The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fifteenth Lecture

[ 1 ] From the lecture given here on more complex questions of reincarnation, you have been able to see that as we progress further in the spiritual-scientific worldview, what could initially be presented as elementary truths undergoes modification, and that we gradually ascend to higher and higher truths. It therefore remains true that, in the beginning, one should present the general truths of the world as elementarily and as simply as possible. But it is also necessary to gradually work one’s way up from the basics to the higher truths; for it is only through these higher truths that we gradually attain what spiritual science, among other things, is meant to provide: namely, the possibility of understanding and penetrating the world that surrounds us in the sensory, physical sphere. Admittedly, we still have a very long way to go before we will succeed in tracing some connection in the spiritual lines and forces that lie behind the sensory world. But even through some of what has been said in the last few hours, this or that aspect of our existence will have become more explainable and clearer. Today we want to make a little progress in this regard, and here, too, we want to speak again about more complex questions of reincarnation, of rebirth.

[ 2 ] Above all, let us make it clear to ourselves today that there is a distinction between the beings who occupy a leading position in the development of humanity on Earth. In the course of our earthly evolution, we must distinguish between those leading individuals who, so to speak, have developed alongside humanity on Earth—as it is—from the very beginning, except that they have advanced more rapidly. One might say: If we go back to the time of the distant Lemurian past, we find the most varied stages of development among the human beings who were incarnated at that time. All the souls who were incarnated at that time have, through the subsequent Atlantean era and our post-Atlantean era, undergone reincarnations—re-incarnations—time and time again. These souls have evolved at different rates. There are souls who have evolved relatively slowly through their various incarnations and who still have long, long distances to traverse in the future. But there are also souls who have developed rapidly—who, one might say, have made more extensive use of their incarnations—and who therefore stand today at such a high level in soul-spiritual, that is, spiritual terms, that the average person of today will not reach such a level until a very, very distant future. But if we remain within this sphere of souls, we can still say: No matter how advanced these individual souls may be, no matter how far they may stand out from the average person, they have nevertheless undergone a similar course within our earthly evolution as the rest of humanity; they have simply progressed more quickly.

[ 3 ] In addition to these leading individuals—who are, in this respect, similar to the rest of humanity but stand on a higher level—there are also, in the course of human development, other individuals, other beings, who have by no means passed through various incarnations in the same way as other human beings. We can illustrate what underlies this by saying to ourselves: There were beings at the very time of the Lemurian development we have just considered who no longer needed to descend as deeply into physical incarnation as other human beings—such as all the beings just described— that is, beings who could have continued their development in higher, more spiritual regions and who therefore did not need to descend into physical bodies for their own further progress. Such a being can nevertheless, in order to intervene in the course of human evolution, descend—so to speak, on behalf of others—into a body such as that possessed by human beings. Thus, a being may appear at any given time, and when we examine it from a spiritual perspective with regard to its soul, we cannot say of it—as we do of other human beings—that we trace it back through time and find it in a previous physical incarnation, trace it further back and find it again in another incarnation, and so on; rather, we must say to ourselves: If we trace the soul of such a being back through the course of time, we may not arrive at an earlier physical incarnation of that being at all. But if we do arrive at one, it is only because such a being can also descend more frequently into the intervals between incarnations and incarnate vicariously in a human body. - Such a spiritual being, who thus descends into a human body to intervene in human development as a human being—without, so to speak, deriving anything from this incarnation itself, without what it experiences here in the world having any particular significance for itself—is called an “avatar” in Eastern wisdom. And this is the difference between a guiding being that has emerged from the development of humanity itself and one that is called an avatar: an avatar being does not reap any benefits for itself from its physical incarnations or from the single physical incarnation it undergoes, for it enters a physical body as a being for the sake of humanity’s salvation and progress. So, as I said: Such an Avatar being may enter a human body either just once or several times in succession, and it is then quite distinct from any other human individuality.

