Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age

by Seraphim Rose

“What does Nihilism mean?” wrote Friedrich Nietszche. “―That the highest values are losing their value. There is no goal.…There is no Truth, no ‘thing in itself.’ There is no answer to the why?” In 1962, the young Eugene Rose (the future Fr. Seraphim) undertook to write a monumental chronicle of the abandonment of Truth in the modern age. Of the hundreds of pages of material he compiled for this work, only the present essay has come down to us in completed form. Here Fr. Seraphim reveals the core of all modern thought and life―the belief that all truth is relative―and shows how this belief has been translated into action in our century. Today, four decades after he wrote it, this essay is more timely than ever. It clearly explains why contemporary ideas, values, and attitudes―the “spirit of the age”―are shifting so rapidly in the direction of moral anarchy, as the philosophy of Nihilism enters more deeply into the fiber of society. Nietszche was right when he predicted that the 20th century would usher in “the triumph of Nihilism.” Some years after writing this essay, Eugene Rose became a monk in the mountains of northern California with the name Fr. Seraphim. Although he lived his whole life in America, he has become, after his death, one of the most popular spiritual-philosophical writers in Eastern Europe.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Christianity, Theology, Nonfiction, Politics, History

102 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1994

About the author

Seraphim Rose, born Eugene Dennis Rose, was a hieromonk of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in the United States, whose writings have helped spread Orthodox Christianity throughout modern America and the West. They have also been widely read in Russia. Although not formally canonized as of 2008, he is venerated by some Orthodox Christians as a saint in iconography, liturgy, and prayer.

Reviews

[Michael O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fr. Seraphim addresses the modern philosophies of the present, previous, and 19th Centuries, and boils them down to their essence, nihilism. Many considered to be the great thinkers, philosophers, and political ideologues of those times developed various rationales and systems of thought that they believed would advance from beliefs in a supreme being, an afterlife, absolute truth, etc.

Fr. Seraphim, himself, unlike many Orthodox clergy, with respect to these was not one on the outside looking in --- the anti-theist, nihilist positions are one with which he was well familiar. He was very much, at one time, an active believer and consumer of these philosophies as part of a broader effort in his youth and academic years to find meaning apart from the Protestant Christianity in which he was raised.

With such a background as well as his current one as an Orthodox priest and monk, he has a unique perspective on his topic. He proceeds to examine 19th Century liberalism, exposing its failure to fully consider the logical consequences to which its tenets lead.

Which ultimately is nihilism. While no friend of this belief, Fr. Seraphim respects it for its proponents greater intellectual honesty on where ultimately their belief systems, yet proceeds to scrutinize them on the own standards they claim to set --- and shows them wanting. And these fiery ideologies, spawned in the streets, underground, heated debates, and college campuses of the 19th Century by young men disillusioned with the truths, traditions, and foundations of the times in which they lived would lead to the great nihilistic ideologies of the 2oth --- fascism, Nazism, and communism. Ideologies that, in their efforts to kick down the doors of what they saw as rotting vestiges of backward superstitions and hypocrisies would yield a bloody harvest in lives and destruction never before seen before in human history.

Much debate in this time over these in the last century often concludes that their core fault lays in an illiberal reliance upon statism and totalitarianism. Seraphim shows that these are symptoms of a darker source code --- nihilism. That belief --- no absolutes --- therefore, nothing can be "wrong". No absolutes --- therefore, no "God" --- and, in its place, every man and woman can then make self a god in its own right. A belief leading to chaos and oppression inevitably --- for everyone cannot be a "god" in an imperfect world with limited resources.

Ultimately, Fr. Seraphim then shows that such a universe is ultimately an absurdity -- one that leaves its adherents falling into an abyss of chaos, forever looking for meaning, yet never able to grasp onto anything definitive, timeless, enduring, and purposeful.

It would be something -- in some alternate reality -- to bring back from the great beyond, Fr. Seraphim and have him debate one of his intellectual anti-theist rivals, Nietzche or Christopher Hitchens --- to hear each square off their best arguments for their positions.

