Nihilism : The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age

Nihilism is no more dead than God is. Rare indeed, however, is the thinker who can grapple with the ideas of Nietzsche and emerge with faith intact, mind clear, and spirit unsullied. Hieromonk Seraphim Rose managed to do so and, in the process, to clarify much for the readers of this book. Originally intended to be merely one chapter of a longer work, the book demarcates four stages of nihilist philosophy. The first stage is liberalism, characterized by indifference to absolute Truth, and by the creation of a new god more compatible with the modern temper. The second stage is realism, characterized the attempt to impose scientific criteria upon every aspect of existence and by outright hostility to absolute Truth. Vitalism, the third stage, occurs in reaction to the realists' oversimplification of life, and is marked by an ''inarticulate restlessness' and by a yearning for spiritual and mystical realities -- albeit outside an ''outmoded'' Christianity. What he seeks is immediacy, vitality, awareness, ecstasy -- not Truth. The fourth stage is the nihilism of destruction, and is ''unique to the modern age.'' Hieromonk Seraphim's prose is lucid, his observations trenchant, shedding light on the philosophical underpinnings of the historical events of the last two centuries, demonstrating beyond doubt that the spiritual sickness of this age is rooted deeper than the current generation.