Answer to Faustus, a Manichean

Written probably at the very end of the fourth century, the Answer responds to a certain Faustus, a Manichean bishop, who objects to the Old Testament and questions how Christians can claim it for themselves.

Augustine’s Answer to Faustus, a Manichean is the most extensive attack on the Manichean religion that the early Church produced. Since Augustine himself had been associated with Manicheanism for nearly a decade before his conversion, his writing displays an insider’s knowledge of Manichean teaching. Written probably at the beginning of the fifth century, the Answer responds to a certain Faustus, a Manichean bishop, who objects to the Old Testament and questions how Christians can claim it for themselves.

Augustine cites Faustus’ arguments at length, thus giving the reader a useful insight into the Manichean mentality. The Answer is valuable for its reasoned and still-relevant defense of Hebrew Scripture and of its patriarchs and prophets, and also for the opportunity that it gives Augustine to draw connections between the Old and the New Testaments and to show how, in Christian eyes, the latter is the fulfillment of the former.