Christianity as Mystical Fact
GA 8
10. The Essence of Christianity
[ 1 ] The fact that the Divine, the Word, the eternal Logos was no longer met only on a spiritual plane in the dark secrecy of the Mysteries but that in speaking about the Logos they were indicating the historical and human personality of Jesus, must have exercised the deepest influence upon those who acknowledged Christianity. Previously the Logos had been seen as reality only in different stages of human perfection. It was possible to observe the delicate, subtle differences in the spiritual life of the personality and to see in what manner and degree the Logos became living within the individual personalities seeking initiation. A higher degree of maturity had to be interpreted as a higher stage in the evolution of spiritual existence. The preparatory steps had to be sought in a past spiritual life. And the present life had to be regarded as the preparatory stage for future stages of spiritual evolution. The conservation of the spiritual power of the soul and the eternity of that power could be assumed from the Jewish esoteric teaching (The Zohar), “Nothing in the world is lost, nothing falls into the void, not even the words and voice of man; everything has its place and destination.”72The Zohar, II, 110 b. The one personality was only a metamorphosis of the soul which changes from personality to personality. The single life of the personality was considered only as a link in the chain of development reaching forward and backward. Through Christianity this changing Logos is directed from the individual personality to the unique personality of Jesus. What previously had been distributed throughout the world was now united in a unique personality. Jesus became the unique God-Man. In Jesus something once was present which must appear to man as the greatest of ideals and with which in the course of man's repeated earthly lives he ought in the future to be more and more united. Jesus took upon himself the apotheosis of the whole of humanity. In him was sought what formerly could be sought only in a man's own soul. What had always been found as divine and eternal in the human personality had been taken from it. And all this eternal could be seen in Jesus. It is not the eternal part in the soul that conquers death and is raised as divine through its own power, but the one God who was in Jesus, will appear and raise the souls. From this it follows that an entirely new significance was given to personality. The eternal, immortal part had been taken from it. Only the personality as such was left. If eternity were not to be denied, immortality must be ascribed to the personality itself. The belief in the soul's eternal metamorphosis became the belief in personal immortality. The personality gained infinite importance because it was the only thing in man to which he could cling. Henceforth there is nothing between the personality and the infinite God. A direct relationship with Him must be established. Man was no longer capable of becoming divine himself in a greater or lesser degree; he was simply man, standing in a direct but outward relationship to God. Those who knew the ancient Mystery-conceptions were bound to feel that this brought quite a new note into the conception of the world. Many people found themselves in this position during the first centuries of Christianity. They knew the nature of the Mysteries; if they wished to become Christians they were obliged to come to terms with the old method. This brought them into difficult conflicts within their souls. They tried in the most varied ways to find a balance between the divergent world conceptions. This conflict is reflected in the writings of early Christian times, both of pagans attracted by the sublimity of Christianity and of those Christians who found it hard to give up the ways of the Mysteries. Christianity grew slowly out of Mystery wisdom. On the one hand Christian convictions were presented in the form of the Mystery truths, and on the other the Mystery wisdom was clothed in Christian words. Clement of Alexandria (died 217 A.D.), a Christian writer whose education had been pagan, provides an instance of this: “Thus the Lord did not hinder us from doing good while keeping the Sabbath, but allowed us to communicate of those divine mysteries, and of that holy light, to those who are able to receive them. He did not disclose to the many what did not belong to the many; but to the few to whom he knew that they belonged, who were capable of receiving and being moulded according to them. But secret things are entrusted to speech, not to writing, as God confided the unutterable mystery to the Logos, not to the written word.”—“God gave to the church some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”73Augustine's Confessions, Book XIII, 38. The Loeb Library translation runs: “We therefore behold these things which thou hast created, because they are; but they are, because thou seest them. And we see without, that they are, and within, that they are good.” Another translation also reads: “... And we see without that they are, and within that they are good.” By the most diverse means personalities tried to find the way from the ancient conceptions to the Christian ones. And each of them, believing he was on the right path, called the others heretics. Side by side with the latter, the Church grew stronger as an external institution. The more power it gained the more the path recognized as the right one by the decisions of councils took the place of personal investigation. It was for the Church to decide who deviated too far from the divine truth which it guarded. The concept of a “heretic” took firmer and firmer shape. During the first centuries of Christianity the search for the divine path was a much more personal matter than it became later. A long distance had to be traveled before Augustine's conviction could become possible: “I should not believe the Gospel except as moved by the authority of the Church.
