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.



April 15, 2018

Synaxarion of the Holy Martyr Crescens of Myra in Lycia

St. Crescens the Martyr (Feast Day - April 15)

Verses

In astonishment Crescens was seen in the midst of the fire,
The flame that led him to the delightful meadow.
On the fifteenth Crescens was violently made to die in the fire.

He was from Myra of Lycia from an illustrious and notable family, old and advanced in age. When he saw impiety flourishing and the religion of the idols was on the rise, and many were enslaved to its delusion, offering sacrifices to soulless images, the blessed one was moved by zeal, and he went in the midst of the idolaters, admonishing them to refrain from this delusion, and convert to the God believed in by the Christians, Who is the Creator of all that breathes, and the Giver of all life.

Because the governor called the Saint one who was possessed by demons and unfortunate, for he willingly wanted to endure torments, the Saint responded to him, saying: "Suffering for the sake of Christ brings success and happiness." When the governor asked him what his name was and that of his father, the Saint only gave one answer to his questions, namely: "I am a Christian." The governor then advised him to at least show respect towards the idols, but Crescens refused, so that he did not make it appear in the slightest that he was offering reverence to the idols, saying: "The body is not able to do anything of itself apart from the wants of the soul, since it is by the soul that the body moves and is governed."

Having said this, first the Saint was suspended and lacerated, then a fire was lit into which he was cast. However, this fire did not even destroy one hair on his head. Therefore he thanked God and delivered his soul into His hands, and received from Him the crown of the contest.*

Notes:

Saint Andrew of Crete (July 4) mentions the Martyr Crescens in his Sermon on the Feast of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker (December 6), who also came from Myra of Lycia.


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