The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourth Lecture

[ 1 ] It has been a custom since the early days of Christianity to distinguish between Christmas and Easter by the fact that Christmas is a fixed holiday, set for a date approximately a few days after December 21—that is, the winter solstice—while Easter is set for a day determined by a certain constellation, but a constellation that, in a sense, connects the extraterrestrial with the human earthly realm at the same time. Tomorrow, after all, we will be under the sign of the first spring full moon, and the spring sun—which, after March 21, has just entered the sign of spring—will align with this spring full moon. So when the people of Earth once again celebrate the first Sunday—that day meant to remind them of their connection to the forces of the sun, the Sunday that follows the spring full moon—that is when Easter should be celebrated according to the Christian worldview. This makes Easter a movable feast. It is, so to speak, necessary to observe the constellations in the sky each year in order to determine the date of this Easter celebration.

[ 2 ] Such things were established at a time when traditions of wisdom still existed, rooted in ancient, atavistic clairvoyant abilities—traditions that provided people with knowledge far beyond what modern science can offer. In those ancient times, when such knowledge still existed, people sought to express their connection to the extraterrestrial through such things. And in such established practices there always lies a reference to what is most significant for human development.

[ 3 ] The fixed date to which Christmas is set suggests how closely this holiday is meant to be associated with the earthly realm, because it is intended to commemorate the birth of the human being into whom the Christ-essence then entered. But Easter is meant to commemorate an event that is significant not merely within the course of Earth’s evolution, but within the entire cosmic context in which humanity is situated. That is why the date of Easter should not merely be one determined by customary earthly conditions, but rather one that can only be established when human beings turn their thoughts outward toward the extra-terrestrial realm. And there is something even deeper underlying this determination of the variable date of Easter. It lies in the way in which humanity, through the Christ impulse, is to be freed from earthly evolution—from the forces of this mere earthly evolution; that humanity is to be freed through a knowledge of the extra-earthly—that is what lies within it. In a sense, it is a call to rise up to the extraterrestrial—that is what lies within it—and one might say, a certain promise from world history to humankind that they can become free from earthly conditions through the Christ impulse; that, too, lies within it.

[ 4 ] If we want to fully understand what is expressed in this statement—which we have just characterized—regarding the date of Easter, we can gain even greater insight by looking at the earliest mysteries surrounding the origins of Christianity, mysteries that have, to a greater or lesser extent, gradually become veiled for a certain period of earthly history from the materialistic view of the world—a view that has permeated human development since the beginning of the fifth post-Atlantean period and which it is now time to overcome. To view these circumstances appropriately, it is necessary to see how the figure of Paul intervenes in the development of the Christ impulse within the world-historical evolution of humanity.

[ 5 ] We must constantly remind ourselves of how the figure of Paul, in particular, influenced the development of Christianity. We can say: Paul had ample opportunity to learn, through observation and external physical perception, about the events in Palestine connected to the person of Jesus. Paul was not convinced by all that had influenced him in the physical world, for he was still among the opponents of Christianity even after these events in Palestine had already come to a physical end. Paul only became the Apostle to the Christians when he experienced the event on the road to Damascus, when he experienced the essence of the Christ impulse through something otherworldly, through the supersensible. Paul is precisely the one who was not convinced of the significance of the Christ impulse by physical-sensory impressions, but who needed the supersensible experience for his conviction. And this supersensible experience had a profound impact on Paul’s life. It was so profound that Paul became a completely different person. One could even say it was so profound that Paul became what one might call an initiate.

[ 6 ] Paul was well prepared to experience something like this. He was a man thoroughly familiar with the mysteries of the Jewish religion, with Jewish understanding, and with the Jewish worldview, and his knowledge had well prepared him to assess the event that presented itself to him as the Damascus experience. He was well prepared to speak about this event in a way that could convey a true perspective, a true understanding of it. Yet, I would say, only a faint reflection of what Paul actually experienced within himself comes to us through what is known as the Writings of Paul. There we do hear, however, that he speaks of the Damascus experience as one who, through this event, has gained knowledge of what lies beyond the veil of the sensory world in the realm of world events. We hear him speak in such a way that we recognize he is indeed capable of judging the entirely different nature of the supersensible world in contrast to this sensory one.

