We hear about the Gnostic religion first among the ancient Jews and Greeks. Apostle Paul mentions its invasion of Christian soil in 1Tm.6:20: knowledge (gnosis), falsely called. Gnosticism must have fascinated some of the early Christians, lest Paul would not have commented on this heresy. From time to time, in the history of the Church, it has reappeared, as it did in the nineteenth century certainly, and also in our times. Thankfully, the Gnostic influence is presently isolated; but there is some.
Fr Seraphim Rose's The Soul After Death (1) gives us much concern in this regard. In particular, his "toll- house" doctrine is Gnostic. St Irenae of Lyons and St Hippolytus, Tertullian and other Christian writers record the attempt of second and third century theologians to adapt Gnosticism to Christianity. They did not say it would not happen again. In Seraphim Rose's writing we have another occurrence, albeit without the same ambition as the first.
We must call Seraphim Rose's error "neo-Gnostic" (or "new Gnostic,") on account of his idea about "the ascent of the soul" to God after death, an idea whose source is Gnosticism, even if it came indirectly through Russian writers of the last century. Remarkable, too, is the fact that The Soul After Death and his other books and articles show no real knowledge of Gnostic doctrine, which probably explains his vigorous protests against the accusation. After reading this book, one must conclude that Fr Seraphim's view of the soul's ascent to God through demonic "toll- houses" or "places of retention" or "watch-towers" was not a conscious reconstruction of the Christian Faith. Rather, his vision of the spiritual world was the result of an undisciplined reading of nineteenth century "Russian mystics," and his interest in Oriental religions.(2) Fr Seraphim was a victim of his own enthusiasm and ignorance.
In the preface to The Soul After Death, Fr Seraphim boldly declares that the toll-house theory is the teaching which the Orthodox Church handed down from the very beginning, which is expressed in countless patristic writings and Lives of the Saints, and in the Divine Services of the Orthodox Church, and which has been taught uninterruptedly in the Church even down to our own day (3). His book claims to bring once more to the attention of the Orthodox public and the world this long neglected truth of Christianity.
The "chief inspirations" for his book were two nineteenth century "fathers" - Bishops Ignatius Brianchaninov (1807- 1867) and Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894). Fr Seraphim also relied heavily upon Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow and St John Maximovich of San Francisco. The first three of these bishops were contemporaries, living at a time when Russia was experiencing a great influx of Western "mystical literature" - Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme, Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) whom Fr Rose quotes at length (Ibid., pp. 101-105, 114-116, 121f.) Jung-Stillung, Madame Guyon, etc. were also "popular and widely read."(4) Gnostics all - or in modern parlance, "theosophists" - they were men and women who boasted of a secret knowledge of another world. To "holy Russia," they brought a mentality alien to her culture and religion.
Both Brianchaninov - the leading defender of the Orthodox teaching [sic] of the aerial toll-house in 19th century Russia (5) - and Theophan were well read in this foreign literature. Bishop Ignatius was more cautious about it than the latter. He disapproved of the Western methods of meditation, particularly as practiced by Thomas a' Kempis, Francis of Assisi, and Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. Such writers, he said, attached too much importance to the imagination "which leads to unhealthy excitement and to delusion."(6) Bishop Theophan, on the other hand, was better disposed to Latin mysticism. He often recommended to his spiritual children the reading of Latin spiritual writers, e.g., Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis de Sales and Thomas a' Kempis, etc.
In any case, Fr Seraphim claims that both taught the toll-house theory. Writes Bishop Ignatius (Works [vol. 3], p. 136):
For the testing of souls as they pass through the spaces of the air, there have been established by the dark powers separate judgment places and guards in a remarkable order. In the layers of the under- heaven, from earth to heaven itself, stand guarding legions of fallen spirits. Each division is in charge of a special form of sin and tests the soul in it when the soul reaches this division. The aerial demonic guards and judgment places are called in Patristic writings the toll-houses, and the spirits who serve in them are called the tax collectors.(7)
The four volume collected works of Bishop Ignatius were first published in St Petersburg between 1865 and 1867. Fr Seraphim's translation was taken from the 1883 edition. We can only assume that the two editions are the same and his translation correct.
Also, Fr Seraphim takes much of the "patristic testimony" for the toll-house theory from Bishop Ignatius' Russian translation of the Greek, Latin, Armenian, Syriac and Persian texts. Thus, The Soul After Death often gives us an English translation of a Russian translation of another language.(8) But if one looks at that "testimony" (whenever one is able to verify Rose's sources and the accuracy of the Bishop's Russian translations), one discovers (as we shall see) that the patristic texts which they employ fail to make the point they wish, if only because their quotations were wrenched from the context.
