Please, forgive me in advance for the rant and for anything that may be perceived as disrespectful or immoderate.

I've come across Fr. Seraphim Rose many times and have often heard his work cited or recommended. After spending time reading his work and listening to his lectures, I find myself more frustrated than not. His worldview often seems quite presumptuous and negatively oriented. This is compounded by the fact that he openly criticized thinkers and movements of the past century (not that they shouldn't be criticized but that this is often the focus of Fr. Seraphim's writing). Much of his work, at least that I have read, has had an emphasis on what is wrong or false to such a point that he does not allow for the potential of nuance. He pigeonholes the topic and by so doing points towards Orthodoxy in such a way that the implication of questioning his perspective is that the questioner is deceived or does not have the spiritual illumination granted to him. I find this ironic since at certain points he wrote about prelest and then in the next paragraph made assertions about the state of a person's soul in relationship to God - assertions that are unverifiable. Coming from a protestant background, such assertions are red flags, particularly since similar assertions aren't uncommon amongst fundamentalist protestant groups.

Furthermore, the way Fr. Seraphim refers to the saints and Church Fathers sometimes seems like an appeal to authority in order to make assertions about topics such as the state of the soul after death, the future of the world, the state of existence in the beginning of creation, etc. His work would not bother me if it weren't for the fact that Fr. Seraphim has been depicted in such a way, not just as an Orthodox thinker, but as a representative of "Orthodoxy" itself. I have no doubt that he was dedicated to God and is honorable for that cause but the esteem that he has gained in modern culture, I cannot help but be hesitant towards. I've noticed he is referenced by many who are attracted to a certain conspiratorial fundamentalism which has proven to be quite popular in schismatic sectarianists (the GOC for example). I'm concerned at the prospect of his canonization, not because I think he was "bad" or "corrupt" (- not at all!) but rather, that his writing has been the fuel for ideologues. And that, while he certainly had insight into the state that the world was headed towards, he seems to have been wrong about quite a bit as well.

My question: what attracts you to Fr. Seraphim? How has he helped you? What am I missing?

GLORY BE TO GOD!!!