The Festivals and their Meaning II:
Easter
GA 198
2 April 1920, Dornach
I. The Festival of Warning
Ever since the early days of Christianity it has been the custom to draw a distinction between the festivals of Christmas and of Easter in that the Christmas festival has been made immovable, having been fixed at a point of time a few days after the 21st of December, the winter solstice, whereas the day of the Easter festival is determined by a particular constellation of the stars, a constellation of the stars which unites earth and man with the worlds beyond the earth. To-morrow will be the first full moon of spring and upon this full moon will fall the rays of the springtime sun, for since the 21st of March the sun has been in the sign of spring. When, therefore, men on earth celebrate a Sunday—a day, that is, which should remind them of their connection with the sun-forces—when the Sunday comes that is the first after the full moon of spring, then is the time to keep the Easter festival. Easter is thus a movable festival. In order to determine the time of the Easter festival, note must be taken each year of the constellations in the heavens.
Principles such as these were laid down at a time when traditions of wisdom were still current among mankind, traditions that originated from ancient atavistic clairvoyant faculties and gave man a knowledge far surpassing the knowledge that present-day science can offer. And such traditions were a means for bringing to expression man's connection with the worlds beyond the earth. They always point to something of supreme importance for the evolution [of] mankind.
The rigid point of time fixed for the Christmas festival indicates how closely that festival is bound up with the earthly, for its purpose is to remind us of the birth of the Man into whom the Christ Being afterwards entered. The Easter festival, on the other hand, is intended to remind us of an event whose significance lies, not merely within the course of earth-evolution, but within the whole world-order into which man has been placed. Therefore the time of the Easter festival must not be determined by ordinary earthly conditions; it is a time that can be ascertained only when man turns his thoughts to the worlds beyond the earth. And there is deeper meaning still in this plan of a movable time for the Easter festival. It indicates how through the Christ Impulse man is to be set free from the forces of earth-evolution pure and simple. For through knowledge of that which is beyond the earth, man is to become free of the evolution of the earth, and this truth is indicated in the manner of dating the Easter festival. It contains a call to man to lift himself up to the worlds beyond the earth; it contains a promise to man that in the course of world-history it shall be possible for him, through the working of the Christ Impulse, to become free of earthly conditions.
To understand all that is implied in this manner of dating the Easter festival, it will be helpful to turn our minds to early secrets of the beginnings of Christianity, to some of those early mysteries which during a certain period of earthly evolution have become more and more veiled and hidden from the materialistic view of the world which arose at the beginning of the Fifth Post-Atlantean epoch and must now be vanquished and superseded. In order to see the whole matter in a true light it will be necessary first of all to consider the part played by the figure of St. Paul in the evolution of the Christ Impulse within the whole history of mankind.
We should indeed remind ourselves again and again what a great event in the evolution of Christianity was the appearance of the figure of St. Paul. Paul had had abundant opportunity to inform himself, by external observation, of the events in Palestine that were associated with the personality of Jesus. All that came to his notice in this way in the physical world left Paul unconvinced; when these events in Palestine had come to an end in the physical sense, Paul [was] still an antagonist of Christianity. He became the Apostle of the Christians only after the event at Damascus, after he had experienced the very Being of the Christ in an extra-earthly, super-sensible manner. Thus Paul was a man who could not be persuaded of the meaning of the Christ Impulse by evidence of the physical senses, but who could be convinced only by a super-sensible experience. And the super-sensible experience that came to him cut deeply into his life—so deeply indeed, that from that moment he became another man. Nay, more: he became an Initiate.
Paul was well prepared for such an experience. He was thoroughly acquainted with the secrets of the religion of the Jews; he was familiar with their knowledge and their conception of the world. He was thus well equipped to judge of the nature of the event that befell him at Damascus and to have a right view and understanding of it. The writings of Paul, as we know them, convey only a weak reflection of all that he experienced inwardly. But even so, when he speaks of the event of Damascus we can discern that he speaks as one who through this event attained knowledge of cosmic happenings lying behind the veil of the world of sense. From the very manner in which he speaks it is plain that he is fully able to understand the difference between the super-sensible world and the world of sense.
When, even externally, we compare the life of Paul with the earthly experience of Christ Jesus, we discover a strange and astounding fact which becomes intelligible to us, only when with the help of spiritual science, we are able to survey the whole evolution of mankind in a particular aspect. [I] have often drawn attention to the great difference in the development of the human soul in the several epochs. I have shown you how man has changed in the course of evolution through the Indian, Persian, Egypto-Chaldean, Greco-Latin epochs, on to our own time. When we look back into the ancient past we find that man remained capable of organic physical development until an advanced age, The parallelism between the development of the soul and the development of the body continued until an advanced age of life; it is a parallelism that we can recognise now only in the three stages marked by the change of teeth, puberty and the beginning of the twenties. As far as out-ward appearance goes, mankind has lost the experience of such transitions in later life. In very ancient Indian times, however, men experienced a parallelism between the development of soul and of body up to the fiftieth year of life, in Persian and Egyptian times up to the fortieth year, and in Greco-Latin times up to the thirty-fifth year. In ordinary consciousness, we experience a like parallelism only up to the twenty-seventh year and it is not easy to detect even for so long as that. Now the Christ Impulse entered into the evolution of mankind at a time when men—especially those of the Greek and Latin races—experienced this parallelism as late as into the thirtieth year. And Christ Jesus lived His days of physical earthly life for just so long as the duration of the span of life which ran in a parallelism between the physical organisation and the organisation of soul and spirit. Then, in relation to earthly life, He passed through the gate of death. What this passage through the gate of death means can be understood only from the point of view of spiritual science; it can be understood only when we are able to look into super-sensible worlds. For the passage through the gate of death is not an event that can be grasped by any thinking concerned entirely with the world of sense.
