Реферат по истории религий на английском языке Manichaeism as a Religious Community - Реферат

INTRODUCTION….3

1. THE STRUCTURE OF MANICHAEAN COMMUNITY….4

2. THE BOOK AS A RELIGIOUS INSTRUMENT IN MANICHAEAN CULTURE….9

CONCLUSIONS….12

LITERATURE…14

Manichaeism as a syncretic dualistic doctrine and a specific religious community dates back to the period of Roman Late Antiquity; however, nowadays there is not much evidence testifying to its existence. Basic information on Manichaean religious practices in the Roman Empire comes from a variety of sources – literary texts, as well as documentary evidence. Manichaean literary texts include the fourth century Coptic Medinet Madi library recovered from the ruins of a private home in the Fayum region of Egypt, several literary fragments in Syriac and Coptic from private homes in Kellis in the Egyptian Dakhkeh Oasis, the Latin Tebessa Codex from Algeria, and, most important, the Greek Cologne Mani Codex from an undetermined location in Egypt which contains the description of characteristically Manichaean practices of the late antique period. Although, basically, the contents of these texts reflect their original non-Roman composition, nevertheless, they provide information of what was being copied and read by Manichaeans inside the Roman domains, and reflect Manichaean ideas in local terms and languages.