Anthroposophy

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Anthroposophy, also called "spiritual science", is a spiritual philosophy based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner,[1] which states that anyone who "conscientiously cultivates sense-free thinking" can attain experience of and insights into the spiritual world.[2] Anthroposophical research seeks to attain in its investigations of the spiritual world the precision and clarity of natural science's investigations of the physical world.[2]

Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge to guide the Spirit of the human being to the Spiritual in the universe. It arises in man as a need of the heart, of the life of feeling: and it can be justified inasmuch as it can satisfy this inner need.

—Rudolf Steiner[3]

The word anthroposophy is derived from the Greek roots anthropo meaning human, and sophia meaning wisdom.

Anthroposophy's status as a science has been challenged on the basis of the difficulty or impossibility of duplicating its results.[4]

Anthroposophical ideas have "an exceptionally strong, practical impact today in many spheres," according to UNESCO[5], including education, agriculture, medicine and the arts.[2][6]

Contents

[edit] Overview

Anthroposophy strives to extend the methodology of natural science - logical reasoning applied to systematic observations of outer phenomena - to the phenomena of inner experience. [2] It includes a philosophical (especially epistemological) basis and a methodology of spiritual research, including exercises for spiritual development. It has developed institutions working in many areas of practical life, including education, medicine, agriculture, and the arts.[2][6]

[edit] History

Rudolf Steiner.
Rudolf Steiner.

In his early twenties, Steiner was asked to edit Goethe's scientific writings for a major publication of that writer's complete works. In the course of this work, Steiner began publishing various works that foreshadowed his later ideas, but were still set within the philosophical and scientific framework of his age: chiefly Goethe's Conception of the World and his commentaries on Goethe's scientific essays. His early work culminated in his Die Philosophie der Freiheit (translated variously as The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, The Philosophy of Freedom, or Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path), published when he was in his early thirties. Steiner developed a concept of free will that was strongly founded upon inner experiences, especially those that occur in independent thought, without any explicit references to the nature of these experiences.[2]

Steiner's interests led him further and further into explicitly spiritual and philosophical research. These studies were chiefly interesting to others who were already oriented towards spiritual ideas; among these was the Theosophical Society. He was asked to lead the German section of this primarily Anglo-American group. His work was distinct from that of most other members of the Society (exceptions included Bertram Kingsley in England) and both he and Annie Besant, then president of the Theosophical Society appear to have 'agreed to disagree' in a harmonious way at first. By 1907, however, there was a growing split between Steiner, who was trying to develop a path that embraced such cornerstones of Western civilizations as Christianity and natural science, and the mainstream Theosophical Society, which was oriented toward an Eastern, and especially Indian, approach.[7]

The Anthroposophical Society was formed in 1912 after Steiner left the Theosophical Society Adyar over differences with its leader, Annie Besant. She intended to present to the world the child Jiddu Krishnamurti as Christ reincarnated. Steiner strongly objected, and considered any equation between Krishnamurti and Christ to be nonsense. This and the philosophical differences mentioned above led Steiner to leave the Theosophical Society. He was followed by a large number of members of the Theosophical Society's German Section, of which he had been secretary. Members of other national chapters of the Theosophical Society followed.[7]

By this time, Steiner had reached considerable stature as a spiritual teacher.[8] He claimed to have direct experiences of the Akashic Records (sometimes called the "Akasha Chronicle"), thought to be a spiritual chronicle of the history, pre-history and future of the world. In a number of works,[9] Steiner described a path of inner development that he felt would enable anyone to attain comparable spiritual experiences. Sound vision could be developed in part by practicing rigorous forms of ethical and cognitive self-discipline, concentration and meditation; in particular, a person's moral development must precede the development of spiritual faculties.[2]

After World War I, the Anthroposophical movement took on new directions. Projects such as schools, centers for the handicapped, organic farms and medical clinics were established, all inspired by Anthroposophy.

Steiner died in 1925, but anthroposophical work has continued in all of the areas established during his lifetime as well as in many new projects established since. Societies for the cultivation of anthroposophy now exist in fifty countries, and there are about 10,000 institutions world-wide working on the basis of anthroposophy.[10] The Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland continues to be the world-wide center of the anthroposophic movement.

[edit] Anthroposophy in Brief

[edit] Spiritual knowledge

Anthroposophy sees in the scientific method the clarity of knowledge appropriate to modern consciousness. It describes the possibility of extending the clarity of the scientific approach into the realm of spiritual phenomena. Steiner thus contrasted the anthroposophical approach to both conventional mysticism, one-sided in that it lacks the clarity necessary for exact knowledge, and natural science, one-sided by being limited in its application to the natural world; a mind developed through a scientific training should be able to apply the thus-achieved clarity of thought to the phenomena of soul life, including those of spiritual experience. Anthroposophy posits that both new perceptions (of a spiritual world) and new capacities of thought (which Steiner termed exact forms of imagination, inspiration and intuition) are required to achieve this synthesis.[6]

[edit] Individual Freedom

Steiner strove to found a spiritual movement that freed the individual from any external spiritual authority: "The most important problem of all human thinking is this: to comprehend the human being as a personality grounded in him or herself."[11]