As physical man, Paul was of about the same age as Christ Jesus Himself. The time that Christ Jesus spent in His work on earth, Paul spent as an anti-Christian. And the second half of his life was determined entirely by what came to him from super-sensible experiences. In this second half of his life he had super-sensible experience of what men at that time could no longer receive in the second half of life through sense-experience, because the parallelism between soul-and-spirit development and physical development was not experienced beyond the thirty-fifth year of life. And the Event of Golgotha came before Paul in such a way that he received, by direct illumination, the understanding once possessed by men in an atavistic way through primeval wisdom, and which they can now again acquire through spiritual science. This understanding came to Paul in order that he might be the one to arouse in men a realisation of what had happened for mankind through the working of the Christ Impulse.
For about the same length of time that Christ had walked the earth, did Paul continue to live upon earth—that is, until about his sixty-seventh or sixty-eighth year. This time was spent in carrying the teaching of Christianity into earth-evolution. The parallelism between the life of Christ Jesus and the life of Paul is a remarkable one. The life of Christ Jesus was completely filled with the presence and Being of the Christ. Paul had such a strong after-experience (acquired through Initiation) of this event, that he was able to be the one to bring to mankind true and fitting ideas about Christianity—and to do so for a period of time corresponding very nearly to that of the life of Christ Jesus on earth. There is a great deal to be learned from a study of the connection between the life lived by Christ Jesus for the sake of the earthly evolution of mankind, and the teaching given by Paul concerning the Christ Being. To see this connection aright would mean a very great deal for us; only it is necessary to realise that the connection is a direct result of the super-sensible experience undergone by Paul.
When modern theology goes so far as to explain the event at Damascus as a kind of illusion, as a kind of hallucination, then it is only a proof that in our day even theology has succumbed to materialism. Even theology has no longer any knowledge of the nature of the super-sensible world, and entirely fails to recognise man's need to understand the super-sensible world before he can have any true comprehension of Christianity.
It is good that we should confess to-day, in all sincerity, how difficult it is to find our way into the ideas presented in the Gospels and in the Epistles of Paul—ideas that are so totally different from those to which we are accustomed. For the most part we have ceased to concern ourselves at all with such ideas. But it is a fact that a man who is completely given up to the habits and ways of thought of the present day, is far from being able to form the right ideas when he reads the words of Paul. Many present-day theologians put a materialistic interpretation upon the event of Damascus, even trying to disprove and deny the actual Resurrection of Christ Jesus—while professing at the time to be true Christians. Such persons themselves bear testimony that they have no intention of applying knowledge of the super-sensible to the essence of Christianity or to the event of the appearance of Christ Jesus in earthly evolution. The very fact that the figure of Paul stands at the summit of Christian tradition, the figure, that is, of one who acquired an understanding of Christianity through super-sensible experience, is like a challenge to man to possess himself of super-sensible knowledge. It is like a declaration that Christianity cannot possibly be comprehended without having recourse to knowledge that has its source in the super-sensible. It is essential that we should see in Paul a man who had been initiated into super-sensible, cosmic happenings; it is essential to see in this light what he laboured so hard to bring to mankind. Let us try in the language of the present day to place before our minds one of the things that seemed to Paul, as an Initiate, to be of peculiar significance.
Paul regarded it of supreme importance to make clear to men how through the Christ Impulse an entirely new way of relating themselves to cosmic evolution had come to them. He felt it essential to declare: that that period of the evolution of the world which carried within it the experiences of the heathen of older times, had run its course; it was finished for man. New experiences were now here for the human soul; they needed only to be perceived.
When Paul spoke in this way, he was pointing to the mighty Event which made such a deep incision into the evolution of man on earth; and indeed if we would understand history as it truly is, we must come back again and again to this Event. If we look back into pre-Christian times, and especially into those times which possess to a striking degree the characteristic qualities of pre-Christian life, we can feel how different was the whole outlook of men in those days. Not that a complete change took place in a single moment; nevertheless the Event of Golgotha did bring about an absolute separation of one phase in the evolution of mankind from another. The Event of Golgotha came at the end of a period of evolution during which men beheld, together with the world of the senses, also the spiritual. Incredible as it may appear to modern man it is a fact that in pre-Christian times men saw, together with the sense-perceptible, a spiritual reality. They did not see merely trees, or merely plants, but together with the trees, and together with the plants they saw something spiritual. But as the time of the Event of Golgotha drew near, the civilisation that bore within it this power of vision was coming to an end. Something completely new was now to enter into the evolution of mankind. As long as man beholds the spiritual in the physical things all around him, he cannot have a consciousness which allows the impulse of freedom to quicken within it. The birth of the impulse of freedom is necessarily accompanied by a loss of this vision; man has to find himself deserted by the divine and spiritual when he looks out upon the external world. The impulse of freedom inevitably implies that, if man would again have vision of the spiritual, he must exert himself inwardly and draw it forth from the depths of his own soul.
