Manichaeism: An Ancient Faith Rediscovered

Abstract

What is Manichaeism? Traditionally characterised as having taught an elaborate myth describing a cosmic war between two co-eternal powers of Light and Darkness, the name of this ancient religion is presently more likely to be invoked in order to describe a seemingly transparent, ‘simplistic’ state of affairs, in which two opposing agendas are set against one another. Indeed, it seems that in recent times the term ‘Manichaean’ has been making something of a comeback, not least in the media coverage of political events during the period when both the Republican party in the United States and New Labour in the United Kingdom were in power, during the first years of the present century. The ‘political dualism’ widely regarded as characteristic of both George W. Bush and Tony Blair’s approach to foreign policy was often described as being ‘Manichaean’: as one commentator for the Wall Street Journalwrote in 2002: ‘President Bush is serious about his Manichaean formulation of the war on terror “either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists”