Studying Manichaeism in Augustine’s Sermones ad populum: Crypto-Manichaeism and the Audience’s Theology

This article proposes a methodology for the study of Manichaeism in the Sermones ad populum. Sermons provide a unique perspective on Augustine’s thought: they offered him the opportunity to share theological and ethical concerns with a responsive audience. Because his sermons have only recently been (re-)discovered as loci of Augustine’s ideas, and because they constitute a specific genre within his oeuvre, the development of a method for studying them is in order. To illustrate the proposed method, the present contribution examines anti-Manichaean content in the Sermones ad populum by means of two key concepts. The first concept is that of crypto-Manichaeism. Although they do not refute Manichaeism in its totality, the sermons are regularly concerned with specific aspects of Manichaeism, such as those that were relevant to the sermon’s liturgical occasion or those Augustine feared were attractive to his flock. Crypto-Manichaeism refers, on the one hand, to the tendency of Manichaeans to refrain from openly identifying themselves as such. After all, they considered themselves true Christians. Nor was Manichaeism the only movement in late antique Christianity that espoused dualistic beliefs, rejected bodily desires and material wealth, and criticized the Old Testament. Anti-Manichaean argument was therefore more broadly applicable than refutation of Manichaeism stricto sensu. Our attention to crypto-Manichaeism therefore does justice to the pastoral and exhortative function of Augustine’s sermons. A second key concept is the perspective of the audience. The setting of each sermon is unique, the composition of audiences varied, and attendance no doubt fluctuated. Each sermon ought to be considered as its own literary and theological whole, hermeneutically influenced by its concrete Sitz im Leben (i.e., composition of the audience, time and place, liturgical setting, etc.). The audience’s theology can be reconstructed in a bottom-up fashion, with each sermon supplying complementary and cumulative theological information that the audience could have gathered by participating in the liturgy. In this article we apply the proposed methodology to a group of four early anti-Manichaean sermons.