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Genesis, Creation and Early Man

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Here is a truly great book presenting the heart and soul of the Orthodox Christian doctrine of creation, the fruit of the research and study on the subject of creation and evolution done by Fr. Seraphim Rose during the last 15 years of his life. Disturbed by the easy if shallow acceptance of evolutionism by many modern Orthodox Christian authorities, Fr. Seraphim researched the subject of creation and evolution in depth in relation to Orthodox theology, and particularly in relation to patristic thought. Since the Orthodox Church considers the Church Fathers to be normative for its theology, Fr. Seraphim did a comparative study of all the available patristic commentaries on the Haexameron (the Six Days of Creation in Genesis): Origen, St.Basil the Great, St. Ambrose, St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Blessed Augustine, and St. Ephrem the Syrian. This seems not to have been done before, at least not to so thorough an extent in modern times. What he found, by a thorough study of these sources, was that, contrary to the efforts of certain theologians to offer a "reading" of the Fathers that would support Darwinism, none of the Great Fathers of the Church can be claimed to support anything like current evolution theory. Even St. Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine, the two names most often mentioned in connection with doctrines that might support some form of evolution theory, are shown by Fr. Seraphim most convincingly to be thoroughly creationist in the Biblical and traditional sense. All of their more ambiguous remarks, when placed in context of their total thought, can in no way be claimed as some kind of ancient prefiguring of evolution. Any "reading" of any of the Fathers named above to support evolutionism is extremely far-fetched, and is the product of wishful thinking on the part of those Orthodox who want their church's theology to be more "up to date" and not at all in accord with the Patristic "phronema" (mind), which is supposed to be the hallmark of the Orthodox Church. The Patristic phronema cannot be said to be specifically anti-evolutionist in the strict sense of directly denying evolution as such, but only because transformism as a way of conceiving the origin of creatures was literally inconceivable, given their theistic and Trinitarian presuppositions and worldview. This remains a fact, claims Fr. Seraphim, whatever one might think about evolutionism as a theory of origins. The heart of the problem for Orthodox Christians, then, given this fact, is how to think about creation, origins, and the seemingly overwhelming unanimity (a false impression, in any case, as is proved by the recent surge of support for intelligent design in science) of scientific thought in support of the doctrine of evolution. Does this mean the Fathers are "creationists", in the currently understood meaning of that term, with its fundamentalist, or at least evangelical Protestant connotation? Not at all. They were creationists, certainly, but in a way that does not conform exactly to any contemporary notion, whether fundamentalist or evangelicalist or theistic-evolutionist. If neo-darwinist evolutionism can be said to be (prescinding from more recent non-gradual tweakings of the theory) horizontal, gradualist, randomly and blindly (unintelligently) caused, linear transformism, the Patristic doctrine of creation is vertically emergent, intelligently designed, hierarchically informed crystallization or condensation--ie, "And God said, let there be..., and it was so."

This superb study of the Patristic interpretation of Genesis is accompanied by Fr. Seraphim's acute analysis of the kind of philosophy that underlies evolutionism in all its forms. He finds it to be a set of modernist, relativist, pluralist, secularist, empiricist presuppositions that is essentially incompatible with the true Orthodox ethos.

There are a thousand books out there on creation and evolution, but among them, "Genesis, Creation and Early Man" is truly unique. Fr. Damascene Christensen, Fr. Seraphim's editor, contributes a thoughtful introduction and epilogue, and Philip Johnson contributes a forward that brings the creation-evolution debate up to the minute. There is simply nothing like this book elsewhere in the field. If you are interested in what the Fathers of the Church thought about the creation story of Genesis, and how they grappled with the science and philosophy of their time, and how their solution is relevant to us today, do not miss this wonderful and rewarding book.

This hefty tome does justice to its subject matter. Although newer material is available to critique the pseudo-science of evolution, that is not specifically the book's focus. Instead, Fr Seraphim looks at the theology regarding creation and the nature of mankind. He does this by examining the Holy Scriptures in great detail through the interpretive lens of the Holy Fathers of the Church. As a result, this work is a great starting point for anyone interested in patristic study of the subject, particularly with respect to the book of Genesis. He also spends time looking at the philosophy behind the evolution movement as well as the implications of evolution with respect to modern society. This is an important topic, as nihilistic philosophies engendered in the 19th century have been used to justify the genocide of 100+ million people in the 20th century! For those new to the evolution "debate", it may be wise to start in Part V (why should we care about evolutionism?) and then return to the beginning of the book. Also, I strongly recommend Johnson's book, Darwin on Trial, and similar works, which debunk the "science" behind evolutionists' claims.

