Chapter 8 Faustus and Augustine: A Manichaean-Catholic Debate on the Mosaic Torah
In: The Challenge of the Mosaic Torah in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Author:
Anni Maria Laato
Anni Maria Laato
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Abstract
The Manichaean Bishop Faustus is one of the harshest critics of the Old Testament and Mosaic Torah in the first centuries AD. In his Capitula, he levels arguments against Catholic understanding and use of the Old Testament in general and Mosaic Torah in particular. Augustine, in his Contra Faustum Manichaeum, attacks against Faustus’ views and presents his own. Doing so, he formulates ideas that have lived further in Western theology, such as continuing worth of the Mosaic Torah even for the Christians, its correct understanding and use, and his later so famous doctrine of Jews as witnesses.