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Anthroposophy
 

Anthroposophy, also called spiritual science by its founder Rudolf Steiner, is an attempt to investigate and describe spiritual phenomena with a precision and clarity approaching that with which natural science investigates and describes the physical world. Steiner described his approach as "soul-observations using scientific methodology". His ideas have their roots in the flowering of Germanic culture that resulted in the transcendent philosophy of Hegel, Fichte and Schelling, on the one hand, and the poetic and scientific works of Goethe, upon whom Steiner draws heavily, on the other. Steiner was also profoundly influenced by two seminal philosophers of the existential school, Franz Brentano and Wilhelm Dilthey, upon whose works both Edmund Husserl and Ortega y Gasset built. Steiner's purely philosophical early work led him through the consciousness of thinking itself into an increasingly explicit treatment of spiritual experience:

"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 Steiner, Rudolf, Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts. London: Rudolf Steiner Press, (1924) 1998.

The word anthroposophy is derived from the Greek roots anthropo meaning human, and sophia meaning wisdom. (Anthroposophy should not be confused with anthropology, the empirical study of human cultures.)

History

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 first work, Die Philosophie der Freiheit (translated variously as The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, The Philosophy of Freedom, or Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path), was published when he was in his early thirties. Steiner created 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. His first reference to 'anthroposophy' dates from this early period.

Steiner's development and studies 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; chief amongst these, at least in Steiner's earlier phase of development, 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 the then president of the Theosophical Society appear to have 'agreed to disagree' in an at first harmonious way. By 1907, however, there was a growing split between the group around 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.

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 (as did Krishnamurti himself once he had reached adulthood). 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.

By this time, Steiner had reached considerable stature as a spiritual teacher.Ahern, G. (1984): Sun at Midnight : the Rudolf Steiner movement and the Western esoteric tradition He claimed to have direct experiences of the Akashic Records (sometimes called the "Akasha Chronicle"), a spiritual chronicle of the history, pre-history and future of the world encoded in the etheric of the earth. In a number of works — especially How to Attain Knowledge of Higher Worlds and Occult Science: An Outline —, Steiner described a path of inner development that would, he wrote, 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.

By 1912, a flowering of artistic work inspired by Steiner and the anthroposophical movement was well underway. New directions in drama, painting, sculpture, artistic movement and architecture all came together in a grand theatre center, the First Goetheanum, built in the years 1913-1920. To a significant extent this was built by volunteers from many countries and much of the work was accomplished during the First World War. The international community of workers, artists and scientists that came together around the project in neutral Switzerland existed in sharp contrast to the war-torn European nations around.

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

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. Seminars, artistic trainings, and institutions such as schools, banks, farms and clinics exist throughout the world, all inspired by the idea that spiritual work can be systematically and methodically pursued in harmony with outer endeavors. The Goetheanum continues to be the world center of the anthroposophical movement; national, regional and local centers have grown up in many areas, however.

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. Science focuses on theories which can be tested and verified. 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.

Steiner believed artistic expression was a potentially valuable bridge between spiritual and material reality. He believed one could reach higher levels of consciousness through meditation and observation. Steiner developed and described numerous systematic exercises which he maintained would realize these goals; the most complete exposition of these is found in How to Know Higher Worlds : a modern path of initiation.

Conception of the human being

The anthroposophical concept of man includes the idea that man has inhabited earth since its creation, albeit in a spiritual form. This spiritual form then processed through a number of stages to reach its current form, stages which included emanation of lesser beings such as animals and plants. Thus every living thing has evolved from mankind (although "mankind" is not here seen in its usual sense, but includes its earlier spiritual forms).

Steiner believed that any phenomena could be described from a variety of perspectives. This is very clear in his descriptions of the nature of the human being: what he called a three-fold, four-fold, seven-fold view, and occasionally even a twelve-fold view appear in his works.{citation needed}

Steiner believed that a human being is composed of body, soul and spirit. The body containing the physical self, the life processes and forces, and the framework of consciousness. The soul passing into incarnation in a body, and out of this again into the spiritual existence. He believed the spirit connects the lives on earth together and with the spiritual world and that spirit was eternal and creative and the humans are only beginning to become conscious of its activity within us.

