The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Second Lecture

[ 1 ] The mood that pervades our time may not be conducive to bringing about in many people today that inner contemplation spoken of in legends and myths, which point to the series of nights following Christmas Eve—during which a mind prepared for it can experience something of the spiritual world. You are familiar with one such deeply moving legend from the depictions that have also been customary here: that of Olaf Åsteson. And many similar stories point to the Christmas season in such a powerful way.

[ 2 ] It is clear not only to the more intimate observer of the human mind, but also to those who today take in the general spirit of the times from the outside, that people must once again seek out the Christmas spirit and the Christmas impulse. That which lives on in the memory of Christmas, in the thought of Christmas, must once again take hold of the human soul in a new way. Let us consider—just to look at the broader context of today’s religious and spiritual mood—how little inclination there is in the present age even to regard Christ as such, to take him into the eye of the soul.

[ 3 ] If you speak of the Christ in the words of those who believe today, if you look for the distinguishing features between the Christ and God the Father in their discourse, you will find little more than a difference in name. While, however, for some believers today Christ still stands at the center of their religious confession—and everything else divine, so to speak, pales in comparison—we have long seen the emergence of a theology that has essentially lost sight of Christ, one that speaks of “God” in general terms, even when it speaks of Christ. That which is special, that which is unique—the very thing that must be spoken of when the human heart looks up to Christ—must first be rediscovered. And perhaps the most fitting way to celebrate Christmas today is to truly take to heart how humanity can rediscover Christ. To this end, however, various aspects of humanity’s evolutionary history must perhaps be taken into account—considered from a spiritual-scientific perspective—if the impulse that leads human souls to Christ is to be truly reawakened.

[ 4 ] Christmas can remind us not only—as it is meant to—of Jesus’ entry into earthly existence, but it can also remind us, in a sense, of the birth of Christianity itself, of Christianity’s entry into the course of earthly development. And so, I would like to say, let us first direct our spiritual gaze today toward the Christmas Eve, so to speak, of Christianity itself—toward the entry, the birth of Christianity into the earthly realm. The external facts are, of course, generally known, but they should be explored in greater depth.

[ 5 ] Christianity entered the world amidst the followers of the Old Testament. It entered the world through the person of Jesus Christ. We look at the events that took place within the community of Old Testament believers when Christianity was born. We see how this community outwardly exists in two distinct currents: the Pharisee current and the Sadducee current. Fundamentally, it is necessary to view all these things anew from the perspective of the present. When we bring to mind the way we view the general path that the individual human being takes, and the path that humanity—indeed, all earthly existence—takes, this path will become ever clearer to us as we perceive it as a state of balance between the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic. But fundamentally, this is merely the terminology we use. An awareness of the reality of the Luciferic, the Ahrimanic, and the state of equilibrium between them has always been present in the deeper natures of humanity. And fundamentally, the Pharisaic element within ancient Hebrew development, with its opposition to the Sadducee element, is nothing other than the opposition between the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic. Placed within this current of equilibrium is Jesus, who enters outer earthly existence. He enters this outer earthly existence at the very site whose innermost characteristic, right up to the Mystery of Golgotha, was defined by the fact that the Temple of Solomon had been erected there. In a certain sense, one can truly understand the whole essence of the Temple of Solomon only if one can simultaneously view this temple in contrast to Christianity as it was coming into being, as it was being born. It is well known how quickly, after the emergence of Christianity, the Temple of Solomon was destroyed for outer worldly existence. At the very site from which the spirituality of Christianity flowed forth, the outward monument to the ancient development from which this Christian spirituality emerged was henceforth to cease to exist. There is a contrast between the essence of the Temple of Solomon and the essence of Christianity. The Temple of Solomon encapsulated, in wondrous, magnificent, and in some cases gigantic symbols, the worldview of the Old Testament. The Temple of Solomon was an image of the entire universe, insofar as it could be conceived—in its laws, its inner structure, and its permeation by divine-spiritual beings—through the worldview of the Old Testament. Yet this Temple of Solomon is an image of the universe that, in a certain respect and in one particular direction, is exceptionally one-sided. For the Temple of Solomon is, in fact, a spatial representation of the universe—a representation that draws upon spatial relationships and forms to express the mysteries of this universe. Yet the symbolism of the Temple of Solomon came to life in the perception of those who beheld it through the spirit of the Old Testament.

