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.



March 11, 2014

Saint George the Newly-Revealed in the Diipion

Venerable George the New and the Wonderworker in the Diipion (Feast Day - March 11)
[Photo shows the Firuz Aga Mosque near the Hippodrome and Hagia Sophia, which is possibly built over the ruins of the Church of Saint John the Theologian in the Diipion.]

The venerable George lived in the tenth century. According to the Parisian Codex he flourished in the years of Emperor John I Tzimiskes (969-976), but according to the Vienna Codex it was during Constantine VII (913-959) and Romanos Porphyrogenitos (959–963). His memory is also referred to in the Great Lavra Codex.

The venerable George had a wife and children that he abandoned and he would wander from place to place, from the cities to the desert, in discomfort and hardship. During the last seven days of his life he came to Constantinople and took refuge in the Church of Saint John the Theologian in the Diipion, where he reposed in peace. Then those who prepared for his burial saw with surprise that to his body was tied heavy irons, with which he wrapped his entire body. Once they clearly understood from this that this was an ascetic man, they built a stone coffin and buried him in the narthex of the church. That area began to gush myrrh, curing various illnesses and working many miracles.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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