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 15, 2011

Moscow Patriarchate Encourages Scientists To Study the Church Fathers On Human Psychology



April 15, 2011

The Moscow Patriarchate urged scientists to study discoveries of the Orthodox holy fathers in human psychology.

"Modern science has not absorbed or insufficiently absorbed the wealth of a heritage left by the Early Christian spiritual and intellectual tradition," the head of the Synodal Information Department Vladimir Legoyda writes in an article published by Izvestia newspaper.

According to him, one reason is that "the language of today's science was formed in Europe primarily by Christian believers; however, a large corpus of texts written by the holy fathers has not been translated into this scientific language."

"Christian ascetics made such great discoveries in human nature that Freud couldn't even dream of, if I may say so. Of course, not strictly scientific in form, they contain quite detailed descriptions of many psychological laws of personal development," the article says.

Legoyda states that Western culture went past the works of the Church Fathers and Christian ascetics "who have been studying the secret laws of the human soul for centuries"; so "this situation may be and needs to be changed."

"The ecclesiastical pastoral experience is well aware of such maladies inherent to the modern world and treated by psychiatrists as stress, passions, tension and loneliness. Christianity has gathered unparalleled experience analyzing the human soul which is undoubtedly indispensable to modern science," Legoyda added.
Labels: , ,

BECOME A PATREON OR PAYPAL SUBSCRIBER


Patreon!