[ 6 ] If, on the one hand, we see in Pharisaic and Sadducee Judaism the externalization of what was given to humanity through the Old Testament, then on the other hand we see in the symbolism of the Temple of Solomon the internalization of that life made possible by Old Testament life. One might say: That which had flowed into the entire Old Testament revelation expressed itself in these two ways—on the one hand, outwardly and exoterically in Pharisaic and Sadducee Judaism; on the other hand, esoterically through what was given in the mysterious symbols of the Temple of Solomon. And from this exoteric and esoteric tradition sprang forth that which later became Christianity.

[ 7 ] Unknown at first to the wider world at the time of its birth, this Christianity was intended for the world within which the spiritual consciousness of humanity at that time existed: the Greek world. Within the ever-expanding Roman Empire—in whose sphere even the Mystery of Golgotha was being prepared through the birth of Jesus—people were unaware of the momentous events that had taken place among the Jewish people. People knew nothing of the most important event that was unfolding as the very meaning of the Earth. Yet even though the people of that time outwardly let this greatest event in Earth’s development pass them by, inwardly, the emerging Christianity was connected to the entire world as it existed at that time.

[ 8 ] But how are they connected? The meaning of what Christmas Eve holds is revealed only in the idea of Easter. And the idea of Easter, which actually deepens the idea of Christmas—what is its significance? The significance of the idea of Easter lies in the contemplation of the Redeemer of humanity who dies on the cross: the cross bearing the dead God. It was from within humanity itself that the intention—and the act—arose to kill the God who appeared among them. The full magnitude, the full power of this thought should once again penetrate the souls of human beings. The contemplation of the act by which the God who appeared on earth was killed by human beings—this thought should be translated into the language through which it can be understood! Let us at least attempt this from one perspective.

[ 9 ] When we look at the Mystery of Golgotha—as you know from my book *Christianity as a Mystical Fact*—this Mystery of Golgotha is like a great convergence in world history of what was depicted in the ancient mysteries. What took place in the ancient mysteries as a sacrificial rite, as an initiation rite—what, one might say, took place in the temples with limited significance—was brought out onto the grand stage of world history and played out on the scale of the entire earthly existence. In a sense, the initiation of humanity was brought out of the temples and set before the entire history of the earth.

[ 10 ] Now one must ask: What did the ancient person, who was permitted to participate in the initiation rites of the Mysteries, actually think back in those days when the Mysteries still held their true, ancient significance? Through their preparatory instruction for the Mysteries, people were fully aware that what initially unfolds in the outer sensory world—what the human intellect can grasp—is merely a world of phenomena, a world of outward sensory appearances; that what a person initially experiences in their surroundings during their waking life between birth and death is merely the outer perception, the manifestation of the inner essence, and that this inner essence, however, remains hidden in the general life of the human being. But in the mystery initiation rites, human beings sought, as it were, from the depths of being, that which flowed toward them as essence—that which could be extracted and distilled from the mere phenomenal, from mere illusory existence, as the essential, as the truly real. The ancient participant in the Mysteries was always inclined to say to himself: When I walk through the world like this, observing outer nature—that is illusion. When I experience this or that in the world—that is illusion. When I work at this or that for this world—that is illusion. But when I am allowed to participate in the sacred mystery rite within the temple, something happens that is truth, that is not illusion. Something is, as it were, drawn out of the illusory existence of the world and transformed into a sacramental act, and this sacramental act contains precisely the truth in contrast to illusion.

[ 11 ] One must clearly grasp the entire difference between this view of the mysteries and the view that prevails today, for example, in the materialistic age, if one wishes to point out with the utmost clarity the very essence of this view of the mysteries. One must realize that everything which people today, in the materialistic age, call reality has been declared by this view of the mysteries to be an illusion, whereas, for example, the sacramental act—the initiation rite—which was performed and which most people today regard as fantasy, was regarded by those versed in the mysteries as the only reality that could confront them in life. For this reason, such mystery rites were not performed at random, but at specific times when it was believed that, through the phenomena of external life, something of the true essence could permeate the world—which could then, as it were, be received through the sacramental acts within the mystery. It has often been pointed out that an important sacramental act in the Mysteries consisted in demonstrating the sacrifice of the God, the death of the God, and the resurrection of the God after three days. This mystery play highlighted how, for the one who penetrates more deeply into the outer world—when looking into it—death in this outer world can reveal the true nature of this world, and how one must seek beyond death that which is truly reality.