At any rate, this is a fascinating book to read. I highly recommend for anyone with an interest in philosophy or theology.

[Dorothea · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first read this it made me so angry that threw it against a wall.

[Danny Druid · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the most part a penetrating analysis of the dialectics of Nihilism and a beautiful call to European Man to return to Christianity. But the book suffers from two major flaws: An extremely superficial reading of Nietzsche and a misplaced love for Liberal Democracy.

Seraphim Rose says that Nietzsche is merely an out-and-out-nihilist, but the truth is that Nietzsche himself was against Nihilism, however he defined the symptoms and causes of Nihilism differently than Christians do, and in fact saw Christianity as a part of the problem of Nihilism. Nietzsche says in the last paragraph of the first essay of The Genealogy of Morals that the fact that there are no "Higher Men" today is the origin of Nihilism, whereas Seraphim Rose (and, in fact, most people) would say that the origin of Nihilism is that people are not as Christian as they once were.

As for the second point, Seraphim Rose did not see that it is precisely Americanism / Liberal Democracy that has spread Nihilism to the four corners of the globe, and it is this which has corrupted Christianity to turn it into a bourgeois religion that means whatever one wishes. This corruption of the religion of Jesus is a phenomenon that happens in all of its denominations. Communism and, yes, National Socialism, are actually much LESS Nihilistic than the Bourgeois Liberal Democracy "Human Rights" ideology.

But overlooking these two factual errors, what you are left with is a beautifully succinct book that situates modern man in relation to the horrors of Nihilism and the hope of his salvation in God. Recommended for those who are interested in this topic.

[Fabrício Tavares De Moraes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esta obra é de uma sensibilidade admirável: uma verdadeira radiografia da pulsão niilista que habita o coração do homem moderno. O Pe. Seraphim Rose mostra como a vontade de negação (de Deus e de sua criação) se desenvolve em quatro fases sucessivas (tanto na ordem cronológica quanto em seu agravamento): liberalismo, racionalismo, vitalismo e niilismo de destruição. O autor, como todos os demais escritores que demonstram uma profunda espiritualidade, parte do princípio, e conduz seus leitores consigo, que os dramas da modernidade -- a negação dos valores, o totalitarismo, o terrorismo e a brutalização da arte -- são epifenômenos da revolta do homem contra Deus. Mas, uma vez que não há neutralidade no âmbito espiritual, o niilista, que em última instância é todo aquele que nega a verdade de Cristo, tem como ídolo o "nada" do qual o Criador fez todas as coisas -- atitude que o leva derradeiramente à negação da própria estrutura do real.

[Heinz Reinhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a portion of a, sadly incomplete, manuscript Fr. Rose was working on which he had intended to deal with the entirety of the Revolutionary(modern) Age, and it's terrible failure from an Orthodox Christian perspective.
As he makes so very clear in this fragment of his intended work, the modern age has been a failure of violence, sadness, despair, ugliness and hatred precisely because of the Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment, the framework of modern Western society, has as it's logical conclusion the horrors of Nihilism. Nihilism, a belief in nothing, itself a Satanic reversal of the Divinely intended worship of said Divine, has led to the Revolution(by which Fr. Rose means not just Marxism, the most obvious, but the whole evolution of said - starting with the Jacobins of the French Revolution, carrying over to the Anarchists of the late 19th Century, the Marxists/Bolsheviks, as well as the Fascists and the National Socialists; all of whom are related to each other, and all of whom stem from the same root), and the Revolution has only succeeded in destroying the two most important things to the life of the human species: truth and faith.
When discussing the fracturing and hopelessness of society, it needs to be born in mind that Fr. Rose wrote this in the 60's, and one wonders what his thoughts would be on the Materialist and radical Individualist nightmare Western society has morphed into since his own concerned observations.
Although only a fragment of a larger work never completed, this is an excellent little work that makes some wonderful observations on just what truly underpins the darkness of the present age.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently, these are a few things I have come to recognize as truth:

- order does not come from chaos without intelligent intervention.

