Remember this when you think about Fr Seraphim’s apocalyptic streak. He required novices at Platina to read Ishi Between Two Worlds, because he said anyone living in those mountains should know about the first nations who were there before them. I suggest visiting Platina to understand the world Fr Seraphim actually lived in. And he counselled inquirers to read David Copperfield before reading any Orthodox theology, to develop the simple warmth of a Christian heart, without which any theology was diabolical. This is the Fr Seraphim I came to know and love as a young convert.