146MARCION OF SINOPE
often influenced their worldview. In The
Confessions, Augustine recounts how he
entertained Manichaeism in his youth,
but later rejected it. In 382 CE, the Roman
Emperor Theodosius I (who later made
Christianity the official religion of the
Roman Empire) issued a decree of death
for Manichaens. Manichaens were also
persecuted by Buddhists and Zoroastrians.
Muslims, however, were tolerant of
Manichaeism.
MARCION OF SINOPE (c. 85 CE– c.
165 CE). A Gnostic Christian who held
that the religion of Yahweh is not of the
true God. We are to seek a higher God
than the god-creator (a Demiurge) of this
world. The higher God sent Christ whom
the Demiurge in this world killed. Christ
overcame death and Paul was appointed
to preach a gospel of liberation and
salvation.
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS
(121–180 CE). A philosophically reflec-
tive Roman emperor whose private notes
were later published as The Meditations
and have long been treasured as promot-
ing stoical calm and serenity in the midst
of sometimes devastating conflict.
MARCUSE, HERBERT (1898–1979). A
Freudian Marxist who offered a deep
critique of the materialism and shallow-
ness of post-World War II Europe and
North America. Marcuse was as deeply
opposed to Soviet Marxism as he was to
the West’s pursuit of military and social
power. His chief works include Eros and
Civilization (1955) and One-Dimensional
Man (1964).MARITAIN, JACQUES (1882–1973).
French Neo-Thomist, he brought Catho-
lic neo-Thomism into dialogue with
many of the leading philosophical move-
ments of twentieth-century France, espe-
cially those hostile to Catholicism, such
as Sartre’s existentialism and Bergson’s
vitalism. He also recast Thomistic philos-
ophy in light of the advances of modern
science and movements in modern art.
He defended a form of intellectual intu-
ition distinct from what is found in Hus-
serlian phenomenology and Bergsonian
philosophy. His writings include Art
and Scholasticism (1920), The Degrees of
Knowledge (1932), Integral Humanism
(1936), Existence and the Existent (1947),
Approaches to God (1953), Creative Intu-
ition in Art and Poetry (1953), and Moral
Philosophy (1960).MARX, KARL (1818–1883). The chief
architect of communism along with
Engels, Marx did not regard himself as a
philosopher and yet he promoted a seri-
ous philosophy of history, economics, and
politics. Marx argued that history is the
history of class struggle. He argued that
feudalism necessarily led to capitalism