Illustrated World Conceptions (by Cleric)

[AshvinP]

Here is a simple example - that of the 'virgin birth'. The evangelicals dogmatically hold that the Bible teaches Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit and Joseph had nothing to do with conception of the Jesus child. Yet when we look at the actual content of the Gospels, particularly Luke and Matthew, we find geanologies traced out in great detail for the precise purpose of showing how the lineages of Jesus go through Jospeh (and another father, since there were in fact two Jesus children to begin with). What would be the point of all that if Joseph actually had nothing to do with the birth of Jesus? We don't need clairvoyant perception here, just simple and sound reasoning. Do the critical scholars fare any better? No, they hold to the exact same dogmatic interpretation and then use that as a reason for dismissing the content, because it is absurd that a human child could be physically born without a human father. So the evangelicals and critical scholars are arguing over their own dogmatic illusions and the actual content has fallen by the wayside. We will find the same thing applies to many other aspects of scripture as well.

FYI, I found a great passage from Robert Powell explicating the difference between the genealogies which supported Steiner's observation of two Jesus children. Just think of how 'heretical' such an assertion is for both evangelicals and the skeptical Biblical scholarship. But, as we can see below, all it takes in this case is ordinary reasoning which has suspended adherence to pre-conceived dogma and has developed a living interest in penetrating beneath the surface. Then we can continue following the threads of our own independent reasoning ever-deeper, free from the rigid traditions on both sides. And if that doesn't happen, then there will instead be endless rationalizations to hand-wave away what is otherwise staring us in the face.

Now, in Rudolf Steiner’s description, he points to Jesus of Nazareth as descended from the line of Nathan, going back to King David. King David had many sons, and Nathan was the third son of David and Bathsheba. The genealogical line of Jesus of Nazareth is described in the Gospel of St. Luke, where Jesus of Nazareth can be traced back to Nathan.

Rudolf Steiner was one of the first to notice something in connection with this genealogy and he was the first to explain its significance in a deeper sense. It had been noticed by a others previously, but no one had been able to explain it adequately. The central point here is that in the Gospel of St. Matthew there is a different genealogy of Jesus, which, although also going back to King David, does so via his son Solomon, the most well-known son of David, who later became king of Israel. Solomon was the fourth son of David and Bathsheba—that is, he as the younger brother of Nathan.

Rudolf Steiner referred to this Jesus child, whose birh is described in the Gospel of St. Matthew, as the Solomon Jesus, whereas the Jesus child of the Gospel of St. Luke he referred to as the Nathan Jesus. The circumstances depicted in the Gospels surrounding the births of the two Jesus children are quite different. In the case of the Solomon Jesus child, he is born in his parental home—in a house in Bethlehem—and he is visited by the three magi. Whereas the parents of the Nathan Jesus come from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem, where the child is born in a cave there and is visited by the shepherds. By way of analogy with the three magi—three because of the gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh—it is often assumed that there were three shepherds, although the number is not specified in the Gospel (Luke 2:8-20).

Thus, the genealogies and the circumstances of their births, described in the Gospels, are quite different. As Rudolf Steiner points out, these births took place at different points in time. In relation to the birth of the Solomon Jesus child we read in the Gospel of St. Matthew of the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem—all male children less than two years of age were murdered at the command of King Herod the Great, whose goal was to have the Solomon Jesus child slaughtered, the birth of whom he had learned of from the three magi.

Rudolf Steiner indicates that the birth of the Nathan Jesus child must have taken place some time after that horrific event, which, because of the time that had subsequently elapsed, had consequently become more or less forgotten. Otherwise, Joseph and Mary, who was at an advanced stage of her pregnancy, would certainly not have made the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, if the murderous event ordered by King Herod had taken place only a short time before.

[Anthony66]

Steiner does a detailed review of the evolution of Christianity, the early church Fathers, and how the ancient Mysteries that were surviving after the Christ events were suppressed and why. GA 175 Lecture VIII - Building stones for an understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha.

Federica,

Thanks for that link, it is very helpful. I'm struck by the following passage:

In tracing the development of Christianity during the early centuries of our era we must bear in mind that it is difficult to comprehend this development unless we reinforce a purely historical enquiry with the findings of Spiritual Science. If we accept, purely hypothetically for the moment, the facts of spiritual-scientific investigation into this period, then a very remarkable picture unfolds before us. As we review this development during the early centuries we realize in effect that the Mystery of Golgotha has been fulfilled not only once — as an isolated event on Golgotha — but, in a figurative sense, a second time on the mighty panorama of history. When we study this period truly remarkable things are disclosed.