Again, Fr Seraphim's treatment of Bishop Theophan the Recluse ("no less a firm defender of this teaching") is arbitrary. Like Bishop Ignatius, Theophan (Govorov) is taken as a spokesman for the Orthodox Church. Thus, Rose quotes them without criticism. In fact, he seems to have reshaped the Christian doctrine of salvation (soteriology) according to what he perceived to be their doctrine. Thus, the citation from Bishop Theophan's commentary on Psalm 118:18, Let my heart be blameless in Thy statutes, that I may not be put to shame:
The prophet, does not mention how and where one `may not be put to shame.' The nearest `not being put to shame' occurs during the arising of inward battles... The second moment of `not being put to shame' is the time of death and the passage through the toll- houses. No matter how absurd the idea of the toll-houses may seem to our `wise men,' they will not escape passing through them. What do the toll-gatherers seek in those who pass through? They seek whether people have some of their goods. What kind of goods? Passions, etc... Therefore, it is very doubtful that a soul, as long as there remains in it sympathies for the objects of any passion, will not be `put to shame' at the toll-houses. `Being put to shame' here means that the soul itself is thrown into hell.
This quotation is found on pages 94-95 of The Soul After Death. Rose provides no bibliographical data other than the title. It does not matter. As far as he is concerned, the matter has long been settled. Bishop Theophan has corroborated the words of Bishop Ignatius.(9) Two leading lights of 19th century Orthodoxy have spoken. None may doubt that the toll- house theory is a truth of the Orthodox Faith. Such is the nature of his sloppy research.
Moreover, we are expected to believe that quotes piled one on the other constitutes evidence. But, then, if there is no verse or paragraph available, Fr Seraphim simply drops the names of important Orthodox theologians and asserts their advocacy of this Gnostic theory. But mere assertion is not proof. We hear no argument, no appeal to general principles, no call for help from other scholarship for confirmation of his views.
Curiously, after contending so furiously for this theory, Fr Rose declares, "The teaching of the toll -houses in Orthodox sources has never been defined as a `dogma,' belonging rather to the tradition of Orthodox piety."(10) In a word, sensing the weakness of his position, he tries to set "dogma" against "piety." But "dogma" is putting into clear language what the Church believes: true "piety" rests on "dogma," even as "dogma" is the product of "piety" or holiness.
For these and other reasons, anyone examining Orthodox soteriology should not look to The Soul After Death as a reliable source of it.
Among its many other faults, this book nowhere shows any connection between the Orthodox doctrine of Grace and the idea of the toll-house.(11) Fr Seraphim twists the Scriptures to suit his theory. He uses altered liturgical texts (12). He takes literally in the Lives of the Saints what more reasonably commands a moral or spiritual (allegorical) interpretation. He confuses the mischief of the demons in this life (or even the sometime taunting of Christians at the hour of death) with their supposed activity after death.
Fr Seraphim's notion of the soul's relation to the body is Greek. Refusing to examine the liturgical and patristic texts about the "slumber" or "sleep" of the soul separated from its body, he naturally misunderstands them (Ibid., pp. 249-253). He disfigures the spiritual realm, unaware that "heaven" (the Age to Come) and "hell" (eternal punishment) are not yet; and he is also ignorant of the difference between temporary "hades" or sheol (abode of the dead) and everlasting "hell" (Gehenna).
Also, his knowledge of the fathers is inadequate. He fails to distinguish between "Church fathers" (who speak for the Church) and "Church Writers" (who generally speak for themselves). He is insensitive to the difference between authentic patristic literature and to the "dubious and false" (dubia et spuria); for example, he quotes from a spurious Departure of the Soul (which does indeed expound the toll-house theory) as if it were written by St Cyril of Alexandria (+444), whereas, neither St Cyril nor any other Father of the Church wrote it.(13)
Finally, Fr Seraphim's reliance on non Christian sources to bolster the toll-house theory is, at best, misleading. He seeks to impress us with his knowledge of the Tibetan and Egyptian Book of the Dead, modern Theosophy, and research concerning contemporary "out of body" experiences. He approves popular TV evangelist Billy Graham's belief in angels.(14) He goes so far as to call these "testimonies" a "striking confirmation of the teaching on the state of the soul immediately after death."(15) Claiming to follow the holy fathers, it is strange indeed that he refuses to recognize such writings and experiences as "satanic."
In the pages that follow, we hope to detail these charges. The idea of the toll-house is a gross misinterpretation of the Apostolic Tradition.
1. St Herman Press, (Platina, Ca. 1980).
2. See P. Christensen, "Father Seraphim's Search for Truth: His Religious and Philosophical Development Prior to His Conversion," The Orthodox Word XIX, 1-2 (1983), pp. 25-31.
