Selection and Adaptation
The Polemical Treatise Defide contra Manichaeos in Dialogue with Augustine’s Manichaean Adversaries
De fide contra Manichaeos is a polemical treatise against the Manichaeans. It is attributed to Evodius of Uzalis, a friend and contemporary of Augustine. The most important sources of De fide are Augustine’s anti-Manichaean writings. This article situates the argumentation of De fide within the broader framework of the polemics between Manichaeans and the “Catholic” African Church at the end of the fourth/beginning of the fifth century. More in particular, it will concern the manner in which De fide made use of Manichaean testimony provided by Augustine. An introductory chapter discusses several significant historical questions on the treatise. Subsequently, the debates between Augustine and his Manichaean adversaries are introduced. The third and most important section deals with several key arguments in the Manichaean-Catholic debate, and how De fide responded specifically to Manichaean testimony in its argumentation. A conclusion allows for a critical evaluation of De fide’s purpose as a pragmatic compendium of anti-Manichaean argument. The comparative analysis of this paper gives insight in following aspects of the African Church in Late Antiquity. First, it reveals the modus operandi and concerns of Manichaean preachers in their appeal towards a Christian identity; second, the inquiry into the selection of arguments from Augustine’s oeuvre illustrates the reception of Augustine’s polemical (anti-Manichaean) works in a contemporary patristic text. Although, in general, Augustine’s example is followed rather faithfully, De fide did have the opportunity to correct or complement Augustine’s earlier statements; third, the paper allows for an evaluation of the efficiency, or, conversely, the futility of De fide’s and Augustine’s anti-Manichaean endeavour.