The first issue which started to shake my evangelical Christianity 20 years ago was the quest for the "true church" and the "true Christianity". I expended countless hours studying church history and trying to weave the various threads together. It turned out to be a fools errand. This led me to the field of higher critical scholarship and an undermining of contents of scripture. I've never recovered.

Anthony,

Maybe you were meant to find in spiritual science the means to connect those threads that you have been attempting to weave together for so long through exoteric historical reconstruction at first...
Steiner surely provides many more insights useful to reconstruct a comprehensive, but detailed, picture of the evolution and meaning of Christianity. I haven't read it - and it's just a tentative idea - but have you noticed his book Christianity as a Mystical Fact?
Other than that, I am afraid I can't say much more. Really, I know nothing about Christianity. I am sure Ashvin will be able to help you insightfully with your quest.

I certainly hope so. I have a strange mix of feeling like I might have arrived at the doorway of truth, having a vague understanding of what's behind the door, and having a level of discomfort due to the weird elements I have commented on before.

I have "Christianity as Mystical Fact" on my Kindle and it is the next book I'm going to read after the current "Meditations on the Tarot".

[Federica]

I certainly hope so. I have a strange mix of feeling like I might have arrived at the doorway of truth, having a vague understanding of what's behind the door, and having a level of discomfort due to the weird elements I have commented on before.

I have "Christianity as Mystical Fact" on my Kindle and it is the next book I'm going to read after the current "Meditations on the Tarot".

I hope these feelings really indicate that something significant is about to clarify for you, at the doorway of truth.

[LukeJTM]

Has anyone read this book by Rudolf Steiner called Riddles of Philosophy? Is it worth reading? Does it have much in common with PoF?
https://rsarchive.org/Books/GA018/Engli ... index.html

[AshvinP]

Federica,

Thanks for that link, it is very helpful. I'm struck by the following passage:

The first issue which started to shake my evangelical Christianity 20 years ago was the quest for the "true church" and the "true Christianity". I expended countless hours studying church history and trying to weave the various threads together. It turned out to be a fools errand. This led me to the field of higher critical scholarship and an undermining of contents of scripture. I've never recovered.

Anthony,

Maybe you were meant to find in spiritual science the means to connect those threads that you have been attempting to weave together for so long through exoteric historical reconstruction at first...
Steiner surely provides many more insights useful to reconstruct a comprehensive, but detailed, picture of the evolution and meaning of Christianity. I haven't read it - and it's just a tentative idea - but have you noticed his book Christianity as a Mystical Fact?
Other than that, I am afraid I can't say much more. Really, I know nothing about Christianity. I am sure Ashvin will be able to help you insightfully with your quest.

I certainly hope so. I have a strange mix of feeling like I might have arrived at the doorway of truth, having a vague understanding of what's behind the door, and having a level of discomfort due to the weird elements I have commented on before.

I have "Christianity as Mystical Fact" on my Kindle and it is the next book I'm going to read after the current "Meditations on the Tarot".

I came across a passage today which somewhat remarkably ties together a few different themes discussed recently on this thread, and even the other thread re: the nature of our freedom, as well the yet other thread where Luke asked about additional Steiner books to read, so I feel obliged to share it here. It also provides an overall helpful heuristic for concretely understanding the relation of spirtual to physical, esoteric to exoteric, through the experiential path of intuitive thinking.

Today, if we do not wish to be content with a general impression, but wish to form a realistic idea of the kingdom of God and the miracles of Jesus Christ, we may do so with the help of Rudolf Steiner’s writings prior to his anthroposophic publications. Such an idea (like any developed through spiritual activity) can become a window into spiritual reality. For example, after working through Steiner’s Mystics after Modernism and gaining a clear view of the thought process and the threads with which he wove that picture, we may wonder what he wanted to express through his picture of mysticism.4 A central idea, stated over and over in different ways in that work, begins to emerge—the sublime idea of the Friendship of God. This idea can be expressed in various ways—indeed, not only expressed, but also experienced by different mystics in various ways. Nevertheless, we have grasped its nature when we realize that the purpose of humankind is to actively intervene at the point where the created—what is finished in the world—ceases, thus furthering what has remained incomplete. In this way, human beings continue the work of God’s creation and thus become conscious coworkers, or Friends of God. This is how Tauler, for instance, conceived of the vocation of humankind; it was the significance of Paracelsus’ understanding of alchemy; it is also what Rudolf Steiner wanted to convey to his readers by means of the spiritual individuals in Mystics after Modernism, when he presented the souls of his readers with this great, illumining thought: At the point where the given, or completed, ceases, human beings can make real the being of what does not yet exist.

