Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works Paperback – Import, 1 January 2003

Quintessentially sublime narrative.

This book is wonderfully encouraging to American converts like him, at least it is to me. He went through many of the same intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and psychological struggles that so many others have, but he faced them with honesty,clarity, and resolution - like Augustine (according to his Confessions, which Fr. Seraphim Rose loved and read every Great Lent), he was honest and courageous enough to "keep seeing truth *wherever* it might be found", as Augustine read in Cicero. Fr. Seraphim went from nihilism to "the perennial philosophy", to the wisdom in ancient traditions and finally to the Orthodox Christian Church, where his longings found their satisfaction. But he also knew that his life would be a lifelong struggle and he embodied that ascetic struggle as long as he lived. Jordan Peterson once said that he admired Orthodoxy because it, better than Protestantism and Catholicism, teaches so well that the basic duty of a Christian is to "pick up your damn cross and stumble up the hill", that life is lived at the center of the Cross, which is not a comfortable place but the only place where true joy is, where the true Logos who IS life and gives meaning to life, is found. Fr. Seraphim carried his cross, suffering but with joy, and his story, like all biographies of great people, moves us (or at least me) to imitate him. Apparently he has had a gigantic influence on the Slavic Orthodox world through his writings, maybe even more than on the Western world, and it's no wonder - they suffered in the 20th century on a titanic scale, which most American Christians know absolutely nothing about, and Fr. Seraphim both learned from them and taught them what they were being stripped off by the Communists - the life as found in the Church and handed on by the Fathers. By the way, I've read the first edition and am aware of the controversy in some quarters over the changes in this, the 2nd edition. The changes are all to the good. Ignore what you hear about the controversy. Fr. Seraphim warned us to ignore church politics and imitate the great elders and focus on Christ as he is found in the historic Church and the lives of godly ones around us, like Fr. Seraphim Rose himself.Hieromonk (now abbot) Damascene is an outstanding writer - the book is clear and interesting, and Fr. Damascene has surveyed beautifully all of Fr. Seraphim's books, and included an utterly exhaustive bibliography in the back of the book.I've read this book six times over the last six years and have no intention of stopping the trend. It's long and can be tiring but it's *well* worth the effort. Unreservedly recommended to all Orthodox Christians and to non-Orthodox who are genuinely curious about Orthodoxy and have already read some of the shorter, more accessible introductory book on Orthodoxy (for example, Fr. Michael Shanbour's excellent "Know the Faith").

It is impressing how the biography and the ideas of Fr. Seraphim are weaved together. There is a lot of good information on the Church and other interesting Orthodox fathers throughout the book. I hardly notice how big and long the book is. I just hope it doesn't end! Fr. Seraphim represents a great example for many, even though it sounds like he was way more intelligent intellectually than many of us can understand.

This book is the one I will bring with me in a desert island ... !I do recommend it ! I am not a person who has time to read big books but finally -as I was quite admirative for the books Fr Seraphim Rose had written - I promised s.o to read it... Now my only fear is that I could finish this book one day. By the way I have "only" readen 400 pagesYou can read the Bible, You should read "Orthodoxy and the religion of the future" from Fr Seraphim Rose. Or "Nihilism ..." from him alsoBut you will find great spiritual support in following the path of this extraordinary man. As a boy a quite normal smart American boy, Just too smart ... High Potential Intellectual... seeking for the meaning of life ! Studied and practiced chinese languages and taoism with the best chinese masters... then discovered Archbishop John (St John of San Francisco) and the orthodox faith...A very bright star in our desesperate world !Only if you have questions about the meaning of your life or the today's practice of your faith !(Sorry for the bad English I am not an American native ;-) But I recommend it also for anybody who cannot find the book in his native language. )

The book covers so many topics, sometimes it's a bit tedious to read, but well worth it in the end. One really needs to read all of it, however, or one could be misled in the direction of the "super-correct" faction (which some also call "orthodoxism.") This book is especially recommended for Fr. Seraphim's misguided critics and those who wonder who to believe in the controversy about Fr. Seraphim. None of the false accusations of xenophobia, blind traditionalism, excessive asceticism and gnosticism (!) are based on facts. Fahter Seraphim is a true Saint!

Father Seraphim Rose - His Life and WorksListening today to Bach’s “Ich Habe Genug”, I was reminded of this book, because it was a favorite piece of music in the different phases of life of a man named Eugene Rose, who later became Fr. Seraphim, founder of the monastery of St. Herman of Alaska in Northern California.The first edition changed my life. I was privileged to be a proofreader of the next edition, while living at the monastery he founded for a couple of months.This biography is also a striking piece of California History.Eugene Rose saw a lecture on Zen by Alan Watts at Pomona University. He immediately followed him to the Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco, where he met many of the Zen masters of the time (e.g. DT Suzuki). At the same time, it was “Beat Zen” that was ruling the day in San Francisco. He met Jack Kerouac, and was evidently taken with Jack’s spontaneous prose, governed by the rule “First Thought, Best Thought”. He also studied books such as the essay by Fenollsa on the Chinese character as a medium for poetry, which became the conceptual root of the Imagist school. He studied Taoism, and submitted his Master’s thesis to Berkeley, which included excerpts of the Tao Te Ching in his own unique translation. He developed a Guenonian concept of a unity of esoteric traditions (He later visited Jiyu Kennet Roshi at Shasta Abbey, and had a better impression of the more traditional Zen setting).Then something happened to Eugene:“For years in my studies I was satisfied with being “above all traditions” but somehow faithful to them; I went deeper into the Chinese tradition only because no one had presented it in the West from a fully traditional point of view.When I visited an Orthodox Church, it was only in order to view another “tradition”—knowing that Guénon (or one of his disciples) had described Orthodoxy as the most authentic of the Christian traditions.However, when I entered an Orthodox Church for the first time (a Russian Church in San Francisco), something happened to me that I had not experienced in any Buddhist or other Eastern temple; something in my heart said that this was “home”, that all my search was over. I didn’t really know what this meant because the service was quite strange to me, and in a foreign language. I began to attend Orthodox services more frequently, gradually learning its language and customs, but still keeping all my basic Guénonian ideas about all the authentic spiritual traditions.With my exposure to Orthodoxy and to Orthodox people, however, a new idea began to enter my awareness: that truth was not just an abstract idea, sought and known by the mind, but was something personal—even a Person—sought and loved by the heart. And that is how I met Christ.”Eugene met a bishop who is now referred to as St. John the Wonderworker of Shanghai and San Francisco. The effect was monumental (St. John died in 1966, but he continues to impact people’s lives with his teaching, examples, and even miracles).The rest of the book describes his growth, struggles, monastic life and death in 1982.There is a chapter on monastic practices for people in the world called “The Desert in the Backyard”Another Chapter called Forming Young Souls detail the important impressions formed by the experience of beauty in the arts.Throughout, are sprinkled Fr. Seraphim’s close connection to nature and animals (I know someone who actually observed things like deer sitting at the entrance to the church when a service was being chanted!).I guess this is a good day to recommend this book. It looks daunting at over a thousand pages, but it is chock full of photos. This book may not change your life, but it is certainly worth a read!