Manichaean Liturgical Texts and Practices

Iain Gardner, Majella Franzmann, Gunner Mikkelsen (eds)

Pages: x + 319 p.
Size:210 x 297 mm
Illustrations:62 col., 4 tables b/w.

Language(s):English
Publication Year:2026

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ISBN: 978-2-503-62178-4
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A holistic study of Manichaean liturgical texts and communal practices based on the latest research and utilising newly-discovered sources from Egypt to China.

Subject(s)

Manichaeism

BIO

Iain Gardner is Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Sydney. Majella Franzmann is Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney. Gunner Mikkelsen is Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Macquarie University.

Majella Franzmann is a professor in the Department of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA).

Gunner B. Mikkelsen is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

Summary

The study of Manichaeism has advanced rapidly over the last century with the recovery of remarkable new texts and a great expansion in the known spread and influence of the religion. This volume has two major themes: A focus on liturgy and communal practice rather than doctrine; a holistic study from the Mediterranean world of late antiquity to early modern China. Contributors utilise the latest discoveries and their papers include original work on previously unedited texts and also entirely new material. The volume is a product of an Australian Research Council Discovery Project awarded in 2019.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword
Editors and Contributors

Majella Franzmann
Introduction: Manichaean Liturgical Texts and Practices

Jason BeDuhn
Manichaean Funerary Rites: Evidence for Ritualization of the Passage through Death

Mattias Brand
Liturgy and Magic: Discourse and Materiality of Non-Normative Ritual Action

Iain Gardner
What do We Know about the Earliest Manichaean Communities?

Zsuzsanna Gulácsi
Artistic Depictions of Rituals during the Uygur and Southern Chinese Eras of Manichaean History

Jae Hee Han
The Central Role of Mani’s Books in the Manichaean Bema Festival

Manfred Hutter
The Middle Persian Hymn M31 II as an Installation Ritual for a Bishop

Eduard Iricinschi
“I Weep for the Lord’s Day” (Homilies, 18.14): Ritualization and Religious Criticism in the Sermon on the Great War

Gábor Kósa
Chinese Manichaean Confessional Texts and the Xuāstvānīft

Samuel N.C. Lieu
From Parthian into Chinese (II): Some Observations on the Chinese Manichaean Hymnscroll

Enrico Morano and Nicholas Sims-Williams
Sogdian Confessional Texts in Manichaean Script

Nils Arne Pedersen and Gunner Mikkelsen
The Soul, Its Suffering and Salvation in Manichaean Hymns: Shared Imagery in the Coptic Psalm-book and Chinese Hymn-scroll