This thought, which shines from Steiner’s Mystics after Modernism, had already been elaborated by him in the two parts of Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path, both for knowledge from cognition and for action out of cognition in all its consequences for today’s consciousness.5 Rudolf Steiner shows that human knowledge comes into existence by adding something not given to observed, given facts—that is, by adding something from a different “kingdom.” Thus, an intuition of something hidden is added to what is observed. And this is how ethical human action arises from the fact that the creative results of moral imagination can influence a given situation. In other words, we can say that the finished natural kingdoms are present—as well as the human kingdom as it has manifested—but human beings can manifest yet another kingdom not yet realized: the kingdom of God. That kingdom is just as distinct in character and principle from this formed and finished world as the sermons and signs of Jesus Christ are distinct from nature and the “law of the elders.”

Indeed, the mentioned works of Rudolf Steiner lead to Christianity; in them we gain a pure and spiritually youthful relationship with the signs and sermons of Jesus Christ by seeing those sermons as proclamations of the new kingdom—the kingdom of heaven—and the signs as acts belonging to that kingdom. By using the ideas gained from Mystics after Modernism and Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path, the “miracles” of Christ become revelations of the most sublime moral imagination, and his discourses become proclamations from the kingdom of intuitions, from which we must draw the necessary strength to carry on the work of life. We can then add to this the idea elaborated in Steiner’s Christianity as Mystical Fact.6 This is the idea that Christianity is the realization of the ancient mysteries—that is, the symbols of the mysteries become mystical fact in Christianity. Thus, we experience through this second idea a kind of spiritual communion, free and clear in consciousness, just as through the idea of Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path we experience a kind of free, conscious, spiritual baptism. Through Intuitive Thinking (and similar works), we connect to Christianity as the impulse to collaborate in freedom with the further development of what has already come into being. Likewise, through Christianity as Mystical Fact, we come to Christ as the being behind this impulse, and who through his actions has altered the course of human destiny.

Tomberg, Valentin; Bruce, R.H.. Christ and Sophia: Anthroposophic Meditations on the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocalypse (p. 186). steinerbooks. Kindle Edition.

[Federica]

I came across a passage today which somewhat remarkably ties together a few different themes discussed recently on this thread, and even the other thread re: the nature of our freedom, as well the yet other thread where Luke asked about additional Steiner books to read, so I feel obliged to share it here. It also provides an overall helpful heuristic for concretely understanding the relation of spirtual to physical, esoteric to exoteric, through the experiential path of intuitive thinking.

Today, if we do not wish to be content with a general impression, but wish to form a realistic idea of the kingdom of God and the miracles of Jesus Christ, we may do so with the help of Rudolf Steiner’s writings prior to his anthroposophic publications. Such an idea (like any developed through spiritual activity) can become a window into spiritual reality. For example, after working through Steiner’s Mystics after Modernism and gaining a clear view of the thought process and the threads with which he wove that picture, we may wonder what he wanted to express through his picture of mysticism.4 A central idea, stated over and over in different ways in that work, begins to emerge—the sublime idea of the Friendship of God. This idea can be expressed in various ways—indeed, not only expressed, but also experienced by different mystics in various ways. Nevertheless, we have grasped its nature when we realize that the purpose of humankind is to actively intervene at the point where the created—what is finished in the world—ceases, thus furthering what has remained incomplete. In this way, human beings continue the work of God’s creation and thus become conscious coworkers, or Friends of God. This is how Tauler, for instance, conceived of the vocation of humankind; it was the significance of Paracelsus’ understanding of alchemy; it is also what Rudolf Steiner wanted to convey to his readers by means of the spiritual individuals in Mystics after Modernism, when he presented the souls of his readers with this great, illumining thought: At the point where the given, or completed, ceases, human beings can make real the being of what does not yet exist.

This thought, which shines from Steiner’s Mystics after Modernism, had already been elaborated by him in the two parts of Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path, both for knowledge from cognition and for action out of cognition in all its consequences for today’s consciousness.5 Rudolf Steiner shows that human knowledge comes into existence by adding something not given to observed, given facts—that is, by adding something from a different “kingdom.” Thus, an intuition of something hidden is added to what is observed. And this is how ethical human action arises from the fact that the creative results of moral imagination can influence a given situation. In other words, we can say that the finished natural kingdoms are present—as well as the human kingdom as it has manifested—but human beings can manifest yet another kingdom not yet realized: the kingdom of God. That kingdom is just as distinct in character and principle from this formed and finished world as the sermons and signs of Jesus Christ are distinct from nature and the “law of the elders.”