_Genesis, Creation and Early Man_ by Father Seraphim Rose is a sizable tome which containing his studies on the Patristic writings on the creation of the world. This book was compiled and edited from among Fr. Seraphim's many papers, articles and letters that he had written on the subject, much of it in response to questions concerning the place of the evolutionary origins of humanity in Orthodox teaching. The primary sources Fr. Seraphim uses are from the ancient Fathers St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, St. Ambrose and St. Ephraim. The basic patristic doctrine concerning the creation of the world is that it was originally a Paradise, totally different from the fallen, disunited world of today. The Genesis record (according to tradition revealed by God to Moses) is a divine revelation; the true origins of the world cannot be fathomed and totally explained by rational science. Human reason alone cannot give us a glimpse into our primordial origin because disobedience and sin have clouded the eyes of man. The species of animals and plants were created all at once, in different varieties, and the Genesis record notes that the plants were created before the sun was formed. The meaning of this is that since the plants grew without the sun, then God, not the sun, is the true origin of Life. God also created humans into male and female, itself in anticipation of the fall. Fr. Seraphim quotes the writings of the Fathers stating that before the fall from Paradise, mankind would have been able to reproduce itself without sexual intercourse. Thus, differences between male and female will exist, along with the sacrament of marriage until the resurrection. Death was also unknown to primordial man, and physical decay is also a result of sin. After the fall, the entire world was radically changed. As man became more and more corrupt, life spans decreased and the world was transformed again by the waters of the great Flood. At the tower of Babel, man also became disparate in all parts of the world, members of different races, nationalities and languages. In this scheme, Fr. Seraphim brings into question many presuppositions of modern science. Evolutionism holds that the various species of life, plants and animals, evolved from a common source hundreds of millions of years ago. Therefore, man apparently evolved from form of ape in the past couple hundred thousands of years. The fossil record and similar genetics and traits are touted as evidence of evolutionary origins. However, the question is not settled as to where this primordial ooze that we evolved came from. There can be variations within different species and different "breeds" like cats and dogs as well as different human races. Also, Fr. Seraphim demonstrates how fossil dating techniques are arbitrary and designed by the scientists who support evolutionary theory in the first place. Current rock formations may indeed be the work of a cataclysm like the Flood, an event that Genesis describes as having radical environmental consequences (the rainbow). _Genesis, Creation and Early Man_ is an excellent resource for an introduction to the philosophy of the more predominant Fathers of the Church and a critique of popular scientific beliefs. Fr. Seraphim demonstrates that there is no real conflict between objective science and religion as long as the science is not used to answer fundamental questions of human existence.

Each time I read the book I found it really convincing and scientifically sound, although this is not a science book but only discusses some relevant science issues/claims.

While I cannot hope to tell the reader with regard for the words of God and of the Holy Fathers how truly great this book is (other reviews try this), I have to comment a little on a few statements of a review which does not accurately represent the book. Of course, I will not be dealing with the reviewer's personal beliefs but I will illustrate how the book actually answers issues like

1. "If it were true that all of these fossils were deposited by the flood, why do the strata have such a 'sequential' order to them? In other words, why are there no modern animals in very ancient strata?"

On page 303 one finds "Since often these strata are 'upside down' according to the evolutionary model {footnote: The Encyclopedia Britannica (11th ed.) admits that in some fields all the strata are 'upside down' [i.e., primitive creatures are found at a higher level than more 'highly evoloved' ones].}...". Also, part of the footnote on page 304 reads "Dr. Raup, who is considered the world's greatest living paleontologist, is an evolutionist, but he acknowledges that one could fit just about any theory one likes to the fossil record. He says that the fossils could just as well have been deposited stochastically (randomly), as far as any order is concerned..." There is more convincing information about this in the text, but to me this appears enough. Also, please note that Fr. Seraphim does not claim the work of the creationist scientists to be without problems and to answer all questions, he just mentions somewhere that their model appears to have less problems and hence to appear more natural than the competing evolution model.

The second and last observation will be to

2. "In other words, the Fathers understanding of the passages relating to the rotation of the heavens was influenced by the science of the day. The same is true for their understanding of Gen.1 and the age of the earth the flood. Had they known what we know now perhaps they would have interpreted it very differently."

