Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma 1: Conversion and Apostasy, 373-388 C.E. (review)

Traditionally, the so-called "conversion" of Augustine from the "error" of Manichaeism to the emerging orthodoxy of Nicene Christianity has been viewed by scholars as simply one, often preliminary, episode in his later career and legacy as a revered theologian. Few have paid any real attention to what initially attracted Augustine to Manichaeism in the first place and to the pivotal role his experience within that community played in his later intellectual and theological development. Typically, historians are content to take Augustine's own version of these events, as recounted in his Confessions, for granted and to dismiss his attachment to the Manichaeans as the product of an immature mind. In this book, however, Jason BeDuhn puts Augustine's Manichaean experience under a microscope, meticulously dissecting it in vivid and compelling detail, demonstrating once and for all the crucial importance this period has within the wider arc of Augustine's career.

The journey begins in backwater Numidia, in the town of Thagaste, where Christianity was still an amorphous mixture of sectarian communities, some Donatist, some Nicene, and others Manichaean (26). In fact, as BeDuhn reminds us, Augustine's membership in Manichaeism did not mean participating in another religion, but rather in a community that saw itself as the "True Church" (26). While Manichaeans certainly never outnumbered other Christians in terms of their membership, the relative coherence of their doctrinal system, ritual program, and organization did pose a serious and competitive threat to its rivals (28). More than anything, however, it was likely the social and liturgical life that held the principal attraction for the young Augustine (35f.). After all, Augustine mainly wished to be part of a community of like-minded intellectuals—a circle of cultivated elites—who in his immediate social environment, just happened to be Manichaeans (69).

This, we quickly learn, becomes a dominant theme in BeDuhn's portrayal of Augustine's early life—his profound need to belong and his deep desire to live the Ciceronian ideal of intellectual community. This social need, apart from any particulars of doctrine, which at various stages, we learn, Augustine failed to comprehend very clearly, drove many of his changes in religious and philosophical allegiance. In fact, BeDuhn's study reveals an individual who seems to have only ever had a somewhat superficial acquaintance with many of the systems and philosophies that caught his attention. At times this allowed him to hold conflicting and sometimes contradictory views in parallel during his quest for authentic truth and true community.

Although initially attracted by some of its young freethinkers, BeDuhn illustrates that Augustine's experience among the Manichaeans was one of progressive disillusionment. In particular, his encounter with the great Manichaean bishop Faustus dealt a devastating blow to his commitment to the movement. Augustine found that the bishop's reputation for intellectual sophistication and culture was greatly overestimated. There were political reasons as well. As time went on it became increasingly difficult to maintain an overtly Manichaean identity in an empire seeking to impose doctrinal uniformity, especially if one had, as Augustine did, social and career ambitions within the upper echelon of Roman imperial society. Eventually, Augustine would find a teacher that would meet his expectations of philosophical literacy and rhetorical skill in Ambrose, bishop of Milan.

One of the key emphases of BeDuhn's book is to underscore the fact that Augustine's detachment from the Manichaeans and his shift towards Nicene Christianity was not nearly as sudden or dramatic has his own recounting would have us believe. In fact, even after the famous garden episode, which constitutes such a dramatic climax within the Confessions, it took several more months for Augustine to join the local Nicene community. When he eventually did, however, Augustine finally felt that he had found his long sought ideal of intellectual community among Ambrose and his circle.

BeDuhn's prose is, as usual, lucid and engaging. He brings a historical and methodological sophistication...