This is what Paul wanted to reveal to men. He told them how in ancient times, when men were only the race of Adam, they had no need to draw forth an active experience from the depths of their own being before they could behold the divine and spiritual. The divine and spiritual came to them in elemental form, with everything that lived in the air and on earth. But mankind had gradually to lose this living communion with the divine and spiritual in all the phenomena of the world of sense. A time had to come when man must perforce lift himself up to the divine and spiritual by an active strengthening of his own inner life. He had to learn to understand the words: “My kingdom is not of this world.” He was not to be allowed to go on receiving a divine and spiritual reality that came forth to meet him from all sense-phenomena. He had to find the way to a divine and spiritual kingdom that could be reached only by inward struggle and inward development.
People interpret Paul to-day in such a trivial manner! Again and again they show an inclination to translate what he said into the language of this materialistic age. So trivial is their interpretation of him that one is liable to be dubbed fantastic when one puts forward such a view as the following concerning the content of his message. And yet it is absolutely true.
Paul saw what a great crisis it was for the world that the ancient vision, which was at one and the same time a sense-vision and a spiritual vision, was fading away and disappearing, and that another vision of the spiritual was now to dawn for man in a new kingdom of light,1See Epistle to the Romans, XIII, 12. a vision which he must acquire for himself by his own inner initiative, and which is not immediately present for him in the vision of the senses. Paul knew from his own super-sensible experience in Initiation that ever since the Resurrection Christ Jesus has been united with earth-evolution. But he also knew that, although Christ Jesus is present, He can be found by man only through the awakening of an inner power of vision, not through any mere beholding with the senses. Should any man think he can reach the Christ with the mere vision of the senses, Paul knew that he must be giving himself up to delusions, he must be mistaking some demon for the Christ.
This was what Paul was continually emphasising to those of his hearers who were able to understand it: that the old spiritual vision brings no approach to Christ, that with this old vision one can only mistake some elemental being for the Christ. Therefore Paul exerted all his power to bring men out of the habit of looking to the spirits of air and of earth.2See Epistle to the Galatians, IV, 3, 9. In earlier times men had been familiar with elemental spirits, and necessarily so, for in those times they still possessed atavistic faculties with which to behold them. But now these faculties could not rightly be possessed by man. On the other hand, Paul never wearied of exhorting men to develop within themselves a force whereby they might learn to understand what it was that had taken place, namely, an entirely new impulse, an entirely new Being had entered earth-evolution. “Christ will come again to you,” he said, “if you will only find the way out of your purely physical vision of the earth. Christ will come again to you, for He is there. Through the working of the Event of Golgotha, He is there. But you must find Him; He must come again for you.”
This is what Paul proclaimed, and in a language which at the time had quite another spiritual ring than has the mere echo left us in our translation. It sounded quite different then. Paul sought continually to awaken in man the conviction that if he would understand Christ, he must develop a new kind of vision; the vision that suffices for the world of sense is not enough. To-day, mankind has only come so far as to speak of the contrast between an external, sense-derived science, and faith. Modern theology is ready to admit of the former that it is complicated, that it is real and objective, that it requires to be learned; of faith it will allow no such thing. It is repeatedly emphasised that faith ought to make appeal to what is utterly childlike in man, to that in man which does not need to be learned.
Such is the attitude of mind which rejects the event of Damascus as unreal, preferring to regard it as a kind of hallucination that befell Paul. If, however, the event of Damascus was a mere hallucination—or I might just as well say, if the event of Damascus was what a great number of modern theologians would have it to be—then we ought also to have the courage to say: Away with Christianity! For Christianity has brought with it a belief that is absurd and senseless.
This would be the necessary outcome of the teaching of modern theology, if only people took it—first of all, seriously, and secondly, with courage. As a matter of fact they do neither. They shrink from having nothing but a merely external, sense-given science, and yet at the same time they deny the real, inner impulse of the event of Damascus, while still professing to hold fast to Christianity! It is precisely in such things that the soul-and-spirit sickness of our age comes to clearest expression; for a deep inner lack of truth is here laid bare. Truth would be obliged to confess: Either the event of Damascus was a reality, an event that can be placed in the realm of reality, then Christianity has meaning; or it was what it is asserted to be by modern theology, which wants always to associate itself with modern science; then Christianity has no meaning. It is important that people should face such conclusions, for there is no doubt we live in an age of severe testing. Through man's becoming inwardly untrue in regard to the very matters that are most sacred for him—for he ought no longer to call what he has, ‘Christianity’—through this, a tendency to untruth, often unconscious but no less destructive on that account, has taken hold of mankind. That is the real reason for the existence of this tendency. That is why this tendency to untruth is so closely interwoven with the events that will inevitably lead to decadence in the whole cultural life of Europe, unless men bethink themselves in time and turn to spiritual knowledge.
