Philosophical background of the cosmological polemics in Contra Manichaeos by John of Damascus

Abstract

This article analyzes the philosophical arguments used by John of Damascus against the Manichaean dualist cosmological system in his Dialogue contra Manichaeos, showing some parallels with his Dialectica, and revealing a common Aristotelian background. The philosophical argument in the Dialogue seems to be a practical application of philosophical doctrines formulated in the Dialectica. From a wider perspective of anti-Manichean polemics used in part for instructional purposes for students of philosophy and theology in Late Antiquity, the conclusion is made that the purpose of the Dialogue was aimed not so much against the Manichaean cosmogony and cosmology, but against the Manichaean theodicy, which might have been attractive to some Christians of John’s times.