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 19, 2023

Paschal Pastoral Encyclical 2017 (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)


 The Confirmation of the Resurrection

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Every year on the day of Pascha we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, this great event in the history of humanity and ecclesiastical life. We celebrate it brilliantly, we celebrate it solemnly, we rejoice heartily. The Resurrection of Christ, together with His Cross, is the center of ecclesiastical life.

The Resurrection of Christ is not simply an fact of the faith of the Apostles, it is not a fact of a simple tradition that we received and preserve, it is not only a central point of our culture and our customs, which we accept without being able to prove it.

It is mainly a fact which is confirmed in every era.

Every philosophy is replaced by another, newer philosophy; all scientific knowledge is supplemented by later knowledge; every tradition is deconstructed by other traditions. This does not happen with the Resurrection of Christ, since He remains throughout the ages as a beacon of light, as a true life that fills people with hope, love and light.

This is demonstrated by the people who are reborn daily, who are perfected in their spiritual life, who are sanctified. All this is done by the power of the Risen Christ. He grants light and life, rebirth and fulfillment, transcendence of death, hope of eternal life. The saints are filled with this light of the Resurrection of Christ, with the difference that they do not cause theosis, but undergo theosis, which means that they are sanctified by Christ and are not the source of sanctification.

Those who visit the Holy Mountain during Renewal Week, i.e. between Pascha Sunday and Thomas Sunday, realize with how much spiritual joy the holy monks celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. They celebrate brilliantly, heartily and with all their senses. Mainly, they do litanies, and according to the rule of each Monastery they depart from the Monastery holding lamps, hexapteryga, relics of saints and icons, while the priests and deacons are dressed in their bright robes and chanting resurrection troparia as they go around the gardens and forests of the Sacred Monastery, to announce to the whole creation the fact of Christ's Resurrection.

During these brilliant litanies, the monks hold icons of the Most Holy Theotokos and relics of saints, which they present to those present. The presence of the icons of the Panagia shows us the joy of the Mother of God for the resurrection of her Son and God. And the relics of the saints show that they were sanctified by the power of the Risen Christ and are real members of His glorious Body.

After all, the relics of the saints, some of which are incorruptible and some of which are fragrant and smell good, are a manifestation of the truth that death has been abolished, that what is called death is sleep, that the saints are spiritually resurrected, and await the resurrection of their bodies as well during the Second Coming of Christ.

During their lives, the saints experienced the resurrection of the inner man, the resurrection of their heart, that is why they touched eternal life, which their relics reveal, and with this certainty they await the second resurrection, that is, the coming of Christ, the resurrection of their bodies and their entry into the Kingdom of God.

Thus, the relics of the saints are the confirmation of the Resurrection of Christ, they are the testimony that the Resurrection of Christ is not a philosophical and religious idea, it is not a deception and an illusion, but it is a confirmed reality. We have miraculous evidence of this great event, it is the experience of a wonderful life.

We know very well that Christ was resurrected because the Apostles who were witnesses of the Resurrection told us, because the saints proclaimed it throughout the centuries, and because their holy relics confirm it. These are the proofs of the Resurrection of Christ. This means that the whole ecclesiastical life is that which offers us the testimony of Christ's Resurrection.

This is the meaning of the resurrection litanies. And we who are overcome by death, when we are seized by the fear of death and despair, participate emotionally and mentally in these litanies with the relics of the saints in order to gain the certainty of the victory of life over death and try to live the life of Christ and His friends, who are the saints.

I wish all the Christians of our Local Church many years of blessing and resurrection.

Christ is Risen, brethren!

With warm paternal blessings,

The Metropolitan

+ HIEROTHEOS of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
 
 

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