The Rudolf Steiner Archive

17. The Wisdom Teachings of Christianity

[ 1 ] There are two prejudices against theosophy: first, it is accused of being unscientific—I will address this later in my lecture on “Haeckel’s Riddle of the Universe and Theosophy”—and second, it is accused of turning people away from their religion, specifically Christianity.

[ 2 ] What is Theosophy’s stance on Christ? The way the Christian religion has been taught up to now stemmed from childish prejudices. But the seeker is not satisfied with this; he must transcend it. Many of them have rediscovered their Christianity through Theosophy. Through Theosophy, they learned to discover the core of wisdom within it; for Theosophy and Christianity are entirely compatible. Our entire Western culture, the works of our great thinkers, and all the artists as well, have been shaped by Christianity and are permeated by the source of Christianity. Theosophy must unfold the core of truth within it.

[ 3 ] The eminent Indian Brahmin Chakravarti also stated at the 1904 Congress in Chicago that this is its purpose: Materialism has taken hold of all circles, including the Indian people; Theosophy has given us the opportunity to return to the ancient ideal of truth; it has a universal calling. Thus, it has a mission toward all religions, including Christianity. Once, we accepted the faith of our ancestors with simple, unquestioning faith. Science has turned many into skeptics. If believers now turn to Theosophy, something entirely new will open up to them; the skeptics or unbelievers will return to Christianity and recognize its infinite greatness. All religions contain the same truth; it is only that Christianity has expressed this ancient wisdom in its finest form.

[ 4 ] What is this truth? Let us first turn to the Gospel of John from the New Testament. Christianity is based on the truth that, in addition to the lower self, there is also a higher self within us, and that this higher self can be born from within the soul through deepening, contemplation, and integration into the soul. The everyday person strives to follow their desires and inclinations, while the other seeks to refine themselves and strives to make something of this higher self visible. The divine nature within us can be awakened in two ways: the lower way—by awakening moral inclinations; the higher way—through an ever-increasing striving toward the divine nature within us.

[ 5 ] Higher nature is only just beginning to manifest itself in us; we divide lower nature into: first, the physical body; second, the etheric body; and third, the astral body.

[ 6 ] We divide the higher nature into: Manas, Budhi, Atma. What is Manas? Literally translated, it means “mental self.” Everyone reflects and seeks to understand the world outside themselves, in their own way. I do not mean only scholars here, but everyone; even the farmer behind the plow forms his own concepts and has his own mental images. But if there were no primordial thoughts about the world, human beings would have no thoughts at all; they arise within them only as mental images.

[ 7 ] To develop the spirit itself, a process of cooling and warming is necessary, and this brings us to the second element, Budhi, which is love. We must compare the things of the spiritual world with those of the external world. A comparison in the sensory realm, for example, is the warmth radiated by a brooding bird to bring new life into existence. That is a form of delight. We can also speak of spiritual delight when giving shape to thoughts. The birth of thoughts—that is the element of spiritual love. Every artist can tell you this. Anyone who sends original thoughts out into the world can feel it. The great leaders of humanity all knew it.

[ 8 ] Let us take the greatest example: Christ Jesus. He was permeated by this spiritual solar radiance, by this love. This transformed those thoughts into forces. This is called Budhi or Chrestos; or the Christ principle. So that is Budhi! The third element is Atma, the Father. It only gradually comes to the fore in human beings; and through effort, everyone can bring about the emergence of all three within themselves. The most significant event in world history was the appearance of this Christ Jesus; through him, the principle of truth was revealed to us.

[ 9 ] In the past, there were schools of initiation—among the Egyptians, the Asian peoples, and the Greeks—with various stages that led to knowledge and a new birth.

[ 10 ] First stage: Human beings must come to realize how to distinguish between the higher and the lower in the world; for example, plants need mineral soil—that is, the realm beneath them—for their nourishment; animals depend on the plant kingdom. They could say to the plant kingdom: “We owe our existence to you.” And what of human beings? All the kingdoms are at their service; and they must be grateful to them, to these kingdoms. Thus we see: One must perform the lower services in order to serve the higher. Thus, human beings must develop a sense of gratitude toward everything that is beneath them, everything that serves them. And whoever wishes to be great must be a servant. Symbolically, this first stage of initiation is expressed in the washing of feet. This is a bowing down to be a servant to all in a free manner.

