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.



December 3, 2019

2019 Christmas Fundraiser and Two Exciting Announcements


Dear Readers:

2019 marked the ten year anniversary since launching my Mystagogy website, which eventually evolved to the Mystagogy Resource Center with thousands upon thousands of pages of content. Without the support of my faithful readers, this would certainly not have been possible. Hundreds if not thousands of people all around the world have benefited greatly from this material, and this ministry keeps on getting better and better with age.

Now we are coming upon a new decade for this ministry, and I see nothing but positive things for the future. Progress is slow, but there is still progress. I try and give as much quality time as I can to provide quality material. Your appreciation is my encouragement.

Every Christmas season I encourage all my readers to provide the financial support necessary to keep this ministry going. Much time and sacrifice is required to provide quality content, time which I often don't have, but it gives me joy to share what I can. My constant hope is to see this ministry thrive and grow, and without your help this cannot be done. Therefore, please seriously consider a financial contribution today. For at least 17 cents a day, which is $5.00 a month, or $60 a year, your contribution can go a long way.

With this being said, I also have two exciting announcements.

First, this website (johnsanidopoulos.com) will no longer be the main page of the Mystagogy Resource Center. From now on the main page of this ministry will be mystagogyresourcecenter.com. MystagogyResourceCenter.com will be where all the websites of this ministry converge. It is where everything begins, and if there is a particular post you are looking for, subject links will help you find what you are looking for much easier. I have been experimenting with this idea for a while now, but nothing seemed right to me. I needed a main page solely dedicated to this in order for it to happen, with as little clutter as possible. Not much is there now, but I will be working on it when I can. As I progress, I will notify you so you can check back often. But from now on, mystagogyresourcecenter.com should be the page you first go to, and from there links are provided to all the content of the Mystagogy Resource Center.

Second, a few months ago I began two websites where I was going to start translating two classic Orthodox texts, one by St. Nektarios called Know Thyself and one by Monk Agapios Landis called Salvation of Sinners. Though I am still moving forward in translating these books, I realized a few months ago that I needed more of an incentive to get people to financially give to this ministry. For the past few years contributions have gone down, which has made things harder for me to maintain. The last thing I want to do is not provide free content anymore. For this reason, beginning on January 1, 2020, those two websites will no longer be free and open to the public. Only those who are active monthly subscribers of $5 or more, as well as annual contributors of $60 or more will have access to those two sites. And not only those two sites, but in January 2020 I will be adding three more sites in which I will be translating three other Orthodox classics never before translated. I will make further announcements about this in a month, but I guarantee you that you will love what is coming.

As you can see, the future is bright, but remember this is a one man show, and all this requires a lot of time and effort to come to fruition. So please make your contribution today, and help this ministry be successful in its mission. Thank you in advance.

A blessed Nativity season to all!

With love in Christ,

John Sanidopoulos

Click on the DONATE button to make a one-time donation (a Paypal account is not needed to make a one-time donation):
To make a monthly contribution, choose from the options below to set your amount and click on the SUBSCRIBE button (please use a browser other than Mozilla Firefox to change the amount of the monthly donation).





To send in your donation, please do so to the following address:

John Sanidopoulos
PO Box 320284
West Roxbury, MA 02132



BECOME A PATREON OR PAYPAL SUBSCRIBER


Patreon!