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.



June 1, 2019

Synaxarion of the Holy Martyr Thespesios of Cappadocia

St. Thespesios the Martyr (Feast Day - June 1)

Verses

Truly wondrous by his deeds,
Thespesios showed himself as a martyr by the sword.

He contested during the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus in the year 222 and was from Cappadocia. For his confession of Christ he was arrested by Simblikios, the ruler of Cappadocia, and brought to the temple of the idols to sacrifice to them. Because he could not be persuaded to do so, or rather because he mocked the idols, for this reason he was suspended, and they skinned off his flesh. They then put him in a heated oven, from which he was preserved unharmed by the grace of Christ.

Later he was brought once more to the temple of the idols, where the Greeks would offer their sacrifices, and as he approached near the altar, he overturned it. For this he was immediately placed in a heated cooking pot full of oil and pitch and lard. Having remained within this for two days, he came out unharmed, without being burned in any part of his body. Because of this miracle, many Greeks converted to the faith of Christ. Finally, they took him outside the city and beheaded him, and in this way his blessed soul ascended crowned into the heavens.



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