Is Calvinism Borrowed From Manichaean Gnosticism?

Mani was a 3rd century self proclaimed prophet
and the founder of the Gnostic religion "Manichaeanism".

 According to the well respected scholar, Ken Wilson, the doctrine of unconditional election along with other points of Calvinism are borrowed from Manichaeanism. But how can this be? What links does Calvinism have with Manichaeanism? Well there are more than one would expect. Calvinism is mostly taken from the doctrines of the early church father Augustine of Hippo, who was a convert out of Manichaeanism to Christianity. Augustine himself testified to his conversion in his book "Confessions".

But did the Manichaeans teach that God unconditionally elects some to salvation and some to damnation? - Yes

Although we do not have many early Manichaean writings, I was able to found late neo-Manichaean writings which distinctly argue against free will, as we can see from these quotes:

"Hence, by this reasoning, vain will be the belief of those who declared that those persons who are to be saved as well as those who never are to be saved have a potency for salvation and can be saved, as was said above."

"And so, we serve God when we fulfill His will with His help, not that we are able through free will to do anything good of which He himself is not the cause and principle. Thus, the Blessed James says in his Epistle, "Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights." " And in the Gospel of John, Christ says, "No man can come to me except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him."  And of himself, He said: "I cannot of myself do anything. As I hear, so I judge";  and again, "But the Father, who abideth in me, he doth the works."  And the Apostle says to the Ephesians: "For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man may glory." " And the same Apostle says to the Romans, "So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that showeth mercy."

"From this one may know that those angels did not have from God a free will by which they could entirely avoid covetousness, and especially not from a God who knows directly all the future, in whom it is impossible that that which is future, with all the causes which determine it, can fail to be in the future. "

These text look like they could have come from any Calvinistic writing! However, the surprise is that these are taken from the Neo-Manichaean book "The Book of the Two Principles". The Neo-Manichaeans used every Calvinistic prooftext, such as John 6, Ephesians 2:8 and Romans 9 to support their theology. However, we are not limited to later neo-Manichaean references, we actually have church fathers also attack the Gnostics for their doctrine of unconditional election. For example, John Chrysostom protests against Manichaeans using John 6 for their doctrine of predestination, as we read in his commentary:

Ver. 44. "No man can come unto Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw Him." The Manichaeans spring upon these words, saying, "that nothing lies in our own power"; yet the expression showeth that we are masters of our will. "For if a man cometh to Him," saith some one, "what need is there of drawing?" But the words do not take away our free will, but show that we greatly need assistance. And He implieth not an unwilling [1287] comer, but one enjoying much succor. Then He showeth also the manner in which He draweth; for that men may not, again, form any material idea of God, He addeth,

This thus shows that Augustine's theology is clearly borrowed from Manichaeanism, it is not a coincidence that the first person to introduce this kind of theology, was himself a convert from Manichaeanism. Later, Calvin inherited this Manichaean influence from the doctrines of Augustine.