The Rhetoric of Appropriation and Dissociation in Evodius’ Aduersus Manichaeos: A Case Study of Anti-Manichaean Polemics
In: Religious Polemics and Encounters in Late AntiquitySearch for other papers by Aäron Vanspauwen in
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Abstract
This paper examines the rhetorical and argumentative strategies of Evodius’ anti-Manichaean treatise Aduersus Manichaeos. The analysis of this contribution presents a case study of the religious polemics between the Manichaeans and the mainstream (or “Catholic”) Christians of fifth-century Latin North Africa. Both movements attempted to demonstrate that they were rightful Christians, refuting their adversaries’ claim to the same religious identity. The treatise Aduersus Manichaeos represents the views of one of the North African Catholic bishops, Evodius, who was ordained bishop of Uzalis at the end of the fourth century. In his treatise he addresses a Manichaean audience with a view to converting his addressees to Catholic Christianity. To achieve this goal he employed a rhetoric of appropriation and dissociation. He makes use of the terminology of light and darkness, two central elements in the Manichaean system, to characterise his own views as good (light), and those of his addressees as evil (dark). In addition, he attempts to convince his addressees by creating a distance between them and Mani, the founder of Manichaeism. A preliminary section offers an introduction to the relations between mainstream Christianity and Manichaeism in Latin North Africa, and to Manichaean-Christian polemics in general. On several occasions, the contribution offers a comparison of Evodius’ anti-Manichaean treatise and the anti-Manichaean material of his contemporaries, such as Augustine of Hippo and Quodvultdeus of Carthage.