[ 2 ] The conflict between the method of the Mysteries and that of the Christian religion acquired a special stamp through the various “Gnostic” sects and writers. We may class as Gnostics all the writers of the first Christian centuries who sought for a deeper spiritual sense in Christian teachings. (A brilliant account of the development of Gnosis is given in G. R. S. Mead's book mentioned above, Fragments of a Faith Forgotten.) We understand the Gnostics when we look upon them as saturated with the ancient wisdom of the Mysteries and striving to understand Christianity from that point of view. For them Christ is the Logos. As such He is above all of a spiritual nature. In His primal essence He cannot approach man from without. He must be awakened in the soul. But the historical Jesus must bear some relationship to this spiritual Logos. This was the crucial question for the Gnostics. Some settled it in one way, some in another. The essential point common to them all was that to arrive at a true understanding of the Christ-idea, mere historical tradition was not sufficient, but that it must be sought either in the wisdom of the Mysteries or in the Neoplatonic philosophy which was derived from the same source. The Gnostics had faith in human wisdom, and believed it capable of bringing forth a Christ by whom the historical Christ could be measured. In fact, through the former alone could the latter be understood and beheld in the right light.
[ 3 ] From this point of view the doctrine given in the books of Dionysius the Areopagite is of special interest. It is true that there is no mention of these writings until the sixth century. But it matters little when and where they were written; the point is that they give an account of Christianity which is clothed in the language of Neoplatonic philosophy, and presented in the form of a spiritual vision of the higher world. In any case this is a form of presentation belonging to the first Christian centuries. In olden times this presentation was handed on in the form of oral tradition; in fact the most important things were not entrusted to writing. Christianity thus presented could be regarded as reflected in the mirror of the Neoplatonic world conception. Sense-perception dims man's spiritual vision. He must go beyond the material world. But all human concepts are derived primarily from observation by the senses. What man observes with his senses he calls existent; what he does not so observe he calls non-existent. Therefore if he wishes to open up an actual view of the divine he must go beyond existence and non-existence, for as he conceives them these also have their origin in the sphere of the senses. In this sense God is neither existent nor non-existent. He is super-existent. Consequently He cannot be attained by means of ordinary perception, which has to do with existing things. We must be raised above ourselves, above our sense-observation, above our reasoning logic if we are to find the bridge to spiritual conception; then we are able to get a glimpse into the perspectives of the divine. But this super-existent divinity has brought forth the Logos, the foundation of the universe, filled with wisdom. Man's lower powers are able to reach Him. He is present in the structure of the world as the spiritual Son of God; He is the mediator between God and man. He may be present in man in various stages. For instance, He may be realized in an external institution, in which those variously imbued with His spirit are grouped into a hierarchy. A “Church” of this kind is the material reality of the Logos, and the power which lives in it lived personally in the Christ become flesh, in Jesus. Thus through Jesus the Church is united to God; in Him lies its meaning and crowning-point.
