Christianity As Mystical Fact: And the Mysteries of Antiquity

Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner #CW 8

by Rudolf Steiner, Michael Debus (Afterword), Andrew Welburn (Translator)

Written 1902 (CW 8) “As simultaneously mysticism and fact, Christianity is a breakthrough in the historical development of humanity, for which the mysteries, with the results that they brought about, form a prior evolutionary stage.” ― Rudolf Steiner During the fall and winter of 1901–02, Steiner gave a series of lectures called “Christianity as Mystical Fact” to members of the Theosophical Society. The lectures were rewritten and issued as a book later that year. They mark a watershed in the development of Western esotericism. Steiner wrote of the idea behind his “The title Christianity as Mystical Fact was one I gave to this work eight years ago, when I gathered together the content of lectures given in 1902. It was meant to indicate the special approach adopted in the book. Its theme is not just the mystical side of Christianity in a historical presentation. It was meant to show, from the standpoint of a mystical awareness, how Christianity came into being. “Behind this was the idea that spiritual happenings were factors in the emergence of Christianity, which could only be observed from such a point of view. It is for the book itself to demonstrate that, by ‘mystical,’ I do not in any way imply a vague intuition rather than strict scientific argument. In many circles, mysticism is understood as just that, and therefore it is distinguished from the concerns of all ‘genuine’ science. “In this book, however, I use the term to mean a ‘presentation of spiritual reality’―a reality accessible only to a knowledge drawn from the sources of spiritual life itself. Anyone who denies the possibility of such knowledge in principle will find its contents hard to comprehend; any reader who accepts the idea that mysticism may coexist with the clarity of the natural sciences, may acknowledge that the mystical aspect of Christianity must be described mystically.” This is a significant book―for Steiner's own development, that of Western esotericism, and our own understanding of the Christ event. Readers will find the evolutionary development from the ancient Mysteries through the great Greek philosophers to the events portrayed in the Gospels. Included are an informative introduction and annotated notes by Andrew Welburn and an afterword by Michael Debus, a priest of The Christian Community, who summarizes the book and places it in context. This book is a translation from German of « Das Christentum als mystische Tatsache und die Mysterien des Altertum » (GA 8). Cover Photo of Bordeaux Cathedral by James Nicholls.

Genres: Religion, Spirituality, Philosophy, Christianity, History, Nonfiction, Mysticism

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1902

About the author

Author also wrote under the name Rudolph Steiner.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...


Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions,  differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.

Reviews

[Andrew Mattice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steiner's thesis is succinct and direct: spiritual knowledge can be won as confidently as scientific knowledge. In his pursuit of spiritual science, he does not disappoint. He avoids the pitfall that damns the vast majority of esotericists: making shit up. On the contrary, his treatment of religious history is thoroughly researched and proportionally convincing. He systematically validates pre-Christian spiritual traditions including Greek myth and philosophy, Hebrew scripture, Buddhist tradition, and Egyptian mythology. Many Christian apologists will seek proof of their faith through the disproof of others; Steiner instead demonstrates that pre-Christian religious traditions point to the same truth that is perfected in Jesus Christ. In fact, Steiner's most inspired philosophical victory is his convincing argument that B.C. giants such as Plato and Buddha are no less catholic (little "c"- universal) than Augustine or Aquinas. The modern reader is permitted to taste the fruits of pre-Christian thinkers without sacrificing orthodoxy. Steiner's greatest shortcoming is his neglect of post-Christian traditions; Islam is conspicuously absent from his treatise. In true philosophical form, this is a dry but ultimately worthwhile read.

[Connie Backus-yoder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took lots of notes for later reference. It has been my contention that God has established a thread of love and knowledge since the fall in Eden. Steiner believes this too and says that Jesus is the most important figure in history with his crucifixion and resurrection. A chapter on Augustine bears witness that true religion already existed among the ancients...when Christ appeared in the flesh was when that true religion began to be called Christianity.

[Andre · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of lectures from Rudolph Steiner challenges the reader to forget everything they already know about Christianity and approach it from a mystical perspective.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of this was repetitive and boring but I was fascinated by the summation of Christianity as the apotheosis of the Ancient Greek mystical initiation cults. New ideas to me.

[Ady ZYN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended!

[Roger Buck]

We enter the 21st C. We behold the steely cold forces of materialism that Rudolf Steiner called “Ahrimanic”. We see that the Anthroposophical movement which he hoped would be healing millions by now is like a damp squib compared to his hopes. Faced by this ascending cold as steel dehumanised society, what does one do. My answer involves what Steiner says here:

http://corjesusacratissimum.org/2011/...