and

- the postmodern argument, the idea of relative truth is deeply logically flawed and self-contradictory because assertion of relative truth is itself absolute
- therefore a belief in absolute truth is the only non-contradictory logical conclusion
- absolute truth is absolute and must therefore exist independent of my perception of truth and also exists without observation. Unfortunately, therefore, my personal wishes are irrelevant to any understanding of absolute truth.
- any coherent concept of morality presupposes a knowledge of absolute truth

These are fragments (and by no means conclusive in their current state) that may lead to a logical syllogism of something like: therefore a God exists and as an ordered and logical being I have a moral obligation to Him as my creator. This is not what I want to think. I want to be free from moral obligation, I want to believe in the ubermensch, in myself as an ubermensch, I want to be free to do as I want without repercussion. Unfortunately, I am starting to see this is not true.

Eugene Rose competently deconstructs nihilism in all its current forms but doesn't quite build the bridge to faith. Rose defends his theology from a perspective well-informed by philosophy and literature which I something I totally dig. Made me realize I need to read more of the Russians.

[Philemon - · Rating 5 out of 5]

Father Seraphim's booming prophetic voice makes our own discourse seem weak and fallen. These writings date back to the 1960's and indeed sound like from another age; but at the same time resound aptly for our current moment. Terminal regression roughly brings on the collapse he foretells. Our old rhetoric is fluff and no longer helps. In the end, we get what we wished for.

[Conner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seraphim Rose does a decent job of explaining the pitfalls of "Absolute Nihilism", a destructive system in which one is left with nothing but the void of beliefs. Aside from this, which is a fact that should be relatively obvious to any sane modern individual, there is not much of substance in this text.

First, I take issue to Rose's critique of positive (in the sense that they construct spiritual poles which go beyond the purely material) philosophies that have emerged after the dawn of Christianity, such as Fichte's German Idealism and Guenon's Perennialism. While these systems may not be infallibly true (how could any philosophy ever be?), they use the previously negative system that has been created and its principles to construct a positive approach that instills a higher value. While these systems contain traces of the DNA of negative nihilism in the sense that they acknowledge plurality and relativity, they are more productive for solving the crisis of meaninglessness than outmodedly trying to hold on to a belief system that does not even acknowledge the principles of the modern age.

This leads into my next critique of Rose: for all of his (sometimes convincing) rhetoric against all forms of "nihilistic" beliefs, he does not pose a clear solution to this issue. While Rose may expect the reader to be an expert in Orthodoxy before approaching this text, it is simply foolish for a spiritual person to write a book attacking all popular beliefs without providing any solid solution of his own. Although he convinces the reader of the dissatisfaction that comes from absolute nihilism, his only refutation against the previously mentioned positive nihilism is that all of its followers "must burn in the flames of Hell forever" (91), because it is not Orthodoxy: the only solution that Rose is willing to accept. While Rose may believe this to be good and true, he gives no defense to his beliefs aside from the fact that he "has faith". In an age that values critical thought, it is easy to view Rose's philosophy as more nihilistic than the positive systems that he criticizes, as it makes no effort to provide a logically satisfactory consolation. In this sense, the book feels incomplete, and could have greatly benefited from an expansive defense of Orthodoxy.

I also find Rose's critiques of modern art to be painfully misguided. Instead of recognizing that the first step towards change is acknowledgement, he bitterly rails against any art depicting so-called "nihilism" or the modern age, calling it "the work of Satan" without understanding that it is created for the purpose of striking fear into the viewer and inciting them towards social change. If we can't even express our current plight through the arts, how is it ever supposed to be solved?

Finally, Rose's genealogy of nihilism is simply laughable. By positing that the first step towards nihilism is simply having the knowledge of other faiths, philosophies, and cultures, it is implied that nearly everyone who has walked the earth for the last thousand years, including Rose himself, is a nihilist. This closed-mindedness also prevents him from understanding the commonalities between beliefs and religions, furthering the petty tribalism that prevents anyone from true spiritual transcendence in the modern era.

