The Rose and the Stag. An American Orthodox Converstation on Modernity, Science, and Biblical Interpretation (2018)
Howell, Christopher (Author)
Almagest
Volume: 9
Issue: 2
Pages: 40-59
Publication date: 2018
Language: English
Though the Orthodox in America remain a small minority, two figures -the monk Seraphim Rose and the theologian David Bentley Hart- have nevertheless exerted great influence on Christianity both within and without the United States. In comparing these two figures, the multifarious perspectives of American Orthodox on science, theology, and biblical hermeneutics can be seen up close. Though, at first, Rose and Hart may seem at first to have little in common, they agree on one foundational issue: that modernity is essentially nihilistic and is the result of the world's inexorable slide away from Christianity into "nothingness." However, while they share this diagnosis of what ails the modern world, they differ wildly in their solution to it, illustrating how wide the chasm can truly be between two members of the same church. Rose was deeply hostile to ecumenism and evolutionary biology, finding refuge in a creationism he thought backed by the Church Fathers. Conversely, Hart argues there is only hope in ecumenical unity, and he rejects creationism and Intelligent Design, arguing instead for the classical doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, an understanding of the natural world as intrinsically teleological, and a biblical hermeneutic based not on literalism but reading ad litteram.
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