To integrate this aim into a spiritual movement, Steiner drew upon a methodology inspired primarily by the rational thinking which is the basis of modern scientific thought. Steiner stated that "The anthroposophical schooling of thinking leads to the development of a non-sensory, or so-called supersensory consciousness, whereby the 'spiritual researcher' brings the experiences of this realm into ideas, concepts, and expressive language in a form that people can understand who do not yet have the capacity to achieve the supersensory experiences necessary for individual research."[11] Steiner expected the resulting capacity for any person to rationally comprehend the results of spiritual research to overcome the danger of the spiritual researcher becoming an authority.[11]

[edit] Human being: body, soul and spirit

Main article: Anthroposophical view of the human being

Steiner often described the human being as consisting of an eternal spirit, an evolving soul and a temporal body, giving a detailed analysis of each of these three realms.

[edit] Lucifer and Ahriman

The Representative of Humanity (detail).
The Representative of Humanity (detail).

Lucifer and his counterpart Ahriman figure in anthroposophy as two polar influences on world and human evolution. Steiner described both positive and negative aspects of both figures: Lucifer as the light spirit that "plays on human pride and offers the delusion of divinity", but also motivates creativity, intellectuality, and spirituality; Ahriman as the dark spirit that tempts human beings to "deny [their] link with divinity and to live entirely on the material plane", but also stimulates practicality and technology. Both figures "exert a negative and evil effect on humanity because man allows their influence to be misplaced and one-sided."[2] According to anthroposophy, each human being has the task to find a balance between these opposing influences, which are necessary to human freedom; each person is helped in this task through the mediating being of the Representative of Humanity, also known as the Christ being, a spiritual entity which stands between and harmonizes the two extremes. [7]

[edit] Practical work arising out of anthroposophy

Further information: Rudolf Steiner's Practical initiatives

Practical results of Anthroposophy include work in many fields. These include:

[edit] Waldorf Education

Main article: Waldorf education

Out of the anthroposophical movement have come over 900 schools world-wide[12]. These are often called Waldorf Schools, after the first such school, founded in 1919; they are also sometimes called Steiner Schools. Sixteen Waldorf schools in 14 countries have been affiliated with the United Nations' UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network, a program which sponsors education projects which foster improved quality of education throughout the world, in particular in terms of its ethical, cultural and international dimensions.[13] Waldorf schools receive full or partial governmental funding in some European nations and in parts of the United States (as Waldorf methods public or charter schools). Since the first school opened in Germany at the end of World War I, Waldorf education has spread to every continent, and has been characterized as "the leader of the international movement for a New Education",[14] Schools based on Steiner education are found in a wide variety of communities and cultures: the impoverished favelas of San Paulo[15] and the wealthy suburbs of New York City,[16] in India, Egypt, Australia, Holland and Mexico. Though most of the early Waldorf schools were teacher-founded, the schools today are usually initiated and later supported by an active parent community.[17] Waldorf education is one of the most visible practical applications of an anthroposophical view and understanding of the human being.[18]

[edit] Biodynamic agriculture

Main article: Biodynamic agriculture

Biodynamic agriculture began in the 1920s. Numerous bio-dynamic farms now exist in a great number of countries. Steiner must be counted as one of the two original founders of the modern organic farming movement (the other was Sir Albert Howard).[19][20] Steiner's Agriculture Course was one of the earliest works on organic agriculture.[21]

[edit] Anthroposophical medicine

Main article: Anthroposophical medicine

Steiner gave several series of lectures to physicians, and out of this grew a medical movement that now includes hundreds of M.D.s, chiefly in Europe and North America, and that has its own clinics, hospitals and medical universities.[citation needed]

Other fields of work include an original cancer therapy based on mistletoe extracts developed by anthroposophical researchers. This is a widely used medical treatment in Germany and the European Union.[22] A review of studies of mistletoe includes studies showing that Iscador (mistletoe) has been shown to be effective against cancers in animals, but that its efficacy in humans is unclear.[23] The National Cancer Institute has concluded that mistletoe extract "has been shown to kill cancer cells in the laboratory and to boost the immune system"[24] in animals, and that "there is evidence that mistletoe can boost the immune system" in human beings, but that almost all of the studies done on human beings have major weaknesses that raise doubts about the reliability of their findings.[25]

There is some evidence that children from anthroposophical families have a lower incidence of atopic allergic reactions, however this may be attributable to multiple lifestyle factors associated with anthroposophy that may lessen the risk of atopy in childhood. [26]

[edit] Centers for helping the mentally handicapped (including Camphill Villages)

Early in the twentieth century, when proper care for the handicapped was largely ignored in many countries, anthroposophical homes and communities were founded for the needy. The first was the Sonnenhof in Switzerland, founded by Ita Wegman in 1922; slightly later, in 1940, the Camphill Movement was founded by Karl König in Scotland. The latter in particular has spread widely, and there are now well over a hundred Camphill communities and other anthroposophical homes for both children and adults in more than twenty-two countries around the world.[27]

[edit] Organizational development and biography work

Bernard Lievegoed founded a new study of individual and institutional development; this is represented by the NPI Institute for Organisational Development in Holland and sister organizations in many other countries. Clients of these institutions range from some of the world's largest industrial firms to ordinary people trying to understand their own lives.

