Living like the Fathers

It is one of the rules of politeness at such “ecumenical” gatherings that the heterodox are not informed that the first prerequisite for studying the Fathers is to have the same faith as the Fathers of Orthodoxy.Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

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Excellent intentions…

Unfortunately, but very significantly, the task of criticism today has been virtually identified with that of apology; the role of the critic is generally seen to be no more than that of explaining, for the uninstructed multitudes, the latest ‘inspiration’ of the ‘creative genius.’ Thus passive ‘receptivity’ takes the place of active intelligence, and ‘success’ [...]

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The truthful historian

St. Gregory [of Tours] is an historian; but this does not mean a mere chronicler of bare facts, or the mythical ‘objective observer’ of so much modern scholarship who looks a things with the ‘cold scrutiny’ of the ‘remote observer.’ He had a point of view; he was always seeking a pattern in history; he [...]

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True environmentalism

Only he who loves God can love the creation which comes from God. To love creation (or anything, for that matter) one must love it as it truly is; and since creation comes from God, one can only love it as from God and cannot help loving God thereby as well. Autonomous reason, however, by [...]

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Communism

…not merely a power-mad political regime, but an ideological-religious system whose aim is to overthrow and supplant all other systems, most of all Christianity. Communism is actually a very powerful heresy whose central thesis, if I’m not mistaken, is chiliasm or millennialism: history is to reach its culmination in an indefinite state of earthly blessedness, [...]

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Balanced Orthodoxy

A well-balanced Orthodoxy can easily take any foreign influences that come and straighten them out, make them Orthodox; but a one-sided ‘party-line’ cuts itself off from the mainstream of Orthodoxy.Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

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Confusion leading nowhere

Applicable to Christianity, I believe: I am a student of Chinese philosophy, and it is my belief that I must rely upon the Chinese traditional viewpoint, rather than follow the newly invented and untraditional arguments of modern scholars. To do the latter would result in depriving Chinese philosophy of all criteria of meaning and value; [...]

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"Modern Art" you say?

Man, in this art, is no longer even a caricature of himself; he is no longer portrayed in the throes of spiritual death, ravaged by the hideous Nihilism of our century that attacks, not just the body and soul, but the very idea and nature of man. No, all this has passed; the crisis is [...]

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Agnosticism

It is decidedly wrong, then, to regard the modern Nihilist, in whatever guise he may appear as ‘agnostic.’ The ‘death of God’ has not simply happened to him as a kind of cosmic catastrophe, rather he has actively willed it – not directly, to be sure, but equally effectively by preferring something else to the [...]

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Through the eyes of the great ape

If the Revolutionary goal “beyond Nihilism” is described in precisely contrary terms, and if Nihilists actually see it as a reign of “love,” “peace,” and “brotherhood,” that is because Satan is the ape of God and even in denial must acknowledge the source of that denial, and–more to the present point–because men have been so [...]

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Who will be man’s next King?

The God hitherto so real and so present to Christian men cannot be disposed of overnight; so absolute a monarch can have no immediate successor. So it is that, at the present moment of man’s spiritual history–a moment, admittedly, of crisis and transition–a dead God, a great void, stands at the center of man’s faith.Fr. [...]

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Rx for nihilism

Nihilism is, most profoundly, a spiritual disorder, and it can be overcome only by spiritual means; and there has been no attempt whatever in the contemporary world to apply such means.Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

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Azusa-poloosa

The Azusa Street Centennial gathering – one of the birthplaces of modern Pentecostalism – will attract Pentecostals and charismatic Christians worldwide on Apr. 25-29, 2006 to commemorate the 1906 Azusa Street revival. I think I’ll stick to celebrating The Nativity of Christ which is the birth of Christianity… I refer you to The Pentecostal Movement [...]

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Whole Foods

The whole food of Christian Truth, however, is accessible only to faith; and the chief obstacle to such faith is not logic, as the facile modern view has it, but another and opposed faith. We have seen indeed, that logic cannot deny absolute truth without denying itself…Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

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My securities…

…the only position that involves no logical contradictions is the affirmation of an absolute truth which underlies and secures all lesser truths; and this absolute truth can be attained by no relative, human means.Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

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The rebel cry…

Nihilist rebellion, like Christian faith, is an ultimate and irreducible spiritual attitude, having its source and its strength in itself—and of course, in the supernatural author of rebellion.Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

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The senseless world

… you are at a standstill because you have approached the mystery of existence with the mind, with questions and demands for explanations; whereas it can only be approached through prostration, humility, prayer—and acceptance. Accept all, take all into yourself—all that is given you. If you do not do this, if you shield yourself from [...]

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Vain pursuits

It is the great and invincible truth of Christianity that there is no annihilation; all Nihilism is in vain. God may be fought: that is one of the meanings of the modern age; but He may not be conquered, and He may not be escaped: His Kingdom shall endure eternally, and all who reject the [...]

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WCC: need I say more?

… Dr Kobia declared: “Together, as people of faith, we have faith in a better world.” … Have Faith… What Fr. Seraphim would say about this:All of these ideals have enlisted the enthusiasm of some modern idealist or other, but it is quite clear to the Christian that they are secularizations and so perversions of [...]

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Add another council to the list

Nicea 3? …politics [might I add church governance?] that rejects Christian Truth must acknowledge “the people” as sovereign and understand authority as proceeding from below upwards, in a formally “egalitarian” society [church]. Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

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