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.



September 9, 2016

Synaxis of the Panagia the Gladness of All Generations at Agiou Demetriou

Panagia the Gladness of All Generations (Feast Day - September 8)

This icon of the Theotokos, which is named after a verse from the second stasis of the Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos, is kept in the Church of Saint Demetrios in the district of Agiou Demetriou in Attica, and depicts the Panagia enthroned with the Christ Child on her lap, between her mother Saint Anna and her grandmother the Righteous Maria.

Apolytikion
With your maternal grandmother Maria, O Mother of God, together with the grandmother of God, we bless you, along with all mortals of every generation, as you were promised once on the mountain, and taking courage in the entreaties of the household of Christ we cry out with maternal-longing: we lay all our hope on our relationship as children with your kinship to not forget us.


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