RUDOLF STEINER

A Sketch of His Life and Work
by John Davy

All over the world, but particularly in Western Europe, there are now to be found activities—schools, communities for the handicapped, farms, hospitals and medical practices, artists and architects, banks and businesses —whose work acknowledges a special debt to Rudolf Steiner.

www.steinercollege.org

RUDOLF STEINER
by Henry Barnes

The extraordinary originality of Rudolf Steiner's mind led him to a philosophy which linked up the world of natural science with the world of Spirit; his revolutionary ideas took form in a number of enterprises, ranging from art and architecture to education and farming.

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 placed Jesus Christ at the center of his spiritual history of Earth, seeing what he called the "Christ impulse" as living at the heart of every religion. He described Christianity as having evolved out of previous religions and believed that each religion is valid and true for the time and cultural context in which it was born. [1]

He also believed that the historical forms of Christianity need to be transformed considerably to meet the on-going evolution of humanity. [2]

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

[1]   Rudolf Steiner, Christianity as Mystical Fact, Anthroposophic Press, 1902/1997

[2]   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.