[ 4 ] The greatest Avatar being who has ever lived on Earth—as you can gather from the spirit of all the lectures given here—is the Christ, the being we refer to as the Christ, who took possession of the body of Jesus of Nazareth in the thirtieth year of his life. This being, who first came into contact with our Earth at the beginning of our calendar, was incarnated in a physical body for three years, and has since that time been connected to the astral sphere—that is, to the spiritual sphere of our supersensible world—is, as an avataric being, of quite unique significance. It would be entirely futile to search for the Christ entity in an earlier human incarnation on Earth, whereas other, lower avatar entities can indeed incarnate more frequently. The difference lies not in the fact that they incarnate more often, but in the fact that they derive no benefit for themselves from their earthly incarnations. Human beings give nothing to the world; they only take. These beings only give; they take nothing from the Earth. Now, however, if you wish to understand this matter properly, you must distinguish between a high avatar such as Christ was and lower avatars.

[ 5 ] Such avatar entities can have a wide variety of tasks on our Earth. Let us first discuss one such task of avatar entities. And so that we do not get lost in speculation, let us immediately turn to a specific case and illustrate what such a task might entail.

[ 6 ] You all know from the story centered on Noah that, in the ancient Hebrew account, a large part of post-Atlan, or post-Noah, humanity is traced back to the three patriarchs Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Today we do not wish to delve further into what Noah and these three patriarchs represent to us in another sense. We simply want to make it clear that Hebrew scripture, which speaks of Shem, one of Noah’s sons, traces the entire Semitic people back to Shem as their progenitor. A truly occult perspective on such a matter, on such a narrative, is always grounded in deeper truths. Those who are able to investigate such matters from an occult perspective know the following about this Shem, the progenitor of the Semites: For such a personality—who is to become the progenitor of an entire tribe—provisions must be made from birth, indeed even earlier, to ensure that he can indeed be this progenitor. How, then, is it ensured that such an individual—as in this case, for example, Shem—can become the progenitor of an entire people or tribal community? In Shem’s case, this was achieved by his receiving, so to speak, a very specially configured etheric body. We know, of course, that when a human being is born into this world, the etheric or life body is formed around their individuality alongside the other members of the human being. For such a tribal ancestor, a special etheric body must, so to speak, be prepared—one that serves as the archetypal etheric body for all the descendants who follow this individuality through the generations. Thus, in the case of such a tribal individuality, we have a typical etheric body—a sort of prototype etheric body—and then, through blood kinship, this process continues through the generations in such a way that, in a certain sense, the etheric bodies of all descendants belonging to the same tribe are images of the ancestor’s etheric body. Thus, something like a reflection of Shem’s etheric body was woven into all the etheric bodies of the Semitic people. How, then, does such a process come about in the course of human evolution?

[ 7 ] If we take a closer look at this Sem, we find that his etheric body acquired its archetypal form because an avatar wove itself into his etheric body—albeit not an avatar of such a high order that we could compare it to certain other avatar beings; but nevertheless, a high avatar being had descended into his etheric body—though it was not connected to the astral body, nor to the Sem’s “I”—but it had, so to speak, woven itself into the Sem’s etheric body. And we can now study, using this very example, what significance it holds when an Avatar being participates in the constitution, in the composition, of a human being. What purpose does it serve, after all, for a human being who, like Sem, has such a task—that of being the progenitor of an entire people—to have an Avatar being, so to speak, woven into his body? The significance is that whenever an Avatar being is woven into a physical human being, any one or even several members of this human being can multiply or be fragmented.

[ 8 ] In fact, because an Avatar being was interwoven with Sem’s etheric body, it became possible for numerous images of the original to be created, and for these countless images to be interwoven into all the people who succeeded the progenitor through successive generations. Thus, one of the purposes of the descent of an avatar being is that it contributes to the multiplication of one or more aspects of the entity in question, which is animated by the avatar. Numerous images of the original are created, all modeled after it. As you can see from this, there was a particularly valuable etheric body present in this Sem—an archetypal etheric body that was prepared by a high Avatar and then woven into the Sem, so that it could then descend in many images to all those who were to be blood relatives of this ancestor.

[ 9 ] Now, as we already discussed in the lecture mentioned at the beginning, there is also a spiritual economy, which consists in preserving something that is particularly valuable and carrying it forward into the future. We have heard that not only does the “I” reincarnate, but that the astral body and the etheric body can also reincarnate. Apart from the fact that countless images of Sem’s etheric body came into being, Sem’s own etheric body was also preserved in the spiritual world, for this etheric body could later be put to very good use in the mission of the Hebrew people. After all, all the distinctive characteristics of the Hebrew people had originally found expression in this etheric body. Should something particularly important ever happen for the ancient Hebrew people, should a special task or mission be entrusted to someone, this could best be accomplished by an individual who carried within themselves this etheric body of the patriarch.

