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.



January 1, 2011

Clarifications Concerning the Circumcision of Christ


The Great Synaxaristes in Greek contains a note under its January 1st entry concerning some important clarifications regarding the circumcision of Christ. It mentions that Ephraim the Syrian and Meletios of Athens (Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1) say that the Lord was circumcised by Joseph, the putative father of Jesus, in the cave. Epiphanios of Salamis comments concerning this that neither the evangelists have written anything, nor is it necessary that they should, since it has nothing to do with our salvation. Furthermore, Anastasios the Sinaite and other easterners claim that the Theotokos preserved the circumcised foreskin of Christ as a sacred treasure. It remained incorrupt until the Lord's resurrection, when He took it to Himself again. In vain do some westerners claim to possess the circumcised flesh. One account maintained that it was kept at Cavillino, a city of Lower Burgundy (Fr. Bourgogne), in a certain church. The bishop of that place, one named Gaston, opened the reliquary supposedly containing the relic on the 19th day of April, in the year 1707, but he found nothing more than a little grain of sand and a tiny piece of gravel. In addition to this, Rome claimed to have the relic in the Church of Saint John the Lateran, as footnoted by Calmette (Luke, ch. 2).

For more on the superstition of the Holy Perpuce (Foreskin), see here and here.

Source: The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church (January), translated by Holy Apostles Convent, p. 3.
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