Seraphim Rose - Controversies Over Theological Opinions or "theologoumenon"

Controversies Over Theological Opinions or "theologoumenon"

Although most of Rose's works were widely received within the Orthodox community, a few raised controversy. The most notable of these was The Soul After Death, which purports to describe certain alleged "aerial toll houses" described by various Church Fathers and saints. According to this teaching, every human soul must pass through a series of these stations after death as part of their initial judgment by God, where they will be accused of specific sins and possibly condemned to hell.

Some modern Orthodox theologians, including "Archbishop" Lazar Puhalo, Stanley Harakas and Alexander Kalomiros among others, have claimed that certain ideas in Rose's book are heretical, and that many of the Church Fathers have been misinterpreted or misquoted to support it. Puhalo claimed that the "toll-house theory" is specifically Gnostic in origin. These accusations were later declared to be wrong by the Holy Synod of the Russian Church Abroad, which emphasized that little has been revealed to the Church on this subject, and hence all controversy on this subject should cease. Though continuing to vehemently oppose Rose's teaching on this subject, Puhalo indicated that he considered Rose to be a "true ascetic", and that he respected the sincerity of Seraphim's monastic life and intentions.

Other contemporary Orthodox thinkers, such as St. John Maximovitch, Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Fr. Michael Pomazansky, and Bishop Jerome (Shaw) of Manhattan reject Puhalo's interpretation and affirm the reality of the toll houses. Rose tried to prove by citations that numerous saints, such as Athanasius the Great, John Chrysostom, Macarius of Egypt, Theophan the Recluse, Seraphim of Sarov, Ignatius Brianchaninov and various other Orthodox church fathers, had acknowledged and accepted the Orthodoxy of the toll-houses. He endeavored to answer his detractors in his "Answer to a Critic", published as an appendix to The Soul After Death.

Another question concerned whether the Moscow Patriarchate, that portion of the Russian Orthodox Church within Soviet Russia, still possessed "grace." Although some Orthodox Christians asserted that the so-called "red" church had forfeited legitimacy by cooperating with the communist government, Rose disagreed. While wholeheartedly disapproving of the close relations between the Moscow church and the country's communist masters, Rose insisted that it was still legitimate and possessed of valid sacraments.

Rose also waded into the ongoing debate between Biblical creationism and evolution, asserting in Genesis, Creation and Early Man that Orthodox patristics exclusively supported the Creationist viewpoint. This idea was vehemently attacked by other Orthodox theologians, who asserted that while man's existence is not accidental by any means, there is no official church doctrine as to the precise process God used in creation, nor the length of time that it might have required.