This recent episode of Ancient Faith Today LIVE, with Fr. Thomas Soroka, was recorded Tuesday, October 24, and in addition to the interview, features His Grace's responses to numerous questions sent in during the show by viewers and listeners.
Bishop Gerasim of Fort Worth: On Reading Fr. Seraphim Rose in Context (VIDEO)
His Grace Bishop Gerasim of Fort Worth, Auxiliary Bishop of the Orthodox Church in America’s Diocese of the South, joined Fr. Thomas Soroka on his Ancient Faith Today Live podcast yesterday to talk about Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose), who is greatly beloved throughout the Orthodox world.
Bp. Gerasim personally knew Fr. Seraphim during the last two years of his life. He became a monastic under the influence of Fr. Seraphim and lived under his guidance as a novice.
In yesterday’s show, he spoke with Fr. Thomas about reading Fr. Seraphim in context. Bp. Gerasim addresses several issues, including the availability of Orthodox material and Divine services in English in Fr. Seraphim’s time, ROCOR’s and Fr. Seraphim’s view of the OCA, including Fr. Alexander Schmemann, the teaching of the toll houses, Fr. Seraphim’s popularity throughout Eastern Europe, and more.
My thoughts and response:
The format and time constraints of the podcast format did not allow Fr. Thomas and Bp. Gerasim to further explore some of the topics covered, so I would like to offer the following brief observations, in an effort to amplify just a bit what was an immensely helpful and authoritative "inside look" at the life and writings of Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim by one who was "right there" the last two years of Fr. Seraphim's life.
That said, I should add as a disclaimer that I am not presenting any especially "insider" info, but rather am merely reporting what can be gleaned from a thorough reading of Fr. Seraphim's biography, and from the very texts that Bp. Gerasim urged us to read, including Fr. Seraphim's introductions, prefaces and epilogues from books published during his lifetime and after his repose.
Regarding Fr. Seraphim's theological 'conflict' with Fr. Alexander Schmemann, in at least one prominent case, Fr. Seraphim was responding to a position set forth by Fr. Schmemann which was directly critical of Fr. Seraphim's own labors for the Church. This is regarding the central place of monasticism in the life of the Orthodox Church. Fr. Schmemann, in his writings and in his journals, made it clear that he saw little place for monasticism, rebuking "those who called people to non-existent deserts" to live some sort of "romanticized" ascetical life. Fr. Seraphim replied specifically to this unfortunate position in his Preface to The Northern Thebaid - Monastic Saints of the Russian North, in which, together with the Epilogue, he presents a stirring apologia for desert monasticism, which this excerpt sums up nicely:
Still the voice of the Northern Thebaid calls us—not, it may be, to go to the desert, but at least to keep alive the fragrance of the desert in our hearts: to dwell in mind and heart with these angel-like men and women and have them as our truest friends, conversing with them in prayer; to be always aloof from the attachments and passions of this life… to be first of all a citizen of the Heavenly Jerusalem, the City on high towards which all our Christian labors are directed, and only secondarily a member of this world below which perishes.
With nearly a hundred Orthodox monasteries across the continental USA, Canada, and Alaska, Hieromonk Seraphim of Platina can now be seen as a prophetic Herald of the American Thebaid, and his love for the monastic life has proven far more widely shared than any detractors of the same.
Regarding Fr. Seraphim's book, The Soul After Death, and his impetus for writing it, Fr Seraphim specifically noted in his introduction how a Greek Orthodox priest, when interviewed about the mid-1970s bestseller book, Life After Life by Dr. Raymond Moody, and the accompanying explosion in popular interest during that time in "near-death" and "out-of-body" experiences which seemed to point to the survival of the human soul after death, responded in a vague manner that the Orthodox Church had no clear teaching on the issue. Fr. Seraphim was scandalized by this response, and was concerned that Orthodox faithful might be led to stumble in their faith by such uninformed responses from Orthodox clergy, and might search outside the Church for answers to their questions. Thus motivated, Fr. Seraphim set out to present the Church's teaching.
Further, Fr. Seraphim was aware of and alluded to many more references than he cited in his book, and it is especially noteworthy that in recent years St. Anthony the Great Monastery in Florence, Arizona, has compiled a massive collection of just such Orthodox resources titled The Departure of the Soul, publishing both a complete edition (pictured at right), and a thinner, Reader's Edition. These resource volumes alone, not to mention subsequent books, writings, and talks by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Fr. Thomas Hopko, Constantine Cavarnos, and others serve to undergird and affirm Fr. Seraphim's presentation from the mid 1970s, and affirm the traditional teaching of the Orthodox Church on this subject.
A third point bears mentioning, concerning miracles attributed to Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim, which was a question posed towards the end of the episode. Many examples of Blessed Father Seraphim's "intercessions" (as they are described in his bio) are included in the epic biography, Father Seraphim Rose - His Life and Works, by Hieromonk Damascene (current abbot of St Herman of Alaska Monastery). These can be found in Chapter 104, 'With the Saints', and make for inspiring reading.
But miracles are not the point of the Christian life, and, significantly, during the interview Bp. Gerasim more than once recommended Fr. Seraphim's book, God's Revelation to the Human Heart, as essential to grasping the message of Father Seraphim. Compiled from the text of a talk Fr. Seraphim gave in 1981, just a little over a year before his repose, thus thin but wonderful book presents the heart of Fr. Seraphim's life and experience as an Orthodox Christian, and reveals his insights on how God reaches out to people, and makes Himself known to the Human Heart.
His Grace, Bishop Gerasim must be warmly thanked for providing us such a sober and edifying perspective on the life and writings, and the overall context, of Father Seraphim Rose. As Vladyka Gerasim reminded us, because Father Seraphim himself lived and labored as a faithful son of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), and as the monastery he co-founded is now in the Serbian Orthodox Archdiocese of America, it rightly belongs to these two Orthodox jurisdictions to meet and set forth the path to consider the glorification of Father Seraphim and his addition to the calendar of saints.
In the meantime, the best witness we can provide for our veneration of Father Seraphim Rose is to strive to repent and do the work of God, and to live an authentically Orthodox life, faithfully attending the divine services in our home parish, with prayer, fasting and almsgiving, obedient to Christ's commands in the Gospel, and frequent confession and communion.