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 2, 2025

Saint John the Faster in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 
By Fr. George Dorbarakis,

"By means of temperance, Father, and unwavering prayer, you have entered the acropolis of virtue, God-bearer, where the torrent of delight flows in abundance" (Ode 3, Canon to the Saint).

The above hymn by the holy hymnographer Germanos records the path followed by the Saint in order to enter the embrace of the Lord and to enjoy the delights of His Kingdom from then on. The only difference is that instead of the term “Kingdom of God” he chooses the phrase “acropolis of virtue,” because both are identical: the acropolis of virtue is love and love is God Himself. So, Saint John reached the extreme of this virtue, that is to say his heart and his entire existence became the dwelling place of the Holy Trinity, already from this life in this world, but much more so after his holy repose.

However, this path and entry into the Kingdom of God is not unconditional. The cooperation of man is required and this is expressed in the ascetic spirit of temperance and the loving attachment of man to the Lord par excellence through the struggle of prayer. Temperance and prayer are considered, in our Orthodox faith, the most “heavy” weapons of spiritual life, which are essentially and organically connected to each other. This is because no one can pray correctly, that is to say with firm and “unwavering” devotion to the Lord, if he has not made and does not make himself free from his passions through his temperance. In other words, a man who is given over to his pleasures and passions due to his intemperance, that is, he is led and carried away by his attachment to them, cannot properly address the Lord, any prayer of his is polluted by the filth of his passions.

For example, a grudge-ridden person goes to pray and instead of the face of the Lord, he constantly “sees” before him the face of the one he hates because he may have done something to him. And he may say words of prayer with his mouth, but his heart “paints” images of revenge for his supposed enemy – a “prayer” that is directed against himself and increases the number of his sins! That is why our Church, supported by the Lord and Her Holy Fathers who experienced the spiritual life, always urges us to fast, to limit every uncontrolled tendency to enjoy the pleasures of life, to moderation – it is the path so that our eyes can be turned, as we said, towards the Lord. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God," as the unfaltering mouth of our Lord revealed.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
 

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