For while the Lord, by His servants, overthrows the kingdoms of error, His will concerning erring men, as far as they are men, is that they should be amended rather than destroyed. Written about the year 397. In making this document the basis of his attack, Augustin felt that he had selected the best-known and most generally accepted standard of the Manich an faith. The tone of the work is conciliatory, yet some very sharp thrusts are made at Manich an error. The claims of Mani to be the Paraclete are set aside, and the absurd cosmological fancies of Mani are ruthlessly exposed.
Dualism is combated with substantially the same weapons as in the treatise Concerning Two Souls .
We could wish that the author had found time to finish the treatise, and had thus preserved for us more of the Fundamental Epistle itself. This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College. Last updated on September 11, 2000.