And if we would turn to spiritual knowledge, it is emphatically not enough in these days to rest content with looking at life in any superficial way; it is absolutely essential for us to take things in all their depth of meaning and to be ready to contemplate the necessity of mighty changes in our own time.
Again and again we must ask: What is a festival such as that of Easter for the greater part of mankind? It may be said of a very many people that when they are in the circle of their friends who still want to gather together to keep the festival, all their thinking about Easter runs along the lines of old habits of thought; they use the old words, they go on uttering them more or less automatically, they make the same renunciation in the same formula to which they have long been accustomed. But have we any right to-day to utter this renunciation, when we can observe on every hand a distinct unwillingness to take part in the great change that is so necessary in our own time? Are we justified in using the words of Paul: “Not I, but Christ in me!” when we show so little inclination to examine into what it is that has brought such great unhappiness to mankind in the modern age? Should it not go together with the Easter festival that we set out to gain a clear idea of the destiny that has befallen mankind and of what it is that alone can lead us out of the catastrophe—namely, super-sensible knowledge? If the Easter festival, whose whole significance depends upon super-sensible knowledge—for knowledge of the senses can never explain the Resurrection of Christ Jesus—if this Easter festival is to be taken seriously, is it not essential that men should bethink themselves how a super-sensible character can be brought again into the human faculty of knowledge? Should not this be the thought that rises up in men's minds to-day: All the lying and deception in modern culture is due to the fact that we ourselves are no longer in earnest about what we recognise as the sacred festivals of the year?
We keep Easter, the festival of Resurrection, but in our materialistic outlook we have long ago ceased caring whether or not we have a real understanding of the Resurrection. We set ourselves at enmity with the truth and we try to find all manner of ingenious ways of accepting the cosmic jest—for indeed it would be, or rather it is a jest that man should keep the festival of the Resurrection and at the same time put his whole faith in modern science which obviously can never make appeal to such a Resurrection. Materialism and the keeping of Easter—these are two things that cannot possibly belong together; they cannot possibly exist side by side. And the materialism of modern theology—that too is incompatible with the Easter festival. In our own time a book entitled “The Essence of Christianity” has been written by an eminent theologian of Central Europe, and is accounted of outstanding importance. Yet throughout this work we find evidence of a desire not to take seriously the fact of the Resurrection of Christ Jesus. There you have a true symptom of the times!
Men must learn to feel these things deeply in their hearts. We shall never find a way out of our present troubles unless we develop understanding of the enmity cherished by the modern materialistically minded man towards the truth, unless we learn to see through things like this, for they are of very great significance in life to-day.
During the Fifth Post-Atlantean epoch a new tendency has been at work, a tendency towards a scientific knowledge that is adapted to the power of human reason and judgment; and now it is time that this should go further and develop into a knowledge of the super-sensible world. For the Event of Golgotha is an event that falls absolutely within the super-sensible world. And the event of Damascus, as Paul experienced it, is an event that can be understood only out of super-sensible ideas. On the understanding of this event depends whether one can in very truth feel something of the Christ Impulse, or whether one cannot. The man of the present day is faced with a severe test when he asks himself: In the time that has been christened ‘Easter,’ how do I stand to super-sensible knowledge? For Easter should remind man, by the very way its date is determined, to look up from the earthly to what is beyond the earth. The man of modern times has left himself no more outlook into what is beyond the earth than at most that which is given him in mathematics and mechanics, and now in spectro-analysis. These sciences are the groundwork upon which he tries to build up his knowledge concerning all that is beyond the earth. He no longer feels that he is himself united with those worlds, and that the Christ descended thence when He entered into the personality of Jesus.
Let me beg you to give these thoughts which are so pertinent to our present problems, your full and earnest attention. I have often pointed out what a fine spiritual nature such as Herman Grimm must needs think of the Kant-Laplace theory. It is true, the theory has undergone some modification in our day, nevertheless in all essentials it is still the prevailing theory of the universe. It is said that the solar system has come out of a primeval nebula, and in course of mighty changes undergone by the nebula and its densifications, plants, animals and also man have come into being. And carrying the theory further, a time will come when everything on the earth will have found its grave and when ideals and works of culture will no longer send their voice out into the universe, when the earth itself will fall like a bit of slag into the sun; and then, in a still later time, the sun will burn itself out and be scattered in the All, not merely burying, but annihilating everything that is now being made and done by man.
Such a view of the ordering of the world must inevitably arise in a time when man wants to grasp that which is beyond the earth with mathematical and mechanical knowledge alone. In a world in which he merely calculates or investigates qualities of the sun with the spectroscope—in such a world we shall never find the realm whence Christ came down to unite Himself with the life of the earth! There are people to-day who, because they cannot get clarity into their thoughts, prefer not to let themselves be troubled with thought at all, and go on repeating the words they have learned from the Gospels and from the Epistles of St. Paul, simply repeating by rote what they have learned, never stopping to think whether it is compatible with the view of the evolution of the earth and man that they acquire elsewhere. But that is the deep inward untruth of our time: men slink away into some comfortable dark corner instead of bringing together in their thought the things that essentially belong together. They want to raise a mist before their eyes so that they may not need to ‘think together’ the things that belong together. They raise a mist before their eyes when they keep a festival like Easter and are at the same time very far indeed from forming any true idea of the Resurrection of which they speak; for a true idea of it can only be formed with spiritual and super-sensible knowledge.
