Having entered the Christmas season, we ask those who find the work of the Mystagogy Resource Center beneficial to them to help us continue our work with a generous financial gift as you are able. As an incentive, we are offering the following booklet.

In 1909 the German philosopher Arthur Drews wrote a book called "The Myth of Christ", which New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman has called "arguably the most influential mythicist book ever produced," arguing that Jesus Christ never existed and was simply a myth influenced by more ancient myths. The reason this book was so influential was because Vladimir Lenin read it and was convinced that Jesus never existed, thus justifying his actions in promoting atheism and suppressing the Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union. Moreover, the ideologues of the Third Reich would go on to implement the views of Drews to create a new "Aryan religion," viewing Jesus as an Aryan figure fighting against Jewish materialism. 

Due to the tremendous influence of this book in his time, George Florovsky viewed the arguments presented therein as very weak and easily refutable, which led him to write a refutation of this text which was published in Russian by the YMCA Press in Paris in 1929. This apologetic brochure titled "Did Christ Live? Historical Evidence of Christ" was one of the first texts of his published to promote his Neopatristic Synthesis, bringing the patristic heritage to modern historical and cultural conditions. With the revival of these views among some in our time, this text is as relevant today as it was when it was written. 

Never before published in English, it is now available for anyone who donates at least $20 to the Mystagogy Resource Center upon request (please specify in your donation that you want the book). Thank you.



April 6, 2010

Paschal Litany on Mount Athos for Bright Week


On Bright Monday some monasteries on Mount Athos and Karyes hold litanies with their miraculous icons and holy relics. The others do this on Bright Tuesday.

For centuries the litany with the miraculous icon of Axion Estin in Karyes takes place after the Divine Liturgy on Bright Monday. The procession, the route of which was established in 1508 and is still for the most part followed faithfully, leads to all the surrounding monasteries, sketes and cells from its center in Protaton. Offerings of bread, cheese and wine are made at their stops. At each stop a Gospel is read and the Apolytikion of the Saint honored by each monastery, skete and cell. A stop is made at Koutloumousiou where everyone spends the night and the return is made on Bright Tuesday. Upon the return to Protaton a Trapeza is offered. In 1488 the fathers of Dionysiou Monastery criticized these processions as being for gluttons and drunkards, but then their crops and gardens were destroyed by hail and they were rebuked. Koutloumousiou Monastery did the same, but then sickness struck and buildings such as the Trapeza of the monastery were destroyed.

It should be noted that the monasteries consider these litanies essential for the good production of their gardens and vineyards. When it was not done in the past, the "wrath of God" was manifested.
















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