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 24, 2022

An Image of the Greatness of John the Forerunner (St. Theodore the Studite)


 By St. Theodore the Studite

Therefore, it seems to me appropriate to represent the greatness of the Forerunner in the following image. Just as an ordinary king, leaving the royal chambers, has as his predecessors lictors and mace-bearers, and then hypats, iparchs and brigadiers, and then some high dignitary, behind whom the king himself immediately appears, shining with gold and precious stones: so should one think about the true and the only universal King, Christ our Lord. For He, who was to enter into the universe with flesh, was preceded by the patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob - then the God-seer Moses, Aaron and Samuel, and the whole chorus of the prophets; finally, John appeared, and immediately after him the Lord Christ, about whom John says: "This was he of whom I spoke: He that comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me" (John 1:15), - and the last in order is the highest in dignity, according to comparison. Thus, the great Forerunner is higher than the prophets, and the apostles, and all others, according to the word of the true Word Christ: he is higher than the prophets, as succeeding them, and the apostles, as preceding them.

From the Homily on the Nativity of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist.
 
 


 
 
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