The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. The Arrival of Christ in the West

[ 1 ] What change occurred in human consciousness as a result of the event in Palestine? 600 years before this [event,] the great Buddha lived. The Buddha appeared with his teachings, and a few centuries later, they had spread to many regions.

[ 2 ] 600 years later: The event in Palestine has spread at an incredible speed.

[ 3 ] [Their contrast can be summed up as follows:]

[ 4 ] Buddha: Death is suffering.

[ 5 ] Christ: Death has been conquered.

[ 6 ] In life, we overcome death through union with Christ, through life in the Spirit.

[ 7 ] Paul's experience [is] of great importance for the spread of Christianity; the fact that he came to see what he had previously denied. From this arose his conviction that Christ lives, that he can be found in the spiritual world; [this was the] impetus for Paul's work.

[ 8 ] [It was similar with] St. Cyprian: He says: Through baptism, one can become a completely new person; he would never have believed it before.

[ 9 ] [And in the case of] Constantine [we find]: [The conversion occurs] through a supernatural event: the vision of the cross in his soul leads him to conviction.

[ 10 ] [Is there any external historical evidence of Christianity?] In the first century, the only known incident in Rome was [a] riot [instigated] by Chrestos—presumably a slave—who was likely there at the time. Tacitus barely mentions him. [Celsus]—a contemporary of Marcus Aurelius—has nothing to say about Christianity. [Presumably a gap in the transcript.]

[ 11 ] [The sentence] “The natural order surely excludes the events in Palestine” is indeed reminiscent of Haeckel’s “Mystery of the World”—until Josephus Pandera, [the Roman] centurion, [according to] legend […].

[ 12 ] The peoples of Germania, [on the other hand], had preserved certain gifts across wide swaths of their lands, [as] the tales of ancient clairvoyance [reveal]. The ancient gods were memories of spiritual experiences. [The peoples of Germania were] closer to nature than the southern peoples. [They possessed a] touch of melancholy, stemming from [their] awareness of [the] twilight of the gods. The gods were something personal to them. A drive for independence lived within these peoples, and as a result, Christianity took root quite differently among these tribes. Christ must become something personal to them.

[ 13 ] Ulfila: The Gothic Bible.

[ 14 ] Switzerland: Columban or his disciple Gallus preserved their Christian faith in a very special way. They came from the Sancta Insula—Ireland. St. Patrick had spread Christianity there to such an extent that the essence of the Christian teachings there had something original about it.

[ 15 ] In the South, on the other hand, there [was] a conflict between philosophy and the reality of the Christ event, which [made] understanding more difficult.

[ 16 ] That is why something primordial and apostolic [lived] in Ireland’s monasteries: there [were] usually twelve, led by a thirteenth. This is how Gallus makes an impact through his personality. The highest spiritual teachings are woven into everyday life. He tells the farmers the story of the creation of the world up to Christ in just a few hours. But they also see him purifying himself, [withdrawing] into the forest, and working on himself there.

[ 17 ] Thus, through those who spread it, Christianity has the effect of making Christ ever more alive within them—“not I, but Christ in me.” (Gal 2:20) Christianity is a life force in these regions, not a dogmatic doctrine. This [is] what made it possible for the Heliand to be written during the reign of Louis the Pious. In it, Christ appears in people’s souls as independent of the historical figure from Palestine.

[ 18 ] In the beginning, the adoption of Christianity was linked to a kind of inner experience. Christianity was particularly able to take root here because the Germanic tribes had preserved something primal and clairvoyant. Christianity became the bond that brought even the most independent-minded people together.

[ 19 ] A severed link from the ancient cultures [to Christianity]: Christianity must be reconnected, through the Church Fathers, [with] knowledge: Aristotle. It will take a long time, though. Among the mystics of the Middle Ages, emotion cannot become one with the purity of thought.

[ 20 ] Nikolaus [von] Flüe: Christ is present in his experiences. Inner vision, but [it is] not permeated by the clarity of thought.

[ 21 ] In the first Adam, Paul saw the one who led humanity down into sensory experience; [in contrast], he saw in Christ the second Adam, [who] leads humanity back up into the spiritual realm. [A] beautiful concept of development that sprang from Paul. Augustine struggles to understand Paul.

[ 22 ] Our time: [It must build a] bridge between experience and consciousness, which is led from the sensory to the spiritual—the mysteries of the European initiates. To the outside world, [they] are known only by legendary names: the Knights Templar, the Grail, the Rosicrucians—[this is the] other form of propagation of Christianity.