[ 7 ] If we compare the life of Paul—even in outward terms—with the outward, earthly experience of Christ Jesus, we find something most remarkable, which becomes clear only when we properly consider the development of humanity from the perspective of spiritual science. In this regard, I have often drawn your attention to how fundamentally different human beings were in terms of their organic-psychic development in other eras, and how they have changed in the course of their evolution from the Indian, Persian, Egyptian-Chaldean, and Greek-Latin cultural periods right up to the present day. For when we look back at the ancient periods of human development—as we have often discussed— we find that human beings remained capable of organic development well into old age; that they went through similar stages of parallel development between their soul and physical development well into old age; and that they now go through these stages only during tooth replacement, sexual maturity, and the early twenties. Humanity, in its general development, has lost the ability to experience such developmental transitions at a more advanced age. In very ancient Indian times, this parallelism between spiritual and physical development was experienced by people up to their fifties; later, in Persian and Egyptian times, up to their forties; and in the Greco-Roman era, up to the age of thirty-five.

[ 8 ] As I have often explained, we experience such a parallelism of the universal human nature—for ordinary consciousness—only up to the age of twenty-seven, and even then, what falls within the final few years is hardly noticeable. At the time when the Christ impulse entered human evolution, it was precisely the case that people—including those of the Greco-Latin peoples—continued to experience this parallelism right up to the age of thirty-three. And Christ Jesus lived his physical life on Earth for just long enough that, during those physical days on Earth, he participated in that life which unfolds in parallel between the physical organization and the spiritual-soul organization. Then he passed through the gate of death, leaving earthly life behind.

[ 9 ] What this passing through the gate of death means can only be understood from a spiritual-scientific perspective, if one is able to look into the supersensible worlds. For this is not an event that can be grasped through what takes place in the sensory world.

[ 10 ] Paul was about the same age as Christ Jesus himself when he was a physical human being. He spent exactly the same amount of time in the realm of the Antichrist as Christ Jesus did during his earthly ministry. And during the second half of his life, he experienced what came to him through supersensory experiences. In the second half of his life, through supersensory experience, he experienced what human beings had not been able to experience through sensory experience in the second half of their lives since those days, because human beings no longer experienced a parallelism between soul-spiritual development and physical development as they entered those higher earthly days—beyond the age of thirty-five. And the event of Golgotha presented itself to Paul in such a way that, through direct enlightenment, he gained an understanding that human beings once possessed in an atavistic form through primordial wisdom—an understanding they can attain in more recent times only through a new spiritual science. It was bestowed upon him so that he might become the inspiration for a true understanding of what the Christ impulse has accomplished for humanity.

[ 11 ] Paul continued to walk the earth for about as long as Christ had walked the earth—roughly until he was sixty-seven or sixty-eight years old—in order to introduce the teachings of Christianity into the course of earthly development for just as long. There is a remarkable parallel between the life of Christ Jesus and the life of Paul. Except that the life of Christ Jesus was filled with the inner being of Christ, whereas Paul experienced such a powerful, initiated re-living of this event that he was able to be the first among humanity to bring forth the corresponding concepts of Christianity—over a period of time roughly corresponding to the life of Christ Jesus on Earth. To consider the connection between what was exemplified for humanity’s earthly evolution through the life of Christ Jesus and what was taught by Paul about the Christ Being—to view this connection in the right way—actually means a great deal to human beings. However, one must experience this connection in such a way that it truly appears as the result of the supersensible influence exerted upon Paul. And if modern theology has even gone so far as to explain the event at Damascus as a kind of hallucination, as a kind of illusion, this merely testifies that modern theology, too, has descended into materialism; that modern theology, too, no longer understands the nature of the supersensible world or the significance of an understanding of the supersensible world for a correct grasp of the essence of Christianity.