Overall, I was not convinced by Rose's polemics, and found him to be more of a void-creator and nihilist than the groups discussed in the text. His arguments, both constructive and destructive, are not philosophically sound, and lack any form of logical scaffolding to prove their validity. Maybe I'm just too far gone into the grip of my generation's nihilism to understand this seemingly universally regarded text, but I feel I can confidently say that there is not much of value to be found in this book.

[Ruchika Soni · Rating 5 out of 5]

More profoundly, Nihilist "simplification" may be seen in the universal prestige today accorded the lowest order of knowledge, the scientific, as well as the simplistic ideas of men like Marx, Freud, and Darwin, which underlie virtually the whole of contemporary thought and life.

[Невен Паштар · Rating 5 out of 5]

...језиво и пророчанско штиво.
Оно што су Зли дуси (Бијесови) у умјетничком смослу, то је ова књига у филозовском.

[Luca Di Lieto · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best diagnosis of nihilism in the modern age I have read. He is like an orthodox Lewis. He is quick to move past the rationality of it as it is self-defeating in that there is no truth except the truth of nihilism. He moves on to the sociology and sees nihilism as fundamentally a psychological problem. This is worth noting as it rare that when one’s life is going well to have a nihilistic outlook on life.

One eye-opening association is his first stage of nihilism being Liberalism. As it frees us of any obligations beyond ourselves including Truth and Morality.

Furthermore the stages of Realism and Vitalism could equally be framed in the opposite way, unlike the final stage of destruction that is most closely associated with nihilism. However it makes more sense when framing nihilism as misplaced value. Referencing Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky as two of the most impactful writers on the subject, we see that once God is dead we look for something else to worship as highest, be it intellect, life and pleasure or tearing down of any and all institutions.

One particularly relatable quote on the disjunction between worldly values or Godly values. “the Christian is in a certain sense, in an ultimate sense, a nihilist. For to him, in the end, the world is nothing, and God is all… opposite of the nihilism examined here where God is nothing, and the world is all. That is a nihilism that precedes from the abyss and the Christian nihilism precedes from abundance.”

Nihilism is a question of ultimate value, both what you believe and how you live. It is no surprise that his solution is to believe in Christ and moreover live a Christian life.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a threefold purpose of the nihilist revolution, according to Rose,

1. the destruction of the old order
2. the making of the "new earth"
3. the fashioning of the "new man"

[Lance Conley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read. It'll help you understand quite a bit and helps you see how modern man is headed for disaster thanks to taking the lies of nihilistic thought.

[Joe Cho · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Orthodox friend gave this to me to read for “leisure.”

It was not leisure. It was painstaking labor, but honest and good work. It was worth combing through insane levels of philosophical ideas. Big words, smooth brain, mind destroyed.

Anyways, Father Seraphim Rose basically talks about the true nature of Frederich Nietzsche’s nihilism, which is the violent opposition to and practice against Christianity—or in his words, an “antitheistic, anarchistic, rebellious attitude” against God’s good creation. Fr. Rose expounds upon this notion by addressing the many proverbial foils between Christianity and nihilism, where the latter proves to be a desperate supplanting of Christian theology, which only ends in a hollow parody of the “Absolute Revealed Truth” (Jesus Christ).

Overall, I’d give it 4.7/5. Very hard to read but very rewarding to digest after many attempts at closing this book.

[Zechariah Tiemens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very, very troubling read. If you have no hope for secular society and want to lose that last additional bit of hope you didn't even know you still had, this is the book for you.

[Catholicus Magus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite dishearteningly, this "book" is only one chapter of what would compose the magnum opus of Fr. Seraphim Rose's writing career; nevertheless, very few books written by contemporary Christian theologians come as close to the erudition and prophetic nature of Fr. Seraphim Rose. Within this work, Fr. Seraphim Rose takes on the entire tradition of "Nihilism" generated from the inevitable excesses of Western Humanism and the Enlightenment. To this end, he begins by discussing the Liberal, Realist, Vitalist, and truly "Nihilist" position—the former represented by the 17th century to remove the focus of religious unity from society, the latter by 19th century Russian anarchists. Each particular position seems, in our modern conception, to exonerate itself on the basis of how distant the specifically political evolution of man has been. In fact, it seems almost absurd to suggest that the advent of Bolshevism or National Socialism could have been facilitated by the "prudential" considerations of 17th century Liberals. Nevertheless, Fr. Seraphim Rose outlines within 100 pages the genealogical consequences of gradually removing the sovereignty of God from man's daily consideration. One very quickly sees how the "snowball effect" of minimizing religious conflict leads invariably to the romanticism of Nature as a religious domain, then to the worship of speed and Man's "inexorable spirit." Very quickly, we are faced with either total affirmation or self-immolation by ontological nothingness.

