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.



July 22, 2009

Saint Porphyrios and Apollo 13



Below is a brief translation summary of a lecture circulating in Greek in the video above by Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol about Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyva and how he helped to save the crew of the Apollo 13 lunar mission. It is not a word for word translation, just a basic one. Unfortunately many details are left out, but the Metropolitan passed on this information because he believed it to be a miracle of God through the Elder.

Metropolitan Athanasios speaks here about an interesting relationship between what happened to the Apollo 13 lunar mission and Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyva when he was living in Athens. Apparently when disaster struck mid-mission due to a technical malfunction and the mission had to be aborted and the crew safely returned back to earth, there was a meeting held with some top astronomers and scientists on how to save the crew, among whom was a spiritual child of Elder Porphyrios. Before he left he went to get his Elder's blessing and explained to him what happened and how he had to travel to the United States to help take care of the problem. The Elder told him that when he got to the United States he should allow all the other scientists to speak first to give their opinions to resolve this issue, though their opinions would be wrong. Then the Elder told his spiritual child to speak last and told him exactly what to say in order to save the crew. Believing he had to be obedient to his Elder, he did as was told. The NASA scientists listened to his advice and the crew was saved. 

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