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 21, 2023

Agathonos Monastery Receives a Rare Gift Before the First Celebration of the Feast of Saint Besasarion of Agathonos


In addition to the elaborate Sacred Coffin and many other tributes, His Eminence Metropolitan Symeon of Fthiotidos, the spiritual father and patron of the Dormition of the Theotokos Monastery of Venerable Agathonos, on June 19th, in anticipation of the first official celebration of Saint Bessssarion of Agathonos, offered a special gift to the Monastery of Agathonos: an artistic and rare copy of the "Patriarchal and Synodal Act of the Inscription of Venerable Bessarion (Korkoliakos) of Agathonos in the Hagiologion of the Church" with the signature of His All-Holiness our Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Venerable Members of the Holy Patriarchal Synod, with elaborate iconography of the Transfiguration, the Panagia Agathonitissa, the Holy Glorious Apostle Herodion who was the first Bishop of the Church in Fthiotidi, and our Holy and God-bearing Father Bessarion of Agathonos. 
 
This sacred treasure was received from the Metropolitan Simeon by the Abbot of the Agathonos Monastery, Archimandrite Father Germanos Yiantsidis, and it will adorn the treasury of this historic Monastery.
 

 

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