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.



October 9, 2017

Synaxarion of the Holy and Righteous Abraham and Lot

Righteous Abraham and Lot (Feast Day - October 9)

Verses

To Abraham.
When Abraham died, what abode did he go to?
For there is no other bosom, than the abode of Lazarus.

To Lot.
For Lot heaven was like a new Zoar,
Which he arrived at after fleeing the fire of this life.

The holy Patriarch Abraham, born a pagan, ten generations after Noah, when the knowledge of God had perished from among men, became the beginning of God's dispensation for the universal renewal and salvation of man. He was called by God out of his country -- the land of the Chaldees, that is, Mesopotamia -- to the land of Canaan, and received the promise that through his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Through his singular faith in the promises of God, he was justified before the giving of the Law and the coming of Grace; through his willingness to sacrifice Isaac, he portrayed the love wherewith God loved the world in sacrificing His only-begotten Son. The greatness of Abraham, and the trials that he and his righteous nephew Lot underwent, are set forth in the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, chapters twelve through twenty-five. See also the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers, which falls between December 11-17.


Apolytikion in Plagal of the First Tone
In the night universal of ignorance towards God, and in that starless, profound gloom bereft of heavenly light, thou, O Abraham, wast kindled in the firmament, burning with bright far-shining faith in the Everlasting Light, Who shone forth to us from thy seed. Do thou entreat Him with fervour, that He enlighten us and save our souls.

Kontakion in the Second Tone
The servant wast thou, a mortal fashioned from the earth; thy master was God, creation's Lord and Fashioner; yet, well-pleased to glorify thy celestial greatness, the Lord of all called Himself the God of Abraham. Procure for us mercies from thy merciful Lord.

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