The only possible way in these days for man to unite a right feeling with Easter is for him to direct his thought in this connection to the world-catastrophe of his own time. For in very deed a world-catastrophe is upon us. I do not mean merely the catastrophe that happened in the recent years of the war, but I refer to that world-catastrophe which consists in the fact that men have lost all idea of the connection of the earthly with that which is beyond the earth. The time has come when man must realise with full and clear consciousness that super-sensible knowledge has now to arise out of the grave of the materialistic outlook. For together with super-sensible knowledge will arise the knowledge of Christ Jesus. In point of fact, man has no other symbol that fits the Easter festival than this—that mankind has brought upon itself the doom of being crucified upon the cross of its own materialism. But man must do something himself before there arises from the grave of human materialism all that can come from super-sensible knowledge.
The very striving after super-sensible knowledge is itself an Easter deed, it is something which gives man the right once more to keep Easter. Look up to the full moon and feel how the full moon is connected with man in its phenomena, and how the reflection of the sun is connected with the moon, and then meditate on the need to-day to go in search of a true self-knowledge which can show forth man as a reflection of the super-sensible. If man knows himself to be a reflection of the super-sensible, if he recognises how he is formed and constituted out of the super-sensible, then he will also find the way to come to the super-sensible. At bottom, it is arrogance and pride that find expression in the materialistic view of the world. It is human pride, manifesting in a strange way! Man does not want to be a reflection of the divine and spiritual, he wants to be merely the highest of the animals. There he is the highest. But the point is, among what sort of beings is he the highest? This pride leads man to recognise nothing beyond himself. If the natural scientific outlook on the world were to be true to itself, it would have the mission of impressing this fact again and again upon man: You are the highest of all the beings of which you can form an idea. The ultimate consequences of the point of view that sets out to be strictly scientific, are such as to make a man turn pale when they show him on what kind of moral groundwork they are based—all unconscious though he may be of it. The truth is, we are to-day living in a time when Christ Jesus is being crucified in a very special sense. He is being put to death in the field of knowledge. And until men come to see how the present way of knowledge, clinging as it does to the senses and to them alone, is nothing but a grave of knowledge out of which a resurrection must take place—until they see this, they will not be able to lift themselves up to experiences in thought and feeling that partake of a true Easter character.
This is the thought that we should carry in our hearts and minds to-day. We still have with us the tradition of an Easter festival that is supposed to be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring. The tradition we have, but the right to celebrate such a festival—that we have not, who live in present-day civilisation.
How can we acquire this right again? We must take the thought of Christ Jesus lying in the grave, of Christ Jesus Who at Easter time vanquishes the stone that has been rolled over His grave—we must take this thought and unite it with the other thought which I have indicated. For the soul of man should feel the purely external, mechanistic knowledge like a tombstone rolled upon him; and he must exert himself to overcome the pressure of this knowledge, he must find the possibility, not to make confession of his faith in the words: “Not I, but the fully developed animal in me,” but to have the right to say: “Not I, but Christ in me.”
It is related of a learned English scientist3T. H. Huxley. that he said he would rather believe that he had by his own force worked his way up little by little from the ape stage to his present height as man, than that he had descended from a once ‘divine’ height, as his opponent, who could not give credence to the ideas of natural science, appeared to have done.
Such things only serve to show how urgent it is to find the way from the confession of faith: “Not I, but the fully developed animal in me,” to that other confession of faith: “Not I, but Christ in me.” We must strive to understand this word of Paul. Not until then will it be possible for the true Easter message to rise up from the depths of our hearts and souls and enter into our consciousness.
Vierter Vortrag
Es ist eine seit alten Zeiten des Christentums eingeführte Sitte, zu unterscheiden zwischen dem Weihnachtsfeste und dem Osterfeste dadurch, daß das Weihnachtsfest als ein unbewegliches gestaltet ist, gesetzt ist an den Zeitpunkt ungefähr, der ein paar Tage nach dem 21. Dezember, also der Wintersonnenwende liegt, und daß das Osterfest gesetzt ist an einen Tag, der bestimmt ist durch eine gewisse Sternkonstellation, aber eine Sternkonstellation, die zu gleicher Zeit verbindet gewissermaßen das Außerirdische mit dem menschlichen Irdischen. Wir werden ja morgen im Zeichen des ersten Frühlingsvollmondes stehen, und es wird auf diesen Frühlingsvollmond fallen die Frühjahrssonne, die nach dem 21. März eben in das Zeichen des Frühlings eingetreten ist. Wenn also die Menschheit der Erde den ersten Sonntag wiederum feiert, jenen Tag, der sie an ihren Zusammenhang mit den Sonnenkräften erinnern soll, den Sonntag, der der erste ist nach dem Frühlingsvollmonde, dann soll für die christliche Lebensanschauung das Osterfest gefeiert werden. Dieses Osterfest ist dadurch ein bewegliches Fest. Es ist gewissermaßen notwendig, in jedem Jahre sich die Konstellation am Himmel anzuschauen, um über den Zeitpunkt dieses Osterfestes sich Auskunft zu verschaffen.
