OP: Hieromonk Damascene comes to our parish once in a while. I met him very early on when I first came to our parish and was considering Orthodoxy. His family goes to our parish. He's an incredible man when it comes to loving the Lord, holiness, and he's quite an intellectual. When I've spoken with him at coffee hours, he is a quiet man, quite unemotional, pretty stoic, but very interesting. He's a true monk.
I read parts of the Tao book, yes. The crux of it is simply what Jesse and Matt have said: that the elements of Taoism are really Christ, and yet Taoists don't really realize that. They are searching for Christ Jesus without really knowing it. And his thesis is that there is so much in Taoism that is Christian that we have commonalities that we Orthodox can tap into and help them convert that way. They don't have to give up their principles of Taoism to become Orthodox Christians. But I do confess being a husband, father of three, and a sixth grade teacher, I only read parts of it, not the whole. I'm so bad...LOL
I did read parts of the Augustine commentaries by Father Rose, and they're outstanding. Father Seraphim Rose has been vilified by some, and like Jesse said, it's largely out of ignorance or assumptions. My own dear priest can't stand his stuff. I like Father Rose, and what he has done for the Russians in his lifetime with translations alone should practically make him a saint! If you ever want to see a masterful smack-down of the follies and absurdities of human evolution, read Father Rose. He takes evolution and turns it on its head showing the silliness and inconsistencies. He's into the patristics, and knows his stuff! Sometimes he gets a bit extreme for me, but I think his heart was ALWAYS in the right place!
