ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY THEN AND NOW: On Saint Paulinus of Nola (Sulpicius Severus)

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 23, 2020

On Saint Paulinus of Nola (Sulpicius Severus)

Sulpicius Severus (+ 425) was a Christian writer and native of Aquitania in modern-day France. He was a friend and admirer of Saint Paulinus of Nola and spiritual child and biographer of Saint Martin of Tours. In his Life of Martin, Severus describes his first meeting with him, and he reports:

"[Martin's] talk with us was about not other than the abandonment of the enticements of the world and the burdens of the age so that we might follow the Lord Jesus freely and readily. And he offered to us the most outstanding example of our time, that illustrious man Paulinus, whom we mentioned earlier. He, having thrown away his great wealth and followed Christ, almost alone in these times had fulfilled the evangelical teaching. 'We must follow and imitate him!' he exclaimed. The present age was fortune in an example of such great faith and virtue, since, according to the will of God, as a rich man and possessing many things, by selling all and giving to the poor, he had made possible by example what was impossible to accomplish."