"It is a phenomenological signature motif of Manichaeism that the light mingles with the darkness so the darkness can be overcome and itself transformed to a certain height. This is the ethical premise of Manichaeism: that good binds itself in love with evil, without losing its own being, and through this, evil can be overcome and transformed. In the process of the transformation of evil, humanity will have a prominent role to play." Roland van Vliet
Through relating the story of Mani's life, and the cosmogony of Mani, which begins before Genesis and ends far beyond the Apocalypse, Roland van Vliet sheds light on Manichaeism, the religion that, between the 3rd to 7th centuries, spread west throughout the Roman Empire to Spain from the Middle East and Persia and as far east as China where it continued to flourish until the 14th century. With the help of Manichaean texts found during the 20th century, the author argues for the viability of Manichaeism as a world religion within the stream of Christianity. He offers textual evidence to dispute the longstanding theory of docetism associated with Manichaeism, and to promote the theory of gnostic adoptionism: that the cosmic Christ incarnated in the Light Apostle Jesus at the Baptism of Jordan, thus becoming Man, Whose suffering, death and resurrection was the ultimate sacrifice of Love for the benefit of humanity.
Roland van Vliet also cites Rudolf Steiner's indications of the importance of the Mani impulse and the Manichaean spiritual stream for the future development of the earth and humankind.