[ 4 ] One thing was clear to all Gnosis: one must come to terms with the idea of Jesus as a personality. Christ and Jesus must be brought into relationship with each other. Divinity was taken from human personality and must be recovered in one way or another. It must be possible to find it again in Jesus. The mystic was dealing with a degree of divinity within himself, and with his own earthly material personality. The Christian was dealing with the latter and also with a perfect God, far above all that is humanly attainable. If we hold firmly to this conception a fundamentally mystical attitude of soul is only possible when the soul finds the higher spiritual element in itself and its spiritual eye is opened so that the light issuing from the Christ in Jesus falls upon it. The union of the soul with its highest powers is at the same time union with the historical Christ. For mysticism is a direct feeling and experience of the divine within the soul. But a God far transcending everything human can never dwell in the soul in the real sense of the word. Gnosis and all subsequent Christian mysticism represent the effort in one way or another to lay hold of that God and to apprehend Him directly in the soul. A conflict in this case was inevitable. In reality it was only possible for a man to find his own divine part; but this is a human-divine part, that is, a divine part at a certain stage of development. Yet the Christian God is a definite one, perfect in Himself. It was possible for a person to find in himself the power to strive upward to this God, but he could not say that what he experienced in his own soul at any stage of development was one with God. A gulf appeared between what it was possible to perceive in the soul and what Christianity described as divine. It is the gulf between knowledge and belief, between cognition and religious feeling. This gulf does not exist for a mystic in the old sense of the word. He knows that he can comprehend the divine only by degrees, and he also knows why this is so. It is clear to him that this gradual attainment is a real attainment of the true, living divinity and he finds it difficult to speak of a perfect, isolated divine principle. A mystic of this kind does not wish to recognize a perfect God, but he wishes to experience the divine life. He wishes to become divine himself; he does not wish to gain an external relationship to the Godhead. It is of the essence of Christianity that its mysticism in this sense starts with an assumption. The Christian mystic seeks to behold divinity within himself, but he must look to the historical Christ as his eyes do to the sun; just as the physical eye says to itself, By means of the sun I see what I have power to see, so the Christian mystic says to himself, I will intensify my innermost being in the direction of divine vision, and the light which makes such vision possible is given in the Christ who has appeared. He is, and through this I am able to rise to the highest within myself. In this the Christian mystics of the Middle Ages show how they differ from the mystics of the ancient Mysteries. (See my book, Die Mystik im Aufgange des neuzeitlichen Geisteslebens. Berlin, 1901, Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age, Englewood, New Jersey, 1960, Volume 3 of the Centennial Edition of the Written Works of Rudolf Steiner, 1861–1961.)
Vom Wesen des Christentums
[ 1 ] Die tiefste Wirkung mußte es auf die Bekenner des Christentums ausüben, daß ihnen das Göttliche, das Wort, der ewige Logos nicht mehr in dem geheimnisvollen Dunkel des Mysteriums, als Geist allein, entgegentrat; sondern das sie, wenn sie von diesem Logos sprachen, immer auf die geschichtliche, menschliche Persönlichkeit Jesu gewiesen wurden. Vorher hatte man ja innerhalb der Wirklichkeit diesen Logos nur auf verschiedenen Stufen menschlicher Vollkommenheiten gesehen. Man konnte die feinen, intimen Unterschiede im Geistesdasein der Persönlichkeit beobachten und konnte sehen, in welchen Arten und Graden in den einzelnen Persönlichkeiten, welche die Einweihung suchten, der Logos lebendig wurde, Einen höheren Reifegrad mußte man als eine höhere Entwicklungsstufe des geistigen Daseins deuten. Man mußte die Vorstufen dazu in einem abgelebten Geistesleben suchen. Und das gegenwärtige Leben konnte man als Vorstufe von künftigen geistigen Entwicklungsstufen ansehen. Die Erhaltung der geistigen Kraft der Seele, die Ewigkeit dieser Kraft durfte man behaupten im Sinne der jüdischen Geheimlehre (Buch Sohar): «Nichts geht in der Welt verloren, nichts fällt der Leere anheim, nicht einmal die Worte und die Stimme des Menschen; alles hat seine Stelle und seine Bestimmung.» Die Eine Persönlichkeit war nur eine Metamorphose der Seele, die