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.



November 5, 2015

Join in an Effort to Publish Orthodox Christian Classics!

Christ blessing the offering of the poor widow

Dear Readers:

For the past two years I've been working hard behind the scenes to bring to the English speaking world a variety of Orthodox Christian classic texts that have never before been published or translated. This work has been completely separate from the many hours of daily researching, translating and writing of unique material that I have offered on my five websites. It is all work that I have done completely by myself, and to do it I decided to live off of the very meager yet very generous contributions of my readers and sponsors.

Things have progressed to the point where I am almost ready to begin to reveal these Orthodox texts to the world, yet I am far from ready due to a financial impasse. This is where I need your help. To keep this ministry afloat and produce these texts, your help in the form of a financial contribution is needed today. Though I try to only ask for contributions once or twice a year, these are only enough to barely keep this ministry afloat. For the extra work to get done, more financial help is needed.

I am not able to reveal all the details of what I have been working on just yet. Some things are more than 75% completed, others around 50%, and others slightly less than %50. If I am not able to get the financial help necessary to complete them, then I don't want to tease around my work. What I will reveal is that one text is a highly anticipated patristic spiritual classic not yet translated, another is what I consider to be St. Nektarios' magnum opus, another are some texts never before published and/or translated by Fr. John Romanides, Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Fr. George Metallinos, another is an important work on St. Isaac the Syrian that is nearly completed, there are a few things I wrote that will be of interest to many, and last but not least is a book written by a monk during the Ottoman occupation that was the source of many sermons of St. Kosmas Aitolos and was used as a training manual for the holy martyrs of that time.

If any of these sound interesting to you, and you would like to be a part in getting them published and distributed, then would you please help with a financial contribution today to make this possible?

I understand that to make a financial contribution is a huge sacrifice, and because some time is needed before a return is met, I am willing to make an offer. If a financial contribution in the amount of $50.00 or more is given, or if you can sign on for at least a $10.00 monthly contribution, then I will send you information by email to be able to access a secret website where I will post excerpts from the texts I am working on until they are completed. Just please include an up-to-date email with your contribution. All other contributors of a lesser amount will be eligible for a discount towards the purchase of these texts when published.

Click on the DONATE button to make a one-time donation (a Paypal account is not needed to make a one-time donation):



Click on the SUBSCRIBE button, after choosing an amount from the drop box, to make regular monthly donations:





To send in your donation, please do so to the following address:

John Sanidopoulos
PO Box 320284
West Roxbury, MA 02132

Thank you for your help!

John Sanidopoulos
Administrator

P.S. Please share this post with anyone who would be willing to help!

Read also: An Update on the Campaign to Publish Orthodox Texts (Nov. 23, 2015)

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