Steiner's description of the human being as consisting of seven intimately connected parts, starting on the material level and reaching up into the spiritual levels - and several of which are still in development - is similar to that found in Theosophy. Three bodily aspects (as mentioned above), the self or ego, and three spiritual components make up the seven levels. This view is especially clearly articulated in his Theosophy, and An Outline of Occult Science.

Steiner also described a fourfold view, which Steiner expands on very frequently and puts to practical uses in subjects such as medicine and child education:

Place in Western Philosophy

The Epistemic basis for Anthroposophy is contained in the seminal work, The Philosophy of Freedom, as well as in Steiner's doctoral thesis, Truth and Science. These and several other early books by Steiner anticipated 20th century continental philosophy's gradual overcoming of Cartesian idealism and of 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.

Like Edmund Husserl and Ortega y Gasset, Steiner was profoundly influenced by the works of Franz Brentano, whose lectures he had heard as a student at the Technical University of Vienna, and read Wilhelm Dilthey in depth. Through Steiner's early epistemological and philosophical works, he 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. His philosophical work was taken up in the middle of the twentieth century by Owen Barfield, a philosopher of language from Oxford University and through him influenced the Inklings, a group that included such writers as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. It was also taken up by the philosopher (and prolific author) Herbert Witzenmann. Steiner's philosophy has not found widespread recognition by academic philosophers outside of the anthroposophical movement, however; one exception is Richard Tarnas, author of The Passion of the Western Mind.

Steiner's philosophy begins with the division between our sensory experiences of the outer world and our soul experiences of an inner world consisting of thoughts, feelings and intentions (will impulses). He focused on how our thinking in particular complements what we experience through the senses; one facet of the world is its outer appearance, a second is its inner structure. Humans access the two separately but they are originally united in the objective world, and we have the capacity to reunite them through creating a relationship between our percepts and our concepts, between what we experience outwardly and inwardly. Steiner suggested that we only understand some part of the outer world when we find this connection between our sensory impressions of it and our concepts about it.

Thus, in his view, though all human experience begins being conditioned by the subject-object divide, through our own activity we can progressively overcome this divide. This lies in our free will, however; we are given the divide but not its overcoming.

Steiner also examines the step from thinking that is determined by outer impressions to what he calls sense-free thinking, characterizing 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. Especially in his later work, Steiner points to the objective truths attainable through mathematics and logic as evidence of an objective non-sensory world - a world of spirit/mind(The German word Geist means both spirit and mind.) that is not determined by the subjective nature of our inner experiences.

Relationship to Natural Science

Anthroposophy explicitly seeks to extend natural science's mandate, which is to study the world as external observers to explore human experience from within. Steiner postulated that, as we have learned over centuries and even millennia to treat our experience of the outer world in a clear and systematic way, we can also learn to do this for our experience of out inner life.

Steiner and many other anthroposophists have tried to show how the genuine and even scientific study of man, need not restrict itself to externally observable phenomena. If an equally objective description of human soul and spiritual life can be achieved, he believed, these too can be elevated to a science. Natural science thus sets the example and provides a methodological goal for anthroposophy; the potential content of observation is however extended to experiences beyond the purely sensory.

The discipline of science assumes that scientific reasoning is possible, i.e.in anthroposophical terms, that our soul experience of thinking can be as objective and verifiable as the sensory phenomena themselves. (See also Anthroposophy#Scientific basis)

Relationship to religion

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. 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.Steiner, Rudolf, The East in the Light of the West.

The Christ being as the center of earthly evolution

Steiner's writing, though appreciative of all religions and cultural developments, emphasizes recent Western (rather than older Hindu or Buddhist) esoteric thought as having evolved to meet contemporary needs. He describes Christ and his mission on earth as having a particularly important place in human evolution.

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. This was a common theme for Steiner; see especially:
  • Rudolf Steiner, Christus zur Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgotha und Christus im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert, as well as
  • Rudolf Steiner, GA130 and GA342, all Rudolf Steiner Verlag, various dates.