[ 10 ] In fact, an individual who later played a decisive role in the history of the Hebrew people bore the etheric body of the forefather. Here we indeed have one of those marvelous complexities in the evolution of humanity that can explain so much to us. We are dealing with a very exalted individuality who, so to speak, had to “condescend” in order to speak to the Hebrew people in an appropriate manner and to give them the strength for a special mission—much as if a spiritually outstanding person were to speak to a primitive tribe, he would, of course, have to learn the language of that tribe, but one need not therefore claim that the language is anything that elevates him personally; the person in question must simply adapt himself to that language. In the same way, a high individuality had to adapt itself to the etheric body of Shem himself in order to be able to impart a very specific impulse to the ancient Hebrew people. This individuality, this personality, is the very same one you find in biblical history under the name Melchizedek. This is the individuality that, so to speak, took on the etheric body of Shem in order to then impart the impulse to Abraham, which you find so beautifully described in the Bible. So, apart from the fact that what was contained in Shem’s individuality multiplied through the embodiment of an avatar being within it—which was then interwoven with all the other etheric bodies of the members of the Hebrew people—Shem’s own etheric body was preserved in the spiritual world, so that Melchizedek could later carry it, as he was to give an important impulse to the Hebrew people through Abraham.

[ 11 ] The facts that lie behind the physical world—and that make it possible for us to understand what is happening in the physical world—are so intricately interwoven. We come to know history only by pointing to such facts: facts of a spiritual nature that lie behind the physical facts. History can never be explained from within itself if we limit ourselves to the physical facts.

[ 12 ] What we have just discussed—that through the descent of an Avatar being, the essential elements of the human being who is the bearer of such an Avatar being are multiplied and transferred to others, appearing as images of the archetype—takes on a very special significance through the appearance of Christ on Earth. Because the Avatar Being of Christ dwelt in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, it became possible for both the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth to be multiplied countless times, as well as the astral body and even the “I” —the “I” as an impulse, as it was kindled at that time in the astral body, when Christ entered the threefold body of Jesus of Nazareth. But first, let us bear in mind that through the Avatar Being, the etheric body and the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth could be multiplied.

[ 13 ] Now one of the most significant turning points in human history is taking place, precisely through the emergence of the Christ principle in Earth’s evolution. What I have told you about Sem is, in essence, typical and characteristic of the pre-Christian era. When an etheric body or an astral body is duplicated in this way, its images are generally transferred to people who are blood relatives of the one who possessed the original form: The images of the Sem etheric body were therefore transferred to the members of the Hebrew tribe. This changed with the emergence of the Christ-Avatar Being. The etheric body and the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth were duplicated and, as such duplicates, were then set aside until they could be utilized in the course of human evolution. But they were not bound to this or that nationality, to this or that tribe; rather, wherever a human being was found in subsequent times, regardless of their nationality, who was mature and suitable to have woven into their own astral body an astral image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth or an etheric image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth—these could be woven into them. Thus we see how it was possible that, in later times, the images of the astral body or the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth were woven into all sorts of people, as it were, like imprints.

[ 14 ] The intimate history of Christian development is closely linked to this fact. What is usually described as the history of Christian development is a collection of entirely external events. And for this reason, far too little attention is paid to the most essential aspect—namely, the distinction between distinct periods in Christian development. Anyone who can gain a deeper insight into the course of Christianity’s development will readily recognize that in the first centuries of the Christian era, the manner in which Christianity was spread was quite different from that of later centuries. In the early Christian centuries, the spread of Christianity was, so to speak, bound up with everything that could be achieved on the physical plane. We need only look at the early teachers of Christianity to see how they emphasized physical memories, physical connections, and everything that had remained in the physical realm. Just think of how Irenaeus, who contributed greatly to the spread of Christian teaching in various countries during the first century, placed particular emphasis on the fact that memories traced back to those who had themselves heard the disciples of the Apostles. Great importance was attached to being able to verify, through such physical memories, that Christ himself had taught in Palestine. For example, it is particularly emphasized that Papias himself sat at the feet of the Apostles’ disciples. The very places where such figures—who were still living as eyewitnesses to Christ’s life in Palestine—had sat are even shown and described. This physical progression in memory is what is particularly emphasized in the first centuries of Christianity.