Solche Dinge sind festgelegt worden zu einer Zeit, wo noch aus alten atavistischen hellseherischen Fähigkeiten heraus Weisheitstraditionen vorhanden waren, Traditionen, welche den Menschen noch ein Wissen gaben, das weit hinaus lag über das, was die gegenwärtige Wissenschaft geben kann. In diesen alten Zeiten, als solch ein Wissen noch vorhanden war, da suchte der Mensch seinen Zusammenhang mit dem Außerirdischen durch solche Dinge zum Ausdruck zu bringen. Und in solchen Festlegungen liegt immer der Hinweis auf Allerbedeutsamstes für die Menschheitsentwickelung.
Der starre Zeitpunkt, in den das Weihnachtsfest verlegt wird, deutet an, wie eng dieses Weihnachtsfest verbunden gefühlt werden soll mit dem Irdischen, weil es erinnern soll an die Geburt desjenigen Menschen, in den dann die Christus-Wesenheit einzog. Aber an ein Ereignis, das nicht innerhalb des Ganges der Erdenentwickelung, sondern innerhalb des ganzen Weltenzusammenhanges, in den der Mensch hineingestellt ist, eine Bedeutung hat, daran soll das Osterfest erinnern. Deshalb soll auch der Zeitpunkt dieses Osterfestes nicht bloß ein solcher sein, der sich nach den gebräuchlichen irdischen Verhältnissen richtet, sondern er soll ein solcher sein, der nur festgelegt werden kann, wenn der Mensch seine Gedanken hinauswendet auf das Außerirdische. Und etwas noch Tieferes liegt in dieser Festlegung des beweglichen Zeitpunktes des Osterfestes. Es liegt darinnen die Art, wie der Mensch durch den Christus-Impuls von der Erdenentwickelung, von den Kräften dieser bloßen Erdenentwickelung frei werden sollte; daß er frei werden sollte durch eine Erkenntnis des Außerirdischen, das liegt darinnen. Gewissermaßen eine Aufforderung, sich zu erheben zu dem Außerirdischen, das liegt darinnen, und man möchte sagen, ein gewisses Versprechen der Weltgeschichte an den Menschen, daß er frei werden könne von irdischen Verhältnissen durch den Christus-Impuls, das liegt auch darinnen.
Wenn wir das ganz durchschauen wollen, was sich ausdrückt in dieser eben charakterisierten Feststellung des Zeitdatums des Osterfestes, können wir es noch mehr erkennen, wenn wir hinblicken auf erste Geheimnisse der Entstehung des Christentums, erste Geheimnisse, die ja mehr oder weniger sich nach und nach für eine gewisse Erdenzeit verhüllt haben der materialistischen Auffassung der Welt, die in die Menschheitsentwickelung eingezogen ist seit dem Beginn der fünften nachatlantischen Periode, und die zu überwinden es jetzt an der Zeit ist. Um auf diese Verhältnisse entsprechend hinzuschauen, ist es notwendig, zu sehen, wie eingreift in die Entwickelung des ChristusImpulses im weltgeschichtlichen Menschheitswerden die Gestalt des Paulus.
Das müssen wir uns ja immer wieder und wieder vor die Seele rücken, wie gerade diese Gestalt des Paulus eingreift in die Entwickelung des Christentums. Wir können sagen: Paulus hatte reichlich Gelegenheit, sich durch den Augenschein, durch die äußere physische Wahrnehmung zu unterrichten von den Ereignissen in Palästina, die sich an die Persönlichkeit des Jesus anknüpfen. Durch alles das, was so in der physischen Welt auf ihn gewirkt hat, hat sich Paulus nicht überzeugen lassen, denn er gehörte noch zu den Bekämpfern des Christentums, nachdem bereits diese Ereignisse von Palästina ihr physisches Ende erreicht hatten. Paulus wurde erst der Christen-Apostel, als er das Ereignis von Damaskus erlebte, als er erlebte die Wesenheit des Christus-Impulses durch Außerirdisches, durch Übersinnliches. Paulus ist gerade derjenige, der sich nicht durch physisch-sinnliche Eindrücke überzeugen ließ von der Bedeutung des Christus-Impulses, sondern der für seine Überzeugung die übersinnliche Erfahrung brauchte. Und diese übersinnliche Erfahrung, sie war eine gründlich in das Leben des Paulus einschneidende. Sie war so einschneidend, daß Paulus ein vollständig anderer Mensch wurde. Man kann schon sagen, sie war so einschneidend, daß Paulus dasjenige geworden ist, was man einen Initiierten, einen Eingeweihten nennen kann.