These are very strange things indeed. That what he was so opposed to was the only wakeful consciousness within our sleeping civilization …

For reasons indicated at the above link that I do not wish to rate this book.
I simply want to say I have read it and that whilst Steiner served to free me from Eastern Theosophy and the New Age scene I found at Findhorn, Valentin Tomberg, in turn, provided me with a very different hermeneutic with which to engage Steiner.

I hope the above link however can contribute a little to the tangled issues involving Steiner and Tomberg - and why I believe this "very different hermeneutic" is necessary for a world plunging into dark mechanisation

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steiner lays out the importance of spirituality and science working together to create a comprehensive view of the world we find ourselves in. He frequently references Plato, Socrates, Philo and the teachings of Christ Jesus.

The presence of Christ as Jesus represents a turning point in humanity's spirituality. Through the death of Jesus, what was once kept secret from the public and only practiced by Mystery schools is now available to every person who genuinely asks the deep questions of life. Inner life, earthly life, universal life.

Steiner says that knowledge without spirit creates a deadening effect. We can investigate nature as far as we can, and then what? We can look deep into atoms and quantum theory and then what? When we find our answer, the question is "so what?" What can we do with this accumulation of knowledge? We have all this information about the material world, that can help us to be in our material world, but so what? Feeling becomes dead when all the questions have been answered. To remedy this is spirituality; connection with other humans, connection with the cycles of time, connection to what we have deadened through objectification with our microscopes and formulae. We have knowledge of and in an outer quality, can we have knowledge of and in an inner quality?

The chapter about Greek myths was challenging because I am unfamiliar with many of them. He discusses the intersections of these myths which I found myself lost with. I can see the value here, but I am afraid it may only speak to a small group of people.

Fantastic reading, especially for those of us who struggle with dogmatism of many Christian groups.

[Jon Adler · Rating 4 out of 5]

a solid read, bit long-winded at times but the chapters are brief enough to keep it from getting too dense. feels like an actual book, compared to transcribed lectures. little of the content was revelatory to me, being familiar with this branch of Steiner's thought as i am, but there was a lot of ideas i hadn't encountered before.

some other highlights, besides the awesome afterword: the irrelevance of the gospels' narrative disagreements; the uniqueness of Lazarus' resurrection as described in John's gospel; the symbolism of John's Apocalypse; the relevance of the Osiris myth to Christianity; the oral tradition of Dionysus the Aeropagite, handed down for centuries before being transcribed into a text.

the afterword by Michael Debus ties everything up well. the book itself ranges in its themes a good bit, so having a succinct recap at the end (with additional context from Steiner's life) helped the conclusions stand out to me.

[Dina · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a breadth of knowledge condensed into under 100 pages but I wasn't impressed. I suppose he is trying to tie up all beliefs before Christianity into emergence of Christ but its just written in such a mundane way that you literally wish he'd get to the point faster.

[Phillip Fitzsimmons · Rating 2 out of 5]

Steiner's lectures have the feel to me of an imaginative form of education that existed decades before the invention of television. They were a thing he could do that entertained the attendees to pass the time.

[Zsolt Farkas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The message being presented here, one of the evolution of the Mysteries towards Christianity as a public call towards initiation, is fascinating. The lectures are interesting but suffer from some of the typical dryness common in philosophical literature.

[Iancu S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting speculations about the links between Christianity and pre-Christian mysticism. But some of the hermeneutics, often introduced as "quite clear" or "obvious" were not so to this reader.

[Alfredo Acosta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Antique traditions associated with the solar logos

[Timo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A informative but somewhat meandering book with a tad too many Christianity based thoughts about spirituality for my taste. Not the best book about the subject but not the worst one either!

[Álvaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

La idea central del libro está bastante curiosa, de hecho hubo momentos en los que casi me convenció del todo. El problema vino casi al final, cuando tropecé con una supuesta cita de Platón que me dejó con la ceja arqueada, especialmente porque parecía encajar demasiado bien con la tesis del autor. Me faltó tiempo para ir corriendo a verificar su autenticidad, y qué sorpresa que la cita era falsa. Estuve a punto de castigar al libro con dos estrellas, pero en un arrebato de paciencia revisé el texto original en alemán, y descubrí que la culpa no era del pobre autor, sino de un traductor algo despistado que decidió marcar una cita donde no había tal cosa (si acaso parafraseo freestyle)

[Phillip Fitzsimmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

This reading is nicely done. It is much better than the other version that audible offered first. The earlier version starts out great but turns into an unacceptable Trainwreck because the reader didn't proof and edit the end of the performance.

This book is a great exploration of the influence of Platonism on the development of human thought that would result in Christian mysticism. air is good stuff and the reader's performance is consistent and professional. But this version.

[Denny]

I read this online and it is a great book, if you want to put your brain on the shelf and buy into a load of crap. i'm all about finding the meaning in what a book or research is saying, but not at the expense of believing a completely fabricated story. Everyone wants to put Jesus in their context instead of taking Him in His.