sich von Persönlichkeit zu Persönlichkeit wandelt. Das einzelne Leben der Persönlichkeit kam nur als ein Entwicklungsglied einer nach vorwärts und rückwärts weisenden Kette in Betracht. — Dieser sich wandelnde Logos ist durch das Christentum von der einzelnen Persönlichkeit hingeleitet worden auf die einzige Persönlichkeit Jesu. Was früher auf die ganze Welt verteilt war: das wurde nunmehr auf eine einzige Persönlichkeit vereinigt. Jesus ist der einzige Gottmensch geworden. In Jesus ist damit etwas einmal gegenwärtig gewesen, das dem Menschen als das größte Ideal erscheinen muß, mit dem er sich durch seine wiederholten Leben in der Zukunft immer mehr vereinigen soll. Jesus hat die Vergottung der ganzen Menschheit auf sich genommen. In ihm wurde gesucht, was vorher nur in der eigenen Seele gesucht werden konnte. Man hatte der Persönlichkeit des Menschen das entrissen, was in ihr selbst immer als Göttliches, als Ewiges gefunden worden war. Und man konnte alles dieses Ewige in Jesus schauen. Nicht das Ewige in der Seele überwindet den Tod und wird durch seine Kraft dereinst als Göttliches auferweckt, sondern was in Jesus war, der einige Gott, wird erscheinen und die Seelen auferwecken. Es war damit gegeben, daß die Persönlichkeit eine ganz neue Bedeutung erhielt. Man hatte ihr das Ewige, das Unsterbliche genommen. Sie war als solche, für sich, übrig geblieben. Man mußte, wollte man nicht die Ewigkeit leugnen, dieser Persönlichkeit selbst die Unsterblichkeit zuschreiben. Aus dem Glauben an die ewige Wandelung der Seele wurde der persönliche Unsterblichkeitsglaube. Eine unendliche Wichtigkeit erhielt ja diese Persönlichkeit, weil sie das einzige war, was man am Menschen festhielt. — Es gibt fortan nichts mehr zwischen der Persönlichkeit und dem unendlichen Gott. Man muß sich zu ihm in ein unmittelbares Verhältnis setzen. Man war nicht mehr in höherem oder niederem Grade selbst derVergöttlichung fähig; man war einfach Mensch und stand zu Gott in einem unmittelbaren, aber äußeren Verhältnisse. Wer die alte Mysterienanschauung kannte, mußte das als einen ganz neuen Ton in der Weltanschauung empfinden. In diesem Falle waren wohl zahlreiche Persönlichkeiten der ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte. Sie wußten von der Art der Mysterien; wollten sie Christen werden, so mußten sie sich mit dieser alten Art auseinandersetzen. Das mag sie In die schwierigsten Seelenkämpfe gebracht haben. In der mannigfaltigsten Art mögen sie einen Ausgleich gesucht haben zwischen beiden Richtungen der Weltanschauung. Die Schriften der ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte spiegeln diesen Kampf; sowohl die der Heiden, die von der Hoheit des Christentums angezogen werden, wie auch diejenigen der Christen, denen es schwer wird, die Mysterienweise zu verlassen. Langsam wächst das Christentum aus dem Mysterienwesen heraus. Christliche Überzeugungen werden in der Form der Mysterienwahrheiten vorgetragen; Mysterienweisheit wird in die Worte des Christentums gekleidet. Klemens von Alexandrien, der heidnisch gebildete christliche Schriftsteller (gestorben 217 n. Chr.) gibt davon ein Beispiel: «Gott hat uns nicht versagt, vom Guten auszuruhen in der Feier des Sabbats; denen, die es fassen können, hat er verliehen, an den göttlichen Geheimnissen und an dem heiligen Lichte teilzunehmen; er hat nicht der Menge geoffenbart, was sich für sie nicht schickt, sondern nur wenigen, für die er es geziemend erachtete, die es fassen können und sich darnach bilden, wie Gott das Unaussprechliche dem Logos vertraut, nicht der Schrift. — Gott hat der Kirche einige als Apostel gegeben, andre als Propheten, andre als Evangelisten, andre als Hirten und Lehrer zur Vollendung der Heiligen, zum Werke des Dienstes, zur Erbauung des Leibes Christi.» Auf die mannigfaltigste Art suchen die Persönlichkeiten den Weg von den antiken Anschauungen zu den christlichen zu finden. Und wer auf dem rechten Wege zu sein glaubt, bezeichnet andere als Irrlehrer. Daneben befestigt sich immer mehr die Kirche als äußere Institution. Je mehr sie an Macht gewann, desto mehr trat der Weg, den sie durch die Konzil-Beschlüsse, durch äußere Festsetzung als den richtigen anerkannte, an die Stelle des persönlichen Forschens. Sie entschied, wer zu weit abwich von der von ihr bewahrten göttlichen Wahrheit. Der Begriff des «Irrlehrers» bekam eine immer festere Gestalt. In den ersten Jahrhunderten des Christentums war das Suchen des göttlichen Weges viel mehr persönliche Angelegenheit als in den späteren. Es war erst ein langer Weg zurückzulegen, bis die Überzeugung des Augustinus möglich war: «Ich würde an die Wahrheit der Evangelien nicht glauben, wenn mich nicht die Autorität der katholischen Kirche dazu zwänge» (vergleiche Seite 108).