Paulus war gut vorbereitet, so etwas zu erleben. Er war ein mit den jüdischen Religionsgeheimnissen, mit dem jüdischen Erkennen und der jüdischen Weltanschauung gut bekannter Mann, und er war durch diese seine Kenntnisse wohl vorbereitet, zu beurteilen das Ereignis, das sich ihm als Erlebnis von Damaskus darstellte. Er war gut vorbereitet, sich über dieses Ereignis sagen zu können, was von diesem Ereignis eine richtige Anschauung, eine richtige Idee geben kann. Nur, möchte ich sagen, ein Abglanz von dem, was Paulus eigentlich in seinem Inneren erlebt hat, tritt uns entgegen aus dem, was als die Schriften des Paulus bekannt ist. Da hören wir allerdings, daß er ja von dem Ereignis von Damaskus spricht wie einer, der durch dieses Ereignis Kenntnis erlangt hat von dem, was hinter dem Schleier der Sinneswelt an Weltgeschehen liegt. Da hören wir ihn so sprechen, daß wir erkennen, daß er die ganz anders geartete Welt des Übersinnlichen gegenüber dieser sinnlichen hier wohl zu beurteilen vermag.
Wenn wir schon äußerlich das Leben des Paulus vergleichen mit dem äußerlichen irdischen Christus Jesus-Erleben, dann finden wir etwas höchst Merkwürdiges, das sich nur dann aufhellt, wenn man nach geisteswissenschaftlichen Gesichtspunkten die Menschheitsentwickelung sachgemäß ins Auge faßt. In bezug darauf habe ich ja öfter Sie darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie ganz anders geartet der Mensch in bezug auf seine organisch-seelische Entwickelung in anderen Zeiten war, und wie anders er im Laufe seiner Entwickelung seit der indischen, persischen, ägyptisch-chaldäischen, griechisch-lateinischen Zeitkultur bis in unsere Tage herein geworden ist. Wenn man nämlich zurückschaut in alte Zeiten der Menschhettsentwickelung — das haben wir ja öfter besprochen -, dann finden wir, wie der Mensch organisch entwickelungsfähig blieb bis in ein hohes Alter hinauf, wie der Mensch ähnliche Etappen eines Parallelismus zwischen seiner seelischen und seiner physischen Entwickelung durchmachte bis in ein höheres Alter hinauf, wie er sie jetzt nur durchmacht mit dem Zahnwechsel, mit der Geschlechtsreife, mit dem Beginn der Zwanzigerjahre. Das hat die Menschheit in ihrer Allgemeinerscheinung verloren, solche Entwickelungsübergänge in einem höheren Alter zu erleben. Bis in die Fünfzigerjahre hinauf in ganz alten indischen Zeiten, bis in die Vierzigerjahre hinein später in persischen, ägyptischen Zeiten, bis zum fünfunddreiBigsten Jahre hin in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit haben einen Parallelismus zwischen der seelischen Entwickelung und der physischen Entwickelung die Menschen dieser alten Zeit erlebt.
Wir erleben einen solchen Parallelismus des Allgemeinmenschlichen für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein ja nur — wie ich öfter ausgeführt habe — bis zum siebenundzwanzigsten Lebensjahr, und auch da ist schon das, was in die letzten Jahre hineinfällt, wenig bemerkbar. In der Zeit, in welcher der Christus-Impuls einzog in die Menschheitsentwickelung, da war es gerade so, daß die Menschen, auch die Menschen der griechisch-lateinischen Volkheit, eben bis in das dreiunddreißigste Lebensjahr hinein noch diesen Parallelismus erlebten. Und der Christus Jesus lebte seine physischen Erdentage gerade so lange, daß er während dieser physischen Erdentage mitmachte jenes Leben, das in der Parallelität verläuft zwischen der physischen Organisation und der geistig-seelischen Organisation. Dann ging er für das irdische Leben durch die Todespforte.
Was dieses Durchgehen durch die Todespforte bedeutet, das ist nur zu erkennen von einem geisteswissenschaftlichen Gesichtspunkte aus, wenn man hineinzuschauen vermag in übersinnliche Welten. Denn das ist kein Ereignis, das sich durch dasjenige begreifen läßt, was in der sinnlichen Welt sich vollzieht.
Paulus war ungefähr so alt wie der Christus Jesus selbst als physischer Mensch. Er hat gerade diejenige Zeit im Antichristlichen zugebracht, die der Christus Jesus zugebracht hat in seinem Erdenwirken. Und er erlebte für die zweite Lebenshälfte dasjenige, was ihm wurde durch übersinnliche Erfahrungen. Er erlebte für die zweite Lebenshälfte durch übersinnliche Erfahrung dasjenige, was der Mensch eben seit jenen Tagen nicht mehr in der zweiten Lebenshälfte durch sinnliche Erfahrung erleben konnte, weil der Mensch nicht bis in jene höheren Erdentage hinein, bis über das fünfunddreißigste Jahr hinaus, noch einen Parallelismus erlebte zwischen der seelisch-geistigen Entwickelung und der physischen Entwickelung. Und das Ereignis von Golgatha stellte sich für den Paulus so dar, daß ihm durch die unmittelbare Erleuchtung ein Verständnis wurde, das einstmals die Menschen durch (die Urweisheit in atavistischer Art noch hatten, das sie in der neueren Zeit nur erringen können durch eine neue Geisteswissenschaft. Es wurde ihm darum zuteil, damit er der Anreger zu einem richtigen Verständnis dessen werden konnte, was durch den Christus-Impuls für die Menschheit geschehen ist.
