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 25, 2012

A Paschal Divine Liturgy In the Middle of Paris


By Nicholas Arseniev

We'd also like to show some examples of long-suffering for the defeated enemy, the forbearance inspired by the message of the Gospel ...

Let's think ... how Alexander I behaved in Paris in 1814. He didn't behave as a conqueror but as a liberator and friend of the French people. Moreover, he showed in the eyes of Europe how he meant to avenge the fate of Moscow. (We mean here the previous campaign of Napoleon in Russia).

On 29 March (10 April) 1814, at the Place de la Révolution, in the same place where they beheaded Louis XVI, they celebrated the splendid night Paschal Liturgy of the Orthodox Church, full of joy and with a tone of reconciliation, in accordance with the Resurrection Hymn: "... let us embrace one another, forgiving all in the Resurrection ... Christ is risen from the dead...", as a Liturgy of atonement, restoration and reconciliation in front of Russian troops with festive outfits.

It was (polite) revenge for Moscow, as he said it straight to his close friend Prince Alexander Golitsyn when he returned to Petersburg. Here he drew in the depths of Christian experience where at one time it seized the soul of Russian people all over the classes of the social scale.

This magnanimous behavior of Emperor Alexander I toward the defeated enemy strengthened the admiration felt for him by the numerous circles of Russian society.

From Russian Piety.


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