Acts of the Debate with Fortunatus the Manichaean

Contents

Reading pages: 1–20 · 21–37

1. 1Augustine opens by charging that Manichaean doctrine makes God violable, and Fortunatus asks him, as a former member, to testify to the Manichaeans' way of life.
2. 2Augustine agrees to speak about morals if the audience wishes, and Fortunatus appeals to him as a witness of Manichaean conduct.
3. 3Augustine says that as a Hearer he saw nothing shameful at Manichaean prayer and insists on discussing faith; Fortunatus states the Manichaean profession about God and the Savior.
4. 4Augustine asks what cast souls into death; Fortunatus turns the question to whether anything exists besides God.
5. 5Each speaker presses the other to answer his own question first.
6. 6Augustine asks by what necessity an incorruptible God sent souls here; Fortunatus asks how souls came into the world if nothing exists besides God.
7. 7Augustine states his dilemma (if God could not be harmed he sent souls here without cause; if he could, he is not inviolable), and Fortunatus answers with Philippians 2 as a pattern of the soul's descent.
8. 8Augustine complains that Fortunatus answers a different question; Fortunatus says the soul's descent parallels Christ's.
9. 9Augustine distinguishes Christ's humanity from God's own substance and repeats his dilemma; Fortunatus asks whether the soul is of God.
10. 10Augustine agrees to be questioned; Fortunatus asks whether the soul acts in its own right.
11. 11Augustine argues that the soul, which sins and changes, cannot be God's substance; Fortunatus maintains that the soul is from God and presses Augustine for his own view.
12. 12Augustine says the soul is from God as made by him, not as part of him; Fortunatus asks from what God made it.
13. 13Augustine answers that God, being almighty, made the soul and all things from nothing.
14. 14Fortunatus argues from the opposition of light and darkness, truth and falsehood, that there are two substances.
15. 15Augustine explains evil as voluntary sin and its just punishment, made possible by the free choice God gave the soul.
16. 16Fortunatus argues that precepts presuppose an opposing power and reads Ephesians 2 in support.
17. 17Augustine argues that sin, repentance, and forgiveness presuppose free will and cites 'by nature children of wrath'; Fortunatus answers that Paul meant this of the body and that the soul is from God.
18. 18Fortunatus states plainly the Manichaean teaching of two substances, light and darkness.
19. 19Augustine cites Romans 1:3–4 on Christ's descent from David according to the flesh; Fortunatus rejects it, the first day breaks up after he says the Word of God is bound in darkness, and on the second day he restates that evils are foreign to God.
20. 20Augustine argues that a faith in an incorruptible God whose creatures sin by free will is worthier than one that makes God's own part suffer; Fortunatus replies that we sin unwillingly, compelled by a hostile substance.
21. 21Augustine traces evil to sin and desire, the 'root of all evils', and presses the Manichaean on repentance; Fortunatus answers that desire in us is only a small part of an evil that pervades the world.
22. 22Augustine explains how Adam's free sin and the habits we form bind the will, reads the two trees as two wills, and again asks how sin can be imputed to souls sent by God.
23. 23Augustine interprets the lambs among wolves and the struggle with principalities without two natures, and Fortunatus concedes that God could not be harmed.
24. 24Fortunatus affirms both that God could not be harmed and that he sent souls here, and asks Augustine to explain the soul's presence.
25. 25Augustine answers that the soul is miserable because it sinned by free choice, and asks again why a God who could not be harmed sent souls here.
26. 26Fortunatus appeals to Romans 9:20 and says that if there was a necessity to send the soul there is also a will to free it.
27. 27Fortunatus denies that God acted under necessity and says he sent the soul voluntarily.
28. 28Augustine has Fortunatus's words read back and argues that a voluntary sending would be cruel; Fortunatus retorts that the Catholic view makes God either ignorant or cruel in creating the soul.
29. 29Augustine defers the question of adoption; Fortunatus says the soul went forth against a contrary nature that could not harm God.
30. 30Augustine asks what need there was for the soul's going forth; Fortunatus asks whether Christ came from God.
31. 31Fortunatus says Christ came by the will of God.
32. 32Fortunatus cites John 10:18 as showing that the soul went forth by God's will.
33. 33Fortunatus says the soul was sent to impose a measure on the contrary nature and will be taken back, reading John 10:18 of our souls.
34. 34Augustine refers John 10:18 to Christ's passion and resurrection; Fortunatus repeats that souls were sent to impose a measure on the contrary nature.
35. 35Augustine objects that bringing the contrary nature within measure made souls immoderate; Fortunatus answers that God calls them back.
36. 36Augustine asks why souls must suffer so long if God could not be harmed, and Fortunatus has no answer.
37. 37Augustine says this unanswered question led him out of Manichaeism; Fortunatus promises to consult his superiors and, if they cannot answer, to consider the catholic faith.