Of course, the Christian stands outside of this perspective. Which is precisely why Fr. Seraphim Rose addresses these points for an audience who was otherwise shielded from the disastrous implications of Western philosophy. Because the spirit behind the evolution of Nihilism is not simply one of artistic libertinism; on the contrary, it is through the inspiration of the Prince of Darkness that we seem to march quicker towards the realization of the Antichrist. That is why, for how incomplete this work is—representing one chapter of a nearly 1000 page work—this fragment is all the more crucial. May any Christian who reads this work derive many great insights into the spiritual malaise of modernity. God Bless and Christ is King!

[Yogy TheBear · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great insight into Nihilism, with a lot of ideas that I already felt and perceived, but did not have the skill to express about it.
As a orthodox myself, Seraphim's point of view is very logical and near to me, despite a radicalism that someone with a more western upbringing may perceive it.
By only problem with Rose is the initial chapter on Liberalism, witch I did not felt to be also including libertarianism, my political identity. I actualy totaly agree with his observation on the lack of a strong connection with God in the liberal mind, but this is a generalization and liberalism should not be considered phase one of nihilism. A person with a liberal mindset, or political/philosophical identity may also be in search of that superior Truth, and in such a state are actualy many people, including orthodox.
Overall the book is a very necesary one for all orthodox and people concerned with nihilism.

[Monique Mathiesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound and prophetic. Fr Seraphim’s lays out how the nihilistic worldview that permeates every inch of society will inevitably lead to the anti-Christ. Philosophically, he destroys nihilism, showing that it’s an absurd, inverted version of Christianity. This book serves as a wake up call for Christians to prepare for the spiritual war that’s coming and to be on guard against thinking this world can be saved outside of Christ.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book by the late Fr. Seraphim Rose. This was written before Rose became a monk and was more philosophically oriented.

[Nicholas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Passionate, sure, but too fervent and generic and often times lazy. 'Also,' 'too' 'many' 'damn' 'scare' 'quotes'.

[Seraphim · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only regret is having not read this sooner.

[Sabin-Stefan Pavelescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sooner you read it, the better

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There is no need, even today when men seem to have become too weak to face the truth, to soften the realities of the next life; to those--be they Nihilists or more moderate humanists--who presume to fathom the Will of the Living God, and to judge Him for His "cruelty," one may answer with an unequivocal assertion of something in which most of them profess to believe: the dignity of man. God has called us, not to the modern "heaven" of repose and sleep, but to the full and deifying glory of the sons of God; and if we, whom our God thinks worthy to receive it, reject this call,--then better for us the flames of Hell, the torment of that last and awful proof of man's high calling and of God's unquenchable Love for men, than the nothingness to which men of small faith, and the Nihilism of our age, aspire.

Nothing less than Hell is worthy of man, if he be not worthy of Heaven."

[Gabriel Parks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seraphim Rose crafts a moving narrative description of nihilism as it manifests in contemporary life and in modern people's personalities. I found his knowledge of history, philosophy, and psychology impressive, and his goal as an author was ambitious but admirable. Some points did not land as much with me, but on the whole this book truly resonated with me and made me rethink some of my fundamental beliefs. I'll want to revisit this slim yet incisive book to continue to meditate on what it wants to say about the value of religious belief in the modern world.

[vale · Rating 2 out of 5]

ničehuljenje

[Jack Condra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fr Seraphim Rose is an incredibly smart man. Unfortunately, I am not nearly as smart as him so half of this book went over my head. I will read this again once I am wiser in years and age.