[ 2 ] Der Kampf zwischen der Mysterienart und der christlichen bekam eine besondere Prägung durch die verschiedenen «gnostischen» Sekten und Schriftsteller. Als Gnostiker kann man alle Schriftsteller der ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte auffassen, die nach einem tieferen, geistigen Sinn der christlichen Lehren suchten. (Eine glänzende Darstellung der Entwicklung der Gnosis bietet das obengenannte Buch von Mead «Fragmente eines verschollenen Glaubens».) Man versteht diese Gnostiker, wenn man sie ansieht als durchtränkt mit alter Mysterienweisheit und bestrebt, das Christentum von dem Gesichtspunkt der Mysterien aus zu begreifen. Christus ist ihnen der Logos. Er ist zunächst als solcher geistiger Art. Er kann in seiner Urwesenheit nicht von außen an den Menschen herankommen. Er muß in der Seele erweckt werden. Aber der geschichtliche Jesus muß ein Verhältnis haben zu diesem geistigen Logos. Das war die gnostische Grundfrage. Mochte sie der eine so, der andere so lösen. Die Hauptsache bleibt, daß nicht die bloße historische Überlieferung, sondern die Mysterienweisheit, oder die aus derselben Quelle schöpfende neuplatonische Philosophie, die in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten blühte, zu einem wirklichen Verständnisse des Christus-Gedankens führen sollte. Man hatte Vertrauen zur Menschenweisheit und glaubte, daß sie einen Christus gebären könne, an dem der geschichtliche gemessen werden kann. Ja, durch den dieser erst verstanden und im rechten Lichte geschaut werden könne.
[ 3 ] Von besonderem Interesse, von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus, ist die Lehre, die in den Büchern des Areopagiten Dionysius auftritt. Allerdings wird dieser Schriften erst im sechsten Jahrhundert Erwähnung getan. Es kommt aber bei ihnen nicht darauf an, wann und wo sie geschrieben sind, sondern darauf, daß sie eine Darstellung des Christentums, ganz eingekleidet in die Vorstellungsart der neuplatonischen Philosophie und in ein geistiges Anschauen der höheren Welt, enthalten. Es ist dies unter allen Umständen eine Darstellungsform, die den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten angehört. In alten Zeiten hat sich diese Darstellungsform als mündliche Tradition fortgepflanzt; man vertraute eben in den älteren Zeiten das Wichtigste gerade nicht der Schrift an. Man könnte das Christentum, das sie darstellen, ein solches nennen, das aus dem Spiegel der neuplatonischen Weltanschauung gezeigt werden sollte. Die sinnliche Wahrnehmung trübt dem Menschen das Anschauen des Geistes. Er muß über das Sinnliche hinausgehen. Nun sind aber alle menschlichen Begriffe zunächst aus der sinnlichen Beobachtung geschöpft. Was der sinnliche Mensch beobachtet, das nennt er seiend; was er nicht beobachtet, das bezeichnet er als nicht-seiend. Will der Mensch sich daher eine wirkliche Perspektive zu dem Göttlichen eröffnen, so muß er auch über das Seiende und Nicht-Seiende hinausgehen, denn auch dieses entstammt in seiner Auffassung der Sinnensphäre. Gott ist in diesem Sinne weder seiend, noch nicht-seiend. Er ist überseiend. Man kann ihn daher nicht erreichen mit den Mitteln des gewöhnlichen Erkennens, das es mit dem Seienden zu tun hat. Man muß über sich, über seine Sinnenbeobachtung, über seine verständige Logik hinausgehoben werden und den Übergang finden zu geistiger Anschauung; dann kann man ahnend in die Perspektive des Göttlichen blicken. — Aber diese überseiende Gottheit hat die weisheitsvolle Grundlage der Welt, den Logos hervorgebracht. Ihn kann auch die niedere Kraft des Menschen erreichen. Er wird als geistiger Sohn Gottes im Weltgebäude gegenwärtig; er ist der Mittler zwischen Gott und dem Menschen. Er kann in verschiedenen Stufen im Menschen gegenwärtig sein. Ihn kann eine weltliche Institution verwirklichen, indem sie die in verschiedener Art von ihm erfüllten Menschen unter einer Hierarchie vereinigt. Eine solche «Kirche» ist der sinnlich-wirklicheLogos; und die Kraft, die in ihr lebt, lebte persönlich in dem fleischgewordenen Christus, in Jesus. Durch Jesus ist also die Kirche mit Gott vereinigt, in ihm hat sie ihre Spitze und ihren Sinn.
