Frontiers of Faith: The Christian Encounter with Manichaeism in the Acts of Archelaus: 61 (NAG HAMMADI AND MANICHAEAN STUDIES, 61) - Hardcover

"...a very successful achievement which, as the first book-length study of Acts of Archelaus, deserves to be used an discussed in future studies of Manischaeism." - Nils Arne Pedersen, Journal of Early Christian Studies, 2008 "Frontiers of Faith has much to offer students of early Christianity and Manichaeism. [...] The contributors' honest and thoughtful engagement with intellectual and research questions ranging from source and textual criticism to the study of narrative representations and formation of cultural identities commends their collaborative work as a model for furture inquiries." - Richard LIm, Smith College, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 73 (2011)

Taking as their common subject the key early Christian anti-Manichaean work, the Acts of Archelaus (Acta Archelai), the contributors to this volume offer a systematic exploration of what the text has to tell us about inter-religious contact, conflict, and comprehension at a crucial moment in religious history: the encounter between Christianity and Manichaeism along the political and cultural frontier zone of West Asia in the early fourth century CE. The contributions examine the text's structure, apologetic and polemical strategies, and possible sources, and through these analyses challenge received notions of 'orthodoxy' and 'heresy' in the mutual construction of identity that took place between these two claimants to the Christian heritage.