An anthology of specialized studies on how Manichaean ideas, texts, and institutions interacted with the regional cultures and traditions in Iran, the Near East, the Mediterranean, Central Asia, and China, Manichaeism East and West features contributions from the 2013 Conference of the International Association for Manichaean Studies held at the University of London. This scholarly collection will be of especial interest to those who already have a sound grasp of the main issues and texts in the field of Manichaean studies. The volume's one-page foreword, together with chapter 13, Samuel Lieu's 2013 IAMS Presidential Address entitled “Manichaeism East and West,” ought to help orient non-specialist readers to the broader context and significance of the individual essays.

As a conference volume, Manichaeism East and West analyzes a range of mainly textual sources with a defined set of scholarly perspectives and approaches. Technical concerns such as the correct dating of texts, intertextual examination of Manichaean ideas and their cross-cultural transmission are central to most of the essays. Jason BeDuhn and Greg Hodgins report on the radiocarbon testing of Coptic Manichaean codices from Medinet Madi—among the earliest sources for Manichaean ideas and practices—finding the results to be commensurate with previous dating of between 380 and 435 based on codicological and textual analysis. Adam Benkato traces “unique” formulae that mark the beginning and ending of Manichaean texts in Iranian (Middle Persian, Persian, and Sogdian), suggesting that the appearance of such formulae in Coptic points to common derivation from a prior Aramaic tradition, as previously suggested by Werner Sundermann. Satoshi Toda argues that the Coptic term for “transmigration” was derived from Greek rather than Aramaic or Syriac, because a Greek-speaking Manichaean—possibly a physician—translated (Aramaic) Manichaean texts into Greek that were then later rendered into Coptic. Enrico Morano edits, translates and comments on three Sogdian poems in a Parthian-Sogdian bilingual hymnbook used in Manichaean rituals that revealingly refer to Mani as “[T]hou only hast sealed the prophecy” (174), whereas previously only Manichaean sources in Arabic are known to refer to Mani as the “seal of the prophet.”

While the interplay of ideas arising from varying traditions is a common feature of most Manichaean texts, direct textual influences are particularly revealing. Matthew Goff compares the Manichaean Book of the Giants with the Qumran text bearing the same title, while Nils Arne Pedersen examines its late antique analogues in Coptic and Syriac. Claudia Leurini traces the figure of the Messiah in Iranian Manichaean texts while Christos Theodorou explores the connections between the Manichaean metaphor of the heavenly garment to Christological references embedded in western Manichaean sources. In a study that argues for close ties between Manichaean theological beliefs and practice, Jean-Daniel Dubois proposes that the Coptic conception of Jesus as “a victorious Cross of Light” might have shaped the identities of Hearers as well as the Elect even though such a connection is more suggestive than proven.

Several studies highlight the importance of the traditions of remembrance in the Manichaean tradition. Iain Gardner and Leyla Rasouli-Narimani offers a source- and historical-critical analysis of the figure of Pattikios, who is often presented as Mani's “father” and a follower of the Elchasaite sect, that challenges the historicity of most known narratives of his identity. Iris Colditz agrees with Sundermann's suggestion that many personal names in Middle Iranian Manichaean texts from Turfan refer to donors who supported the copying of texts, adding further that some may be names of deceased individuals for whom the texts served as funereal dedications that increase their postmortem religious merit. Manichaean material artifacts, such as seal stones, are studied to good effort by Zsuzsanna Gulácsi who contextualizes them in Manichaean rituals of remembrance.

Manichaeism's complex and colorful cosmology contributes centrally to its soteriology. Flavia Ruani uses John of Dara's anti-Manichaean polemics in his On Heretics to investigate the circulation in Syriac of Manichaean creation myths that stem from exegeses of Genesis 2:17. Gábor Kósa interprets the significance of Adam[as] of Light in the cosmological paintings from a newly discovered Japanese collection. Fernando Bermejo-Rubio resolves the perceived dilemma posed by Mani's injunctions against violence and the depictions of violence committed by the Light element in Manichaean cosmogony by suggesting that the latter constituted punitive acts of correction and were restorative rather than violent per se. How Manichaeism's dualism contributes to its exclusivist religious identity on the social plane is explored by Majella Franzman. Group identity likewise serves as a key topic of inquiry in Rea Matsangou's nuanced treatment on the interplay between real and rhetorically constructed Manichaeans. Dilâ Baran Tekin offers a brief conspectus of the Islamic sources that portray Mani and his teachings.

As a successful universal religion, Manichaeism's traditions are represented in texts from a vast array of languages from across Eurasia spread over a millennium or more. Yutaka Yoshida examines Middle Iranian terms that appear in much later Qing-era Manichaean writings from Xiapu in southern China that are perhaps the last known Manichaean texts from anywhere. The question of Manichaeism's even longer-term legacy is nicely raised by Jonathan Smith's reception study that highlights how C.R.C. Allbery's publication, A Manichaean Psalm-Book, Part II, in 1938 shaped Jean Baudrillard's Neo-Modernist or Neo-Manichaean visions of the world as expressed in the latter's Les stratégies fatales published in 1983.

Samuel Lieu's contributed chapter offers a superbly informative intellectual autobiography that surveys developments in Manichaean studies over the past several decades as well as indicates its future directions. As a collection, Manichaeism East and West is more than its fine individual parts. It bears witness to how Lieu and his fellow Manichaean specialists, including a rising cohort of talented younger scholars, continue to build the field through attentive scholarship and international dialogue. As a historical phenomenon, the field of Manichaean studies may be no less noteworthy than the religion of Mani for its comparable success in bringing together diverse peoples from diverse countries and traditions in the common pursuit of a significant, world-spanning cultural enterprise.