Review of Matsangou, The Manichaeans of the Roman east

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The Manichaeans of the Roman east: Manichaeism in Greek anti-Manichaica and Roman imperial legislation.

Rea Matsangou, The Manichaeans of the Roman east: Manichaeism in Greek anti-Manichaica and Roman imperial legislation. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies, 105. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2023. Pp. xxii, 580. ISBN 9789004542846.

Review by
Martin Devecka, University of California at Santa Cruz. mdevecka@ucsc.edu

... Matsangou makes a fairly compelling case that some Greek Christians writing against Manichaeanism did so with access to genuine Manichaean documents (mostly lost to us). She effectively punctures the myth that later writers in this tradition build their images of Manichaeanism mostly out of borrowings from the fourth-century Acta Archelai, and she also draws attention to the valuable evidence offered by the various abjuration statements to which Manichaeans were subject when they wanted to convert to Orthodoxy. ...

I noted the publication of the book here. Cross-file under Manichean (Manichaean) Watch.

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