[edit] Banking

Today around the world there are a number of banks, companies, charitable institutions, and schools for developing new cooperative forms of business, all working partly out of social ideas. The first anthroposophic bank was the Gemeinschaftsbank für Leihen und Schenken in Bochum, Germany; it was started in 1974.[28] Socially-responsible banks founded out of anthroposophy in the English-speaking world include Triodos Bank, founded in 1980 and active in the UK and Netherlands, and the U.S.-based Rudolf Steiner Foundation, incorporated in 1984, and as of 2004 with estimated assets of $70 million. According to Co-op America and the Social Investment Forum Foundation, RSF is "one of the top 10 best organizations exemplifying the building of economic opportunity and hope for individuals through community investing."

[edit] Architecture

The First Goetheanum, 1920, Dornach, Switzerland.
The First Goetheanum, 1920, Dornach, Switzerland.

Steiner himself designed around thirteen buildings, many of them significant works in a unique, organic-expressionistic style.[29] Foremost among these are his two designs for the Goetheanum. Thousands of further buildings have been built by a later generation of anthroposophic architects.[30] Well-known architects who have been strongly influenced by the anthroposophic style include Imre Makovecz (HU), Hans Scharoun and Joachim Eble (DE), Erik Asmussen (SW), Kenji Imai (Japan), Thomas Rau, Anton Alberts and Max van Huut (NL), Christopher Day and Camphill Architects (UK), Thompson and Rose (USA), Denis Bowman (CA), and Gregory Burgess (Australia).[31]

One of the most famous contemporary buildings by an anthroposophical architect is the ING Bank in Amsterdam, which has been given many awards for its ecological design and approach to a self-sustaining ecology as an autonomous building.

[edit] Eurythmy

In the arts, Steiner's new art of eurythmy gained early renown. Eurythmy seeks to renew the spiritual foundations of dance, transforming speech and music into visible movement. There are now active stage groups and training centers, mostly of modest proportions, in many countries.[citation needed]

[edit] Speech and Drama

There are also movements to renew speech and drama. The former go back to the work of Marie Steiner-von Sivers; among the better known of the latter is the approach founded by Michael Chekhov, the nephew of the playwright Anton Chekhov.[citation needed]

[edit] Other areas

Other areas of anthroposophic work include:

[edit] Social Goals of Anthroposophy

For a period after World War I, Steiner was extremely active and well-known in Germany, in part because he lectured widely proposing social reforms. Steiner was a sharp critic of nationalism, which he saw as outdated, and a proponent of achieving social solidarity through individual freedom.[2] A petition proposing a radical change in the German constitution and expressing his basic social ideas (signed by Herman Hesse, among others) was widely circulated. His main book on social reform is titled Toward Social Renewal.[2]

Anthroposophy continues to aim at reforming society through maintaining and strengthening the independence of the spheres of cultural life, human rights and the economy. It emphasizes a particular ideal in each of these three realms of society:[2]

  1. Freedom in cultural life
  2. Equality of rights, the sphere of legislation and the judiciary
  3. Fraternity in the economic sphere
Main article: Social Threefolding

[edit] Esoteric path

“ A person seeking inner development must first of all make the attempt to give up certain formerly held inclinations. Then, new inclinations must be acquired by constantly holding the thought of such inclinations, virtues or characteristics in one's mind. They must be so incorporated into one's being that a person becomes enabled to alter his soul by his own will-power. This must be tried as objectively as a chemical might be tested in an experiment. A person who has never endeavored to change his soul, who has never made the initial decision to develop the qualities of endurance, steadfastness and calm logical thinking, or a person who has such decisions but has given up because he did not succeed in a week, a month, a year or a decade, will never conclude anything inwardly about these truths. ”
 
— Rudolf Steiner, "On the Inner Life", [13]

[edit] Paths of spiritual development

According to Steiner, a real spiritual world exists out of which the material one gradually condensed, and evolved. The spiritual world, Steiner held, can in the right circumstances be researched through direct experience, by persons practicing rigorous forms of ethical and cognitive self-discipline. Steiner described many exercises he said were suited to strengthening such self-discipline; the most complete exposition of these is found in his book Knowledge of Higher Worlds and its Attainment. The aim of these exercises is to develop higher levels of consciousness through meditation and observation. Details about the spiritual world, Steiner suggested, could on such a basis be discovered and reported, though no more infallibly than the results of natural science.[6]

Steiner regarded his research reports as being important aids to others seeking to enter into spiritual experience. He suggested that a combination of spiritual exercises (for example, concentrating on an object such as a seed), moral development (control of thought, feelings and will combined with openness, tolerance and flexibility) and familiarity with other spiritual researchers' results would best further an individual's spiritual development. He consistently emphasized that any inner, spiritual practice should be undertaken in such a way as not to interfere with one's responsibilities in outer life.[6]