[ 12 ] But let us imagine that everything which could enter the human soul in this way, arising from the atmosphere of the mysteries, was summarized at the beginning of our Christian era as an expression of what is most important in the phenomena of the world. Someone who, at the beginning of the Christian era, could have fully sensed the course of our Earth’s evolution would have been able to say to himself: In ancient times, people had the opportunity to experience something of the divine-spiritual through atavistic sacred science. That time is past. Looking back over Earth’s evolution, one can say: In ancient times, something of the divine-spiritual world was revealed to human beings through this Earthly evolution. But the time has come when nothing more can be drawn from the fabric of the world to lead human beings toward the divine-spiritual. The world has lost its divine-spiritual life. — That is what such a soul would have said. What must one look to when one considers this meaning of the development of humanity on Earth? Where is that which, at the time of Christianity’s emergence, is the true meaning of Earth? Where is that which expresses what is most deeply desired in this age? On Golgotha, on the cross: it is death! That which once sprang forth from Earth’s evolution, that which was for the salvation of humanity, has itself died. In the sight of the dead God, the Earth impulse—the deepest Earth impulse itself—is given to the soul that truly penetrates more deeply into the essence of the world at the time of Christianity’s emergence.

[ 13 ] And when viewed in this light, the full magnitude of what is at stake in this context becomes apparent. The ancient knowledge of the world, the ancient worldview, had converged in the Temple of Solomon; but this ancient worldview no longer contained anything that would have made it great. Something new had to enter the course of world history. And so, in the course of history, the destruction of the Temple of Solomon and the rise—the birth—of Christianity converge directly: the Temple of Solomon, a symbolic spatial representation of the content of the world; Christianity, understood as a temporal phenomenon, a new worldview. In Christianity, the main point is not something that can appear as a spatial image, as with the Temple of Solomon; in Christianity, the essential point is to understand that Earth’s development extended up to the Mystery of Golgotha; the Mystery of Golgotha intervened, and then, through Christ pouring Himself out into humanity, it continues in one way or another. — Only those who grasp Christianity through images that unfold over time can truly understand it. The deeper content of Christianity cannot be even remotely compared to what appears in spatial images, not even in the gigantic, magnificent spatial images of the Temple of Solomon. Yet the Temple of Solomon, as well as the inner essence of Pharisaic and Sadducee life, contained the soul of the world consciousness of that time. Anyone seeking the soul of world consciousness two thousand years ago will find that soul at that time in Old Testament Judaism. Into this soul was planted the seed of Christianity—a new seed, so to speak, arising from all that could be expressed in space: that which can be expressed only in time. Becoming, set in relation to Being: this is the inner relationship of nascent Christianity to the soul of the world at that time, to Judaism, which stands in the Temple of Solomon but which collapses in the course of world history. Christianity was born into the soul that existed in ancient Judaism.

[ 14 ] Christianity sought the spirit in Greek culture. Just as Christianity sought the soul in Judaism, so it sought the spirit in Greek culture. The Gospels themselves, as they have been handed down to the world—apart from what has not been handed down—and as they have spread out into the world, have essentially been shaped by the Greek spirit. The ideas through which the world was able to conceive of Christianity are the wisdom of the Greek spirit. The first apologetic writings of the Church Fathers were published in Greek. Just as Christianity was born into the soul that Judaism provided for the people of that time, so this Christianity was born into the spirit that Hellenism provided for the people of that time.

[ 15 ] Roman civilization, however, provided the body. For its time, Roman civilization was essentially what could bring about the external organization and the concept of the empire. Judaism was the soul, Hellenism was the spirit, and Roman civilization was the body—the body, of course, in the sense that the social structure of humanity is a body. Roman civilization is essentially the shaping of external inclinations and institutions, and the ideas about these external institutions live within the institutions themselves: the corporeal in historical being, the corporeal in historical becoming. Just as Christianity was born into the soul of Judaism and into the spirit of Greek culture, so it was born into the body of the Roman Empire. Superficial minds even believe that everything Christianity encompasses can be explained in terms of Judaism, Greek culture, and Roman culture. Well, just as materialistic natural scientists believe that everything within a human being is derived from their parents, grandparents, and so on, without considering that the soul comes from spiritual realms and merely wraps the body around itself like a garment, so too are such superficial minds inclined to say that Christianity consists only of what it has actually wrapped itself in. The essence of Christianity naturally enters the world with Christ Jesus himself, but this Christianity is born into the Jewish soul, the Greek spirit, and the body of the Roman Empire. Viewed through the lens of the Christmas message, this is, in a sense, the birth of Christianity itself.