Indeed, the mentioned works of Rudolf Steiner lead to Christianity; in them we gain a pure and spiritually youthful relationship with the signs and sermons of Jesus Christ by seeing those sermons as proclamations of the new kingdom—the kingdom of heaven—and the signs as acts belonging to that kingdom. By using the ideas gained from Mystics after Modernism and Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path, the “miracles” of Christ become revelations of the most sublime moral imagination, and his discourses become proclamations from the kingdom of intuitions, from which we must draw the necessary strength to carry on the work of life. We can then add to this the idea elaborated in Steiner’s Christianity as Mystical Fact.6 This is the idea that Christianity is the realization of the ancient mysteries—that is, the symbols of the mysteries become mystical fact in Christianity. Thus, we experience through this second idea a kind of spiritual communion, free and clear in consciousness, just as through the idea of Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path we experience a kind of free, conscious, spiritual baptism. Through Intuitive Thinking (and similar works), we connect to Christianity as the impulse to collaborate in freedom with the further development of what has already come into being. Likewise, through Christianity as Mystical Fact, we come to Christ as the being behind this impulse, and who through his actions has altered the course of human destiny.

Tomberg, Valentin; Bruce, R.H.. Christ and Sophia: Anthroposophic Meditations on the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocalypse (p. 186). steinerbooks. Kindle Edition.

Thanks for sharing this, Ashvin. I notice the illustration of what you and Cleric referred to as the necessity to invent. This passage by Tomberg resonates particularly well, as I am coincidentally reading a very similar description of the new type of consciousness made possible by the sacrifice of Christ, in von Halle’s “And If He Has Not Been Raised - The Stations of Christ’s Path to Spirit Man”. These parallels between books and forum threads really are remarkable.

The Friendship of God is here called a new type of brotherhood and a new type of love, not anymore based on blood, but on a spiritual bond, which is signified for example in the words: “Whoever does not leave father, mother, brother, sister cannot be my disciple”. The ties of blood and family were severed through the process of individualization, through which every human being who consciously wants, can now develop the seed of the Resurrection body of Christ, and walk the way back towards the Spirit in conscious way, that is also without any need to leave the physical body behind, as the pre-Christian initiates had to do. Now the truth can flow directly from Christ to the individual, also without 'intermediaries'. Regarding the realization of the ancient mysteries in Christianity, I’m reading:

Christ inaugurates His Mysteries Himself and in fact before His death, which constitutes the actual Mystery. In this way, Christ reveals in advance several crucial basic elements of His new Mysteries, in order to facilitate a better understanding of the coming event for those who were around hIm and with Him, thus manifesting the law of ‘the effect preceding the cause’, which for our earthly understanding appears to be a paradox. (...) The spiritual world is distinguished precisely through its spacelessness, through timelessness. But now this property of the spiritual world descends down to the Earth with the Christ Being, breaking in the process the purely physical material laws. Nor is the phantom body [the willed development of the Resurrection body, by and within the human being] subject to any physical or material bonds. It can free itself from them. As a result, the events on the road to Emmaus no longer remain an inexplicable wonder.

[von Halle, J. (2007). And if He Has Not Been Raised. Temple Lodge Publishing]

Then the awakening of Lazarus, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Last-First Supper, are given, as three examples of the law of effects preceding the cause, given to mankind while Christ was still living on Earth, to indicate an advance effect of the Mystery, speaking of the future evolution of the individual, as a support to what Tomberg calls “the impulse to collaborate in freedom with the further development of what has already come into being.”

[AshvinP]

I came across a passage today which somewhat remarkably ties together a few different themes discussed recently on this thread, and even the other thread re: the nature of our freedom, as well the yet other thread where Luke asked about additional Steiner books to read, so I feel obliged to share it here. It also provides an overall helpful heuristic for concretely understanding the relation of spirtual to physical, esoteric to exoteric, through the experiential path of intuitive thinking.

Today, if we do not wish to be content with a general impression, but wish to form a realistic idea of the kingdom of God and the miracles of Jesus Christ, we may do so with the help of Rudolf Steiner’s writings prior to his anthroposophic publications. Such an idea (like any developed through spiritual activity) can become a window into spiritual reality. For example, after working through Steiner’s Mystics after Modernism and gaining a clear view of the thought process and the threads with which he wove that picture, we may wonder what he wanted to express through his picture of mysticism.4 A central idea, stated over and over in different ways in that work, begins to emerge—the sublime idea of the Friendship of God. This idea can be expressed in various ways—indeed, not only expressed, but also experienced by different mystics in various ways. Nevertheless, we have grasped its nature when we realize that the purpose of humankind is to actively intervene at the point where the created—what is finished in the world—ceases, thus furthering what has remained incomplete. In this way, human beings continue the work of God’s creation and thus become conscious coworkers, or Friends of God. This is how Tauler, for instance, conceived of the vocation of humankind; it was the significance of Paracelsus’ understanding of alchemy; it is also what Rudolf Steiner wanted to convey to his readers by means of the spiritual individuals in Mystics after Modernism, when he presented the souls of his readers with this great, illumining thought: At the point where the given, or completed, ceases, human beings can make real the being of what does not yet exist.

