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 14, 2017

Commemoration of the Sixth Ecumenical Synod

Sixth Ecumenical Synod (Feast Day - September 14)

Verses

The one hypostasis of the God-man,
Is known by the two-fold wills and natures.

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To revere the two wills of the God-man,
Is taught by the multitude of pious-minded at the Sixth.

The Sixth Ecumenical Synod was convened by the emperor Constantine IV Pogonatos (668-685) at the imperial palace of Constantinople, in the domed hall called the Trullo, in the years 680-681 to combat the heresies of Monothelitism and Monoenergism. At it 170 Holy Fathers were present, who affirmed the doctrine of two wills in our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, the divine and the human. And justified were the struggles of Saint Sophronios the Patriarch of Jerusalem and Saint Maximus the Confessor against the Monothelites.

The pious Emperor ratified with his own signet that which was written for the security of future generations. This Synod taught that we should openly profess our faith that in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, our true God, there are two natural wills or volitions and two natural operations or energies; and condemned by a just sentence those who adulterated the true doctrine and taught the people that in the one Lord Jesus Christ there is but one will and one operation; to wit, Bishop Theodore of Pharan, Patriarch Cyrus of Alexandria, Pope Honorius I of Rome, the Patriarchs of Constantinople Sergius I, Pyrrhus, Paul II and Peter, Patriarch Makarios of Antioch and Stephen, who was his disciple, and the monk Polychronios, were deprived from the communion of the body of Christ our God.

This Synod was followed by another Synod in the year 691, called the Synod of Trullo (also known as the Quinisext or Penthekti Synod) under Emperor Justinian II (668-711). This Synod addressed certain practical matters, and 102 canons were promulgated.


Apolytikion in the First Tone
At the sacred gathering of the Sixth Synod, the divinely-wise one hundred and seventy Fathers, dispelled the fog of heresy, with the bright dogma of piety; for this reason their holy memory, we honor crying out: Glory to Him Who gave you strength, glory to Him Who crowned you, glory to Him Who gave you surety, of the Orthodox faith.

Kontakion in the Second Tone
Having shined with the light of virtue, and proclaimed at the Sixth Synod, the two natures of Christ, and energies and wills, let us honor the divinely-minded Fathers, as pious initiates and receivers of revelation, who intercede to Christ on our behalf.

Megalynarion
At the revered Sixth Synod, in Byzantium, there gathered, piously, sacred Fathers, with one voice let us honor them, as inspired intercessors, on our behalf to the Lord.

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