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 15, 2023

An Introduction to the Lives of the Saints (St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite) - Part 1 of 4


Introduction to the Synaxaristes

By St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

It is now time to invite all Christians to read this Synaxaristes. Come all you who are patriarchs, hierarchs, priests and whatever order of clergy you belong to. Come you who are kings, governors and rulers. Come all you who by Christ are called Orthodox Christians, the chosen people of the Lord, men and women, small and great, young and old.

This Synaxaristes, is a multi-illuminated Heaven, which, like the great Luminary and the most brilliant Sun, has the Master Christ. For the Moon, silvery and full of light, it has the Most Holy Theotokos. For a star that does not fall and does not fade, it contains all the choirs of all the saints. Whence it illuminates, warms, animates and stimulates towards the fruitfulness of the virtues, the whole Church of Christ, and all the earthly Creation.

This Synaxaristes should rightfully be called the diverse and fragrant Garden of Christ's holy Church, full of Pomegranates and Dry Fruits, Spikenard and Crocus, Calamus and Hyacinthus, Narcissus and Cinnamon and of all the best and most fragrant odors and perfumes, through whose splendor and grace she sweetens, gladdens, delights and makes fragrant her own children, each according to their own order and profession. Of such was written concerning the sung about Bride: "Awake, O north wind; and come, O south; and blow through my garden, and let my spices flow out" (Songs 4:16), and again: "Let my kinsman come down into his garden, and eat the fruit of his choice berries" (Songs 5:1). In regards to this garden, it was right for Theophilos, the sixth bishop of Antioch, to write to Autolycus, that the Church is truly a Garden, in which are the Roses of Martyrs, the Lilies of Virgins, the Violets of Widows and the Ivy of the Married.

This is why Mary Magdalene, who although she erred (so to speak) did not err, and misrecognizing she did not misrecognize, when in the garden she mistook the Master Christ as the gardener. For Jesus Christ, He is the true gardener of this Garden of the Synaxaristes, and He planted within it with His almighty right hand, the many kinds and ubiquitous and diverse trees of the saints, and showed it to be incomparably better than the Asian gardens and paradises, planted by King Cyrus, and the hanging gardens of Babylon, which was one of the seven wonders of the world; or rather we should say, the whole fruit of the incarnate economy of the Word of God, and the coming of the Holy Spirit in the form of tongues of fire, which happened during the day of Pentecost, and the gain of the whole gospel, which was preached throughout the world by the holy apostles, were all the Saints, most of whom are contained in this Synaxaristes. Because of this fruit, the Lord said to the sacred apostles: "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples" (John 15:8).

PART TWO
 
 

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