[ 15 ] You can see just how much emphasis is placed on everything that has remained physical in the words of the ancient Augustine, who stands at the end of this era and says: Why do I believe in the truths of Christianity? Because the authority of the Catholic Church compels me to do so. - For him, the physical authority—the fact that something exists in the physical world—is what is important and essential: that an institution has been preserved which, linking one personality to another, reaches all the way back to one who was a companion of Christ, such as Peter. That is what is decisive for him. We can thus see that it is the documents and impressions of the physical plane that were valued most highly during the first centuries of the spread of Christianity.

[ 16 ] This began to change after the time of Augustine and continued into the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries. By then, it was no longer possible to rely on living memory or to draw solely on documents from the physical plane, for they were too far in the past. There is also something entirely different present in the overall atmosphere and in the mindset of the people who were now embracing Christianity—and this is especially true of the European peoples. During this period, there is in fact something akin to a kind of direct knowledge that a Christ exists, that a Christ died on the cross, and that he lives on. From the 4th and 5th centuries through the 10th and 12th centuries, there was a large number of people to whom it would have seemed utterly foolish if someone had told them that one could even doubt the events in Palestine, for they knew better. These people were particularly widespread in European countries. They had always been able to experience within themselves something that was, on a small scale, a kind of Paul-like revelation—the same experience that Paul, who until then had been Saul, had on the road to Damascus and through which he became Paul.

[ 17 ] How was it possible for a number of people over the course of these centuries to receive such revelations—which, in a certain sense, were clairvoyant—regarding the events in Palestine? This was possible because, over the centuries, the images of the multiplied etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth—which had been preserved—were woven into the etheric bodies of a large number of people, allowing them, so to speak, to draw upon them. Their etheric bodies did not consist exclusively of this image of the etheric body of Jesus, but an image of the original etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into their etheric bodies. People who were able to possess such an etheric body within themselves—and who, as a result, were able to have direct knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth and also of the Christ—such people existed during those centuries. As a result, however, the image of the Christ became detached from the outwardly historical, physical tradition. And it appears most detached to us in that wonderful 9th-century poem known as the Heliand, which dates from the time of Louis the Pious, who reigned from 814 to 840, and which was written down by an outwardly unassuming man from Saxony. With regard to his astral body and his “I,” he could not even begin to approach what was present in his etheric body. For interwoven with his etheric body was an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth. This simple Saxon pastor, who wrote this work, had the certainty, derived from direct clairvoyant perception: Christ is present on the astral plane, and He is the very same One who was crucified on Golgotha! —And because this was a direct certainty for him, he no longer needed to adhere to historical documents. He no longer needed the physical evidence that Christ was there. He therefore depicts him detached from the entire setting in Palestine, detached from the distinctive features of Jewish culture. He depicts him somewhat like the leader of a Central European or Germanic tribe, and he describes those who surround him as his followers—the apostles—much like the retainers of a Germanic prince. All the external setting has been altered; only what is truly essential, what is eternal about the figure of Christ—the structure of the events—has remained. He, then, who possessed such direct knowledge—based on a foundation as significant as the imprint of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth—was not bound, when speaking of Christ, to adhere strictly to the immediate historical events. He clothed what he possessed as direct knowledge in a different external setting. And just as we have been able to describe in the author of the Heliand poetry one of those remarkable personalities who had woven into his etheric body an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth, so too might we find other personalities from that time who possessed something similar. Thus we see how, behind the physical events, the most important things are taking place—things that can explain history to us in an intimate way.

