Federica wrote: ↑Sat Jul 01, 2023 8:17 pm I was reading the lecture "Two paintings by Raphael". We know the first painting, the School of Athens, from a previous thread, and I thought the second one, The Disputation of the Holy Sacrament, fits well in this discussion.
Steiner wrote:The two paintings have to be studied together one after the other. They are an expression of what happened from the pre-Christian age down to the later part of the Middle Ages, and they express it in artistic form. Just imagine how great and mighty must have been the impression made upon a really sensitive soul who saw these pictures, first one and then the other, and said to himself: “I am myself inter woven into this onward path of Wisdom, which mankind follows in the course of evolution; I am part of it, I belong to the march of events as it is shown in these pictures.” For the man who understood the sense of evolution in those days really felt this.
That is a great little lecture, Federica, thanks for sharing.
As he said, there is so much depth of moral feeling and Wisdom revealed through Raphael's paintings. Perhaps the following from Tomberg will also provide some helpful feeling context for the 'Disputa'. It is taken from the letter in MoT on the Arcanum of The Judgment.
Tomberg wrote:The last judgement will be the last crisis. The Greek word for judgement is krisis (κρίσις), i.e. crisis. Friedrich Schiller said rightly that “the history of the world is the judgement of the world”, i.e. it is a continual crisis, the stages of which are “historical epochs”. The last judgement will therefore be the culminating point of history. It will be simultaneously the aim, the meaning and the summary of history—history condensed, i.e. the crisis that is in question in all the particular crises of history. For this reason Jesus Christ, who is the moral and spiritual centre of gravity of history, will be present there. The second coming will be the objective manifestation of the stake of history. In this sense Jesus Christ will be the “judge” at the last judgement. His presence alone will set in relief all that which is not like him, all that which is incompatible with him for the awakened conscience.
But he will not restrict himself to being present; he will participate in the last judgement and will take an active part, namely that of judge. But he will judge in his own way: he will not accuse, he will not condemn, and he will not impose punishments—rather, he will give forces to souls undergoing the trial that the awakening of conscience and complete memory entails. Christ’s judgement is the comforting of those who judge themselves and his eternal commandment addressed to those who judge others is: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone…” (John via, 7). It is thus that Jesus Christ judged during his life, thus that he judges now, and thus that he will judge at the last judgement.