A model for conversion

by fr. Dan Bdulescu

A coincidence: the first book that I am aware of Father Seraphim Rose is Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, which I received as a gift in 1996. ...Father Seraphim Rose was Protestant. He converted in the most concrete sense of the word... But, if indeed man is by nature Orthodox, what about those seeking converts? That is a question that has given much trouble. I felt that conversion is the result of the calling the Holy Spirit. This supernatural, over human step is the exception that proves the rule, and I see that we, many baptized Orthodox, have a yarn more heterodox than Seraphim Rose for instance, which can be a model of orthodoxy for us. Man is born again of water and the Spirit. Yes, we are all born a second time, but not in the neoprotestant sense, but in the Orthodox - and heresy sticks upon us. I feel it is a huge effort to stay on the orthodox line, supported by the Holy Spirit. Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future addresses, more or less, a theme that for me has become essential in my doctoral thesis: New Age the Aquarius Religion, the Religion of the Future. We talked about ecumenical concerns. Father Seraphim came from a Protestant area, passed through the Asian region with zen, with a time of atheism, so he crossed many periods. Father Sophronius, confessor of Father Raphael Noica also had a yogi period. He went through artistic searches of painting in Paris. Is he a convert? In a sense, yes! Because he was an Orthodox and Russian. So this conversion, in that aspect is very interesting. Instead, Father Seraphim Rose comes directly from a heterodox environment and became one of the most influential fathers for such people. Why? Because there are people who have followed a well-established path, which is the line: middle school - seminar - faculty, i.e. Orthodox from childhood, from the priestly families, families in the countryside, clean and in somewhat sheltered environments. The other environment, urban areas, from which we come from, city, following the route: middle school - high school secular college, concerned with rock, new age, yoga, karate, Anthroposophy and many others. After the nineties, they opened the Faculty of Theology for us too. But we and those like we feel, of course, great support in fathers like Raphael Noica or Father Seraphim Rose. Do you remember how the feast of the Holy Three Hierarchs appeared? One said, "St. Basil is the greatest!" "No, it's John!" "Nay, none of them, Gregory is the greatest!" And had come to argue. Why? Because each have an affinity. Father Raphael always cite " Father Sophronius says," "Father Sophronius" up , "Father Sophronius" down. Seraphim: "Archbishop John Maximovici did that, and that, and that! Father Sophronius said "Silouan the Athonite said..." etc. So there is such devotion to a father, but not saying he is greater than the others - this kind we avoid - or saying that St. Silouan is better than St. John Maximovici. We also hear words like that. It is not normal. Father Seraphim Rose was a special father, a very bold and open-minded father in the best sense of the word. In Russia he is

almost a cult figure because he is not secluded and not fallen in two things: once the legal thinking, who's canon, from where to where someone's canon or not, and on the other hand, have dare not to join - quote from another work - "a party church or church policy" that often follows on ideological and not spiritual. Father Seraphim is admirable for us and some of them say "blessed", an icon of him was made and it is not exaggerated. Fathers like Seraphim Rose and Raphael Noica enjoy a freedom of spirit that we inspire with joy, and are not stuck in extra church or extra spiritual interest, and they give us courage and freedom to think in Orthodox spirit, who is not ideological or dogmatic. They have this freedom of spirit, expressing the exact truth. Father Seraphim has not spiritual barriers and, therefore, has attracted a lot of problems in life yet. With Kalomiros, linked to the issue of evolution, the controversy brought! Letters contained forty pages - who of us wrote letters of forty pages? And the situation with Kalomiros still not clear, for both died, one to right and one to the left, and they were not reconciled on the subject. And what tells us this example? That when you become a personality, you take this kind of polemics and you can attract many enmities. During his lifetime, many of the punks and rockers have converted, and some have became monks. This work shows what spirit brought father there. And of what spirit is all about? It is the spirit of the Holy Fathers, a patristic spirit that strikes you. And, paradoxically, it was an American with Norwegian, Swedish, somewhere German, and Latvian roots, who knows, a hodgepodge. Father Seraphim Rose feels the spirit of the Fathers better than many of us. Although he was not a teacher, he has theological value, and we have much to learn from him as an ascetic and a mystic. A big question arises: where are we compared to him?

I conclude here. I said a few words, highlighting why I and others who think and feel alike have so much reverence and affinity for this kind of truly converted from Protestantism and lack of grace. Here, we have Father Seraphim in awe, as a model of spiritual and patristic behavior, a father who wrote many books particularly useful.