This thought, which shines from Steiner’s Mystics after Modernism, had already been elaborated by him in the two parts of Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path, both for knowledge from cognition and for action out of cognition in all its consequences for today’s consciousness.5 Rudolf Steiner shows that human knowledge comes into existence by adding something not given to observed, given facts—that is, by adding something from a different “kingdom.” Thus, an intuition of something hidden is added to what is observed. And this is how ethical human action arises from the fact that the creative results of moral imagination can influence a given situation. In other words, we can say that the finished natural kingdoms are present—as well as the human kingdom as it has manifested—but human beings can manifest yet another kingdom not yet realized: the kingdom of God. That kingdom is just as distinct in character and principle from this formed and finished world as the sermons and signs of Jesus Christ are distinct from nature and the “law of the elders.”

Indeed, the mentioned works of Rudolf Steiner lead to Christianity; in them we gain a pure and spiritually youthful relationship with the signs and sermons of Jesus Christ by seeing those sermons as proclamations of the new kingdom—the kingdom of heaven—and the signs as acts belonging to that kingdom. By using the ideas gained from Mystics after Modernism and Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path, the “miracles” of Christ become revelations of the most sublime moral imagination, and his discourses become proclamations from the kingdom of intuitions, from which we must draw the necessary strength to carry on the work of life. We can then add to this the idea elaborated in Steiner’s Christianity as Mystical Fact.6 This is the idea that Christianity is the realization of the ancient mysteries—that is, the symbols of the mysteries become mystical fact in Christianity. Thus, we experience through this second idea a kind of spiritual communion, free and clear in consciousness, just as through the idea of Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path we experience a kind of free, conscious, spiritual baptism. Through Intuitive Thinking (and similar works), we connect to Christianity as the impulse to collaborate in freedom with the further development of what has already come into being. Likewise, through Christianity as Mystical Fact, we come to Christ as the being behind this impulse, and who through his actions has altered the course of human destiny.

Tomberg, Valentin; Bruce, R.H.. Christ and Sophia: Anthroposophic Meditations on the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocalypse (p. 186). steinerbooks. Kindle Edition.

Thanks for sharing this, Ashvin. I notice the illustration of what you and Cleric referred to as the necessity to invent. This passage by Tomberg resonates particularly well, as I am coincidentally reading a very similar description of the new type of consciousness made possible by the sacrifice of Christ, in von Halle’s “And If He Has Not Been Raised - The Stations of Christ’s Path to Spirit Man”. These parallels between books and forum threads really are remarkable.

The Friendship of God is here called a new type of brotherhood and a new type of love, not anymore based on blood, but on a spiritual bond, which is signified for example in the words: “Whoever does not leave father, mother, brother, sister cannot be my disciple”. The ties of blood and family were severed through the process of individualization, through which every human being who consciously wants, can now develop the seed of the Resurrection body of Christ, and walk the way back towards the Spirit in conscious way, that is also without any need to leave the physical body behind, as the pre-Christian initiates had to do. Now the truth can flow directly from Christ to the individual, also without 'intermediaries'. Regarding the realization of the ancient mysteries in Christianity, I’m reading:

Christ inaugurates His Mysteries Himself and in fact before His death, which constitutes the actual Mystery. In this way, Christ reveals in advance several crucial basic elements of His new Mysteries, in order to facilitate a better understanding of the coming event for those who were around hIm and with Him, thus manifesting the law of ‘the effect preceding the cause’, which for our earthly understanding appears to be a paradox. (...) The spiritual world is distinguished precisely through its spacelessness, through timelessness. But now this property of the spiritual world descends down to the Earth with the Christ Being, breaking in the process the purely physical material laws. Nor is the phantom body [the willed development of the Resurrection body, by and within the human being] subject to any physical or material bonds. It can free itself from them. As a result, the events on the road to Emmaus no longer remain an inexplicable wonder.

