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 23, 2010

Russian Church Ready To Raise Abandoned Children



Saving an unborn child from abortion is more important than building churches, Moscow priest believes.

July 22, 2010

The chairman of the Russian Church Department for Church Charities and Social Service Archimandrite Panteleimon (Shatov) believes that philanthropists should spare no expense to save unborn children from being killed, because it is more important than building churches.

"There are rich people ready to support mothers-to-be. I think we can find many of them. There are a lot of business people who fund different church projects, however, saving children's lives seems much more important than building another church," he said Thursday at a press conference in Moscow on the eve of the First International Festival For Life 2010.

Besides, Archimandrite Panteleimon believes that such help needs legal support.

He offered to open Russian baby hatches where a mother can bring her newborn when she cannot afford to raise her baby.

"Our department is ready to help all women who have no means and are afraid that they will not be able to raise their baby. We can take a newly born baby to church and raise him/her there or bring him/her to a church orphanage," Archimandrite Panteleimon said.

According to him, one million abortions are made every year in Russia, that is, every one of seven children is killed "en ventre de sa mere". Twenty five percent of women become infertile after the first abortion.

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