[ 16 ] It is important not to regard this idea merely as an external, theoretical one, but to truly deepen it into a Christmas idea—to learn, as it were, to see what kind of sustaining power this idea can actually have in relation to the spirit being reborn, which, as I recently mentioned here, enters into the unfolding of the world together with the spirits of the personality. That which seeks to take root in the unfolding of the world must first struggle its way through what remains of the old. This is, after all, the mystery of the unfolding of the world: that there is, so to speak, a normal, ongoing development, and a Luciferic and Ahrimanic remnant that modifies and disrupts it, yet also, in a certain way, sustains the progressive unfolding of the world. I have often pointed this out: One cannot simply flee from this Ahrimanic-Luciferic element; one must calmly face it, one must consciously oppose it, but one must not simply let these things happen to oneself unconsciously. In a sense, shadows of the world impulses remain, which continue to have an effect even when the new has already arrived, but whose Luciferic or Ahrimanic character must be seen through. This Ahrimanic-Luciferic element must continue to accompany evolution, but it must not be absolutized; its Luciferic and Ahrimanic character must be seen through. There are residual, shadow-like elements from the Temple of Solomon, residual shadow-like elements from Greek civilization, and residual shadow-like elements from the Roman Empire. Nearly two thousand years ago, it was taken for granted that Christianity was born out of these three—soul, spirit, and body. But soul, spirit, and body could not disappear immediately. They continued to exert an influence in a certain way. Today is the time when this fact must be understood, when the complete uniqueness of the Christ impulse itself must be understood.

[ 17 ] A shadow remains even of the most essential essence of the esoteric Old Testament, of the mysteries of Solomon’s Temple; a shadow remains of Greek civilization, and a shadow remains of the Roman Empire. We must learn to distinguish the shadows from the light. This will be humanity’s task from the present into the near future: to distinguish the shadows from the light in the proper way.

[ 18 ] We see the shadow of the Roman Empire in Roman Catholicism today. This shadow is not Christianity; it is the shadow of the ancient Roman Empire, into which Christianity had to be born, and in whose forms still lives on that which at that time had to take shape as the structure of Christianity. But we must learn—humanity must learn—to distinguish the shadow of the ancient Roman Empire from Christianity. The constitution of the Catholic Church does not contain what constitutes the essence of Christianity; indeed, this is entirely absent from the constitutions of the Christian churches. What lives on in the constitution of these Christian churches is what existed in the Roman Empire from Romulus to Emperor Augustus—what developed there. The illusion arises solely from the fact that Christianity was born into this body.

[ 19 ] Even the Temple of Solomon has been left behind in this regard, like a shadow. With a few exceptions, the mysteries of the Temple of Solomon have been almost entirely absorbed into all the Masonic and other secret societies of the present day. Just as the Roman Church is the shadow of the ancient Roman Empire, so too—no matter what they may claim, even if they exclude Judaism—is that which lives on through these societies the shadow of ancient Judaism, the shadow of the esoteric worship of Jehovah. Again, a distinction must be made between the shadow and the light, just as a distinction must be made between the shadow—as expressed in the enduring Latin Empire within the Catholic Church and in the churches in general—and the light. Just as the shadow must be distinguished from the light that shines in Christianity, so too must we distinguish that into which Christianity was meant to be born as a soul, but which continues to work as a shadow in those societies whose foundations are rooted in symbolism—symbolism reminiscent of Solomon’s.

[ 20 ] These things must be recognized. These things must be viewed correctly; however, in our time, they must be examined in light of the new revelations we have been discussing these past few days.