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.

Steiner's Christianity differs from that of the Gnostics who viewed the Christ phenomenon through the knowledge gained through earlier gnosticism, whereas for Steiner Christ's incarnation was a historical reality and a pivotal and unique point in human history. In a lecture explaining the relationship between Anthroposophy and Christianity, Steiner explained: "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."

Divergence from conventional Christian thought

Steiner's views of Christianity diverge from conventional Christian thought in key places, and include gnostic elements. Only a very simplified account of those views can be given here, because though they only amount to about 4% of his total works, that 4% still amounts to about 15 volumes of books and lectures — and many of the other 335 or more volumes contain additional scattered comments on Christianity. 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 also claimed that there were 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. (The genealogies given in the two gospels diverge some thirty generations before Jesus' birth, and 'Jesus' was a common name in biblical times.) In Steiner's descriptions, the divine "Christ Spirit", the Son-God of the Trinity, incarnated in the Nathan Jesus at the moment of the baptism by John; up until the moment of the baptism by John in the Jordan, the Nathan Jesus was a very great holy man, but not yet the divine Son of God.

His view of the second coming of Christ is also unusual; he suggested that this would not be a physical reappearance, but meant the Christ being would become manifest in non-physical form, in the "etheric realm"(Steiner was not referring to the hypothetical ether of 19th century physicists, and on several occasions carefully distinguished his own use of the term from their use of it.) — i.e. visible to spiritual vision and apparent in community life and — for increasing numbers of people beginning around the year 1933. He emphasized that the future would require humanity to recognize this Spirit of Love in all its genuine forms, regardless of how this is named. He also warned that the traditional name, "Christ", might be used yet the true essence of this being of love ignored.

The Christian Community

Towards the end of Steiner's life, a notable Protestant pastor, Friedrich Rittelmeyer, approached Steiner for help in reviving Christianity. 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, as he saw anthroposophy as independent of any particular religion or religious denomination.

Practical work arising out of anthroposophy

Practical results of Anthroposophy include work in many fields. These include:See:
  • Steiner, Rudolf. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. .
  • Shepherd, A. P., A Scientist of the Invisible. and
  • Barnes, Henry, A Life for the Spirit : Rudolf Steiner in the Crosscurrents of Our Time

Waldorf Education

Out of the anthroposophical movement have come nearly a thousand schools world-wide. These are often called Waldorf Schools, after the first such school, founded in 1919; they are also sometimes called Steiner Schools. Some have been supported by the United Nations. The schools receive full or partial governmental funding in some European nations and in parts of the United States (as Waldorf public or charter schools). They have been successful in an unusual range of circumstances and cultures: in the impoverished barrios of San Paulo and the wealthy suburbs of New York City, in India, Egypt, Australia, Holland and Mexico. Usually supported by a vibrant parent community, they are one of the most visible achievements of the anthroposophical movement. In addition, an increasing number of teachers are using 'Waldorf' principles within other school settings, including within state-run schools.

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). Publications on organic agriculture,History of Organic Agriculture Steiner's Agriculture Course was the first published work on organic agriculture, appearing 16 years before Howard's An Agricultural Testament, and significant parts of the present-day organic movement, especially in Europe, can be traced back to people wholly or partially inspired by the biodynamic approach. Bio-dynamic agriculture emphasizes activating the life of the soil and treating each farm as a living organism that includes human beings, animals, plants and the soil.

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. Steiner wanted Anthroposophical medicine to be an extension of, not an alternative to, conventional medical approaches, and from its beginning a conventional medical training has been required to become an anthroposophical doctor. Anthroposophical medicine uses many kinds of remedies and therapies, including many developed on the basis of a revised homeopathy. Several medium-sized pharmaceutical firms (notably Weleda and Wala) specialize in anthroposophical remedies.

Other fields of work include an original cancer therapy based on mistletoe extracts developed by anthroposophical researchers. Though an accepted and widely used medical treatment in Germany and the European Union, this remains controversial in the United States.

