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.



May 30, 2015

The Mysterious Paschal Liturgy in Hagia Sophia in the Year 1522


"In this year (1522) God showed a sign seen in the city of Constantine on the great Sunday of Pascha. At midnight the dervishes awoke and went to Hagia Sophia, to say their salawat prayers as was their custom. And entering the courtyard of the temple they heard chanting; and they also saw a great light in the temple, and approaching it they found the gates opened and the sound of chanting, singing Christ Is Risen. Upon hearing this they immediately informed the master, so that he physically came, and heard and saw with his eyes, and called out to go up there to see if this was taking place by people. And straightway the light diminished with the chanting. And he rushed to cut off the Christians, but Piri Mehmed Pasha again prevented the onslaught."

The anonymous Chronicon Breve which lists important historical events until 1523, and written around this time, records a mysterious Paschal Liturgy in the Temple of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople which became known to the Turks and to Sultan Suleiman, that angered him so much that it almost caused a slaughter of Christians if it was not for the intervention of his advisor, Grand Vizier Piri Mehmed Pasha. It seems that it was believed the Liturgy of the Resurrection took place in a divine and wondrous manner.


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