Let me say first that Fr. Seraphim says many times in the book that the Saints' understanding of these supernatural acts of creation is NOT influenced by scientific speculations, but it's essence comes from God's revelation, while the science of the day is only used as a side tool for illustrating some parts of the revelation, to the degree that these 'facts' support it. Therefore, it is missleading to believe that acquintance with today's science would make St Moses, St Basil the Great and many others interpret God's revelation in a different way, but it's true that they might have used other examples taken from science to relate to the core of the revealed knowledge. The whole section beginning on page 88 deals with the nature of the revealed knowledge the Fathers possessed but, this being too lengthy to quote here, I am cheating a little and offer instead a famous quotation of St Basil the Great (I believe not to be found in the book) advising those who lack the proper closeness to God (and hence lack access to Divinely revealed knowledge) on their dealings with the science of the day: "If there is anything in this system which might appear probable to you, keep your admiration for the source of such perfect order, for the wisdom of God. Grand phenomena do not strike us the less when we have discovered something of their wonderful mechanism. Is it otherwise here? At all events let us prefer the simplicity of faith to the demonstrations of reason."

To sum up, after re-reading the book, partly because of Athanasius' review (thank you, Athanasius!), I still find it truly great, scientifically objective and sound, and a must read for any Christian.

Fr. Seraphim presents a beautiful vision of Creation as clearly shown in the Bible and the Church Fathers. The book is very well thought out and written. He presents an undeniable witness from the writings of the Fathers on the Creation of the world. Although Fr. Seraphim is commonly rudely maligned by his critics, he was brave enought to stand for Truth. Which is refreshing after reading their spinless stances. The book is approched first with the fantastic vision of man and Creation as proclaimed by the Church, this if followed by a look at some "scientific" topics. Further the theory of evolution is traced back to its philosophical seeds planted well before Darwin. A wonderful read, a clear picture, a must have for the struggler in the modern age.

I expected much more from this book than I received. Overall, I was very disappointed. Rather than giving the reader a thoroughly Patristic interpretation of "Genesis, creation, and early man" we are instead subjected to page after page of the crassest biblical literalism, disgusting Protestant-based and -created pseudo-science, and the persistent assurance that anyone who disagrees with Fr. Seraphim's opinions on these matters is a heretic. Fr. Seraphim may quote heavily from the Fathers, but his approach is that of a Protestant fundamentalist, not the approach of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Christian Church. One is led to wonder what Fr. Seraphim might say about the allegorical or literal nature of the iconography he features throughout the book. The only redeeming feature of the book, and it is only slightly redeeming, is his treatment of Darwinism as a philosophy, which is, when inane references to pseudo-scientific theories are removed, actually a pretty good treatment.

Fr Rose is highly regarded by many zealous conservative Orthodox Christians. The characteristics of these Christians are often hyper-antiwesternism, xenophobia, and an unhealthy exaltation (and distortion) of the monastic life (monasticism is not synonymous with aceticism, which is a practice of ALL Christians, unique in practice to each invidual's life; monastcism and celibacy and starving one's self is not a "higher" form of the Christian life, marriage and good sex within that context is just as holy). Some even regard Seraphim Rose as saint!

Often in Rose's books, and in some of his followers I encounter online, they tend to flirt with neo-gnosticism, and often elevate the "spiritual" over the (apparently bad) "material", or Platonic ideas of the immortality of the soul. This unhealthy tendency is continued in this book. This is Seraphim Rose's worst book. Having read most of them, I can now truly say there is virtually no redeeming value in any of his books when much more competent and generous theologians have written on the same subjects with a much saner tone and objectivity when addressing the Fathers and Holy Tradition in response to the contemporary Western world.

This book is a failed attempt at disproving the compatibility of evolution with Eastern thought. What? When were the Fathers speaking about the post-Enlightenment materialist investigation into the reality of the natural world? Never. Like the many inspired authors of Genesis, the Fathers worked within their respective cultural and cosmological contingencies. They were not infallible speakers on the fundamental nature of atoms, quarks and gluons, or genetic mutation and punctuated equilibrium. Any attempt to disprove evolution by some overly ignorant and pseudo-pious attempt from "Tradition" is doomed to make Christians look backward and reactionary.