[ 12 ] We really ought to admit today—seriously and honestly—that it is difficult to immerse ourselves in the very different ways of thinking—so different from our own today—that are found in the Gospels and in Paul’s letters. But we have become so accustomed to not even considering such ideas anymore. Basically, it is very, very difficult for a person who is completely imbued with the conceptual habits of the present to interpret Paul’s words correctly. Even a large number of today’s theologians strive to interpret the Damascus event as materialistically as possible; indeed, a number of theologians—while still claiming to be true Christians—even go so far as to deny the actual resurrection of Christ Jesus! In doing so, these individuals merely demonstrate that they are not inclined to apply any insight into the supersensible to the essence of Christianity or to the appearance of Christ Jesus within the course of Earth’s evolution. The fact that the figure of Paul stands, so to speak, at the forefront of the Christian tradition—that is, that the figure of one who has come through supersensible . experiences has come to understand Christianity. It is, in a sense, a statement that Christianity is impossible to understand unless one takes refuge in insights drawn from the sources of the supersensible. It is necessary to view the figure of Paul as that of one initiated into the supersensible contexts of the world. It is necessary to view what he strove to teach humanity in this light.

[ 13 ] Let us try, in our modern language, to bring to mind some of what, it seems, was of particular importance to Paul the initiate. Of particular importance to Paul was the indication of an entirely new perspective regarding humanity’s relationship to world evolution, which came through the impulse of Christ Jesus. It was important to him to say: The course of world evolution—which included the ancient pagan experiences—has come to an end for humanity. New experiences of human soul life are here; they only need to be recognized by people. — With this, Paul had already pointed to that deepest turning point in human earthly evolution, to which one should, in fact, point again and again if one wishes to understand true history. When we look back at pre-Christian development—specifically at those times that were still particularly characteristic because they still possessed, in a radical way, the most outstanding qualities of the pre-Christian era—we can say: the entire human perspective was different then. Certainly, a complete transformation did not occur in a single moment; yet the event at Golgotha is the one that bears witness to how, in the development of humanity, one phase is separated from another. The event at Golgotha marks the end of that phase of development in which people, while perceiving the sensory world, also had a perception of the spiritual. As much as this is foreign to modern people, and as implausible as it may seem to them, the fact is that in pre-Christian times people generally perceived the spiritual alongside the sensory. They did not see merely trees, not merely plants; they saw the spiritual in the trees and the spiritual in the plants. But the cultural foundation for this perception had come to an end as the event of Golgotha approached. A new element was to intervene in human development. If a person perceives the spiritual in the physical and sensory things of their surroundings, their consciousness cannot develop in such a way that the impulse toward freedom arises within them. The emergence of this impulse toward freedom must be accompanied, so to speak, by a detachment of the human being from the divine-spiritual realm when he looks out merely into the external world. This impulse toward freedom must be linked to the necessity of drawing the perception of the spiritual up from the deepest power of the soul.

[ 14 ] This is part of what Paul in particular wanted to reveal to humanity: that in the times when people were merely the descendants of Adam—in those ancient times—people did not need to draw an active experience from within themselves in order to see the divine-spiritual, because, with everything that lived in the air and on the earth, this divine-spiritual confronted them as something demonic. But this coexistence with the divine-spiritual through the illusion of the senses was to be overcome for humanity—or at least gradually come to be so. And the time was to draw near when human beings would need to first raise themselves up to the divine-spiritual through active, inner effort. Humanity was to learn to understand the words: “My kingdom is not of this world.” Humanity was not to cling to a divine-spiritual reality that seeks to emerge from the sensory world. Humanity should find the path to a divine-spiritual realm that must be fought for inwardly and attained through inner development.

[ 15 ] The reason Paul is understood so trivially today is that people repeatedly fall into the habit of translating what he said into their own language—the language of our materialistic present. He is understood so trivially that one might call a “dreamer” anyone who says the following—which is, however, entirely true—about the content of Paul’s language. Paul perceived it as a great crisis of the world that, as it were, the old, sensory-spiritual perception was fading into twilight, and that a new perception of the spiritual—one to be attained through inner initiative and not coexisting simultaneously with sensory perception—was to emerge, as if in a new realm of light. Paul knew from his supersensible initiatory experience that Christ Jesus has been connected with the earthly development of humanity ever since the Resurrection. But he also knew that, although Christ Jesus walks upon the earth, he can only be found by summoning one’s inner power of vision, not through mere sensory perception. Anyone who seeks to reach him through mere sensory perception must be deceived about him; such a person must mistake some demon for the Christ.