[von Halle, J. (2007). And if He Has Not Been Raised. Temple Lodge Publishing]

Then the awakening of Lazarus, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Last-First Supper, are given, as three examples of the law of effects preceding the cause, given to mankind while Christ was still living on Earth, to indicate an advance effect of the Mystery, speaking of the future evolution of the individual, as a support to what Tomberg calls “the impulse to collaborate in freedom with the further development of what has already come into being.”

Thanks for sharing the von Halle passage, Federica, and for your accompanying comments. I have also ordered her book on the Descent of Christ, but it is taking awhile to arrive.

It is fasincating and inspiring to begin investigating all the ways in which the entire mystery of past and future human evolution was embedded into that 33 years of Jesus' life, and even into the 3.3 years of Christ Jesus. Unfortunately many religious people feel this in depth investigation to be a subtraction from the splendor of the Christ events, but that's only because they are still refusing to participate in the mystery of resurrected thinking. As you say, every individual can now develop the seed of the promised Resurrection Body, in faith, love, and hope, and that begins with the re-vitalization of our spiritual activity which steers our intuitive stream of becoming towards the high ideals of human existence.

A closer study shall be reserved for later, but here the point is to express the basic thought that the Word of Jesus Christ contains the impulse to the spiritual transformation of toil. This transformed toil is called pistis, or faith, in the Gospels. Faith here does not mean upholding the verity of one’s own (much less others’) ideas, but one’s grasp of a growing reality of the suprasensory world, making it the focus of one’s volition. What is already present can be either known or not known, but what lives as possibility in this world and reality in a higher realm can be (in terms of the Gospels) only believed or not believed. For example, we cannot know whether the Michael impulse will be victorious in the current spiritual conflict; we cannot know this, because the outcome of the conflict depends precisely upon whether the necessary faith in Michael’s work exists among human beings—that is, whether both an observant and a cooperative current of volition flows in from the human side. By simply recognizing the fact of that conflict, we are at least aware that it is happening; by making its outcome our personal concern, however, we develop a spiritual force that goes beyond merely witnessing the events to where we also help determine them. Such a purposeful grasp of the future is called “faith” by Jesus Christ.

Tomberg, Valentin; Bruce, R.H.. Christ and Sophia: Anthroposophic Meditations on the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocalypse (p. 187). steinerbooks. Kindle Edition.

[Federica]

I came across a passage today which somewhat remarkably ties together a few different themes discussed recently on this thread, and even the other thread re: the nature of our freedom, as well the yet other thread where Luke asked about additional Steiner books to read, so I feel obliged to share it here. It also provides an overall helpful heuristic for concretely understanding the relation of spirtual to physical, esoteric to exoteric, through the experiential path of intuitive thinking.

Thanks for sharing this, Ashvin. I notice the illustration of what you and Cleric referred to as the necessity to invent. This passage by Tomberg resonates particularly well, as I am coincidentally reading a very similar description of the new type of consciousness made possible by the sacrifice of Christ, in von Halle’s “And If He Has Not Been Raised - The Stations of Christ’s Path to Spirit Man”. These parallels between books and forum threads really are remarkable.

The Friendship of God is here called a new type of brotherhood and a new type of love, not anymore based on blood, but on a spiritual bond, which is signified for example in the words: “Whoever does not leave father, mother, brother, sister cannot be my disciple”. The ties of blood and family were severed through the process of individualization, through which every human being who consciously wants, can now develop the seed of the Resurrection body of Christ, and walk the way back towards the Spirit in conscious way, that is also without any need to leave the physical body behind, as the pre-Christian initiates had to do. Now the truth can flow directly from Christ to the individual, also without 'intermediaries'. Regarding the realization of the ancient mysteries in Christianity, I’m reading:

Christ inaugurates His Mysteries Himself and in fact before His death, which constitutes the actual Mystery. In this way, Christ reveals in advance several crucial basic elements of His new Mysteries, in order to facilitate a better understanding of the coming event for those who were around hIm and with Him, thus manifesting the law of ‘the effect preceding the cause’, which for our earthly understanding appears to be a paradox. (...) The spiritual world is distinguished precisely through its spacelessness, through timelessness. But now this property of the spiritual world descends down to the Earth with the Christ Being, breaking in the process the purely physical material laws. Nor is the phantom body [the willed development of the Resurrection body, by and within the human being] subject to any physical or material bonds. It can free itself from them. As a result, the events on the road to Emmaus no longer remain an inexplicable wonder.

[von Halle, J. (2007). And if He Has Not Been Raised. Temple Lodge Publishing]

Then the awakening of Lazarus, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Last-First Supper, are given, as three examples of the law of effects preceding the cause, given to mankind while Christ was still living on Earth, to indicate an advance effect of the Mystery, speaking of the future evolution of the individual, as a support to what Tomberg calls “the impulse to collaborate in freedom with the further development of what has already come into being.”