[ 4 ] Es war für alle Gnosis klar: mit der Idee von Jesu Persönlichkeit mußte sie sich verständigen. Christus und Jesus mußten in ein Verhältnis gebracht werden. Die Göttlichkeit war der menschlichen Persönlichkeit genommen; sie mußte auf irgend eine Art wieder gefunden werden. Es mußte möglich sein, sie in Jesus wieder zu finden. Der Myste hatte mit einem Grade der Göttlichkeit in sich und mit seiner irdisch-sinnlichen Persönlichkeit zu tun. Der Christ hatte mit dieser und mit einem vollendeten, über alles menschlich Erreichbare erhabenen Gott zu tun. Wird diese Anschauung streng festgehalten, so ist eine mystische Grundstimmung der Seele nur möglich, wenn dieser Seele, indem sie das höhere Geistige in sich findet, das geistige Auge so geöffnet wird, daß in dieses das Licht fällt, welches von dem Christus in dem Jesus ausgeht. Vereinigung der Seele mit ihren höchsten Kräften ist zugleich Vereinigung mit dem geschichtlichen Christus. Denn Mystik ist unmittelbares Fühlen und Empfinden des Göttlichen in der eigenen Seele. Ein über alles Menschliche hinausragender Gott kann aber im wahren Sinne des Wortes nie in der Seele wohnen. Die Gnosis und auch alle spätere christliche Mystik stellen das Bestreben dar, dieses Gottes doch auf irgend eine Art in der Seele unmittelbar teilhaftig zu werden. Ein Kampf mußte da immer entstehen. Man konnte in Wirklichkeit nur sein Göttliches finden, das ist aber ein Menschlich-Göttliches, ein Göttliches auf einer bestimmten Entwicklungsstufe. Aber der christliche Gott ist doch ein bestimmter, in sich vollendeter. Man konnte in sich finden die Kraft, zu ihm emporzustreben; aber man konnte nicht etwas, was man in der Seele auf irgend einer Stufe erlebte, als eins mit ihm bezeichnen. Zwischen dem, was man in der Seele erkennen konnte, und dem, was das Christentum als göttlich bezeichnete, entstand eine Kluft. Es ist die Kluft zwischen Wissen und Glauben, zwischen Erkennen und religiösem Empfinden. Für den Mysten im alten Sinne kann es diese Kluft nicht geben. Denn er weiß zwar, daß er das Göttliche nur gradweise erfassen kann; aber er weiß auch, warum er nur dies kann. Er ist sich klar, daß er in dem gradweisen Göttlichen doch das wahre, lebendige Göttliche hat; und es wird ihm schwer, von einem vollendeten, abgeschlossenen Göttlichen zu sprechen. Ein solcher Myste will gar nicht den vollendeten Gott erkennen, sondern er will das göttliche Leben erfahren. Er will selbst vergottet-sein; er will nicht ein äußerliches Verhältnis zur Gottheit gewinnen. Es ist in dem Wesen des Christentums gelegen, daß seine Mystik nicht in diesem Sinne voraussetzungslos ist. Der christliche Mystiker will in sich selbst die Gottheit schauen, aber er muß zu dem geschichtlichen Christus hinblicken wie das physische Auge zur Sonne; wie dieses sich sagt: durch diese Sonne werde ich erblicken, was ich durch meine Kräfte sehen kann, so sagt der christliche Myste: ich steigere mein Inneres zu göttlichem Schauen; das Licht, das mir solches Schauen ermöglicht, ist in dem erschienenen Christus gegeben. Er ist, wodurch ich in mir zum Höchsten steigen kann. Die christlichen Mystiker des Mittelalters zeigen gerade darin ihren Unterschied von den Mysten der alten Mysterien. (Vergleiche mein Buch: Die Mystik im Aufgange des neuzeitlichen Geisteslebens. Berlin 1901.)
