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.



May 16, 2020

Commemoration of the Consecration of the Church of Saint Euphemia Near the Neorion Harbor

The Neorion Harbor (second inlet from bottom along the left side of Golden Horn), from Byzantium nunc Constantinopolis Braun and Hogenberg, 1572.

According to the Synaxarion of Constantinople, on May 16th we commemorate the Church of Saint Euphemia near the Neorion Harbor of Constantinople at the Church of Hagia Dynamis. It appears this commemorated the consecration of the church. It was one of at least five churches in Constantinople dedicated to Saint Euphemia. We are not specifically told if it was a church, a chapel or a shrine, but it appears to have either been right next to or even inside the Church of Hagia Dynamis, which was dedicated to the Holy Power of God. The Neorion Harbor itself was active since the fourth century under Emperor Constantine the Great, and was in fact the first harbor erected after Constantinople was founded, and lay on the southern shore of the Golden Horn, east of today's Galata Bridge.


Labels: , ,

BECOME A PATREON OR PAYPAL SUBSCRIBER


Patreon!