Bir Dinî Kimlik İnşâ Örneği Olarak Gnostik-Maniheist Hıristiyanlığın Ortaya Çıkışı

In view of the theme of this conference, Manichaeism seems to be an appropriate subject to illustrate religious and, in particular, ecclesiastical identity in the making. The religion or church of Mani emerged from a Jewish-Christian sect. This means that in the earliest phase of its history, this movement had to assert its own identity over and against a Jewish-Christian community whose identity and profile were already well-established. Since the discovery of the Cologne Mani-Codex, we have unique evidence that demonstrates how Manichaean identity took its initial shape. In this article I will focus on this first stage of the emergence of Manichaeism, paying special attention to those elements which, aside from pointing to Mani as the Revealer par excellence, indicate the rise and function of authoritative sources within the Manichaean religion. The way in which Gnostic-Manichaean Christianity on the one hand and mainstream Catholic  Christianity on the other would later influence each other, thereby contributing to the formation of their respective identities, will be touched upon at the end