The essence of Christianity
[ 1 ] The fact that the divine, the Word, the eternal Logos no longer confronted them in the mysterious darkness of the Mystery, as Spirit alone, must have had the most profound effect on the confessors of Christianity; but that, when they spoke of this Logos, they were always pointed to the historical, human personality of Jesus. Previously, this Logos had only been seen within reality on various levels of human perfection. One could observe the subtle, intimate differences in the spiritual existence of the personality and could see in what ways and degrees the Logos came to life in the individual personalities who sought initiation, A higher degree of maturity had to be interpreted as a higher stage of development of spiritual existence. One had to look for the preliminary stages in a past spiritual life. And the present life could be seen as a preliminary stage of future spiritual stages of development. The preservation of the spiritual power of the soul, the eternity of this power could be asserted in the sense of the Jewish secret teachings (Book of Sohar): "Nothing is lost in the world, nothing falls to emptiness, not even the words and the voice of man; everything has its place and its destiny." The One Personality was only a metamorphosis of the soul, which changes from personality to personality. The individual life of the personality could only be considered as a developmental link in a chain pointing forwards and backwards. - Through Christianity, this changing Logos has been led from the individual personality to the only personality of Jesus. What used to be distributed throughout the whole world has now been united in a single personality. Jesus has become the only God-man. In Jesus something has thus once been present that must appear to man as the greatest ideal, with which he is to unite himself more and more through his repeated lives in the future. Jesus took upon himself the idolization of all mankind. In him was sought what previously could only be sought in one's own soul. That which had always been found in man's personality as divine, as eternal, had been snatched from him. And one could see all this eternity in Jesus. It is not the eternal in the soul that overcomes death and will one day be resurrected as divine through its power, but what was in Jesus, the one God, will appear and resurrect souls. This gave personality a completely new meaning. The eternal, the immortal had been taken from it. It had remained as such, for itself. If one did not want to deny eternity, one had to ascribe immortality to this personality itself. The belief in the eternal change of the soul became the personal belief in immortality. After all, this personality was given infinite importance because it was the only thing that people held on to. - From then on there is nothing between the personality and the infinite God. One must place oneself in a direct relationship to him. One was no longer capable of deification to a higher or lower degree; one was simply human and stood in a direct but external relationship to God. Those who knew the old Mystery view must have perceived this as a completely new tone in the world view. Numerous personalities of the first Christian centuries were probably in this case. They knew about the nature of the Mysteries; if they wanted to become Christians, they had to come to terms with this old way. This may have brought them into the most difficult struggles of the soul. They may have sought a balance between the two world views in the most diverse ways. The writings of the first Christian centuries reflect this struggle; both those of the pagans who are attracted by the majesty of Christianity and those of the Christians who find it difficult to leave the Mystery Way. Christianity is slowly growing out of the mystery world. Christian beliefs are presented in the form of mystery truths; mystery wisdom is clothed in the words of Christianity. Clement of Alexandria, the pagan-educated Christian writer (died 217 AD) gives an example of this. ) gives an example of this: "God has not denied us to rest from good in the celebration of the Sabbath; to those who can grasp it, he has granted to participate in the divine mysteries and in the holy light; he has not revealed to the multitude what is not suitable for them, but only to a few for whom he deemed it fitting, who can grasp it and form themselves according to it, just as God entrusts the inexpressible to the Logos, not to Scripture. - God has given some to the church as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as shepherds and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." In the most varied ways, personalities seek to find their way from ancient views to Christian ones. And those who believe they are on the right path label others as false teachers. At the same time, the church as an external institution became more and more entrenched. The more power it gained, the more the path that it recognized as the right one through council resolutions and external determination took the place of personal research. It decided who deviated too far from the divine truth it had preserved. The term "false teacher" became more and more firmly established. In the first centuries of Christianity, the search for the divine path was much more of a personal matter than in the later centuries. There was a long way to go before Augustine's conviction was possible: "I would not believe in the truth of the Gospels if the authority of the Catholic Church did not compel me to do so" (see page 108).
[ 2 ] The struggle between the Mystery Way and the Christian Way was given a special character by the various "Gnostic" sects and writers. All writers of the first Christian centuries who searched for a deeper, spiritual meaning to the Christian teachings can be understood as Gnostics. (The above-mentioned book by Mead, "Fragments of a Lost Faith", offers a brilliant account of the development of Gnosticism). One understands these Gnostics if one sees them as imbued with ancient mystery wisdom and endeavoring to understand Christianity from the point of view of the mysteries. To them, Christ is the Logos. As such, he is initially of a spiritual nature. He cannot approach man in his primordial being from outside. He must be awakened in the soul. But the historical Jesus must have a relationship to this spiritual Logos. That was the basic Gnostic question. One may solve it this way, the other that way. The main thing remains that it was not mere historical tradition, but the wisdom of the Mysteries, or the Neoplatonic philosophy, which drew from the same source and flourished in the first Christian centuries, that was to lead to a real understanding of the idea of Christ. People had confidence in human wisdom and believed that it could give birth to a Christ against whom the historical Christ could be measured. Indeed, through which it could only be understood and seen in the right light.
