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.



February 3, 2016

Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) is Canonized


On February 3, 2016, the fifth plenary session of the Holy Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, held at Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, the proposal to canonize Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) was deliberated upon.

Participating in the session was a delegation from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, including His Eminence Metropolitan Ioann of Varna and Veliki Preslav, His Grace Bishop Arseny of Znepolsk, Vicar of the Plovdiv Metropoliate, and Archimandrite Feoktist (Dimitrov), representative of the Bulgarian Patriarch to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

Speeches on the life and veneration of the holy hierarch were read by His Eminence Metropolitan Ilarion of Volokolamsk, Head of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, and Metropolitan Ioann, co-chairmen of the Joint Commission of the Russian and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches on the Canonization of Archbishop Seraphim.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia stressed the need to glorify Archbishop Seraphim, as did His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia; His Eminence Metropolitan Alexander of Riga and All Latvia; His Eminence Metropolitan Sergei of Voronezh and Liskinsk; His Eminence Metropolitan Mark of Ryazan and Mikhailovsk; Archimandrite Filipp (Vasiltsev), Rector of St Nicholas of Myra Church in Sofia, Bulgaria, a podvorie of the Moscow Patriarchate, where Archbishop Seraphim is interred.


The members of the Council unanimously voted for the glorification of Archbishop Seraphim, who has been venerated for many years in Bulgaria and Russia. Metropolitan Ilarion then read the Act of the Holy Council of Bishops announcing the canonization of Archbishop Seraphim among the host of saints.

The Council members then sang the exaltation to the newly-glorified saint.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill then gave Metropolitan Ioann an icon of St Seraphim painted at St Petersburg Theological Academy as a gift to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

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