Secret Alias wrote: ↑Wed May 03, 2023 12:24 pm
But Mormonism is a Christian sect. We should Manichaeanism as a separate religion from Christianity?
There is debate about that. Living close to Kirtland, OH, where Smith's LDS church briefly settled, we see a lot of LDS and RLDS literature here, and I have read through (several times) the Book of Mormon and some of their other classics like Pearl of Great Price. Yes, part of a manuscript of a book containing a passage remarkably like a part of the BoM story line (about the Lamanites & Nephites IIRC), but clearly not a draft of the BoM and is believed to predate it, is in the Cleveland Public Library rare books collection (I've seen it there). The parallels are often overstated. Some of their revelatory literature resemble some intertestamental Jewish, and Christian, apocrypha known, but not widely available, in his day.
While their beliefs do incorporate elements about Jesus Christ, IMHO it is not classical Christianity by any means. The salvation scheme is entirely different. The God of the OT is a powerful flesh and blood human being, as was his son Jesus, but the only thing divine about them is that they are part of a network of countless gods over various planets or solar systems. Joeseph Smith was the original L Ron Hubbard.
I think the same can be said of Manichaeanism, it borrowed elements from Christianity, but it was a dualistic system at its heart closer to Zoroastrianism than the Christian system and understanding of the universe.
Arianism was concentrated on the nature of the godhead of the Christians, and thus properly Christian, just as JWs are "Christian." They all feature a twist on the classic Christian scheme of salvation.
Why these rants with throw-away equations, Stephen?