Could Manichaeans Be Happy?

Abstract There has been an increasing appreciation of Manichaeans’ capability for certain optimistic expressions about the created cosmos, in spite of their reputation for obsessing about the evil agents of darkness. This present study reviews some of the supporting evidence and explores possible implications for day-to-day life experience among Manichaeans. In spite of a cosmology conveying an ostensibly very dark worldview, could a Manichaean ever have enjoyed life in this world? The second part of the essay turns to implications for mythologies such as those represented among Nag Hammadi tractates and some related cosmologies. In spite of some similarities in mythology, Manichaean tradition is often distinguished from these other cosmologies as a tradition with greater potential for reconciling the role of dark forces in the cosmogony with rather ordinary social and even political life. This essay questions why the same must be denied the authors and ancient fans of cosmogonies like those among Nag Hammadi writings.