Anthroposophy: Encyclopedia - Anthroposophy

Anthroposophy

Anthroposophy, also called spiritual science by its founder, Rudolf Steiner is a spiritual philosophy and approach to investigating non-physical levels of, and influences on, reality. Steiner described his approach as "soul-observations using scientific methodology". (Steiner, [1893] 1995). Steiner's 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. The word anthroposophy is derived from the Greek words meaning man-wisdom. Anthroposophy is not to be confused with Anthropology, the scientific study of humankind. Anthroposophy is not considered a science by the scientific community.

Anthroposophy - 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 masterwork, 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. Here, Steiner set forth a conception of free will that was strongly founded upon inner experiences, especially those that occur in independent thought, without any explicit references to the potentially spiritual nature of these experiences. His first reference to 'anthroposophy' dates from this early period.

Steiner's further development led him further and further into explicitly spiritual philosophical studies. These studies were chiefly interesting to others who were already oriented towards spiritual ideas; chief amongst these, at least in Steiner's middle 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. He claimed to have direct experiences of the Akashic Records (by Steiner sometimes called the "Akasha Chronicle"), a spiritual chronicle of the history and pre-history of the world encoded in the aether, and allegedly available to anyone who takes the time to develop sufficient powers of spiritual vision. Sound vision could be developed, Steiner said, in part by practicing rigorous forms of ethical and cognitive self-discipline, concentration and meditation. However, no anthroposophist since Steiner has yet claimed to be able to read the Akashic Records to any great degree. It should be noted that according to Steiner, one's ethical development must precede the development of spiritual faculties, and that, by all accounts, Steiner was an unusually upright and ethical human being.

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. Each of these used ideas that seemed radical at the time; many of these ideas - such as organic agriculture - are now, nearly a century later, appreciated as important directions for our society's future development.

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 flourish throughout the world, all inspired by the idea that spiritual work can be systematically and methodically pursued in harmony with outer endeavors.

Anthroposophy - Description

Anthroposophy, though appreciative of all religions and cultural developments, emphasizes recent Western (rather than older Hindu or Buddhist) esoteric thought as being more appropriate to contemporary needs, and perceives Christ and His mission on earth as having a particularly important place in human evolution, though these are not viewed in the same way as in the mainstream Christian churches. Steiner emphasized that the being that manifests in Christianity also manifests in all faiths and religions; it is the being that unifies all religions, and not a particular religious faith, that Steiner saw as the central force in human evolution. Steiner's Christianity differs also 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.

Anthroposophy encourages clear and free thought, and the development of human consciousness beyond the material senses. It also encourages the artistic expression of one's perceptions. Steiner defined it as "a path of knowledge leading the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the universe."

His 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).

The anthroposophist's way could be said to go through becoming more conscious and deliberate about one's thoughts and deeds, but also by becoming more perceptive of and in tune with the spirit in himself and outside of himself . One may reach higher levels of consciousness through meditation and observation. Steiner described and developed numerous exercises for the realization of these goals.

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.

This view is thoroughly explained in many of Steiner's writings and lectures, particularly in his books Theosophy, and An Outline of Occult Science.

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

• the physical body,
• the etheric body,
• the astral body, and
• the ego or "I" of the human being.

Anthroposophy - Place in Western Philosophy

The Epistemic basis for Anthroposophy is contained in the seminal work, The Philosophy of Freedom, as well as in his 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. Like Edmund Husserl and Ortega y Gasset, Steiner was profoundly influenced by the works of Franz Brentano and had 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.

Anthroposophy - Applications

Practical results of Anthroposophy include work in:

• Architecture (Goetheanum),
• Biodynamic agriculture,
• Holistic Waldorf Education
• Astrosophy as opposed to Astrology,
• Anthroposophical Medicine (Weleda),
• Philosophy (The "Philosophy of Freedom"),
• Goethean Science resulting in new developments in the Arts,
• Eurythmy ("movement as visible speech"),
• Centres for helping the mentally handicapped (Camphill Villages) and
• Religion (The Christian Community)

Medical doctors in the Anthroposophy movement use, amongst others, homeopathy as a part of their medical practices. In addition, Steiner gave several series of lectures to physicians, and out of this grew a medical movement that now includes hundreds of European M.D.s as adherents, and that has its own hospitals and medical universities.

Anthroposophy - 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.

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.

Anthroposophy - 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.

