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Some have postulated that current thinking———the rejection of “right and wrong”——— is the rejection of Manichaeism which introducedthe struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness, thinking that has transcended the ages.
Other scholars have suggested that Manichaeism influenced the development of some Christian ideas found in the teachings of St Augustine, such as the nature of good and evil, the idea of hell, the separation of groups into elect, hearers, and sinners, and the hostility to the flesh and sexual activity.
These influences of Manichaeism in Augustine’s Christian thinking taught that mankind, in particular, as having a Divine core, rather than a ‘darkness’ at its core.