Centres for helping the mentally handicapped (including Camphill Villages)

Early in the twentieth century, when proper care for the handicapped was sadly ignored in many countries, anthroposophical homes and communities were founded to give a worthy life-style to the needy. The first was the Sonnenhof in Switzerland, founded by Ita Wegman; slightly later, 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.Clay, Bob, Shaping the Flame, Association of Camphill Communities, 2000., List of Camphill communities

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. One of the more interesting areas of application has been in transforming impoverished people's lives by bringing them to recognize and begin to realize their own biographical goals. Social work with prisoners shares these goals and has had the effect of bringing new purpose into many lives.

Banking

Anthroposophical banks were among the first to emphasize socially-responsible and community-based banking. Today around the world there are a number of innovative banks, companies, charitable institutions, and schools for developing new cooperative forms of business, all working partly out of Steiner’s social ideas. One example is The Rudolf Steiner Foundation, incorporated in 1984, and as of 2004 with estimated assets of $70 million. RSF provides "charitable innovative financial services". According to the independent organizations 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." The first bank founded out of Steiner's ideas was the Gemeinschaftsbank für Leihen und Schenken in Bochum, Germany; it was started in 1974.

Architecture

Steiner himself designed around thirteen buildings, many of them significant works in a unique, organic-expressionistic style.Sharp, Dennis, Rudolf Steiner and the Way to a New Style in Architecture, Architectural Association Journal, June 1963 Foremost among these are his two designs for the Goetheanum. Thousands of further buildings have been built by a later generation of anthroposophic architects.Raab and Klingborg, Waldorfschule baut, Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 2002. 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).*Raab, Klingborg and Fant, ''Eloquent Concrete, London: 1979.
  • Pearson, David, New Organic Architecture. University of California Press, 2001.

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.

Eurythmy

In the arts, Steiner's new art of eurythmy gained early renown, gaining a prize at a pre-World War II World Exposition in Paris. 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.

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.

Other areas

Other areas of anthroposophic work include:

Social Goals of Anthroposophy

For a period after World War I, Steiner was extremely active and well-known in Germany in part because in many places he gave lectures on social questions. A petition expressing his basic social ideas (signed by Herman Hesse, among others) was very widely circulated. His main book on social questions, Die Kernpunkte der Sozialen Frage (available in English today as Toward Social Renewal) sold tens of thousands of copies.

Steiner's Outlook on Social History

In Steiner's various writings and lectures he held that there were three main spheres of power comprising human society: the cultural, the economic and the political. In ancient times, those who had political power were also generally those with the greatest cultural/religious power and the greatest economic power. Culture, State and Economy were fused (for example in ancient Egypt). With the emergence of classical Greece and Rome, the three spheres began to become more autonomous. This autonomy went on increasing over the centuries, and with the slow rise of egalitarianism and individualism, the failure adequately to separate economics, politics and culture was felt increasingly as a source of injustice.

Anthroposophy has its own concept of history: according to Steiner our present time falls into the post-Atlantean period, since in his view the disaster that he says hit Atlantis in 7227 BC was a significant turning point in the history of man. This post-Atlantean period is divided by him into seven epochs, the current one being the European-American Epoch, which Steiner said would last until about the year 3573.

Social Threefolding

see full description in Social Threefolding article.

There are three kinds of social separations Steiner wanted strengthened. This is known as Social Threefolding ,

  1. Increased separation between the State and cultural life
  2. Increased separation between the economy and cultural life
  3. Increased separation between the State and the economy (stakeholder economics)

Anthroposophy in Brief

Spiritual training

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. Details about the spiritual world, he said, could on such a basis be discovered and reported, not infallibly, but with approximate accuracy.

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.

Steiner often advised people avoid turning his work into a doctrine. He emphasized that any researcher, in any field, was able to make mistakes, and that both science and the world continued to evolve, making all results outdated after a certain time.

