The Process of Formation of the Abstract Concept of Salvation in Christianity, Based on the Discussions of St. Augustine with the Manichaean Ephesians in Early African Texts 

Roshanak Azari / Assistant Professor at the Department of Persian Language and Literature, Farhangian University    azariroshanak@gmail.com
Received: 2019/07/15 - Accepted: 2019/12/10

Abstract
The claim that Jesus did not have a physical body and was not crucified was first made by Christian Gnostic denominations, such as the Manichaeans who joined the Christian denomination. This is the fundamental difference between Manichaean Christianity and traditional Christianity. This descriptive-qualitative article firstly summarizes the process of designing the divine incarnation in the body of Jesus Christ based on the Christian Gospels and Epistles, and then introduces the three Jesus that the Manichaeans believed in. Next, the interplay of the two religions in the design of the image of Jesus as Savior was examined based on the texts found in Africa in early centuries. The Manichaean debate with St. Augustine about the material or divine incarnation of Jesus at the time of creation and crucifixion, based on the Gospel, the Epistles of Paul, and the Manichaean texts, was the basis of the analysis and showed that the process of forming the abstract concept of salvation was a reciprocal influence among Christians and Manichaeans in the first centuries AD. 

Keywords: Manichaeism, Christianity, abstract concept of salvation, St. Augustine.