[ 18 ] If we now continue to trace the development of Christianity, we arrive at roughly the 11th, 12th, and up to the 15th centuries. There, in turn, was an entirely different mystery that carried the entire development forward. At first, it was, so to speak, the memory of what had been on the physical plane; then it was the etheric that became directly interwoven into the etheric bodies of the bearers of Christianity in Central Europe. In the later centuries, from the 12th to the 15th century, it was particularly the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth that was woven into the astral bodies of the most important bearers of Christianity in numerous images. Such people then had an “I” that, as an “I,” could form very false ideas about all sorts of things, but in their astral bodies there lived an immediacy of strength, of devotion, and an immediate certainty of the sacred truths. Deep fervor, a very immediate conviction, and, under certain circumstances, also the ability to justify this conviction, resided in such people. What sometimes strikes us as so strange about these very personalities is that their “I” was often not at all developed enough to match what their astral body contained, because it had woven into itself an image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. What their “I” did sometimes seemed grotesque, yet the world of their moods and feelings, their fervor, was magnificent and sublime. One such personality, for example, is Francis of Assisi. And precisely when we study Francis of Assisi and, as people of today, cannot understand his conscious “I,” yet must nevertheless have the deepest reverence for his entire emotional world and for everything he did, this becomes understandable from such a perspective. He was one of those who had woven into his astral body an image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. This enabled him to accomplish precisely what he did. And many of his followers from the Franciscan Order, along with his servants and the Minorites, had similarly woven such images into their astral bodies.

[ 19 ] All of those strange, otherwise enigmatic phenomena from that time will become clear and illuminating to you if you properly bring this mediation in the unfolding of the world—between the past and the future—before the eye of your soul. The crucial question, then, was whether what we call the feeling soul, the intellectual soul, or the conscious soul was more closely interwoven with the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth for these people of the Middle Ages. For the astral body of the human being must, in a certain sense, be conceived as containing these within itself, as encompassing the “I.” Everything in Francis of Assisi was, so to speak, the sentient soul of Jesus of Nazareth. Everything in that wonderful personality—whose life you will follow biographically with your whole soul once you know the mystery of her life—was the sentient soul of Jesus of Nazareth: Elizabeth of Thuringia, born in 1207. Here we have such a personality who had woven into her soul of feeling an image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. It is precisely through such knowledge that the mystery of the human form is solved for us.

[ 20 ] And above all, one thing will become clear to you when you realize that during this time, the most diverse personalities—whether they were souls of feeling, souls of reason, or souls of consciousness—had woven images from the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth into their own beings: You will come to understand that branch of knowledge which is otherwise so little understood and so much reviled today—what is commonly referred to as Scholasticism. What, then, was the task that Scholasticism had set for itself? It had set itself the task of finding, on the basis of reasoning and through the intellect, evidence and proof for that which had no historical connection, no physical mediation, and for which there was also no immediate clairvoyant certainty—as had been the case in previous centuries through the interwoven etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth. These people had to set themselves the task by saying to themselves: It has been communicated to us through tradition that the being known as Jesus the Christ appeared in history, and that other spiritual beings, of whom the religious texts bear witness, intervened in human evolution. - Drawing upon their rational soul, upon the intellect of the image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth, they set themselves the task of proving, with subtle and sharply defined concepts, everything that was presented in their writings as mystery truths. Thus arose that remarkable science which has sought to achieve the greatest feat of acumen and intellect that has ever been accomplished by humanity. Over the course of several centuries—whatever one may think of the content of Scholasticism—simply by engaging in this extremely subtle distinction and definition of concepts, the capacity for human reflection was cultivated and imprinted on the culture of the time. It was, after all, during the 13th to 15th centuries that humanity, through Scholasticism, acquired the ability to think with acumen and penetrating logic.

[ 21 ] In those in whom the consciousness soul—or rather, the image that manifests itself as the consciousness soul of Jesus of Nazareth—was more deeply imprinted, the special realization arose—because the “I” resides in the consciousness soul—that Christ can be found in the “I.” And because they themselves carried within them the element of the soul of consciousness from the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth, the inner Christ shone forth within them. And through this astral body, they recognized that the Christ within them was the Christ Himself. These were the ones you know as Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, and all the bearers of medieval mysticism.