[ 21 ] The shadow of the Greek spirit, into which Christianity was bound to be born—that is now, despite all the beauty of Greek culture, despite all its aesthetic and other significant content, despite the influence that Greek culture has on us—is the modern worldview of the educated world, which has led to this terrible catastrophe befalling humanity. When Greek culture was alive with its own worldview, it was something else entirely. Everything is right in its own time. If it is taken as an absolute, if it is carried forward in an antiquated form, then it becomes a shadow of itself, and the shadow is not the light; it can turn into the opposite of its essence. Aristotelianism still shows something of ancient Greek greatness; Aristotelianism in a new guise is materialism. That into which Christianity was born consists of a Jewish soul, a Greek spirit, and a Roman body; but these three have left their shadows behind. The call resounds like the blast of an angel’s trumpet through our time: to see through these realities to their true essence, to look through the shadows toward the light. Truly, whoever immerses themselves in the present age today, whoever impartially and without prejudice takes in what can be taken in—but which has become entangled in these terrible, painful realities of recent years—cannot help but at least perhaps turn their gaze to the question of whether some light must be sought—a light that shines differently in the darkness of the earth than those lights in which people today often wish to believe as the only lights left. Goodwill—that is what one should seek in order to find the path through the shadows toward the light. For the shadows will make themselves very much felt. The shadows will make themselves felt through those people who, for themselves, may have suffered little from the great sufferings of humanity in the present, and who have little or no sympathy for the immense pain that is tearing through the world—a pain that is in itself proof of how many of the ideas that have emerged were destined to foundered. Whoever attempts to survey with deeper understanding what is truly not difficult to see today, whoever has the good will to turn their gaze without prejudice toward what is happening among people today, will receive the impulse to seek the light. And one should attach some value to this inner impulse in the human soul today; one should not listen to those who—depending on the position they occupy—wish only to defend some old shadow, but rather listen to one’s own inner voice, which must speak clearly enough, provided one does not seek to drown it out with the clamor emanating from external assertions of shadow. . One will already be able to see for oneself today—if one looks, looks with empathy and compassion at what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen— one will already see that a strange figure, one that distorts true humanity, stands before people—a figure that wears robes woven from the shadows, a figure that unites within itself, in thoughts, sensations, feelings, and impulses of the will—that which has led humanity astray and is capable of leading it further astray. At the very core of what is happening on the outside lie the three characterized shadow thoughts.

[ 22 ] But whoever makes himself ready to turn his gaze toward this figure, whose garment is woven from shadows, also prepares himself in the right way to look toward something else: to look toward that tree which, even in the darkness, can already shine today with its lights; toward that tree which one beholds, if one does not allow oneself to be misled by the threefold existence of shadows, does not allow oneself to be misled by antiquated symbolism, by antiquated church traditions, by antiquated materialistic science, but looks with a pure heart at that which seeks to shine in the darkness as a true Christmas tree, beneath which lies the Christ Child, newly illuminated by the light of Christmas. This is ultimately what spiritual science, with an anthroposophical orientation, seeks to do: to seek the Christmas light, so that the Christ Child, who entered the world first to work and then to be understood, may gradually be understood. In a humble way, to shed light on the greatest of events in earthly existence—this is what spiritual science with an anthroposophical orientation seeks to do within the religious currents of humanity. One will not understand this light—which this spiritual science seeks to recognize as its Christmas light—unless one has the will to truly penetrate the threefold shadow existence of our time. These are serious times. And those who lack the good will to take these times seriously may not yet be able, in this incarnation, to look upon that which should truly be present at this time for every person of good will—as a healing for so many wounds that would otherwise still have to be inflicted upon humanity. A person of good will today must look to that which can appear when the Christmas light of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science is kindled. The light is truly small, and those who profess faith in this light remain humble. They do not wish to extol this light to the world as something special, for they know that today it can still burn only faintly and insignificantly, and that many people and many generations must come before what burns so faintly today can burn more strongly. But even if the light burns faintly, it shines toward something that does not have a faint effect within human-earth evolution, but rather acts powerfully as the deepest meaning of human evolution; it shines toward what we may call: the birth of Christianity, the Christmas Eve of Christianity. May people, alongside the Easter meaning of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, understand above all its Christmas meaning; may many souls, in this spirit, be able to look forward to the deepening of the series of nights that is to follow Christmas Eve: then these souls will be able to sense how a call is already going out through the world, urging us to look toward the appearance of Jesus, who awaits on earth the moment when he is to meet his death, in order to give new meaning to humanity and the development of the earth in his spiritual life after death.

[ 23 ] Let us feel something of this Christmas spirit, which is meant to flow into our souls precisely through spiritual science! As I wish to express to you this feeling as a most intimate, spiritual Christmas greeting—that within you there may be an abundance of this festive spirit, which is open to receiving the new revelation of Christ with good will— I would like to festively begin this Christmas Eve at this moment, assuming that you are beginning it with the very seriousness I wished to speak of in my words today—a seriousness that is, however, appropriate to the current state of the world. Out of this seriousness, my dear friends, from the bottom of my heart: A holy, solemn Christmas Eve!