The Kephalaia of the Teacher: The Edited Coptic Manichaean Texts in Translation with Commentary

This text provides an account of the teachings of Mani and of the universal religion that he founded as the final successor to Buddha, Zarathustra and Jesus. It provides a complete English translation of the Coptic text (c. 400 AD) together with introduction, commentaries and indices. Topics covered include the apostleship of Mani, the practices of the Manichaean community, accounts of the heavenly and demonic beings and worlds, as well as discussions of astrology and religious psychology. In Manichaeism many of the gnostic and dualistic themes of early Christianity achieved the status of a world religion, and the subject is still of contemporary interest in heterodoxy and the deconstruction of received histories.