Blog Entry #9-Group Topic

The Cologne Mani Codex was influenced by many Christian writings such as the apocryphal acts of the apostles and the writing's of Paul. The CMC depicts the life of Mani and his struggles to and from the Jewish Christian baptist sect from southern Babylon. The text was compiled after Mani's death in 270 and was is plausibly from the upper Egypt area. However, it seems interesting that despite being found in upper Egypt, the texts do not seem to be influenced by ancient Egyptian religion at all. The CMC discusses theology and ritual practice of the baptist sect, and even emphasizes Mani's issues with the practice of baptism and purification within the tradition. Mani found multiple baptisms to be unecessary, as one baptism should be sufficient.

The CMC speaks about Mani the way that the Gospel of Thomas speaks about Jesus by "emphasizing the role of the solitary one". Since this was only discussed in part in the article, I decided to include more from the Gospel of Thomas in my blog. Unlike the other canonical gospels, Thomas' account is a narration of Jesus' life and mainly comprises of dialogues surrounding Jesus. I found it particularly interesting that the Gospel of Thomas does not show concern for concepts such as; god, original sin, christ, or divinity. Thomas' focus is on the historical Jesus. Like the CMC, the Gospel of Thomas is also codexed.

Blog Entry #8

The above picture is courtesy of the Seattle Art Museum and is of the Nestorian tablet, discovered in 1625. Made out of stone stele and is inscribed with both Chinese and Assyrian characters from a Nestorian preist of 781. The actual tablet stands at almost ten feet high!

As a religion major, this weeks readings interested me mainly through the discussion of Nestorian Christianity and its relation to Chinese culture through the 6th century. The Nestorian Church moved and flourished in China without the need for institutionalization and was tolerated by Chinese society, which is why their influence on each other is so prominent in this weeks articles.

Nestorian Christianity denounce the role of Mary as the Virgin Mother, and exemplify her as only giving birth to the human Jesus. Where two versions of Jesus Christ existed, the man and the divinity. They maintain that Mary played no role in his divinity and therefore should not be credited the way she is in Roman Catholicism. Moreover, Roman Catholicism claims there to be three versions of Jesus; the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Horses and the Golden Age of Tang is significant because of its obvious equality given to men and women in regards to horseback riding, and other small game hunting such as falconry. Horsewomen of Chang'an of the Tang dynasty were given equal oppertunity as horsemen.