Thanks for sharing the von Halle passage, Federica, and for your accompanying comments. I have also ordered her book on the Descent of Christ, but it is taking awhile to arrive.

It is fasincating and inspiring to begin investigating all the ways in which the entire mystery of past and future human evolution was embedded into that 33 years of Jesus' life, and even into the 3.3 years of Christ Jesus. Unfortunately many religious people feel this in depth investigation to be a subtraction from the splendor of the Christ events, but that's only because they are still refusing to participate in the mystery of resurrected thinking. As you say, every individual can now develop the seed of the promised Resurrection Body, in faith, love, and hope, and that begins with the re-vitalization of our spiritual activity which steers our intuitive stream of becoming towards the high ideals of human existence.

A closer study shall be reserved for later, but here the point is to express the basic thought that the Word of Jesus Christ contains the impulse to the spiritual transformation of toil. This transformed toil is called pistis, or faith, in the Gospels. Faith here does not mean upholding the verity of one’s own (much less others’) ideas, but one’s grasp of a growing reality of the suprasensory world, making it the focus of one’s volition. What is already present can be either known or not known, but what lives as possibility in this world and reality in a higher realm can be (in terms of the Gospels) only believed or not believed. For example, we cannot know whether the Michael impulse will be victorious in the current spiritual conflict; we cannot know this, because the outcome of the conflict depends precisely upon whether the necessary faith in Michael’s work exists among human beings—that is, whether both an observant and a cooperative current of volition flows in from the human side. By simply recognizing the fact of that conflict, we are at least aware that it is happening; by making its outcome our personal concern, however, we develop a spiritual force that goes beyond merely witnessing the events to where we also help determine them. Such a purposeful grasp of the future is called “faith” by Jesus Christ.

Tomberg, Valentin; Bruce, R.H.. Christ and Sophia: Anthroposophic Meditations on the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocalypse (p. 187). steinerbooks. Kindle Edition.

Oh, this is such an inspiring understanding of faith as intention, that brings everything together. In a way, faith is understood here as freedom. By removing obstacles we can be observant, and by intention, we can be cooperative, and invent new spiritual force out of that faith-Love-freedom. When that principle is found, it nourishes itself and grows out of itself, through human intention.

PS. This is actually another von Halle book. By ignorance, I read the one about the descent within the Earth first, but this one - And if it has not been raised - is much more comprehensive, and comes definitely first. It gives a unique description of the various elements of the Mystery of Golgotha, both from a physical witness perspective, and an esoteric perspective, and I am constantly reminded of you while reading, because I realize that various points that are more or less lost on me, would be interesting to you.

[Federica]

Has anyone read this book by Rudolf Steiner called Riddles of Philosophy? Is it worth reading? Does it have much in common with PoF?
https://rsarchive.org/Books/GA018/Engli ... index.html

For my part, I haven't read it yet, but I'm pretty confident it's worth reading
Given the growing to-read pile of books that you also mentioned, I'm starting to wonder whether the ideal holiday is not some form of reading retreat

[Anthony66]

Steiner does a detailed review of the evolution of Christianity, the early church Fathers, and how the ancient Mysteries that were surviving after the Christ events were suppressed and why. GA 175 Lecture VIII - Building stones for an understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha.

Federica,

Thanks for that link, it is very helpful. I'm struck by the following passage:

In tracing the development of Christianity during the early centuries of our era we must bear in mind that it is difficult to comprehend this development unless we reinforce a purely historical enquiry with the findings of Spiritual Science. If we accept, purely hypothetically for the moment, the facts of spiritual-scientific investigation into this period, then a very remarkable picture unfolds before us. As we review this development during the early centuries we realize in effect that the Mystery of Golgotha has been fulfilled not only once — as an isolated event on Golgotha — but, in a figurative sense, a second time on the mighty panorama of history. When we study this period truly remarkable things are disclosed.

The first issue which started to shake my evangelical Christianity 20 years ago was the quest for the "true church" and the "true Christianity". I expended countless hours studying church history and trying to weave the various threads together. It turned out to be a fools errand. This led me to the field of higher critical scholarship and an undermining of contents of scripture. I've never recovered.

It is important to differentiate between the content of scripture and the dogma overlaid on top of that content. Just as we can differentiate between the fact of an interaction between brain activity and conscious experience, and the dogmatic theory that conscious experience must be produced by the brain activity.