In anthroposophy, artistic expression is also treated as a potentially valuable bridge between spiritual and material reality.[34]

[edit] The esoteric path of spiritual training

The anthroposophic path of esoteric training can be articulated into three steps, which do not necessarily follow strictly sequentially in any single individual's spiritual progress. The first step in this esoteric training is to recollect and follow how thought processes proceed in a particular situation, contemplating their sequential progression. Usually we attend to the thoughts themselves, the content that arises through thinking, and ignore the process by which they arise. By attending to the latter, we are examining an aspect of our experience that is normally hidden to us by the content itself. Philosophy – especially epistemology –, logic, and aspects of mathematics contemplate the structure and origin of our experience in this way, and thus belong to this first stage of esoteric training. This stage can be called the philosophical state.[citation needed]

A second stage is reached when we no longer, as is usual in philosophy or logic, reflect on past thinking processes, but rather focus our attention on our immediate thinking, on the thinking taking place in the moment of my attention. The unity of contemplating or experiencing subject and the object of contemplation/experienced content is complete here; my attention now focuses on itself, the content of my thinking is my thinking, is itself. This corresponds to the meditative state, known in some spiritual traditions as samadhi, yoga or simply union. My inner activity is now simultaneously subjective – I experience myself bringing it forth – and objective – I experience it given to me as the content of my experience.[citation needed]

A third stage of esoteric training transforms the direction of the will, which is normally directed by the ego, i.e. from within, to an intended result in the outer world. When I seek to accomplish, not a transformation of outer conditions, but a transformation of my inner nature and self, I experience my inner condition – first of all, perhaps, my momentary thoughts, feelings and intentions, but later, my whole character and nature – as subject to my own conscious control. My soul life, which seemed to arise "naturally" and without my conscious participation, is progressively the result of my own conscious activity; I become the creator of my own inner life. Just as advances in technology allow us to progressively transform, more and more completely, the outer, naturally given world, that at an early stage of culture seems to be a factor beyond all human control, so do developments in our inner, moral capacities allow us to progressively transform our inner being to an extent – we discover on this path – only limited by our progress in developing these capacities.[35]

[edit] Practical exercises

Steiner described numerous exercises for spiritual development, and other anthroposophists have added many others. A central principle is that "for every step in spiritual perception, three steps are to be taken in moral development". Moral development reveals the extent to which one has achieved control over one's inner life and exercises this in a direction in harmony with others' spiritual life. It shows the real progress in spiritual development, the fruits of which are given in spiritual perception. It also guarantees the capacity to distinguish between false perceptions or illusions (which are possible in perceptions of both the outer world and the inner world) and true perceptions, or, better said, to distinguish in any perception between the influence of subjective elements (i.e. viewpoint) and the objective reality to which the perception points.[6]

Main article: Rudolf Steiner's exercises for spiritual development

[edit] Place in Western Philosophy

Steiner built upon Goethe's conception of an imaginative power capable of synthesizing the sense-perceptible form of a thing (an image of its outer appearance) and the concept we have of that thing (an image of its inner structure or nature). Steiner added to this the conception that a further step in the development of thinking is possible when the thinker observes his or her own thought processes. "The organ of observation and the observed thought process are then identical, so that the condition thus arrived at is simultaneously one of perception through thinking and one of thought-through perception."[6]

Thus, in Steiner's view, though all human experience begins being conditioned by the subject-object divide - this is a given -, through our own inner activity (through an act of free will) we can overcome this divide. In this connection, Steiner examines the step from thinking that is determined by outer impressions to what he calls sense-free thinking. He characterizes thoughts without sensory content, such as mathematical or logical thoughts, as free deeds. He thus located the origin of the free will in our thinking, and in particular in sense-free thinking. [6]

Some of the epistemic basis for Steiner's later anthroposophical work is contained in the seminal work, The Philosophy of Freedom,[36]. In his early works, Steiner sought to overcome the dualism of Cartesian idealism and Kantian subjectivism by linking on to Goethe's conception of the human being as a natural-supernatural entity: natural in that humanity is a product of nature, supernatural in that through our conceptual powers we extend nature's realm, allowing it to achieve a reflective capacity in us as philosophy, art and science. [37] He thus became one of the first European philosophers to overcome the subject-object split that Descartes, classical physics, and various complex historical forces had impressed upon Western thought for several centuries.[38] Though not well-known among philosophers, his philosophical work was taken up in the middle of the twentieth century by Owen Barfield (and through him influenced the Inklings, a group that included such writers as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis)[39] and at the beginning of the twenty-first century by Richard Tarnas, author of The Passion of the Western Mind.

