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.



January 15, 2018

Synaxarion of the Holy Martyr Pansophios of Alexandria

St. Pansophios the Martyr (Feast Day - January 15)

Verses

The deluded by thoroughly smiting Pansophios,
They fashioned for him a full crown.

This Saint was from Alexandria during the reign of Emperor Decius (249-251). His father's name was Nilus and he was a proconsul. Because of his great wealth and sharp nature, as well as his father's love for the beautiful, he arrived at the pinnacle of learning and education, both in the external knowledge of the Greeks and the internal knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. 

After his father died, he distributed his wealth to help the poor. Then he went into the desert, seeking to find the Lord by turning away from earthly things. While spending twenty-seven entire years in the desert, he occupied himself alone with God in silence and prayer. And having raised his mind to the heavens, he was slandered to the augustulus, namely the little augustus of Alexandria and governor, who undertook from the emperor Decius the war against the Christians. (For it was not possible to hide the great virtue of the Saint.)

The Saint therefore stood before him, and rebuked the Greek delusion by using their own myths, and shaming the sensibility of the tyrant, he was harshly beaten. By this the renowned one received the unfading crown of martyrdom.


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