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, 2019

Synaxarion of the Holy Martyr Doulas of Cilicia

St. Doulas of Cilicia (Feast Day - June 15)

Verses

Doulas did not give reverence as a servant to images,
As God's servant he endured the scraping of his flesh.

He was from Zephyrium, which is located in the province of Cilicia. Having confessed Christ as the true God, he was brought before the governor Maximus, and beaten harshly. The Saint narrated the Greek myth, of how Apollo fell in love with Daphne, chased after her, but did not achieve his desire. This moved the governor to greater anger. He had him beaten again on his stomach, having been placed on his back on a fiery gridiron. Then he was put on another gridiron, and wetting his hair with oil, they put him over burning coals. After this they cut into his back with iron, and the wounds from the cuts were rubbed with brick and vinegar. Then they struck his jaw and head.

The governor then asked the Saint about Christ: "How do you consider him God when in time he became a man?" In a few words the Saint narrated the entire economy of the Lord. He was then brought to another examination, where he was forced to taste of the sacrifices to the idols. Because he did not obey this out of his own free will, they forcefully put in his mouth wine that had been offered to idols, but the Saint spit it out. For this he was suspended, and he was scraped so much, that the cheeks of his face and his bones were stripped of their skin, and his innards were exposed. Then he was forced to run twenty miles, and in this way the renowned athlete grew weary, and delivered his soul into the hands of God.


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