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.



March 16, 2012

Ethnic Albanians Demand Removal of Church


March 15, 2012
B92

An ethnic Albanian MP in the Montenegrin parliament on Thursday again demanded for an Orthodox church to be removed from Mt. Rumija, near the town of Bar.

Mehmet Bardhi of the Democratic Alliance of Albanians in Montenegro stated during a parliament session today that the church was "constructed violently" in 2005.

The church, made of tin, belongs to the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

"That structure is not only illegal and not only has Rumija been occupied by it, but it also represents a provocation of the highest order, and a threat, not only to Albanians, but also to inter-ethnic harmony," Bardhi was quoted as saying.

The ethnic Albanian MP demanded that the church be dismantled because the mountain where it was located, in his words, "cannot stand the smell of frankincense".

"The SPC cannot occupy Rumija, because that mountain does not belong only to the Orthodox," he continued, and said that by constructing the structure there, the Church "went on a war path".

Socialist People's Party MP Vasilije Lalošević reacted by saying that the church on Mt. Rumija was a holy place and that Bardhi's statements about religious structures being in the way and the smell of incense used in Christian ceremonies being unacceptable "were not well-meaning".

Montenegrin Tourism and Spatial Planning Minister Predrag Sekulić responded to Bardhi - whose statement was made in the form of an MP question to the government - and said that while the church was not built legally, "a moratorium on removal of illegally constructed structures was currently in place".
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