[edit] Possibility of a union of science and spirit

Steiner believed in the possibility of uniting the clarity of modern scientific thinking with the awareness of a spiritual world that lives in all religious and mystical experience. Steiner tried to create an approach to what he called the "inner life" that would use the careful, systematic methodology created by modern science, but turn its attention to the soul and spirit.[40] Steiner identified mathematics, which attains certainty through inner experience rather than empirical observations,[41] as the basis of his epistemology of spiritual experience.[42]

[edit] Relationship to religion

[edit] Multicultural emphasis

Steiner was early in seeing the challenges of a multicultural society. He articulated the need for a spirituality that could respect and unite all religions and cultures (and spoke in this context of twelve equally valid religions or religious viewpoints).[citation needed] His line of thought can be summarized as follows:

Many people, especially those of Eastern cultures, see the need for a spiritual basis for a culture. Others, especially in the West, live in a materialistic framework that has achieved astonishing results, especially through the achievements of modern science, but has abandoned its spiritual roots. Steiner suggested that, without a reconciliation of these two, a clash of cultures would be inevitable. He suggested that the East (for Steiner, characteristically spiritually centered people and peoples) would only respect the West (characteristically people and peoples who focus on external reality and achievements) when a new spirituality arose in the West, a spirituality that united the achievements of both cultures.[citation needed]

[edit] The Christ being as the center of earthly evolution

Steiner's writing, though appreciative of all religions and cultural developments, emphasizes Western tradition as having evolved to meet contemporary needs.[7] He describes Christ and his mission on earth of bringing individuated consciousness as having a particularly important place in human evolution.[2]

Steiner emphasized, however, that:

  • Christianity has evolved out of previous religions,
  • The being that manifests in Christianity also manifests in all faiths and religions,
  • Each religion is valid and true for the time and cultural context in which it was born,
  • The historical forms of Christianity need to be transformed considerably to meet the on-going evolution of humanity.[citation needed]

It is the being that unifies all religions, and not a particular religious faith, that Steiner saw as the central force in human evolution. This "Christ Being" is for Steiner not only the Redeemer of the Fall from Paradise, but also the unique pivot and meaning of earth's "evolutionary" processes and of human history, manifesting in all religions and cultures.[citation needed]

"Spiritual science does not want to usurp the place of Christianity; on the contrary it would like to be instrumental in making Christianity understood. Thus it becomes clear to us through spiritual science that the being whom we call Christ is to be recognized as the center of life on earth, that the Christian religion is the ultimate religion for the earth's whole future. Spiritual science shows us particularly that the pre-Christian religions outgrow their one-sidedness and come together in the Christian faith. It is not the desire of spiritual science to set something else in the place of Christianity; rather it wants to contribute to a deeper, more heartfelt understanding of Christianity."[43]

[edit] Divergence from conventional Christian thought

Steiner's views of Christianity diverge from conventional Christian thought in key places, and include gnostic elements:

  • One central point of divergency is Steiner's views on reincarnation and karma; these are explicated in the article on Anthroposophy (see sub-section titled "Anthroposophy in Brief/Reincarnation and Karma").
  • Steiner differentiated three contemporary paths by which it is possible to arrive at Christ:
    • Through heart-filled experiences of the Gospels; this is the historically dominant path that is now falling away.
    • Through inner experiences of a spiritual reality; this is increasingly the path of the present-day
    • Through initiation, corresponding to the path of anthroposophical knowledge, whereby the reality of Christ's death and resurrection are experienced.[44]
  • Steiner also differentiated two different Jesus children involved in the Incarnation of the Christ: one child descended from Solomon, as described in the Gospel of Matthew, the other child from Nathan, as described in the Gospel of Luke.[2] (The genealogies given in the two gospels diverge some thirty generations before Jesus' birth, and 'Jesus' was a common name in biblical times.)
  • His view of the second coming of Christ is also unusual; he suggested that this would not be a physical reappearance, but that the Christ being would become manifest in non-physical form, visible to spiritual vision and apparent in community life for increasing numbers of people beginning around the year 1933.[14]
  • He emphasized that the future would require humanity to recognize this Spirit of Love in all its genuine forms, regardless of how people named it this being. He also warned that the traditional name, "Christ", might be used yet the true essence of this being of love ignored.

[edit] The Christian Community

Towards the end of Steiner's life, a group of theology students (Lutheran as well as Catholic) approached Steiner for help in reviving Christianity, in particular "to bridge the widening gulf between modern science and the world of spirit."[2] They approached a notable Lutheran pastor, Friedrich Rittelmeyer already working with Steiner's insights to join their efforts. Out of their cooperative endeavor, the Movement for Religious Renewal, now generally known as The Christian Community, was born. Steiner emphasized that this help was given independently of his anthroposophical work,[2] as he saw anthroposophy as independent of any particular religion or religious denomination.[44]

[edit] Reception of Anthroposophy

[edit] Notable supporters

Anthroposophy has had many prominent supporters outside of the movement. Among these have been many writers, artists and musicians; these include Pulitzer Prize-winning and Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow,[45] Andrej Belyj,[46][47] Josef Beuys[48], Wassily Kandinsky,[49][50] Nobel Laureates Selma Lagerlöf[51] and Albert Schweitzer, Andrei Tarkovsky[52] and Bruno Walter.[53]