[ 22 ] Thus you can see how the various phases of the astral body—which had been multiplied by the entry of the high Avatar being of Christ into the body of Jesus of Nazareth—continued to exert their influence in the period that followed and brought about the actual development of Christianity. Incidentally, this is also an important transition in other respects. We see how humanity, in its development, is also dependent on incorporating these aspects of the Jesus of Nazareth being into itself. In the first centuries, there were people who were entirely dependent on the physical plane; then, in the following centuries, there came people who were receptive to having the element of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into their own etheric bodies. Later, people were, so to speak, more attuned to the astral body; therefore, the image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth could now also be incorporated into them. The astral body is the bearer of the power of judgment. The power of judgment awakens particularly in the 12th to 14th centuries. You can also see this from another phenomenon.

[ 23 ] Up until that time, it was particularly clear just how profound the mysteries contained in the Lord’s Supper were. The Lord’s Supper was accepted—with discussion limited to a few, at most—in such a way that people themselves could sense everything contained in the words: “This is my body and this is my blood...,” because Christ indicated that he would be united with the earth, that he would be the planetary spirit of the earth. And because the most precious thing from the physical earth is flour, flour became for human beings the body of Christ, and the sap that flows through the plants and the vines became for them something of the blood of Christ. This knowledge did not diminish the value of the Lord’s Supper; on the contrary, it enhanced it. People sensed something of these infinite depths throughout the centuries, until the power of judgment awoke in the astral body. Only then did doubt arise. Only then did the controversy over the Lord’s Supper begin. Just think about how, in Hussitism, in Lutheranism, and in its offshoots of Zwinglianism and Calvinism, there are discussions about what the Lord’s Supper is supposed to be! Such discussions would not have been possible in earlier times, because people still had a direct knowledge of the Lord’s Supper. But here we see a great historical law confirmed, one that should be particularly important for scholars of the spiritual sciences: As long as people knew what the Lord’s Supper was, they did not discuss it; only when they had lost their direct knowledge of the Lord’s Supper did they begin to discuss it. Consider it a sign, in fact, that one does not truly know something when one begins to discuss it. Where there is knowledge, that knowledge is shared, and there is actually no particular desire to argue. Where there is a desire to argue, there is generally no knowledge of the truth. Discussion begins only with ignorance, and it is always and everywhere a sign of decline with regard to the seriousness of a matter when discussions begin. The dissolution of the movement in question is always heralded by discussions. It is very important that, in the field of the humanities, one learn to understand this again and again: that the will to discuss may actually be regarded as a sign of ignorance; in contrast, what stands opposed to discussion—the will to learn, the will to gradually come to understand what is at stake—should be cultivated.

[ 24 ] Here we see a major historical fact confirmed by the development of Christianity itself. But we can learn something else as well when we see how, during these defining centuries of Christianity, the power of judgment—that which resides in the astral body—this keen intellectual wisdom was developed. Indeed, if we look at realities, not dogmas, then we can learn from this what Christianity has actually accomplished in its progress. What, then, became of Scholasticism if we do not consider it in terms of its content, but rather view it as the cultivation and development of abilities? Do you know what became of it? It became modern natural science! Modern natural science is simply inconceivable without the reality of a Christian science of the Middle Ages. Not only was Copernicus a canon and Giordano Bruno a Dominican, but all the forms of thought with which people have grappled with natural objects since the 15th and 16th centuries are nothing other than what was cultivated and developed from the 11th to the 16th century through the Christian science of the Middle Ages. Those who consult the books of Scholasticism, compare them with modern natural science, and then say, “Haeckel and so on claim something entirely different,” do not live in reality but in abstractions. What matters are realities! A Haeckel, a Darwin, a Du Bois-Reymond, a Huxley, and others would all be impossible if medieval Christian science had not come before them. For the fact that they are able to think this way is something they owe to medieval Christian science. That is the reality. It is through this that humanity has learned to think in the true sense of the word.

[ 25 ] There’s more to this. Read David Friedrich Strauss. Try to examine the way he thinks. Try to make sense of his line of reasoning: how he seeks to demonstrate that the entire life of Jesus of Nazareth is a myth. Do you know where he gets his intellectual acuity? He draws it from medieval Christian scholarship. Everything that is used today to combat Christianity so radically has been learned from medieval Christian scholarship. In fact, there could be no opponent of Christianity today for whom it would not be easy to prove that he could not possibly think the way he does if he had not learned those patterns of thought from medieval Christian scholarship. That, however, would mean looking at world history realistically.