[ 16 ] This was precisely what Paul repeatedly taught those in his congregation who were capable of understanding: that one should not approach Christ through the old practice of demon-gazing, for in doing so one would most certainly mistake a false entity for Christ. Therefore, Paul strove to dissuade people from focusing on the demons of the air and the earth, which must have been quite familiar to them in earlier times, because atavistic—and now unjustified—abilities to perceive them had remained. On the other hand, Paul never tired of exhorting people again and again to develop that inner power through which they could come to understand that a completely new impulse, a completely new being, had entered into the Earth’s evolution: Christ will come to you again, if only you can find your way out of the mere sensory-physical perception of the Earth. Christ will come to you again, for he is here. He must come again only for you. He is here through the event of Golgotha; you need only find him.

[ 17 ] This is what Paul proclaimed in his own language—a language that, at the time, had a very different spiritual resonance than what people today, in hindsight, translate into what is popular with them now; it sounded quite different back then than it does today when read in Paul’s writings. This is what Paul sought time and again to awaken as a conviction in people. He wanted to awaken the conviction that one needs a different way of seeing than the one sufficient for the sensory world if one is to understand Christ.

[ 18 ] In contrast, humanity today has progressed to the point where it still speaks of the contrast between external, sensory science and faith. Modern theology allows external, sensory science to be complex, objective, and dependent on learning; it does not allow this of faith. Faith—as is emphasized time and again—is supposed to appeal to the most childlike aspect of human nature, to that which requires no learning at all.

[ 19 ] This is precisely what has shaped the character of that view which denies even the Damascus experience as an event corresponding to reality, and which seeks to regard the Damascus experience merely as a kind of hallucination on the part of Paul. But if the Damascus experience was merely a hallucination—or, I might also say, if the Damascus experience was what a large number of modern ‘theologians’ claim it to be—then one would also have to have the courage to say: “Away with Christianity as quickly as possible”—for then the greatest nonsense associated with Christianity would have found its way into humanity.

[ 20 ] That is what would actually be necessary in the face of the newer theological teachings—if people would, first of all, take these newer theological teachings seriously and, second, be courageous enough to do so; but they do neither take them seriously nor act courageously. They shy away from mere external, sensory knowledge, deny the inner, real impulse of the Damascus experience, yet still cling to Christianity. It is precisely in such matters that the inner, soul-spiritual ills of our time are expressed most clearly, for in such matters the deep inner untruth of our time is revealed. The truth must be acknowledged: Either the Damascus experience was a reality—something that refers to a reality—in which case Christianity has meaning; or the Damascus experience was what modern theology claims it to be—one that seeks to conform to modern science—in which case Christianity has no meaning. This is so important that people should bring such matters to the forefront of their souls in our time, which is, in fact, a time of severe trial. For insofar as people have become untruthful to themselves inwardly regarding their most sacred matters—insofar as they have become untruthful in the sense that what they call Christianity should no longer be called that—the tendency toward untruth, often unconscious but no less pernicious for that, has taken hold of humanity. And that is why this tendency toward untruth exists. That is why this tendency toward untruth is so intrinsically linked to the events that must now lead to the complete decadence of European cultural life, unless this European cultural life comes to its senses in time and turns toward spiritual insight.

[ 21 ] To turn toward spiritual insight, it is truly not enough, in this time of severe trials, to remain stuck in the small things; rather, it is enough only to truly grasp the depths of things and to reflect on the necessity of great transformations, especially in our time. It must be emphasized again and again: What, after all, does a festival such as Easter really mean today for a large part of humanity? As Easter approaches for a large part of humanity, the thoughts that arise during this festival among those with whom one still wishes to celebrate it tend to be these: clinging to old ways of thinking, speaking largely in the old language, continuing more or less automatically, and reciting the same formulas one has been accustomed to reciting for a long time. But do we have the right today to recite these old formulas, when we notice everywhere around us a reluctance to participate in the great, necessary transformation of our times? Can we rightly invoke the words of St. Paul: “Not I, but Christ in me,” when we are so unwilling to look at what has brought great misfortune upon humanity in recent times? Must it not be precisely in connection with the Easter festival that we come to understand clearly what has befallen humanity, and what alone can lead us out of the catastrophe: supersensible knowledge? If the Easter festival—whose significance rests on supersensible knowledge (for what the Easter festival signifies, namely the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, can never be merely a sensory perception)—were taken seriously, should humanity not be mindful that the supersensible must once again find its way into human understanding? Shouldn’t the thought arise today: The hypocrisy of modern culture stems from the fact that we ourselves could no longer take such things seriously—such as what we recognize as our holy festivals?