[edit] Religious nature

Anthroposophy has sometimes been called religious[54] and there have been criticisms that any spiritual movement, anthroposophy in particular, is necessarily religious in nature. In 2005, a California federal court ruled that anthroposophy was not a religion for Establishment Clause purposes; the case is under appeal. In 2000, a court case was brought in France against a government minister for claiming that anthroposophy was a cult; the court ruled that the minister's comments were defamatory.[55]

[edit] Scientific basis

Though Rudolf Steiner studied natural science at the Vienna Technical University at the undergraduate level, his doctorate was in philosophy and very little of his work is directly concerned with the traditional realm of contemporary science, the natural world. His primary interest was in applying the methodology of science to realms of inner experience and the spiritual worlds, and Steiner called anthroposophy Geisteswissenschaft, a term generally used to refer to the humanities and social sciences.[56]

"[Anthroposophy's] methodology is to employ a scientific way of thinking, but to apply this methodology, which normally excludes our inner experience from consideration, instead to the human being proper."[57]

Anthroposophy's claim to a scientific basis has been disputed on the basis that its ideas:[58][59]

  • are not empirically derived
  • are neither reproducible nor testable

One author calls such objections untenable on the grounds that Steiner demonstrated that the experiences of pure thinking possible within the normal realm of consciousness are already experiences of non-sensory, non-physical reality, and that if such a realm exists, it is impossible to exclude the possibility of empirically grounded experiences of other supersensory content.[6] Though Steiner saw that spiritual vision itself is difficult or impossible for others to reproduce, he suggested open-mindedly exploring and rationally testing the results of such research; he also urged others to follow a spiritual training that would allow them to directly apply the methods he used to eventually achieve comparable results.[6]

Some results of Steiner's research have been investigated and supported by scientists working to further and extend scientific observation in directions suggested by an anthroposophical approach.[60]

[edit] Racism

Concerns have been raised that latent racism in anthroposophy exists today due to the unreserved adherence to the teachings of Rudolf Steiner by some followers of anthroposophy:[61]

"...with regard to race, a naive version of the evolution of consciousness, a theory foundational to both Steiner's anthroposophy and Waldorf education, sometimes places one race below another in one or another dimension of development."[62]

The Anthroposophical Society in America refutes this claim:

