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.



December 11, 2014

Synaxarion of Saint Luke the New Stylite of Chalcedon


On the 11th of December we Commemorate 
our Venerable Father Luke the New Stylite.

Verses

A pillar bore Luke on high,
With his nous towards God, Luke runs.

He lived during the reigns of the emperors Romanos the Lekapenos and Elder and Constantine Porphyrogennetos his son-in-law, the son of Leo the Wise, at the time when Theophylaktos was Patriarch, who was the legitimate son of Romanos, in the year 919, having origins in the Eastern theme, and was the son of Christopher and Kalee. When, therefore, at that time as the war with the Bulgarians was raging, then the orders of the emperor suffered this Saint to go to war. As the war developed, a large number of men fell, but he was redeemed by divine Providence. For this reason he became a Monk. And having excelled in asceticism, he was ordained a Presbyter, and he wore heavy chains to utterly subdue his body. He fasted six days out of the week, and ate nothing else except the offering bread (prosphoron) brought to him and raw cabbage. Then he ascended a pillar, where he lived for three years. Because he heard the divine voice calling, he was persuaded by God's call and went to Olympus. And he put in his mouth a stone, like a bridle, to prevent him from speaking. From there he returned to Constantinople, and from there to Chalcedon, where he again ascended another pillar, and worked a large number of miracles. In this way he lived forty-five years on the pillar, and departed to the Lord.


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