‘I hasten to answer your question'. To the History of Writing the Brochure by Georges Florovsky ‘Did Christ Live?'

Abstract

In 1926, the philosopher and theologian Georges Florovsky moved from Prague to Paris and began teaching a course of patrology at the St. Sergius Theological Institute. By this time, his views and scientific interests were finally formed. Florovsky broke with the movement of Eurasians. At the same time, the thinker's departure from the philosophy of unity continued. As a result, the scientist saw neopa-tristic synthesis as his main task. He assumed the development and adaptation of the patristic heritage in modern historical and cultural conditions. One of the first illustrations of the new theory was his brochure “Did Christ Live?” (1928). In it, Florovsky argued with the book of the German philosopher Arthur Drews “The Myth of Christ”, which denied the existence of verifiable evidence about the life of Jesus. The theologian did not consider Drews' book to be any serious scientific work. He pointed to the reliability of the gospel sources, their historicity. The theologian also paid attention to the testimonies of the ancient Greeks, Romans and Jews not related to Christianity. Florovsky approached the work on the brochure very seriously. In particular, he consulted scholars he knew about bibliography and repeatedly asked them to send additional literature on the research topic. All this led to a delay in the delivery of the manuscript to the “YMCA-Press” publishing house, which ordered the book. As a result, the text was provided late, which caused a change in the numbering in the series “Christianity, Atheism and Modernity”, in which it was originally planned. The article is based on archival sources.