Publisher: Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood

Author: Fr. Seraphim Rose

Dimensions: 6.25" x 9.25"

Format/Cover Type: Hardcover

ISBN: 978-1-887904-25-4

Pages: 1212

Description: Amidst the ongoing debate over creation and evolution, with evidence being offered for both sides, few have made use of what Fr. Seraphim Rose called “the missing evidence”: the timeless teaching of the Orthodox Holy Fathers on the events of creation, the first-created world, the natures of created things, the original nature of man, and the cosmic consequences of man’s fall.

In the present volume, this teaching has been gathered 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 struggled to understand how the Holy Fathers noetically apprehended the beginning of the world as revealed in Genesis and other Divinely inspired books of Scripture. Having acquired their mind, he has presented to the modern world the harmonious Patristic vision of the cosmos.

A much-needed answer to today’s “crisis of meaning,” this book sheds unique light on the origin and primordial condition of man and the cosmos, showing how these mysteries are inextricably tied to those of our redemption by Jesus Christ and of creation’s redeemed state beyond the general resurrection. The Divine vision of the Fathers opens up deeper levels of awareness concerning God’s creation and His ultimate intention for it—levels that cannot be reached through merely rational or scientific means.

NEW THIRD EDITION (2024/released 2025). For this new edition, we have updated many of the citations and have expanded the “Suggested Resources” section to include materials published since 2011. In Part I (Fr. Seraphim’s commentary on Genesis) we have noted more differences between the Septuagint and Masoretic texts; in Appendix One (“Created in Incorruption”) we have provided a broader treatment of the Orthodox theology of redemption; and under “Suggested Resources” we have added a subsection on the Septuagint and its Genesis chronologies. This edition also contains many new illustrations.