[ 3 ] Of particular interest, from this point of view, is the teaching that appears in the books of the Areopagite Dionysius. However, these writings are not mentioned until the sixth century. But what matters is not when and where they were written, but the fact that they contain a presentation of Christianity, completely clothed in the conceptual style of Neoplatonic philosophy and in a spiritual view of the higher world. Under all circumstances, this is a form of representation that belongs to the first Christian centuries. In ancient times, this form of presentation was propagated as an oral tradition; in older times, the most important things were not entrusted to the Scriptures. One could call the Christianity they represent one that should be shown from the mirror of the Neoplatonic world view. Sensual perception clouds man's vision of the spirit. He must go beyond the sensual. But all human concepts are initially drawn from sensory observation. What the sensual man observes, he calls being; what he does not observe, he calls non-being. Therefore, if man wants to open up a real perspective on the divine, he must also go beyond the existing and non-existing, because in his view this also originates from the sensory sphere. In this sense, God is neither existent nor non-existent. He is supersubstantial. He can therefore not be reached by the means of ordinary cognition, which has to do with the existing. One must be lifted above oneself, above one's sensory observation, above one's sensible logic, and find the transition to spiritual contemplation; then one can look forebodingly into the perspective of the divine. - But this supersensible deity has produced the wisdom-filled foundation of the world, the Logos. The lower power of man can also reach him. He is present as the spiritual Son of God in the world structure; he is the mediator between God and man. He can be present in man in various stages. A worldly institution can realize him by uniting people who are filled with him in various ways under a hierarchy. Such a "church" is the sensual-real logos; and the power that lives in it lived personally in the incarnate Christ, in Jesus. Through Jesus, therefore, the church is united with God; in him it has its head and its meaning.
[ 4 ] It was clear to all gnosis: it had to come to an understanding with the idea of Jesus' personality. Christ and Jesus had to be brought into a relationship. Divinity had been taken from the human personality; it had to be found again in some way. It had to be possible to find it again in Jesus. The Myste had to deal with a degree of divinity in himself and with his earthly-sensual personality. The Christian had to do with this and with a perfected God, exalted above everything humanly attainable. If this view is strictly adhered to, then a mystical basic mood of the soul is only possible if this soul, by finding the higher spiritual within itself, has its spiritual eye opened in such a way that the light which emanates from the Christ in Jesus falls into it. Union of the soul with its highest powers is at the same time union with the historical Christ. For mysticism is the direct feeling and sensing of the divine in one's own soul. However, a God who transcends all humanity can never dwell in the soul in the true sense of the word. Gnosticism and all later Christian mysticism represent the endeavor to become a direct partaker of this God in some way in the soul. A struggle always had to arise. In reality one could only find one's divine, but that is a human-divine, a divine at a certain stage of development. But the Christian God is a definite God who is complete in himself. One could find in oneself the power to strive upwards to him; but one could not describe something that one experienced in the soul at any level as one with him. There was a gulf between what one could recognize in the soul and what Christianity called divine. It is the gap between knowledge and faith, between cognition and religious feeling. For the mystic in the old sense, this gulf cannot exist. For he knows that he can only grasp the divine in degrees; but he also knows why he can only do this. He is aware that he has the true, living divine in the gradual divine; and it is difficult for him to speak of a complete, self-contained divine. Such a man does not want to recognize the perfect God, but he wants to experience the divine life. He wants to be divine himself; he does not want to gain an external relationship with the divinity. It is in the nature of Christianity that its mysticism is not unconditional in this sense. The Christian mystic wants to see the Godhead in himself, but he must look to the historical Christ as the physical eye looks to the sun; just as the physical eye says to itself: through this sun I will see what I can see through my powers, so the Christian mystic says: I raise my inner being to divine vision; the light that makes such vision possible for me is given in the Christ who has appeared. He is through whom I can rise to the highest within myself. The Christian mystics of the Middle Ages show their difference from the mystics of the ancient mysteries precisely in this. (Compare my book: Die Mystik im Aufgange des neuzeitlichen Geisteslebens. Berlin 1901.)