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 12, 2019

Holy Three Abbas and Venerable Martyrs Menas, David and John

Sts. Menas, David and John (Feast Day - April 12)

Verses

Three passion-killing Abbas who were servants of God,
Were killed with arrows by man-killers.

The Holy Three Abbas and Venerable Martyrs Menas, David and John met their end by being shot with arrows.

Though some sources place these Venerable Martyrs in Palestine in the seventh century, having been shot with arrows by Arabs, other sources place them in Egypt among the Desert Fathers there.

Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite identifies Abba Menas with the one written about in the Paradise of the Holy Fathers, where it says:

Abba Menas told us: "Once when I was staying in my cell a brother came to me from afar, begging me and saying: 'Take me to Abba Makarios.' I got up and went to the elder with him. When he had offered a prayer for us we sat down and the brother said to the elder: 'Father, I have spent thirty years not eating meat and still have a fight not to do so.' The elder said to him: 'Do not tell me you have spent thirty years not eating meat, my son, but tell me the truth: how many days have you lived when you did not speak against your brother, did not condemn your neighbor and when no vain word came out your mouth?' The brother prostrated himself, saying: 'Pray for me, father, that I might make a start.'"

Perhaps the Abba David is the one mentioned in Sayings 29 and 33 of Abba Arsenios. The Abba John mentioned is unknown otherwise.


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