[ 26 ] And what has happened since the 16th century? Since the 16th century, the “I” itself has come to the fore more and more, and with it, human egoism and, consequently, materialism. People have forgotten and lost sight of all that the “I” has absorbed: They have therefore had to limit themselves to what the “I” can observe—what the instruments of the senses can provide to ordinary understanding—and only that could be taken into the inner abode. Since the 16th century, culture has been a culture of egotism. What, then, must now enter into this “I”? Christian development has undergone a process of evolution in the outer physical body, in the etheric body, and in the astral body, and has ascended all the way to the “I.” Now it must take into this “I” the mysteries and secrets of Christianity itself. Now it must be possible to make the “I” an organ receptive to the Christ, after the “I” has spent some time learning to think through Christianity and has applied those thoughts to the outer world. Now this “I” must in turn find the wisdom that is the primordial wisdom of the great Avatar, the Christ himself. And how must this come about? Through the spiritual-scientific deepening of Christianity. Carefully prepared through the three stages of physical, etheric, and astral development, it would now depend on the inner organ opening up to the human being, so that he may now look into his spiritual environment with the eye that Christ can open for him. As the greatest Avatar being, Christ descended to Earth. Let us attune ourselves to this perspective: Let us try to view the world as we can view it once we have received the Christ within us. Then we will find our entire cosmic evolution permeated and suffused by the Christ Being. That is to say, we describe how, little by little, the physical body of the human being arose on Saturn, how the etheric body was added on the Sun, the astral body on the Moon, and the “I” was then added on Earth, and we see how all of this strives toward the goal of becoming ever more independent and individual, in order to incorporate into Earth’s evolution that wisdom which passes from the Sun to the Earth. Christ and Christianity must, so to speak, become the focal point of our view of the world for the liberated “I” of modern times.

[ 27 ] Thus you can see how Christianity gradually prepared itself for what it was to become. In the first centuries, Christians took in Christianity through their physical faculty of perception; later, throughout the Middle Ages, they did so through their etheric and astral faculties of perception. Then Christianity in its true form was pushed aside for a time, until the “I” had been educated through the three bodies in the course of post-Christian development. But now that this “I” has learned to think and to direct its gaze out into the objective world, it is also ripe to perceive, in all phenomena of this objective world, those spiritual realities that are so intimately connected with the central Being, with the Christ Being: to perceive the Christ everywhere, in the most manifold forms, as the foundation.

[ 28 ] This brings us to the very starting point of the spiritual-scientific understanding and knowledge of Christianity, and we recognize what task, what mission, has been assigned to this movement for spiritual knowledge. At the same time, we recognize the reality of this mission. Just as the individual human being has a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an “I,” and gradually ascends to ever higher realms, so it is in the historical development of Christianity. One might say: Christianity, too, has a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an “I”—an “I” that can even deny its origin, as in our time, just as the “I” can become selfish in general; yet it is an “I” that can at the same time also take in the true Christ-essence and ascend to ever higher levels of existence. What the individual human being is, that is the great world both in its totality and in the course of its historical development.

[ 29 ] When we look at things this way, a broad perspective on the future opens up to us from the standpoint of the humanities. And we know how this can touch our hearts and fill them with enthusiasm. We are coming to understand more and more what we must do, and we also know that we are not groping in the dark. For we have not concocted ideas that we wish to arbitrarily project into the future; rather, we want to embrace—and follow only—those ideas that have been gradually prepared over the centuries of Christian development. Just as it is true that the “I” must first emerge and gradually develop into the spiritual self, the spirit of life, and the spiritual human being—after the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body were first in place—so it is true that modern humanity, with its “I”-form and its present-day thinking, could only develop out of the astral, etheric, and physical forms of Christianity. I has become Christianity. Just as this was the course of development from the past, so it is true that the “I” form of humanity can only come into being after the astral and etheric forms of Christianity have been developed. Christianity will continue to develop into the future; it will offer humanity entirely new things, and Christian development and the Christian way of life will arise in a new form: the transformed astral body will appear as the Christian spiritual self, and the transformed etheric body as the Christian life spirit. And in a radiant vision of Christianity’s future, the Spiritual Man shines before our souls like the star toward which we are striving—a being entirely illuminated and infused with the spirit of Christianity.