[ 11 ] The second stage is to develop inner strength, to become impervious to all external hostility—that is, to endure slaps in the face, flogging, and everything else in such a way that we remain steadfast through it all.

[ 12 ] The third stage is to remain inwardly calm in the face of everything the world throws at us, whether it be contempt or scorn. Symbolically, this represents the crown of thorns.

[ 13 ] The fourth stage is reached when one comes to regard one’s own body as one would any foreign body. Then the soul is ready to lead its own independent life; then it no longer lives within the body, but takes it upon its back as a burden: bearing the cross.

[ 14 ] Fifth stage: Everything now becomes objective for the individual; he dies to all ordinary life. There he undergoes the mystical death, and there he becomes one with the entire earth; and this is the sixth stage or the sixth act: The Burial.

[ 15 ] The seventh stage is resurrection and ascension.

[ 16 ] The initiate must experience all of this; only then has he allowed the higher human being to arise within himself. This took place in the mystery temples—first within the temple itself and then through years of association with initiates. However, it took place only in the astral body. Now, however, it is to take place in the etheric body as well; that is to say, the etheric body, too, must be freed from the physical body together with the astral body. This involved a state of sleep.

[ 17 ] When a person sleeps, only the astral body is liberated. But during lethargic sleep, the etheric body could be liberated as well. This state of sleep lasted three days; then the sleeper was awakened; he was now also freed from the etheric body, and the Chrestos had awakened within him.

[ 18 ] During such sleep, he entered the supersensible realm. The supersensible now triumphed over the sensible.

[ 19 ] Who was it who could know this? Those who had beheld it! They had become blessed; they had permeated their souls with spirit. That was the pre-Christian state. But now something new came; all of this took place as a historical event in Palestine. Now the physical earthly body experienced all of this. Here, the symbol became a reality, a truth. Through this personality, this Christ Jesus, those who believed could experience it, even if they did not see it. In the past, only those who had beheld it in the Mysteries could attain bliss; now the physical eye could experience it through faith in the manifestation.

[ 20 ] The teachings of wisdom are the same everywhere; but Jesus Christ brought the inner experience into outward manifestation. And that is why he was able to say:

[ 21 ] I am the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6)

[ 22 ] In the past, the Logos was doctrine; he made the Logos life. The Christian mystics of the Middle Ages recognized this. Meister Eckhart put it this way:

[ 23 ] Most people view Christ the way one loves a cow. One must first allow him to come alive within oneself in order to recognize him in the outside world.

[ 24 ] For Tauler, living the life of Christ was not a theory; for him, these facts were a reality. Therefore, in order to understand these facts, one must first have experienced the inner Christ. Angelus Silesius expressed this most beautifully. He says:

[ 25 ] The body must come alive in the soul, but the soul must come alive in God, if you wish to live in bliss. And elsewhere:

[ 26 ] Even if Christ were born a hundred times in Bethlehem and it were not within you, you would be lost forever.

[ 27 ] Why, then, did this faith—without the ability to see—take the place of the old initiation? Because it had become a necessity for the outer human being. At the time when the pyramids and other structures that appear to us as marvels were built, the world forces had already developed within the human being. Now the spirit had to develop within the physical world; the spiritual eye had to be opened. But where have the world forces—the physical powers of humankind—gone? They have receded, have atrophied, just as an eye atrophies when it is not kept active—animals in the Kentucky Cave, for example.

[ 28 ] During the first 2,000 years of Christianity, the doctrine of karma receded into the background. On Mount Tabor (“mountain” being synonymous with solitude, with withdrawal from humanity), Jesus explained something to his disciples—his closest students, Peter, James, and John—and led them into the sanctuary. He showed them something they could only see outside their bodies: Elijah and Moses. His testament spoke to them of reincarnation and karma, of his return: “until I come back to you” (Mark 9:9). What is this return? The revival of Christ in the human soul. As long as people were to live in the sensory world, it was sufficient for their spiritual needs to be satisfied by contemplating historical events. Thus, Theosophy is not hostile or opposed to Christianity, but rather seeks to be a servant of Christianity.