[ 22 ] We celebrate Easter, the Feast of the Resurrection, and have long since stopped trying to seriously understand the Resurrection out of a materialistic mindset. We are in complete opposition to the truth, and we seek every possible way to bring in worldly pleasures instead of the truth—worldly pleasures, for that is what they would be called, or must be called—when people celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection and believe in modern science, which, of course, can never appeal to such a resurrection. Materialism and Easter celebrations—these are two things that cannot possibly belong together, that should not possibly coexist. Nor is the materialism of modern theologians compatible with Easter today. We live in an age in which one of Central Europe’s most respected theologians has written about the “essence of Christianity,” and in which it has become possible to extol this “essence of Christianity” as something particularly outstanding. And in this “essence of Christianity” we certainly find the tendency not to take the actual Resurrection of Christ Jesus seriously; this is one of the hallmarks of our time. Yet this is something that should stir a deep sense of feeling in the hearts and minds of humanity today. But we will not escape this misery unless a true understanding arises regarding the hostility that modern humanity harbors toward the truth, and unless the things that once held such great significance in life are truly understood.

[ 23 ] It is necessary that the trend which emerged in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch—the trend toward scientific knowledge that is comprehensible and commensurate with human judgment—also extend to the knowledge of the supersensible world. For among the events that lie entirely within the supersensible world is the event of Golgotha. Among the events that can only be understood through supersensible concepts is the event at Damascus, as experienced by Paul. Whether one can truly sense something of the Christ impulse, or whether one cannot sense anything of it at all, depends on one’s understanding of these events. People today should set themselves a test, so to speak, by asking themselves: How do I stand, during the time that has been christened “Easter,” toward what constitutes supersensible knowledge? — For the Easter festival, by virtue of its timing alone, is meant to remind us of humanity’s gaze lifting from the earthly to the extraterrestrial. With regard to this gaze toward the extraterrestrial, modern humanity has reserved for itself nothing more than, at most, mathematics, mechanics, or, in more recent times, spectral analysis. These are the foundations through which they seek to gain knowledge of the non-earthly realm. They no longer have any sense of being connected to this non-earthly realm, nor of the fact that Christ came from this non-earthly realm and entered into the personality of Jesus.

[ 24 ] Take the ideas presented here very seriously. I have often drawn your attention to how refined minds, such as Herman Grimm, refer to the Kant-Laplacean theory—which, though modified today, remains essentially dominant. This solar system emerged from a primordial nebula; in the course of the nebula’s transformations and condensations, plants, animals, and even humans came into being! And going further: the Earth, once everything on it has found its grave and nothing more resounds out into the cosmos of what people have imagined as ideals and cultural creations—the Earth falling into the Sun like slag, and then, in an even later age, the Sun scattering itself throughout the cosmos—not merely burying, but annihilating all that humanity has created—this is a conception of the cosmic order that could not have arisen any other way in an age when people seek to comprehend the extraterrestrial realm solely through mathematical and mechanical knowledge. In a world where one merely calculates one’s way into things, or where one examines the properties of the sun with a spectroscope—in such a world, indeed, one cannot find the place from which Christ is said to have descended to connect with earthly life! A certain segment of humanity today, unable to make sense of its own thoughts, they would rather not engage with them at all, but to keep repeating the words they have learned from the Gospels and the Epistles of Paul—to parrot what they have learned there—without considering whether this is compatible with the insights they otherwise gain regarding the evolution of the Earth and humanity. But this is precisely where the deep inner untruth of our time lies: in the fact that people evade what really must be considered side by side—what must necessarily be considered side by side. They want to create a fog for themselves so that they do not have to think about these interconnected things together. People create this fog for themselves even when they celebrate festivals, when they speak of Easter, the festival of the Resurrection, while in reality they are far from forming a concept of this Resurrection, which today can only be grasped through spiritual-super-sensory knowledge.