Anthroposophy - Social Threefolding

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 - Aspects of Anthroposophic Thinking

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.

Some of Steiner's students support his claim that remaining actively within his process, can have the effect of awakening one gradually into forms of superconscious spiritual awareness. Steiner claims to offer a gradual experiential path from ordinary conceptual thinking into forms of thinking perceptive of living spiritual beings and mobile realities in the spiritual world.

They claim that gaining access to the unusual forms of consciousness embodied in some of Steiner's works is not a matter of believing in or having faith in whatever Steiner chose to say about spiritual beings. Rather, they claim that Steiner's thinking, if adequately penetrated with one's own active questioning, thinking and feeling, eventually reveals itself as a sort of spiritual music full of aesthetic tensions and relaxations and various kinds of spiritual dynamism. This spiritual dynamism, they see as full of complex metamorphoses of form and color, and can itself eventually be perceived as the speaking and singing of living spiritual beings and of a real spiritual world.

His students say that an obstacle to 'getting' Steiner, in this sense, is that reading for people today is rarely a process where the dynamic birth of a concept out of a pre-conceptual background is felt and recreated as we read each word. They see one way of remaining within the process of Steiner's thinking, is to gradually learn through his works how to live consciously at the threshold where a concept comes into being. In this way they say, one is no longer confined to observing things that already are, instead one begins to see realities emerging into being, and that means seeing to some extent into 'non-being', and discovering there more than nothingness but a hidden life of creative non-material beings and processes in a non-material world.

Anthroposophy - Successes of Anthroposophy

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. They have been supported by the United Nations and other distinguished organizations and receive full or partial governmental funding in most European nations. They are successful in an unusual range of circumstances: 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 visibly successful achievements of the anthroposophical movement. In addition, an increasing number of teachers are using 'Waldorf' principles in other school settings, often within the public (state) schools themselves.

Bio-dynamic 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 great founders of the modern organic farming movement (Steiner's Agriculture Course was the first published work on the subject), and much of the present-day organic movement can be traced back to people partially motivated by this impulse. Bio-dynamic agriculture emphasizes activating the life of the soil and creating each farm as a living organism that includes human beings, animals, plants and the soil.

Early in the twentieth century, when proper care for the handicapped was sadly ignored in many countries, anthroposophical homes and communities arose 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 Konig in Scotland. The latter in particular has spread widely, and there are now Camphill communities (as well as other anthroposophical homes) for both children and adults in many countries.

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 is a renewal of 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.

Painting and sculpture schools also exist; John Wilkes' fountain-like Flow Forms can be found in many locations. These sculptural forms guide water into rhythmic movement, and are used both decoratively and for water purification in small to medium-scale applications.

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 son of the famous playwright.

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 insitutions 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.

Other fields of success include a renewal of medicine (cancer therapies based on mistletoe extracts developed by anthroposophical researchers are now established parts of the standard range of medical treatments available in an increasing number of countries) and science (emphasizing a phenomenological approach). Anthroposophical banks were among the first to emphasize socially-responsible and community-based banking.

Anthroposophy - Critiques of Anthroposophy

Anthroposophy's combination of clearly thought-through understanding with spiritual content is novel and thus can be controversial. Though spiritually based, it is an approach that strongly emphasizes individual freedom. Still, some critics maintain that some anthroposophists tend to elevate Steiner's personal opinions to the level of absolute truths. Supporters claim that if there is a degree of truth to this criticism, most of the blame belongs not to Steiner, but to a few of his students. They point out that Steiner frequently asked that everything he said be tested by sound reason, and not to be taken on faith or authority.

A fundamental question underlying the modern response to 'spiritual science' is: Is it possible for one's thinking to be both scientific and spiritually cognitive at once? Anthroposophy claims that it is possible. The aforementioned criticism, on the other hand, assumes that it is not. The critics consider spiritual experience to be "religious" rather than cognitive. Religion generally implies a faith- or revelation-based system of ideas, which anthroposophy is not. Some critics read any perceived reticence on the part of anthroposophists about their spiritual experiences and ideas as an effort to "hide" a spiritual basis for their various public activities, such as Waldorf schools. It should be noted that a recent court case (in 2005, in the Federal Court of California) found that there was not a single piece of court-admissible evidence that Anthroposophy was in any sense a religion.

Anthroposophy - See Also

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Anthroposophy", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki