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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 20 pagesAbout this book
What does a faith sound like when its believers, rather than its enemies, tell its story?
Manichaean Homilies gathers sermons composed by followers of Mani, not by the prophet himself. These preachers remember his life, teaching and death, and speak of a universe divided between Light and Darkness. Their words bring you inside a community that understands spiritual life as a struggle with cosmic stakes.
The collection includes the Homily on the Crucifixion, which recounts Mani’s suffering and death, and the Homily on the Great War, which explores conflict and the promised release of Light. Preserved in a damaged Coptic manuscript, these fragmentary sermons offer laments, visions and teachings rather than a continuous story.
What you’ll discover
- Light against Darkness Explore how believers understand the soul through a cosmic struggle between two opposing natures.
- Mani remembered by followers Encounter a community’s account of its founder’s imprisonment, suffering and death in Persian custody.
- The Great War Follow a sermon that connects cosmic conflict with the believer’s place within it.
- A community with rules Discover the Elect and the Hearers, and the strict demands placed on the Elect.
- Believers speak for themselves Read teachings from within a faith long known chiefly through the writings of its opponents.
Who will love it
For readers curious about early Christianity, Gnosticism and the religions of the ancient Near East, and anyone who wants to explore Manichaeism through its believers’ sermons on light, darkness and spiritual warfare.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Manuscripts recovered from several places
- Mani, a prophet raised in Babylonia
- Two natures and the return of light
- The sermons connect cosmic conflict and everyday faith
- A church of the Elect and the Hearers
- Why the Homilies stand outside the Bibles
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Manichaean Homilies
by Attributed to the prophet Mani
Mani’s followers preach of light trapped in matter and the cosmic struggle to free it.
ChallengingUnder 2 hours to readEnglish
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In short
Manichaean Homilies is a book of sermons from the church founded by the prophet Mani, who lived in the third century in the Persian empire. It survives in manuscripts from several places and in several languages.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Manuscripts recovered from several places
The Homilies draw on manuscripts from several places. Among the discoveries described in the book is a collection of Coptic texts found at Medinet Madi in Egypt in the late 1920s. The books were written in Coptic, the last stage of the Egyptian language, which Christians in Egypt used for their own scriptures. The Homilies were edited by the scholar Hans Jakob Polotsky in the 1930s.
The volume includes Coptic sources from Egypt alongside texts in Middle Persian, Parthian and Sogdian. That detail matters. It shows that Manichaeism had put down roots in the Nile valley, far from Mani's homeland in Babylonia.
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- Level
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- 20 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
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Cite this edition
Mani. Manichaean Homilies. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-manichaean-homilies.
Mani. (2026). Manichaean homilies. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-manichaean-homilies
Mani. Manichaean Homilies. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-manichaean-homilies.
@book{mani2026manichaean,
author = {Mani},
title = {Manichaean Homilies},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-manichaean-homilies}
}
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What are the Manichaean Homilies?
The sermons offer teaching and guidance to their congregations in the voice of the pulpit.
Did Mani write the Manichaean Homilies?
No. Scholars understand the sermons as the work of his followers, who preached to Manichaean communities. The Coptic text is probably translated from an earlier Syriac or Aramaic original.
Who was Mani?
Mani was a prophet born in Babylonia in the third century. He taught that he was the last of a line of messengers that included Buddha, Zoroaster and Jesus. He died in Persian custody in the 270s.
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