but rather of later Judaizing falsifiers. The entire Old Testament system he treats with the utmost contempt, blaspheming the Patriarchs, Moses, the Prophets, etc., on the ground of their private lives and their teachings. Most of the objections to the morality of the Old Testament that are now current were already familiarly used in the time of Augustin. Augustin's answers are only partially satisfactory, owing to his imperfect view of the relation of the old dispensation to the new; but in the age in which they were written they were doubtless very effective. The writing is interesting from the point of view of Biblical criticism, as well as from that of polemics against Manichæism.--A.H.N.]

"The 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 insiders knowledge of Manichean teaching. 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 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."--Publisher's website.

Written about the year 400. [Faustus was undoubtedly the acutest, most determined and most unscrupulous opponent of orthodox Christianity in the age of Augustin. The occasion of Augustin's great writing against him was the publication of Faustus' attack on the Old Testament Scriptures, and on the New Testament so far as it was at variance with Manichæan error. Faustus seems to have followed in the footsteps of Adimantus, against whom Augustin had written some years before, but to have gone considerably beyond Adimantus in the recklessness of his statements. The incarnation of Christ, involving his birth from a woman, is one of the main points of attack. He makes the variations in the genealogical records of the Gospels a ground for rejecting the whole as spurious. He supposed the Gospels, in their present form, to be not the works of the Apostles, but rather of later Judaizing falsifiers. The entire Old Testament system he treats with the utmost contempt, blaspheming the Patriarchs, Moses, the Prophets, etc., on the ground of their private lives and their teachings. Most of the objections to the morality of the Old Testament that are now current were already familiarly used in the time of Augustin. Augustin's answers are only partially satisfactory, owing to his imperfect view of the relation of the old dispensation to the new; but in the age in which they were written they were doubtless very effective. The writing is interesting from the point of view of Biblical criticism, as well as from that of polemics against Manichæism.-A.H.N.]

John Mark Mattox's work is the first book-length study of St Augustine's 'just war' theory and is now available in paperback for the first time.

A new, updated third edition of the most successful and widely used textbook on Christian ethics.

This is the extended and annotated edition including * an extensive biographical annotation about the author and his life This edition contains the following writings: Of the Morals of the Catholic Church. On the Morals of the Manichaeans. Concerning Two Souls, Against the Manichaeans. Acts or Disputation Against Fortunatus, the Manichaean. Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental. Reply to Faustus the Manichaean. Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichaeans. On Baptism, Against the Donatists In Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist, Bishop of Cirta. A Treatise Concerning the Correction of the Donatists