blo nicht wie die Manicher! Ein Vorschlag zu den Hintergrnden des arianischen Streits

Abstract

The article deals with Greek anti-Manichaean texts like the pastoral letters of the Alexandrian bishop Theonas, the anti-Manichaean writings of Serapion of Thmuis and Didymus of Alexandria, and the so-called Acta Archelai. Those texts convey an intensive quarrel between Christians and Manichaeans between 270 and 320. Therefore the article argues that it was not an obvious topos but a reference to the actual situation when in one of his letters Arius distanced himself from the Manichaeans. Precisely this anti-Manichaean attitude turned Arius into a radical theologian of creation. He intented to preserve the unity and the transcendence of the creator, and thus in Arius' view the Son of God could only be a secondary mediator of creation, since an equal double-team of Father and Son was unthinkable for him. By pointing to a roughly simultaneous debate, the article proposes a reason for the beginning of the Arian controversy at exactly this time.