The Rudolf Steiner Archive

52. Christ and Spiritual Science

Article in the “Dresdner Nachrichten” from December 2, 1909

[ 1 ] “Christ and Spiritual Science” was the title of the lecture that Dr. Rudolf Steiner delivered on Tuesday before a large audience at “Meinhold's Halls.” The speaker is a frail, ascetic figure, but he has a pleasant, resonant voice and speaks fluently and with complete ease. Spiritual science, he explained, is a science of true spiritual, real life. It seeks to uncover the sources from which the physical world originates and to impart to us knowledge of the supersensible spiritual world that lies beyond our sensory world. Only in the last ten years has spiritual science slowly and gradually begun to make its way into people’s minds. Some believe that spiritual science or theosophy has something to do with old superstitions. But that is not the case. Nor does spiritual science seek to replace any of humanity’s other religious views with a new religion. It serves to help us understand religious creeds; it is a tool with which one can grasp the various religious creeds, but it aims to be science in the most serious sense. Those who stand firmly on the ground of a religious creed will be led only deeper into it through spiritual science. Nor is the aim to introduce an Eastern religious creed—such as Buddhism—into our culture. Anyone who attempted to do so would misunderstand the foundation of our entire Western culture. That foundation is Christianity. Even those who oppose Christianity have received their very best from it. Redner then explained the goals and tasks of spiritual science. It is meant to provide answers to the questions of what the soul is, how it relates to the transient phenomena of human life, and how it is connected to the supersensible world. The sources of knowledge in spiritual science lie quite far removed from our present-day thinking and imagination, but with an open eye we see that the world consists not only of what we perceive with our senses and grasp with our intellect, but also of a wealth of spiritual facts and beings. Just as the person born blind denies our world full of color and light, so does the person whose spiritual eye has not yet been opened deny the spiritual world. There is a rebirth of the human being, after which the spiritual world appears to him. Finally, the speaker addressed the questions: What is the nature of spiritual science’s presentation, and how is evidence for it provided? In a highly poetic form, he recounted an imaginary conversation between a spiritually advanced individual and a student whom the former is to initiate into the mysteries of spiritual science. “Die and be reborn!” was the motto. The black cross, entwined with red roses, was said to be the symbol of the new life. The raptly listening audience, consisting largely of members of the Theosophical Society, gave the speaker enthusiastic applause.

[ 2 ] Answer to a question [Question not recorded.]

[ 3 ] Rudolf Steiner: The Gospel of John says of Christ that he is the Logos made flesh, because he brought into the world the impulse for the full conquest of the human “I,” for the ascent of this “I” into the spiritual world. Human beings can experience a threefold Christ. The first Christ is the Christ of intuition: expressed in powerful images in the sacred texts, which speak of that Being who realizes the ideal of the individual “I.” One finds this Christ independently of any sacred text or external tradition when one ascends to intuition. Through intuition, one finds Christ—the most perfect primordial “I”—as the Spirit to which every “I” must conform; this became flesh at the beginning of our era. A wholly new form of spiritual research has become possible because human beings can take their “I,” the Logos, with them into the spiritual world. The event at Golgotha provided the first impulse toward humanity’s fullest self-knowledge. Human beings can behold their own “I” and perceive in it an image of the Divine. The words of Christ: “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58)—if a person has grasped the meaning of these words, then they have grasped within themselves the Logos, the divine primordial “I.” Thus spiritual science finds the Christ who said,

[ 4 ] I am with you always. (Matt. 28:20)

[ 5 ] This Christ is always present: the first Christ, the Christ of intuition. The second Christ is the Pauline Christ. How did Christ come into the world as knowledge? Who first gave him to humanity as knowledge? Paul. He was the one who was not converted through external physical experience, but through a clairvoyant inspiration, through the event at Damascus. Christ revealed himself to him from the supersensory world. He believed in Christ and proclaimed him to the world with all his might.

[ 6 ] The third Christ is the one of the Gospels. There are naive people who take what is written in the Gospels literally. Then there are the intelligent people who say: The Gospels are meant for an imperfect stage of human development; and then a third kind of people who tell themselves: The Gospels have all sorts of symbolic meanings; they speak of a Christ myth, a Peter myth, and so on—they interpret the Gospels symbolically and allegorically. Finally, there is a fourth stage: the spiritual-scientific understanding of the Gospels, which is based on what spiritual research reveals about the events in Palestine. This leads one to the point where, upon reading the Gospels now, one says: “Now you truly understand them.”—And one knows what those who wrote them actually intended to convey. One discovers that the Gospels are humanity’s most powerful records. And one looks into a future in which, through spiritual science, Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha will become ever more deeply embedded in humanity.