[Terese · Rating 4 out of 5]

You don't need to be, though I'm sure it helps, an Orthodox Christian to see that this is an incredibly lucid and perspicacious exploration and refutation of Nihilism, the pervasive spirit of our age and the cause of worldly incoherence.

Fr. Seraphim comes from a position of faith and clarity of argument that manages to be like a dagger which slices through counter-arguments, but, which also harbors a fundamental fairness and openess to acknowledge the appeal and positives that have driven Nihilism and its different breeding grounds (such as Liberalism, Realism and Vitalism).

I found the section on vitalism most engaging in terms of considering his words, and hypothesizing about what his reaction would've been, in this current context where the things he describes have been so amplified. His arguments that critique have now become apologies, justifying rather than improving bad art, especially hit home.

He diagnoses a fundamental, driving, restlessness in current man and skewers the relativistic, hubristic, Superhuman/God-man status that has unmoored society from any norms or truth and urges the inevitable nihilism of destruction, its own logical end. He does this showing his own expertise in the thoughts of men like Hitler, Nietzsche, Bakunin, and Dostoevsky, presenting their beliefs, ideals, or warnings/insights for the organisation of humanity and society.

… its Nihilist counterpart is full of doubt, suspicion, disgust, envy, jealousy, pride, impatience, rebelliousness, blasphemy - one or more of these qualities predominating in any given personality. It is an attitude of dissatisfaction with self, with the world, with society, with God; it knows but one thing: that it will not accept things as they are , but most devote its energies either to changing them or fleeing from them.

The book is slight and rounds out with an essay about the philosophy of the absurd which picks at the same strand the essay on nihilism deals with, pointing out how a rejection of absolute truth, or a belief in ultimate meaninglessness, are in themselves claims of absolute truths. They negate themselves from their start, "to assert that 'there is no truth', one must believe in the truth of this statement, and so again affirm what one denies"

Though the connection between the works of nihilism, tracking the ideas of the belief in the Superhuman, the Man-God or man's free will as ruling force without any anchor in truth, to the "Ye shall be as gods" promise of Satan in Genesis, may be a bit of an eye-roll moment for some, I would suggest that - from a believers point of view - this is actually a very coherent and cogent conclusion.

All in all, I think there are a lot of things to mull over in this slender book, it packs quite the punch. Regardless of your status as a believer or not, I would recommend people to read it. One does not have to agree with everything an author says to derive knowledge and valuable nuance from a text, after all. It is a very interesting analysis of the current Century and where, especially, Nietzsche's philosophy has led us, total wars and all, and where it might be heading now. Basically, it'll be worth the while even if it only pisses you off.

I liked it quite a lot and will definitely re-read it and consider some of the finer points. I wish the layout of the book was better though, the text comes across as needlessly dense in this edition. But it is inexpensive, so that's a big plus.

"The philosophy of the absurd is, indeed, nothing oiginal in itself; it is entirely negation, and its character is determined, absolutely and entirely, by that which it attempts to negate."

[Clayton Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another essential read for Christians to understand the modern world and where it's headed.

Some brilliant passages:

"In this room Eugene undertook to write a monumental chronicle of modern man's war against God: man's attempt to destroy the Old Order and raise up a new one without Christ, to deny the existence of the Kingdom of God and raise up his own earthly utopia in its stead. This projected work was entitled The Kingdom of Man and the Kingdom, of God.

Only a few years before this, Eugene himself had been ensnared in the Kingdom of Man and had suffered in it; he too had been at war against God. Having rejected the Protestant Christianity of his formative years as being weak and ineffectual, he had taken part in the Bohemian counterculture of the 1950's, and had delved into Eastern religions and philosophies which taught that God is ultimately impersonal. Like the absurdist artists and writers of his day, he had experimented with insanity, breaking down logical thought processes as a way of "breaking on over to the other side." He read the words of the mad "prophet" of Nihilism, Friedrich Nietzsche, until those words resonated in his soul with an electric, infernal power. Through all these means, he was seeking to attain to Truth or Reality with his mind; but they all resulted in failure. He was reduced to such a state of despair that, when later asked to describe it, he could only say, "I was in Hell." He would get drunk, and would grapple with the God Whom he had claimed was dead, pounding on the floor and screaming at Him to leave him alone. Once while intoxicated, he wrote, "I am sick, as all men are sick who are absent from the love of God."