One of the central exercises of anthroposophy is to focus on a given content (this can be an outer object or a spiritual imagination) for a given time, and then to consciously eliminate the content from one's consciousness, allowing the process of attention to continue. We can become aware, thereby, of the activity of attention itself. A further step is then to dismiss this activity from one's consciousness. Behind the activity, Steiner suggested, would be found another level of spiritual reality. Steiner thus described a gradual experiential path from ordinary conceptual thinking into forms of thinking perceptive of living spiritual beings and mobile realities in the spiritual world.

Body, Soul and Spirit

In his works Steiner described the human being as consisting of an eternal spirit, an evolving soul and a temporal body. Steiner also offered a detailed analysis of each of these three realms, however:

Spirit: though the spirit is eternal in anthroposophy teachings, it is becoming progressively more individualized and consciously experienced. In earthly life, the individuality or ego awakens to self-consciousness through its experience of its reflection in the deeds and suffering of a physical body. This is necessary for a human individuality to retain its self-awareness when not incarnated in the body. Thus, humanity is developing through experiences on earth, in bodily incarnation, to attain a spiritual life independent of bodily existence. This happens for all humanity as part of its natural evolution; spiritual exercises are necessary for those who seek to be pioneers in this respect to go beyond the natural spiritual development of a given age.

Soul: Stiener believed that the human soul passes between stages of existence, incarnating into an earthly body, living a life, leaving the body behind and entering into the spiritual worlds before returning to be born again into a new life on earth. As each human soul evolves through its experience, the earth itself and civilization as a whole also evolves; thus, new types of experience are available at each successive incarnation. The soul's passes through stages of development; these larger stages are also recapitulated within in every lifetime. Initially, the soul lives through sense experience; the outer world forms and determines the inner life. Gradually, the human being seeks to order, understand and express his or her experience; inner life thus becomes independent of immediate sense-experience. Finally, the soul can become self-reflective, exploring the nature and laws of its own existence.

Body: Steiner uses the term body to describe the aspects of human existence that endure for a single lifetime. The physical body is the most obvious of these. Permeating our physical existence are forces of life, growth and metamorphosis that maintain and develop the physical body; as it is an aspect of a lifetime that falls away after death, Steiner called this the life or etheric body. We also have a framework of consciousness that includes our set feelings, concepts and intentions; Steiner called this the body of consciousness or sentient body. All of these elements are particular to an individual lifetime; they contribute to soul and spiritual development but themselves fall away at the death that terminates a particular life on earth.

Reincarnation and Karma

In his books Steiner described human existence as a cycle of birth, life, death, spiritual existence and a return to earth. This cycle includes evolution and development, however; it is not an eternal sameness. The individuality born into any earthly life bears with her both abilities and wisdom attained through previous incarnations, and obligations that arise through previous deeds. Much of human life is determined by these factors, but there are also new abilities attained, wisdom achieved and deeds accomplished that are not determined, but free achievements. We may suffer due to something in a past life; we may also suffer to gain the strength for something in a future life; — our sufferings and achievements are not necessarily predetermined.

Steiner described human existence between death and a new birth in detail as, first, a series of stages of laying aside the physical form, life experiences, thoughts, relationships, and cultural context of the last life; then the entry into spiritual experience proper; the decision to return to earth; the passage back, during which the cultural context, relationships, ideas, life experiences and physical form are chosen; and finally the re-entry into physical existence through conception and birth. For an overview of Steiner's general approach to reincarnation, see his Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos, Steiner Press, 1904/1994. ISBN 0880103736. For more detail, see:

  • Steiner, Rudolf, Reincarnation and Karma. ISBN 0880105011.
  • Steiner, Rudolf and Querido, René, A Western Approach to Reincarnation and Karma. ISBN 088010399X.
  • Uwe Buermann, Die Anschauung des Karma bei Rudolf Steiner, ISBN 3-7725-1912-1.

Critiques of Anthroposophy

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 science, the natural world. His primary interest was in applying the methodology of science to realms of inner experience and the spiritual worlds:
"* 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."W. J. Stein, Die moderne naturwissenschaftliche Vorstellungsart und die Weltanschauung Goethes, wie sie Rudolf Steiner vertritt, 1921/1985. P. 256-7.