[ 25 ] It is only possible for people today to associate one more feeling with the Easter festival when they reflect on how, indeed, a global catastrophe has come about in our time as well—by which I do not mean only the global catastrophe that occurred during the final years of the war, but rather that global catastrophe which consists in the fact that people have lost their conceptions of the connection between the earthly and the otherworldly. It is indeed necessary for people today to gain clarity and awareness of the fact that supersensible knowledge must rise from this grave of materialistic outlook. For with supersensible knowledge, the knowledge of Christ Jesus will rise from this grave. Essentially, there is no other symbol today that is more fitting for the Easter festival than this: the entire destiny of the human soul is crucified within the materialistic worldview. But human beings themselves—humanity—must do something so that what can arise from supersensible knowledge may rise from the grave of materialism.

[ 26 ] This quest for supersensible knowledge is itself something Easter-like; it is something that, when experienced, gives people the right once again to celebrate an occasion such as Easter. When you look at the full moon and sense how this full moon, in its manifestations, is connected to human beings—just as the reflection of the solar is connected to the lunar itself—remember that this new humanity must seek a knowledge of humanity, a self-knowledge of humanity, through which human beings appear as a true reflection of the supersensible. If human beings recognize themselves as a reflection of the supersensible, if they recognize themselves—in what they are—as constituted from the supersensible, then they will also find the path to the supersensible. It is, in essence, human arrogance that finds expression in the materialistic worldview, though it manifests itself in a most peculiar way; human arrogance through which human beings do not wish to be a reflection of the divine-spiritual, but through which they wish to be merely the highest of all animal beings. There, he is the highest. The only question is, in what respect is he the highest! This arrogance leads human beings to recognize nothing at all anymore except themselves. If only the scientific worldview would at least remain true to the truth, it would be its task to impress upon human beings again and again: You are the highest of those beings that you can conceive of. — The consequences of the worldview that today claims to be truly “scientific” are actually such that they ought to make people pale; they would show them the moral foundations from which it actually springs, even if these moral foundations remain largely unconscious. But truly, the era has already arrived in our time in which, in a particular sense, Jesus Christ has been crucified and put to death precisely in the realm of knowledge. And until people come to regard the present form of knowledge—which clings purely to the sensory—as the tomb of knowledge from which a resurrection must come, humanity will not be able to rise to those feelings and sensations that will be Easter-like.

[ 27 ] Therefore, above all else, we should keep this thought in mind today: There are traditions regarding an Easter celebration that is supposed to take place on the first Sunday after the spring full moon. As people of contemporary culture, we do not have the right to celebrate such an Easter today. How, then, do we regain that right? Let us connect the thought of Christ Jesus lying in the tomb—Christ Jesus, who at Easter overcomes the tombstone rolled over his grave— let us connect this thought with the other: that the human soul should feel the tombstone of mere external, mechanistic knowledge weighing upon it, and that it must strive to overcome the pressure of this knowledge, so that it may have the possibility not merely to make this a true profession of faith: “Not I, but the fully developed animal within me”—so that it may once again have the right to say: “Not I, but the Christ within me.”

[ 28 ] It is said that—presumably in England—a scholar well-versed in the natural sciences remarked that he would rather imagine that, as a human being, he had gradually worked his way up from an ape-like state through his own efforts to his present height, than that he, as a human being, should have fallen so far from a once “divine” height—just as his opponent, who could not bring himself to believe in purely scientific concepts, seemed to have fallen. Well, it is precisely such things that point to how necessary it is to find the path from the confession, “Not I, but the fully developed animal within me,” to the other: “Not I, but the Christ within me.” We should strive to understand this saying of Paul. Only then will it once again be possible for a true Easter message to rise from the depths of our souls into our consciousness.