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 22, 2010

The Translation of Liturgical Texts In Russia


Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin Opposed the Translation of Liturgical Texts into Modern Colloquial Language

6 April 2010
Interfax

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin, the chairman of the Synodal Division for Church and Public Relations, thinks that the translation of liturgical texts from Church Slavonic into modern Russian is inappropriate.

“I don’t think that we need to translate the language of worship, which was formed in ancient Russia, into the language of music videos or SMS-messages”, he said on Thursday at a press conference in Moscow.

Fr Vsevolod went on to say that most people don’t experience distress because of the use of Church Slavonic in worship. “If someone really wants to understand the services and they put all of their heart into it, then, after three or four weeks of regular attendance at worship, they begin to understand it all”, he said.

“The Church does speak in different ‘languages’. There are also Orthodox blogs and Orthodox music videos. However, the liturgical texts are a special case. Even if you translate them into modern Russian, it would not be easy to understand them. They are high philosophy, understandable only to those who are enlightened by the teachings of Orthodoxy”.

At the same time, Fr Vsevolod thinks that the texts themselves educate us; they teach us what we need to pray for. “After all, we do not always know what to pray for. We pray about money, our careers, or our family’s welfare. Maybe, that’s bad for us”, he said.
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