"Atheism," Eugene wrote in later years, "true 'existential' atheism burning with hatred of a seemingly unjust or unmerciful God, is a spiritual state; it is a real attempt to grapple with the true God Whose ways are so inexplicable even to the most believing of men, and it has more than once been known to end in a blinding vision of Him Whom the real atheist truly seeks. It is Christ Who works in these souls. The Antichrist is not to be found primarily in the great deniers, but in the small affirmers, whose Christ is only on the lips. Nietzsche, in calling himself Antichrist, proved thereby his intense hunger for Christ....""


"The Liberal, the worldly man, is the man who has lost his faith; and the loss of perfect faith is the beginning of the end of the order erected upon that faith. Those who seek to preserve the prestige of truth without believing in it offer the most potent weapon to all their enemies; a merely metaphorical faith is suicidal. The radical attacks the Liberal doctrine at every point, and the veil of rhetoric is no protection against the strong thrust of his sharp blade. The Liberal, under this persistent attack, gives way on point after point, forced to admit the truth of the charges against him without being able to counter this negative, critical truth with any positive truth of his own; until, after a long and usually gradual transition, of a sudden he awakens to discover that the Old Order, undefended and seemingly indefensible, has been overthrown, and that a new, more "realistic"--and more brutal-truth has taken the field."

[O · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Fr. Seraphim Rose but this essay was a DNF.

The entire thing is predicated on “Nihilism means nothing matters so everything goes”, which is clearly not the case. Attempts to lump Hitler and Stalin together as “both nihilists” don’t work, nor does saying Nihilism somehow ruled over the entire 20th century.

I started this expecting an Orthodox Christian critique of Nietzsche, it ended up being a passionate and heartfelt but ultimately misguided attempt at critiquing modernity in general. For instance, calling Christianity the “old order” Nihilism wants to destroy when Nietzsche himself wanted society to revert to that of the Homeric Greeks, many centuries older.

Nothing about Nietzche’s critique of Christianity as “slave morality”, Aristocratic morality, nothing interesting about Vitalism.

[Mad Russian the Traveller · Rating 4 out of 5]

19% into this book and I have this to say (I will be adding more to this review as I progress):
Fr. Seraphim Rose makes some very good points about the nature of unbelief as it ultimately leads to a nihilist view of reality, but in his chapter on Liberalism, he is dead wrong about equating Liberalism (what he calls liberal protestantism) with all protestants. J. Gresham Machen proved that liberalism as manifested in the apostasy of mainline denominations from belief in Christ was not Christianity at all (See his book Christianity and Liberalism, pub. 1923.), so in his point about Liberalism general, Fr. Rose is correct, but he conflates these apostates with the faithful remnant within protestantism who have remained faithful to Christ. And then when contrasting an orthodox monarchy with the bolsheviks, he seems think a monarcy is good? He is willfully blind, because every monarchy from King Saul in ancient Israel (and many other kings before him) to the present day have violated God's law and tried to take the place of the only legitimate king, Jesus Christ. And I haven't even pointed out the violation of human dignity that every human king has perpetrated upon his fellow humans (usually called 'subjects') throughout human history.
EDIT (at 33%):
The above criticisms still stand, but am learning something new, that is the concept of Vitalism and it's limitations; it is interesting as this spirit of the age reaction to materialism has been called other things. I am also simultaneously reading "Idols for Destruction" by Herbert Schlossberg which I think is a better criticism of our age's spirit. The difference is that Vitalism is just the same as the world's idolatry from the past to the present only now more widespread and occupanied by a rejection of the Tao (as used by C.S. Lewis in his The Abolition of Man). Reading on...
Final EDIT:
The above criticisms still stand, but the book was interesting overall and worth my time.