Genesis, Creation, and Early Man: The Orthodox Christian Vision

[Unseen.Warfare]

Amidst the creation/evolution debate that is now raging, with evidence being offered for both sides, few have made use of what Fr. Seraphim Rose called "the missing evidence": the teaching of the ancient Orthodox Holy Fathers on the events of creation, the first-created world, the natures of created things, and the original nature of man.
Now for the first time in the English language, this teaching has been gathered together and set forth in a thorough, detailed, and above all honest manner. Perhaps more than anyone else in our times, Fr. Seraphim Rose searched, studied, prayed and suffered to understand how the ancients noetically apprehended the creation in the light of the God-inspired book of Genesis. Having acquired their mind, he has presented to the modern world the harmonious Patristic vision of the cosmos.
A vital answer to the contemporary "crisis of meaning," this book sheds startling new light on the mysteries of our origin. The Divine vision of the ancient Fathers opens up unforeseen dimensions of the creation: deeper levels of reality that cannot be reached through rational or scientific means.

[Unseen.Warfare]

Genesis, Creation, and Early Man has been compiled posthumously from a rich array of materials left behind by Fr. Seraphim. The second edition contains much new material to supplement Fr. Seraphim's work, including an updated preface outlining new developments in the creation/evolution debate, such as the rise of the intelligent design movement in the West and the defense of the Orthodox Patristic teaching on creation by theological writers and scientists in Russia; new explanatory notes on many topics pertaining to Genesis and creation, with further quotations from the Holy Fathers and extensive references to Patristic works; an article detailing the Scriptural-Patristic teaching on the incorruption of man and the cosmos before the fall, and showing its relevance to other aspects of Orthodox theology; and critiques of the modern philosophy of evolution by saints and holy elders, as well as by Orthodox scientists working in the fields of biology and geology.

[Unseen.Warfare]

The following letter was written by Fr. Seraphim to Dr. Alexander Kalo-miros, a Greek Orthodox medical doctor, church writer, and "Christian evolutionist." Fr. Seraphim was responding to a letter from Dr. Kalomi-ros, in which the latter attempted to show that the Holy Scriptures and the teaching of the Holy Fathers were compatible with modern evolutionary theory. According to Dr Kalomiros, Adam was an "evolved beast," who at the appropriate point in his evolutionary development received the grace of God and thus became man. Dr Kalomiros wrote: "When the Lord God breathed into Adam's face the breath of life, then the evolved beast became a logical creature.... I would not be surprised if Adam's body had been in all respects the body of an ape.... Adam was probably biologically less evolved than man of present days... He was taken from the top step of the evolutionary ladder of anthropoids. Man does not come from monkeys but from another branch of anthropoids with a parallel evolution. We have nothing by which to conclude in which stage of evolution the breath of God was given to the animal."
Fr: Seraphim's reply to Dr. Kalomiros, published posthumously in Epiphany Journal (Fall 1989-Winter 1990) and later in abridged form in The Christian Activist (Spring/Summer 1998), has become the definitive introduction to the Patristic doctrine of creation and the definitive Patristic refutation of the modern theory of evolution. We present it here with section titles added by the editor.
For more about Fr. Seraphim's correspondence with Dr Kalomiros, see the Editor's Preface (pp. 26-30, 35, 40) and the selections from Fr: Seraphim's letters in Part V (pp. 514-15, 522-44).

[Unseen.Warfare]

In his essay “Created in Incorruption,” Fr. Damascene of St. Herman’s Monastery in Platina, gives a detailed synopsis of the Patristic doctrine of pre-lapsarian creation, and the effects of the fall on mankind and the cosmos,

The theology of creation and salvation in Orthodox Christianity upholds the centrality and kingship of mankind while simultaneously embracing a cosmological vision that is largely absent in western Christendom. A common characteristic of all creation is corruption and death, and yet we are told that God is not the author of death (Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-14), and that all of creation awaits its redemption through the revealing of the saints (Romans 8:19-22), when all of heaven and earth will be united to God (Ephesians 1:9-10).

Man's body is closely related to its destined realization. As man is a composite of body and soul, the body too is called to submission to the Divine Logos, and through dominion over the irrational part of himself, divinity is mediated also to the body which thus participates in the attainment to the likeness of God. Man occupies a “middle” position in creation, straddling the division between the material world that we inhabit and the spiritual world of the angelic powers.

[Niles_The_New]

Thank you for creating this resource thread. I hear many say “The fathers did not speak on this, so both positions are acceptable”, something that Father Seraphim puts well to rest.

[Unseen.Warfare]

https://genesiscreationandearlyman.blogspot.com/

You can download a better copy of the 1st edition at this link and find a little more information on Fr. Seraphim’s writings on Evolution.

[Stylite Nous]

Thank you for creating this resource thread. I hear many say “The fathers did not speak on this, so both positions are acceptable”, something that Father Seraphim puts well to rest.

They're always saying that kind of tripe, on origins questions as much as in Ecumenism. I begin to doubt if any of them really believe it.