The Soul After Death

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https://archive.org/details/soul-after- ... aphim-1980

https://fallen-leaves.org/2019/01/15/fr ... eath-1980/

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Fr. Seraphim was known for championing the fullness of undiluted Orthodoxy in the New World. Among his writings are Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church, and The Soul After Death, all published by his own St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood Press. Foremost in the latter volume is his promotion of the idea of “toll-houses”, the concept that after death the soul is confronted with its sins in a process of self-understanding. Though denounced as heretical by then Deacon Lev Puhalo in his counter-blast of the time The Soul, the Body, and Death, the teaching finds support from Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, and of course St. John Maximovitch. In the ensuing theological dust-up between Fr. Seraphim’s teaching and Deacon Lev’s denunciation, the ROCOR synod sided with Fr. Seraphim, and told Puhalo to stand down, saying that no such certainty as Puhalo asserted was possible.

It may be said that he was slow to stand down; his denunciations still flow, despite Fr. Seraphim’s death in 1982 and his subsequent inability to offer rejoinder. Those wanting to examine the true patristic teaching about the soul after death may refer to a volume published by Jean-Claude Larchet, Life After Death according to the Orthodox Tradition which offers a comprehensive survey from a wide selection of the Fathers, or examine the volume’s teaching here. This volume does not so much argue a case as simply present the relevant material. Reading it makes it clear that in the Soul After Death debate Rose was the horse to bet on.

“I would disagree with only one point in your letter: I do not believe that I have presented the toll- houses as a dogma in my articles. I don’t think they really are a theologoumenon either, because they don’t belong properly to the sphere of dogma at all (except as they touch on the doctrine of the Particular Judgment), but rather belong to the Orthodox ascetic teaching and Orthodox piety. It would never occur to me to make belief in or even awareness of the toll-houses into a condition for baptism; but I would certainly expect that as a person goes deeper in the faith and reads the ascetic texts and Lives of Saints he would become acquainted with them and accept them as a matter of course. My articles have been meant as an attempt to facilitate this, whereas Deacon Lev’s articles, it seems to me, are an attempt to persuade people not to read this Orthodox literature as somehow harmful to a person’s Orthodoxy or state of soul.“— Fr. Seraphim Rose: Letter 287.
May 23/June 5, 1980

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Greek Edition of The Soul After Death by Fr. Seraphim Rose †



“No matter how absurd the idea of the toll-houses may seem to our ‘wise men,’ they will not escape passing through them.”

— St. Theophan the Recluse, The One-Hundred Eighteenth Psalm, Interpreted by Bishop Theophan



St. Macarius the Great writes: “When you hear that there are rivers of dragons, and mouths of lions, and the dark powers under the heavens, and fire that burns and crackles in the members, you think nothing of it, not knowing that unless you receive the earnest of the Holy Spirit (II Cor. 1:22), they hold your soul as it departs from the body, and do not suffer you to rise to heaven”



St. Gregory the Theologian, †389

Divine fear has overcome me,
a mass of horrors:
dismal Tartarus, scorching flames, whips,
demons, the tax collectors of our souls.
All a myth to the wicked.
[Ethical Poems, in Greek]



St. Hesychios the Priest, † 5th century

Just as a man blind from birth does not see the sun’s light, so one who fails to pursue watchfulness does not see the rich radiance of divine grace. He cannot free himself from evil thoughts, words, and actions, and because of these thoughts and actions he will not be able freely to pass the lords of hell when he dies.
[On Watchfulness and Holiness, Philokalia Vol. 1]



St. John of Karpathos, † 7th century

When the soul leaves the body, the enemy advances to attck it, fiercely reviling it and accusing it of its sins in a harsh and terrifying manner. But if a soul enjoys the love of God and has faith in Him, even though in the past it has often been wounded by sin, it is not frightened by the enemy’s attacks and threats…
[Texts for the Monks of India, Philokalia Vol. 1]