We explicitly reject any racial theory that may be construed to be part of Rudolf Steiner's writings. The Anthroposophical Society in America is an open, public society and it rejects any purported spiritual or scientific theory on the basis of which the alleged superiority of one race is justified at the expense of another race.[63]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "anthroposophy."Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD 10 January 2007
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Robert McDermott, The Essential Steiner, ISBN 0-06-065345-0, pp. 3-11
  3. ^ Steiner, Rudolf, Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts. London: Rudolf Steiner Press, (1924) 1998.
  4. ^ Is Anthroposophy Science? Professor Sven Ove Hansson, Philosophy Unit of the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology, Conceptus XXV (1991), No. 64, pp. 37-49.
  5. ^ Heiner Ullrich, "Rudolf Steiner", Prospects: the quarterly review of comparative education (Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. XXIV, no. 3/4, 1994, p. 555-572.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Peter Schneider, Einführung in die Waldorfpädogogik, ISBN 3-608-93006-X
  7. ^ a b c d Gary Lachman, Rudolf Steiner, ISBN 978-1-58542-543-3
  8. ^ Ahern, G. (1984): Sun at Midnight: the Rudolf Steiner movement and the Western esoteric tradition
  9. ^ especially How to Attain Knowledge of Higher Worlds and Occult Science: An Outline
  10. ^ Goetheanum
  11. ^ a b c Peter Schneider, Einführung in die Waldorfpädogogik, pp. 20-1; Schneider quotes here from Steiner's dissertation, Truth and Knowledge
  12. ^ German Education Research Group, "International Associations and Waldorf Schools in alphabetical order of country"
  13. ^ Agenda Fact Sheet, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization dated Apr 18, 2001 The foundation, Friends of Waldorf Education, is one of the 26 non-governmental organizations worldwide to maintain official relations with UNESCO. UNESCO Official Relations
  14. ^ Ullrich, Heiner, "Rudolf Steiner" "Prospects: the quarterly review of comparative education, UNESCO: International Bureau of education, vol XXIV, no. 3/4, 1994, p. 8 2000
  15. ^ White, Ralph, Interview with Rene M. Querido Lapis Magazine
  16. ^ Ibid.
  17. ^ Ullrich, Heiner, "Rudolf Steiner", "Prospects: the quarterly review of comparative education, UNESCO: International Bureau of education, vol XXIV, no. 3/4, 1994, p. 9
  18. ^ Lenart, Claudia M: "Steiner's Chicago Legacy Shines Brightly", Conscious Choice June 2003
  19. ^ Publications on organic agriculture
  20. ^ History of Organic Agriculture
  21. ^ USDA list of publications relating to organic farming
  22. ^ Mistletoe studies:[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], for background
  23. ^ review of mistletoe studies
  24. ^ National Cancer Institute overview of mistletoe findings
  25. ^ National Cancer Institute
  26. ^ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=10232315
  27. ^ Camphill
  28. ^ Gemeinschaftsbank für Leihen und Schenken
  29. ^ Sharp, Dennis, Rudolf Steiner and the Way to a New Style in Architecture, Architectural Association Journal, June 1963
  30. ^ Raab and Klingborg, Waldorfschule baut, Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 2002.
  31. ^ *Raab, Klingborg and Fant, Eloquent Concrete, London: 1979.
    • Pearson, David, New Organic Architecture. University of California Press, 2001.
  32. ^ Australian Governmental Cascade Project
  33. ^ Flowforms
  34. ^ Lindenberg, p. 97
  35. ^ Stein, W. J., Die moderne naturwissenschaftliche Vorstellungsart und die Weltanschauung Goethes, wie sie Rudolf Steiner vertritt, reprinted in Meyer, Thomas, W.J. Stein / Rudolf Steiner, pp. 267-75.
  36. ^ Ellen Pifer, "Saul Bellow Against the Grain", University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990; see also Steiner's doctoral thesis, Truth and Science
  37. ^ Richard Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind, ISBN 0712673326
  38. ^
  39. ^ Doris T. Myers, "C.S. Lewis in Context". Kent State University Press, 1994.
  40. ^ Christoph Lindenberg, Rudolf Steiner, Rowohlt 1992, ISBN 3-499-50500-2, pp. 77ff
  41. ^ Albert Einstein, Geometry and Experience
  42. ^ Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy and Science, lecture of March 16, 1921
  43. ^ Rudolf Steiner,"Anthroposophy and Christianity"
  44. ^ a b Carlo Willmann, Waldorfpädagogik: Theologische und religionspädagogische Befunde, ISBN 3-412-16700-2
  45. ^ Robert Fulford, "Bellow: the novelist as homespun philosopher", The National Post, October 23, 2000
  46. ^ [8]
  47. ^ J.D. Elsworth, Andrej Bely:A Critical Study of the Novels, Cambridge:1983, cf. [9]
  48. ^ John F. Moffitt, "Occultism in Avant-Garde Art: The Case of Joseph Beuys", Art Journal, Vol. 50, No. 1, (Spring, 1991), pp. 96-98
  49. ^ Peg Weiss, "Kandinsky and Old Russia: The Artist as Ethnographer and Shaman", The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), pp. 371-373
  50. ^ [10]
  51. ^ [11]
  52. ^ [12]
  53. ^ Bruno Walter, "Mein Weg zur Anthroposophie". In: Das Goetheanum 52 (1961), 418–2
  54. ^ For example - MSN Encarta Encyclopedia
  55. ^ Guyard Guilty of Defamation. Cesnur (2000-03-23). Retrieved on 2006-11-13.
  56. ^ Philolex entry
  57. ^ W. J. Stein, Die moderne naturwissenschaftliche Vorstellungsart und die Weltanschauung Goethes, wie sie Rudolf Steiner vertritt, 1921/1985. P. 256-7.
  58. ^ Jelinek and Sun, Does Waldorf Offer a Viable Form of Science Education, College of Education, California State University
  59. ^ Sven Ove Hansson, Conceptus XXV (1991), No. 64, pp. 37-49.