Here is a simple example - that of the 'virgin birth'. The evangelicals dogmatically hold that the Bible teaches Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit and Joseph had nothing to do with conception of the Jesus child. Yet when we look at the actual content of the Gospels, particularly Luke and Matthew, we find geanologies traced out in great detail for the precise purpose of showing how the lineages of Jesus go through Jospeh (and another father, since there were in fact two Jesus children to begin with). What would be the point of all that if Joseph actually had nothing to do with the birth of Jesus? We don't need clairvoyant perception here, just simple and sound reasoning. Do the critical scholars fare any better? No, they hold to the exact same dogmatic interpretation and then use that as a reason for dismissing the content, because it is absurd that a human child could be physically born without a human father. So the evangelicals and critical scholars are arguing over their own dogmatic illusions and the actual content has fallen by the wayside. We will find the same thing applies to many other aspects of scripture as well.

That is the inevitable result of a world-conception which doesn't take its start from experiencing, refining, enlivening, perfecting, etc. the tool of thinking itself. Then people end up producing or demanding 'proofs' for their own dogmas, which are either absurd or are not forthcoming because those dogmas are figments of their imagination. Just as we can live and swim in the default materialistic dogma that the brain must produce thinking for many years before something of an idealistic nature alights within us and snaps us out of it, we can swim in religious dogmas and fight either for or against them for many years until something similar snaps us out of it. In my evangelical/apologetic phase, I accepted the 'virign birth' dogma for years and I never once noticed the obvious discrepancy mentioned above. I simply lacked the imaginative depth to resonate with deeper layers of idealistic-spiritual meaning within the content, sufficient to overcome the inherited dogma, even though it was staring me, like everyone else who studies the scripture, in the face. We can only hope to meet the descent and flattening of the sensory-conceptual spectrum with an ascent and expanding of our own cognition.

And the scripture itself tells us this:

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Now to Him being able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery having been kept secret in times of the ages

No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined for our glory before time began.

So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.

So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: "I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world."

If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?

(many more similar verses could be given)

That is the language of the mysteries and initiation. An 'order' of a priesthood was always known as a mystery school to people at that time. Again, it doesn't take clairvoyance to discern these things. All we need to do is open a history book which discusses the ancient mysteries and we will begin noticing all the parallels. The Christian esoteric path also allows us to begin, not only discerning the necessity of initiation for understanding the inner meaning of the script, but to begin actualizing that understanding. In fact, we can do that completely independent of the scriptures and then, when we revisit them after some time, we will intuitively understand how the spiritual truths underlying them could have not been conveyed in any other way for that time. The outer appearances of nature serve certain important purposes for the materialistic thinking of the modern era, but we know those appearances do not come close to exhausting their meaning. There was a recent discussion here on how to spiritually understand the manifestation of Light in the world. We shouldn't imagine it will be any different with the core religious texts.

The following passage speaks to this point as well:

This is what makes it possible for people to perceive anthroposophic truths directly. This descent of the head’s consciousness into the area of the larynx was what Dr. Carl Unger meant when he referred to “breathing in pure thinking as the first, albeit a shadowy, clairvoyance.”1 Such breathing in pure thought is, in fact, the basis of our hope that spiritual science will be accepted in the world. If the existence of formative etheric forces can be proved through scientific experiment—if it can be proved by philological and historic research that, for example, there really was an Atlantean civilization, and still it cannot be proved by experiment or by philology and history that, say, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim shape the just consequences of human life on Earth for the next life—nevertheless, we do not need merely to “believe” but can know, if we have the perceptive courage to steep ourselves in these suprasensory facts with all the force of calm thinking. The important thing is to have the courage to accept spiritual facts without requiring “sources” and “proofs.” Pure spiritual science can have no source but itself. It is the strength of Rudolf Steiner’s life work that its source is in itself; it contains in itself all that is needed to arrive at an honest and independent conviction.

Tomberg, Valentin; Bruce, R.H.. Christ and Sophia: Anthroposophic Meditations on the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocalypse (pp. 67-68). steinerbooks. Kindle Edition.

Of course many of the "dogmas" which the evangelicals hold to find presence in the early church, even in those who were taught by the apostles. The ecclesiastical churches (Roman, Orthodox) make make the case for the authenticity of their tradition based on the close relationship of the fathers to the apostles and their adherence to the father's interpretation of scripture. In contrast, Samuel Zinner, an ancient history scholar, makes the case that one can certainly identify the esoteric thread in Jesus' teaching which wasn't picked up in the orthodox church.

Regarding the concept of mystery, there is a sense in the NT that the past mysteries have now been illuminated in Jesus Christ. Paul talks about one such mystery being that the Gentiles were always going to be part of the body of Christ.