It was the second Orthodox book I ever read (back in my 20s) and it made me absolutely furious….the arrogance, the ignorance. At the time I was a young and rather new Charismatic fully on board with it's belief that this new wave was restoring to the Church graces and power lost across the centuries. Fr. Seraphim wasn't even politely sympathetic, but was adamant the Church lacked nothing, had lost nothing and the stuff I was involved with was better described as Christian shamanism and not a move of the Holy Spirit. Like I said I was furious.
Fast forward over 20 years and I have seen both the highs and the lows of the Charismatic movement, I'm starting to get interested in liturgical worship and in what the Orthodox Church had to say about itself. I came across a reprint of a chapter of a book by Fr. Seraphim Rose. The name rang a bell, but I couldn't place it, the article/chapter that dealt with the Charismatic movement seemed thoughtful, well reasoned, insightful. In the article he pointed to various current in the Charismatic movement of his day and offered his thoughts one where this or that strain of thinking/teaching would end up, and I had to admit I had witnessed about 95 percent of what he had to say coming to pass. I had lived it, been in the middle of it…and that's when it struck me that this was the same author…the same text that had so enraged me 20 or so years before. What I once took for arrogance and ignorance, I now saw as clear-sightedness, depth, and wisdom. I was an idiot.
Since then I have suspected that Fr. Seraphim of Platina had a hand in helping me to see and discover the Orthodox faith by way of making up for having made me so angry as an ignorant college boy. It was very kind of him to do so.