Dear Brother in Christ, Alexey,
\nGreetings in our Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
We received the two sections on Evolution. \u201cChristian Evolutionism\u201d I read over hastily, and it looks good \u2014 probably we can leave any final revisions until the whole article is ready for final form. The \u201cscientific\u201d part, however, Father Herman and I read together and found problems. Basically, everything we want to say is there, and the tone is good (it’s even a little too understated at times!); but the meaning doesn\u2019t come through simple and clear, there being so many side questions \u2014 or rather, the side questions are not yet welded into the whole so as to leave one single, convincing impression: that evolution is philosophy, and science had nothing to do with it \u2014 with a strong hint (which comes from just presenting the evidence itself) that the scientific evidence of anything is against evolution. Therefore, I will try to rethink and re-outline and re-arrange the material and see if the meaning can be made somehow more transparent.<\/p>\n
As for the final Patristic section: I am still compiling citations and making notes, hoping to get as broad an attack as possible on the question. I seem to recall that in Fr. Panteleimon\u2019s tape he mentions the fact that the Saviour\u2019s genealogy back to Adam might contain some \u201csymbolical\u201d names? \u2014 i.e., that there might be whole gaps of hundreds or thousands of years? That\u2019s an important point. There is no doubt that the Holy Fathers regarded these names precisely as a list of fathers, but since no one ever doubted this before they don\u2019t have many explicit statements on the subject. Incidentally, the Fathers were very concerned to reconcile the genealogy in Luke with that of Matthew, and the answer of St. Gregory the Theologian and other Fathers is that the few differences in the two stem from the practice of the younger brother taking the older brother\u2019s wife to raise up offspring for him, if he was childless \u2014 and one genealogy calls the father the one who was the real father, and the other takes the one for whom he was a father, so to speak. You might look in the Scriptural index of any Fathers you have and see if anyone comments on Luke 3:24ff.<\/p>\n
We are eagerly awaiting Dr. Kalomiros\u2019 new reply, which should contain the last of the \u201cPatristic proofs of evolution\u201d which we will have to tackle.<\/p>\n
There have been 7 of us here for several weeks now. Over the weekend we had an eighth \u2014 a wanderer who knew Fr. Herman years ago and whose \u201cspirit\u201d told him to come here (his \u201cspirit\u201d also grants healings and levitations). He left a little wiser, realizing that his spirit is a demon and that Orthodoxy is probably the truth \u2014 but what will happen to him from now on we can\u2019t predict. Incidentally, he confirmed for us the validity of most of our \u201ccharismatic\u201d article \u2014 he said it was the most reasonable account of his own experience that he had read. He acquired his \u201ctalent\u201d in a standard mediumistic way \u2014 immediately on coming into contact with a Bible his grandmother (a tongues-speaker) gave him! When he told his grandmother about his experiences, she immediately \u201cpraised God\u201d and burst out in a tongue. Such as world we live in, and such temptations.<\/p>\n
Br. Michael is back again \u2014 pray for him. And we have a Russian wanderer, Constantine, who landed here out of a fog of unbelief. Christopher will be baptized, God willing, on Tuesday Sept. 25\/ Oct. 8, in our creek by Fr. Alexey [Poluektov], and then return to Hawaii. Please pray for him especially; the devil is trying to work him over.<\/p>\n
The new Nikodemos is wonderful \u2014 an excellent use of \u201cmonastic\u201d sources to benefit people in the world. Is there any response yet? I have been looking over Kireyevsky on the Western vs. Orthodox mentality theme and will try to get a tape to you fairly [soon.]<\/p>\n
The summer is fading only very gradually, but already we feel the approaching, winter. Firewood is started, and the Calendar begins in a week or so, hopefully. Hunting season is on, and our deer are staying close to us \u2014 in fact, as I type this outdoors I am surrounded by five deer, three of them drinking out of our \u201cspring.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our \u201cguesthouse\u201d is nearing completion, and if we can find a stove to put in it, there will be overnight accommodations for hardy souls this winter.<\/p>\n
Pray for us.<\/p>\n
With love in Christ,
\nSeraphim, monk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Brother in Christ, Alexey, Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ. We received the two sections on Evolution. \u201cChristian Evolutionism\u201d I read over hastily, and it looks good \u2014 probably we can leave any final revisions until the whole article is ready for final form. The \u201cscientific\u201d part, however, Father Herman and I read together […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}