Gardner, Iain, Majella Franzmann & Gunner B. Mikkelsen (eds.). 2026. Manichaean Liturgical Texts and Practices. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers.
The study of Manichaeism has advanced rapidly over the last century with the recovery of remarkable new texts and a great expansion in the known spread and influence of the religion. This volume has two major themes: A focus on liturgy and communal practice rather than doctrine; a holistic study from the Mediterranean world of late antiquity to early modern China. Contributors utilise the latest discoveries and their papers include original work on previously unedited texts and also entirely new material. The volume is a product of an Australian Research Council Discovery Project awarded in 2019.
Table of Contents
- Jason BeDuhn: Manichaean Funerary Rites: Evidence for Ritualization of the Passage through Death
- Mattias Brand : Liturgy and Magic: Discourse and Materiality of Non-Normative Ritual Action
- Iain Gardner: What Do We Know About the Earliest Manichaean Communities?
- Zsuzsanna Gulácsi: Artistic Depictions of Rituals during the Uygur and Southern Chinese Eras of Manichaean History
- Jae Hee Han: The Central Role of Mani’s Books in the Manichaean Bema Festival
- Manfred Hutter: The Middle Persian Hymn M31 II as an Installation Ritual for a Bishop
- Eduard Iricinschi: “I Weep for the Lord’s Day” (Homilies, 18.14): Ritualization and Religious Criticism in the Sermon on the Great War
- Gábor Kósa: Chinese Manichaean Confessional Texts and the Xuāstvānīft
- Samuel N.C. Lieu: From Parthian into Chinese (II): Some Observations on the Chinese Manichaean Hymnscroll
- Enrico Morano and Nicholas Sims-Williams: Sogdian Confessional Texts in Manichaean Script
- Nils Arne Pedersen and Gunner Mikkelsen:_ The Soul, Its Suffering and Salvation in Manichaean Hymns: Shared Imagery in the Coptic Psalm-book and Chinese Hymn-scroll