The horrible stench of fear seeps from the pages of Rose's books, and those who follow him. The Fathers embraced pagan philosophy to explain the Hebraic thoughts of the Old Testament and New Testament. To the secular historian they would see later Christian thought as foreign (or worse!)a perversion of the message of primitive Christianity. But to those illumined by the Church they see an organic growth and freedom the early Christians had in adapting pagan modes of thinking in order to explain the Gospel to their respective non-Jewish audiences. They were not restricted by Tradition; on the contrary they were free to adapt their thinking to different philosophical modes of engagement, while in living continuity with the Good News of the crucified, risen and exalted Messiah, Yehshua ben Yosef, Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God of Israel.

There is no competent or serious engagement with evolutionary biology, microbiology, quantum theory etc. in this book. There is not even an elementary grasp on the concepts of evolution, except some vague over generalizations. This is probably due to the miserable science education in the American school system that Eugene Rose grew up in.

The Orthodox world would be much better off if Rose's mistaken views on nearly everything were not continually propagated in book form. It hurts our witness to the Western World, when we truly hold the fullness of the Church. A much better (although extremely scholarly) discussion of these ideas are found in Light from the East (Theology and the Sciences). Although unlike this sad book, the reader must at least have an introductory level to biology and physics, and a competent grasp of eastern theology. A proper engagment with the biological sciences from a Christian point of view should allow us to embrace nature more fully as we see how interconected everything is. It should allow us to appreciate the myth of the Genesis story more fully, as we see humanity's place in Creation. A proper understanding should allow us to be better witnesses to the world, and fill with more love of God and of nature, and biblical literalists are often neo-platonists/gnostics and anti-nature.

This book is NOT recommended for anyone, it is not spiritually edifying or enlightening.

Frithjof Schuon resembles religions to colored beams of light emanating from Heaven such that every nation or ethnicity would see God in the color that was given to them; for them, that light was God Himself and the opposing colors were not which did not mean that such beliefs were naive or intolerant but simply that people recognized the divine intention in its particular form that they had received through revelation and were necessarily devoted to that. These different manifestations of the sacred which are translations of the metaphysical or universal truth into humanly understandable dogmatic languages were not given to men as stumbling blocks, or reasons for frustrations, troubles and discord but simply because they were the only ways to make the invisible, visible, the transcendent, apparent, the esoteric, manifest and because every nation or ethnicity, according to its particular temperament, nature and spiritual make-up could see God only in that shape and form and in no other way. However, behind the colors, there is always the pure luminosity, the colorless essence of light--God's perennial, immutable and formless substance, the same for all His creatures.

Evidently, "the outward and readily exaggerated incompatibility of the different religious forms" eventually ends up discrediting everyone of them. In the Christian Orthodox realm, any attempt to question, let alone criticize Seraphim Rose's complexion which otherwise sticks rigorously to the exoteric aspects of the faith but is incapable to transcend them, would clearly be unwelcome. In a certain sense, Rose is right--ideally, believers should be oblivious to any other religions but their own and this was indeed the case in traditional societies. But the disastrous intermingling of castes, nations and ethnicities and man's inherent niggardly and petty nature could not help generating a protective reaction which requires the depiction of other religions as devilish heresies. This reaction may be a necessary evil; but it is an evil nonetheless. Like almost any other religion, Christianity has to guard its flock by a confessional apartheid and its Orthodox branch did not escape the rigors of this paradoxical deformity. Overcoming this unworthy inclination requires a large intellectual breath and discernment combined with generosity and nobility of character which apparently Fr. Seraphim possessed not. Notwithstanding Fr. Seraphim's imprecations, one should be allowed to trust that God endowed all his children with an equal opportunity for salvation; to imply otherwise would mean to accuse Him of an inexcusable bias and useless favoritism.

Here is a supplementary anecdote: at one point, Seraphim Rose emphatically declares that mankind appeared because the originary couple had "numerous children"--ergo, we are all inescapably the result of a massive and incestuous primeval promiscuity. The trouble with such absurdities is that they ridicule the faith and trivialize Christian dogma, exposing it to the malicious but not unjustified attacks of rationalism. In his sublime ignorance, the unfortunate seraphim did not realize that stupidity, like any other human failure can be exploited by the devil and that consequently, by his attempt to explain an ineffable reality in biological terms, he already fell into the trap of rationalism and became guilty of sheer vanity.

One may disavow such sarcastic accusations and maintain that in spite of his elucubrations, Seraphim Rose was a God fearer and an honest man and certainly there aren't any reasons to believe otherwise. Had he striven to live a simple monastic life, pray for the salvation of mankind and resist the temptation of meaningless biblical exegeses and fruitless polemics, his life would have been more useful to God, to us and to himself.