3. The Soul After Death, p. 2.
4. Bolshakoff, S. Russian Mystics, Kalamazoo, 1976, p. 105.
5. The Soul After Death, p. 94.
6. Quote, Bolshakoff, p. 162.
7. The Soul After Death, p. 75.
8. Apparently, the commentary is not translated. Fr Seraphim Rose suggests that we read the English summary printed by the New Diveyevo Convent, Spring Valley, N.Y., 1978, p. 24 (Ibid., p. 96). The inference here is that the Mothers of the Convent are advocates of the toll-house theory. Likewise, the Convent's Archbishop Andrew, we are told "used precisely the twenty toll-houses for a very effective preparation for the sacrament [sic] of confession..." (The Soul After Death, p. 256). Fr Seraphim cites no book, no article, no lecture by Archbishop Andrew. He wants us to believe that since the Archbishop made pastoral use of the "Theodora" story (see chapter V), he also accepted it as Orthodox theology. He may have; but we have no way of knowing the truth from Fr Seraphim's account.
9. Fr Seraphim is not always certain of his ground. The facts often force him to refine his initial declaration on toll-houses. For example, "Bishop Theophan the Recluse has well said that even the trial at the aerial toll-houses may well turn out to be less one of accusation than of temptation" (Ibid., 188). One may wonder, too, whether he really was in agreement with Fr Rose and Brianchaninov on the question of toll-houses (see Ibid., p. 36).
This appeal to Vladika Theophan may have been a mistake and, perhaps, he should not have claimed him as a theological guide. There is scholarship which argues that Theophan never advocated the toll house theory. On 3 November of 1980, a professor at the Harvard University Research Centre wrote a letter to Fr Seraphim politely rebuking him for misrepresenting Theophan and for characterizing the difference between the two hierarchs as "minor." In his book, Souls and Angels: Not Body But Spirit, the professor of the Research Centre insists Theophan "refuted it [Brianchaninov's teaching on the soul after death] in the strongest terms." In the foreword to the 1891 revised edition of this book, Vladika refers to Brianchaninov's Homily on Death and the Supplement which delineate the toll-house theory. His stated purpose is the "unmasking of the falsity of the positions contained in these brochures." In other words, the mention of toll-houses in Blessed Theophan's writing must be understood not as a post-death experience, but in the spiritual sense, as the struggle with the passions.
10. Ibid., p. 36f.
11. See Fr Panagiotes Carras' letter to Archbishop Vitaly of Montreal (11/24 Oct 1980). Reprinted in The Journal of the Nemanjic Institute for Serbo-Byzantine Studies 2 (1994), pp. 66-68.
12. Canticle VIII of the "Office of the Parting of Body and Soul" reads, "O thou who didst bear the Lord Almighty, banish thou far from me when I come to die, the Chieftain of bitter torments who ruleth the universe; and I will glorify thee forever, O holy Birth-Giver of God" (Hapgood, 1922 edition, pp. 364-365). Seraphim Rose's wording is a patent fabrication, even a falsehood. In The Soul After Death, p. 194, we read: "O thou who gavest birth to the Lord Almighty, remove far from me the Chief of the bitter toll-houses, the ruler of the world, when I am about to die, that I may glorify thee forever, O Holy Theotokos" (Canticle 8). The classical Isabel Hapgood translation (London, 1906, 1922) of the Church Service Books from the Old Slavonic and Greek was endorsed by Patriarch (St) Tikhon of Moscow (13 Nov 1921). Fr Seraphim does not want to tell us the source of his text, so we must conclude that his version of Canticle VIII was taken either from Bishop Ignatius or Fr Seraphim Rose made his own translation from some unnamed source, or else he simply fabricated it because he could not find any actual agreement with his doctrine. In either case, the words the bitter toll-houses must be viewed as a wilful, premeditated fabrication and corruption of the text. As we shall see, Fr Seraphim was not above such practices in a vain effort to prove his point.
13. Ibid., p. 82. There was in seventh century Alexandria a work-shop whose sole purpose was to alter the writings of the fathers and heretics, including St Cyril (See J. Danielou, "L'Apocatastase chez Saint Gregoire de Nysse," Recherches de science religieuse XXX (1940), 335-336. See St Anastasius of Sinai, Via Dux PG 89 289D-292A. Also of interest is the fact that Gnosticism against which the fathers fought, was born in Egypt. The toll-house theory is Gnostic (See K. Rudolph, Gnosis: the Nature and History of Gnosticism. trans. by R.L. Wilson. San Francisco, 1987, pp. 171-173).
14. The Soul After Death, p. 92.
15. Ibid., p. 173; and pp. 99, 106, 113, 119, 124, 160. Fr Seraphim appears to have given credence to "astral projection" or "the projection of the astral body," that is, "through the cultivation of certain mediumistic techniques not merely to enter into contact with disincarnate spirits, but actually to enter into their realm and `travel' in their midst" (Ibid., p. 106).