The application of scientific methodology to other areas has a rich tradition in Germanic philosophy and culture. Steiner did not call his work natural science (in German what English speakers normally refer to as science would be called Naturwissenschaft, natural science), but Geisteswissenschaft, often translated as spiritual science. In the German language, Geisteswissenschaft is a common term generally referring to the humanities or "human sciences" — but which literally means the science of the objective world-spirit de:Geisteswissenschaft — and includes fields such as philosophy, history, and literature; in Steiner's day, psychology and sociology were also included. Steiner thus identified his own work with fields such as history and philosophy rather than with the natural sciences. Historically, the German term Geisteswissenschaft comes from a translation of the English moral sciences (John Stuart Mill). (See de:Geisteswissenschaft.) Dilthey and Husserl also defended the traditional Geisteswissenschaften in this sense: rational and thus scientific, yet not based upon empirical studies of the physical world. Dilthey in particular rejected the application of the empiricist criteria of natural science to critical studies of society and the human mind (cf. Dilthey's Einleitungen in die Geisteswissenschaften). Steiner refers explicitly to Dilthey's parallel ideas in Riddles of the Soul, p. 149ff in the German original text.

A serious question about his work — indeed about all the Geisteswissenschaften — is whether scientific methodology is able to be applied to these realms, i.e. whether such explorations are truly reproducible and intersubjective. If they are not, they are not scientifically verifiable in the sense of modern natural science. Steiner saw that the results of his spiritual vision were difficult or impossible for others to reproduce through his methodology. He suggested "open-mindedly" exploring and testing the results of his research as an alternative; he also urged others to follow a spiritual training that would allow them to directly apply the methods he used. His claim to have created a spiritual science, however, depends upon the reproducibility of his research itself; this has not been achieved to any significant degree.

Some trained scientists have been working to further and extend scientific observation in directions Steiner pointed out. A few examples: 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.

There have been polemical criticisms of anthroposophy's claim to reproducibility and intersubjectivity (thus to a scientific foundation) by Sven Ove Hansson, Sven Ove Hansson Is Anthroposophy Science? XXV (1991), No. 64, pp. 37-49 main founder of the Swedish branch of the Sceptics organisation CSICOP, later professor at the Philosophy Unit of the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology. According to a detailed analysis by Sune Nordwall of his criticism, [http://www.thebee.se/comments/Hansson-commented.htm Is Anthroposophy Science? Some comments on Sven Ove Hansson the way he uses quotes from different works by Rudolf Steiner seriously misrepresents and distorts the argumentation from which they are taken, and anthroposophy as developed separate from theosophy, in a way that deprives the criticism of its scientific value. Valid and serious criticism of anthroposophy thereby still is lacking with regard to the larger question: are science and spirituality compatible?

Religious nature

  • Criticisms that a spiritual movement must necessarily be, or that anthroposophy particularly is, religious in nature. In a 2005 court case brought in California by the anti-Waldorf and anti-anthroposophy activist group PLANS, the judge ruled that there is no legally admissible evidence that anthroposophy is a religion; see transcipt of the trial; this case is under appeal.

  • Related to this are criticisms that anthroposophy is a sect or cult. In 2000, a court case was brought in France against a government minister for making this claim publicly; the court decided that the minister's comments were defamatory. In 1999 and 2006, Belgian courts decided for the Anthroposophical Society in a case where anthroposophy had been included in a list of dangerous sects; the group that had made the list was fined. Das Goetheanum, 2006/18, p. 20

Racial bias

Accusations have been made of racial bias in Steiner's work, though not in anthroposophy in general. Steiner's views on race are examined and critiqued in Rudolf Steiner's views on races.

Supporters of Anthroposophy

Anthroposophy has had many prominent supporters outside of the movement. Among these have been many writers, artists and musicians; these include Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow, Andrej Belyj, Josef Beuys, Wassily Kandinsky, Swedish Nobel Laureate Selma Lagerloef, Nobel Laureate Albert Schweitzer , Andrei Tarkovsky and Bruno Walter.

Notes

Bibliography

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