  60. ^ Genetics and the Manipulation of Life, The Forgotten Factor of Context, by biologist Craig Holdrege; The Wholeness of Nature, Goethe's Way toward A Science of Conscious Participation in Nature, by physicist Henri Bortoft; Developmental Dynamics in Humans and Other Primates, by theoretical chemist Jos Verhulst.
  61. ^ Professor Sven Ove Hansson
  62. ^ Ray McDermott et al: Waldorf education in an inner-city public school. The Urban Review, Volume 28, Number 2 / June, 1996, pp. 119-140
  63. ^ The General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America (1998) Position Statement on Diversity.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Ahern, G. (1984): Sun at Midnight: the Rudolf Steiner movement and the Western esoteric tradition. Wellingborough: Aquarian Press.
  • Archiati, Pietro, The Great Religions: Pathways to our Innermost Being, ISBN 1-902636-01-5
  • Archiati, Pietro, Reincarnation in Modern Life: Toward a New Christian Awareness. Temple Lodge. ISBN 0-904693-88-0
  • Barnes, Henry, A Life for the Spirit: Rudolf Steiner in the Crosscurrents of Our Time, Steiner Books, 1997.
  • Davy, John, Hope, Evolution and Change, Hawthorn Press. ISBN 0-9507062-7-2
  • Edelglass, S. et al., The Marriage of Sense and Thought, Lindisfarne Books. ISBN 0-940262-82-7
  • Forward, William and Blaxland-de Lange, Simon (eds.), Trumpet to the Morn (Golden Blade 2001), ISBN 0-9531600-3-3
  • Forward, William and Blaxland-de Lange, Simon (eds.), Working with Destiny II (Golden Blade 1998), ISBN 0-9531600-0-9
  • Gleich, Sigismund, The Sources of Inspiration of Anthroposophy, ISBN 0-904693-87-2
  • Goebel, Wolfgang and Glöckler, Michaela, A Guide to Child Health. Floris Books. ISBN 0-86315-390-9
  • Gulbekian, Sevak (ed.), The Future is Now: Anthroposophy at the New Millennium, ISBN 1-902636-09-0
  • Hauschka, Rudolf, At the Dawn of a New Age, ISBN 0-919924-25-5
  • Hindes, James H. (1995) Renewing Christianity. Edinburgh: Floris Books
  • Klocek, Dennis, The Seer's Handbook: A Guide to Higher Perception, Steinerbooks 2006. ISBN 0-88010-548-8
  • König, Karl, The Human Soul, ISBN 0-86315-042-X
  • Kühlewind, Georg, The Logos-Structure of the World: Language as a Model of Reality, ISBN 0-940262-48-7
  • Lievegoed, Bernard, The Battle for the Soul: The Working Together of Three Great Leaders of Humanity, ISBN 1-869890-64-7
  • Lievegoed, Bernard, Man on the Threshold. Hawthorn Press. ISBN 0-9507062-6-4
  • McDermott, Robert A., The Essential Steiner: Basic Writings of Rudolf Steiner, Harper, 1984.
  • Murphy, Christine (ed.), Iscador: Mistletoe and Cancer Therapy. Lantern Books, 2005. ISBN 1-930051-76-X
  • Nesfield-Cookson, B., Michael and the Two-Horned Beast: The Challenge of Evil Today in the Light of Rudolf Steiner's Science of the Spirit, ISBN 0-904693-98-8
  • Nesfield-Cookson, B., Rudolf Steiner's Vision of Love: spiritual science and the logic of the heart. Bristol: Rudolf Steiner Press
  • Paddock, F. and M. Spiegler, Ed.(2003) Judaism and Anthroposophy. Great Barrington, MA: SteinerBooks
  • Pietzner, Carlo, Transforming Earth, Transforming Self, ISBN 0-88010-428-7
  • Prokofieff, Sergei, The East in the Light of the West, ISBN 0-904693-57-0
  • Prokofieff, Sergei, The Occult Significance of Forgiveness. Temple Lodge Publishing. ISBN 0-904693-71-6.
  • Schaefer, Christopher and Voors, Tyno, Vision in Action. Lindisfarne Books. ISBN 0-940262-74-6
  • Schwenk, Sensitive Chaos. Rudolf Steiner Press. ISBN 1-85584-055-3
  • Shepherd, A. P. 1885-1968 :The Battle for The Spirit: The Church and Rudolf Steiner; an anthology compiled by and with an introduction by David Clement. Stourbridge: Anastasi
  • Shepherd, A. P., 1885-1968 : A Scientist of the Invisible: An introduction to the life and work of Rudolf Steiner. Edinburgh: Floris, 1983.
  • Soesman, Albert (1990). The Twelve Senses: An Introduction to Anthroposophy Based on Rudolf Steiners Studies of The Senses. Translation by Jakob M. Cornelis. Stroud: Hawthorn
  • Steiner, Marie, Esoteric Studies, ISBN 0-904693-58-9
  • Steiner, Rudolf, 1861-1925.
    • Intuitive Thinking As a Spiritual Path: A Philosophy of Freedom; Steiner Books, 1893/1995. ISBN 0-88010-385-X
    • Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1904/2005. ISBN 1-85584-131-2
    • Cosmic Memory, Steiner Books, 1990.
    • How to Know Higher Worlds: a modern path of initiation ; trans. by Christopher Bamford. Hudson, N.Y. : Anthroposophic Press, 1904/c1994.ISBN 0-88010-508-9
    • An Outline of Esoteric Science; trans. by Catherine E. Creeger. Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1910/c1997.
    • Verses and Meditations. Rudolf Steiner Press, 2005. [ISBN 1-85584-197-5]
    • Esoteric Development: selected lectures and writings. (Rev. ed.) Great Barrington, MA: SteinerBooks, c2003.
    • A Western Approach to Reincarnation and Karma: selected lectures and writings ; ed. and intr. by René Querido. Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, c1997.
  • Steiner, Rudolf and Welburn, Andrew, The Mysteries: Rudolf Steiner's Writings on Spiritual Initiation, ISBN 0-86315-243-0
  • Suchantke, Andreas, Eco-Geography. Lindisfarne Press. ISBN 0-940262-99-1.
  • Swassjan, Karen, The Ultimate Communion of Mankind: A Celebration of Rudolf Steiner's Book "The Philosophy of Freedom", ISBN 0-904693-82-1
  • Treichler, Rudolf, Soulways. Hawthorn Press. ISBN 1-869890-13-2
  • Verhulst, Jos, Developmental Dynamics in Humans and Other Primates. Adonis Press, 2005. ISBN 0-932776-29-9
  • Warren, Edward, Freedom as Spiritual Activity, ISBN 0-904693-60-0
  • Welburn, Andrew J. (2004) Rudolf Steiner's Philosophy and the Crisis of Contemporary Thought. Edinburgh: Floris.
  • Wilkes, John, Flowforms: The Rhythmic Power of Water. Floris Books. ISBN 0-86315-392-5

[edit] External links

[edit] Anthroposophical Societies

[edit] Book and Web-links

[edit] Relevant articles

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