ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY THEN AND NOW: The Stasidion of Saint Nektarios

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.

September 10, 2020

The Stasidion of Saint Nektarios

When Saint Nektarios fled to Athens following being falsely accused of immorality in Egypt, where he served as the Metropolitan of Pentapolis, he began to preach and establish a name for himself in the area of Evia for a period of about three years. Then, in 1894, he was appointed dean of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School in Athens. Through his eloquent sermons, his untiring labors to educate fitting men for the priesthood, his generous philanthropy despite his own poverty, and the holiness, meekness, and fatherly love that were manifest in him, he became a shining light and a spiritual guide to many. He served as dean at Rizarios for fourteen years, from 1894 to 1908, before moving on to Aegina where he established a convent and guided some of his female spiritual children till his repose in 1920.

In the Church of Holy Great Martyr George at Rizarios School today, the stasidion (stall) where Saint Nektarios stood and sat during worship has become an object of reverence and a historical monument.