The Catholic and Manichaean Ways of Life (The Fathers of the Church 56)

The Catholic and Manichaean Ways of Life is, like the
Contra academicos (386) and the works of St. Augustine's later life
against the Donatists and other heretics, the refutation of a
redoubtable adversary whom he is determined to overthrow for the
protection of his fellow Christians. Even a rapid glance at its contents
is sufficient to show its character as a polemical work in which he
contrasts one religious view of God, man and the world with another. In
the first book, we are provided with a treatise on Christian morality,
written, we must always bear in mind, by one received into the Church
not two years before. It establishes that God is the Supreme Good. It
shows the meaning of unions with him in charity. It explains the four
cardinal virtues in terms of love, and particularly in terms of the love
of God. Finally, it holds up for our admiration and emulation the
Christian virtues of the religious, clergy, and laity. The way of life
of the Catholic Church thus portrayed by Augustine embodies in his view a
lofty ideal, but one that is livable by individuals in all states of
life and in various stages of progress in virtue. The second book
describes and refutes the teaching of the Manichaeans on the nature and
origin of evil, their false ascetical practices, and their doctrines
concerning the three symbols of the mouth, the hands, and the breast. In
conclusion, Augustine denounces, on the basis of personal knowledge of
first-hand reports, the scandalous conduct of the members of the
Manichaean elect. Throughout this book, he is concerned, nor merely to
expose the errors and excesses of the sect, including the shameful
behavior and hypocrisy of certain of its leaders, but the absurdities
and even depravity to which men are led by a way of life that is
essentially unlivable. Whatever may be claimed for the austerities of
the more sincere and ascetic members of the Manichaean sect, a religion
that corrodes human nature and castigates its natural functioning as
evil, cannot be good. Such is St. Augustine's ultimate judgment upon
Manichaeanism, and he expresses it with eloquence and invective.