Mani, the founder of the spiritual movement that has come to be called "Manichaeism," established an influential teaching that spread swiftly across Asia, Africa, and parts of Europe, but was later brutally suppressed. Little was known about this "Gnostic" religion until archaeological findings in the twentieth century revealed important aspects of Mani's biography and philosophical thought.

Many years before those physical discoveries, Rudolf Steiner provided key esoteric insights based on his personal spiritual-scientific research, into Mani's life and work. Richard Seddon assembles pieces of the academic and esoteric puzzle, offering a lively and colorful picture of Mani and Manichaeism. He gives a succinct outline of Mani's life, the fundamental aspects of his teachings, and a description of the future spiritual role of Manichaeism. Seddon creates an image of a great Christian initiate leading a movement with the critical task of transforming and ultimately redeeming evil.