Ungefähr so lange, als der Christus auf der Erde gewandelt hat, wandelte dann Paulus weiter auf Erden, etwa bis zum siebenundsechzigsten oder achtundsechzigsten Jahre, um selber ebensolange die Lehre von dem Christentum in die Erdenentwickelung einzuführen. Es ist ein merkwürdiger Parallelismus zwischen dem Leben des Christus Jesus und dem Leben des Paulus. Nur daß das Leben des Christus Jesus eben ausgefüllt war von dem inneren Dasein des Christus, daß bei Paulus vorlag ein so starkes initiiertes Nacherleben dieses Ereignisses, daß er in der Lage war, als der Erste der Menschheit die entsprechenden Vorstellungen über das Christentum zu bringen — in einer Zeitlänge, die ungefähr dem Christus Jesus-Leben auf der Erde entspricht. Den Zusammenhang zu betrachten zwischen dem, was für die Erdenentwickelung der Menschheit durch das Christus Jesus-Leben dargelebt worden ist und dem, was durch Paulus über die Christus-Wesenheit gelehrt worden ist, diesen Zusammenhang in der richtigen Weise anzuschauen, bedeutet eigentlich für den Menschen sehr viel. Nur muß man diesen Zusammenhang so erleben, daß er sich wirklich als Ergebnis des übersinnlichen Einflusses darstellt, der auf Paulus ausgeübt worden ist. Und wenn die neuere Theologie sogar so weit gegangen ist, das Ereignis von Damaskus wie eine Art Halluzination, wie eine Art Illusion zu erklären, so bezeugt das eben nur, daß auch die neuere Theologie in den Materialismus eingemündet ist, daß auch die neuere Theologie nicht mehr kennt das Wesen der übersinnlichen Welt und die Bedeutung eines Verständnisses der übersinnlichen Welt für eine richtige Erfassung des Wesens des Christentums.
Man sollte sich eigentlich heute doch gestehen, ganz ernst und ehrlich gestehen, daß es schwierig ist, in die ganz andersartigen Vorstellungen sich hineinzuleben — anders gegenüber den heutigen -, die sich in den Evangelien und in den Paulusbriefen befinden. Aber man ist gewohnt worden, mit solchen Vorstellungen gar nicht mehr zu rechnen. Im Grunde genommen liegt es dem Menschen, der ganz durchdrungen ist mit den Vorstellungsgewohnheiten der Gegenwart, sehr, sehr ferne, sich bei Paulusworten das Richtige zu denken. Bemüht sich doch selbst eine große Anzahl der heutigen Theologen, das Ereignis von Damaskus so materialistisch als möglich aufzufassen; ja, es bemüht sich eine Anzahl von Theologen, indem sie noch vorgeben, wirkliche Christen zu sein, sogar darum, die wirkliche Auferstehung des Christus Jesus abzuleugnen! Damit bezeugen diese Persönlichkeiten nur, daß sie eben nicht geneigt sind, irgendeine Erkenntnis des Übersinnlichen auf das Wesen des Christentums, auf die Erscheinung des Christus Jesus innerhalb der Erdenentwickelung anzuwenden. Es ist wie eine Aufforderung an den Menschen, zur übersinnlichen Erkenntnis seine Zuflucht zu nehmen, daß die Gestalt des Paulus gewissermaßen an der Spitze der christlichen Tradition steht, daß also die Gestalt eines durch übersinnliche . Erlebnisse zum Verständnisse des Christentums Gekommenen dasteht. Es ist gewissermaßen das die Aussage darüber, daß das Christentum zu verstehen unmöglich ist, wenn man nicht zu Erkenntnissen seine Zuflucht nimmt, die aus den Quellen des Übersinnlichen geschöpft sind. Notwendig ist es, die Gestalt des Paulus als die eines in die übersinnlichen Weltenzusammenhänge Eingeweihten aufzufassen. Notwendig ist es, das, was er sich bemüht hat der Menschheit beizubringen, in diesem Lichte zu sehen.
Versuchen wir, in unserer heutigen Sprache uns einiges von dem vor die Seele zu führen, was, wie es scheint, gerade dem Initiaten Paulus von ganz besonderer Wichtigkeit war. Paulus war von ganz besonderer Wichtigkeit der Hinweis auf eine ganz neue Art in bezug auf die Stellung des Menschen zur Weltentwickelung, die durch den Impuls des Christus Jesus gekommen ist. Ihm war wichtig, zu sagen: Die Weltentwickelung, in die einbefaßt waren die alten heidnischen Erlebnisse, ist für den Menschen abgelaufen. Neue Erlebnisse des Seelenlebens des Menschen sind da; sie müssen nur angeschaut werden von den Menschen. - Damit hat Paulus schon hingedeutet auf jenen tiefsten Einschnitt in der menschlichen Erdenentwickelung, auf den man eigentlich, wenn man die wahre Geschichte verstehen will, immer wieder und wieder hindeuten sollte. Wenn wir in die vorchristliche Entwickelung, und zwar in diejenigen Zeiten zurückschauen, welche noch in einer besonderen Weise charakteristisch waren, weil sie die hervorragendsten Eigenschaften des Vorchristlichen noch radikal gehabt haben, so können wir sagen: da war das ganze menschliche Anschauen anders. Gewiß, nicht in einem Momente trat ein völliger Umschwung ein; aber dennoch ist das Ereignis von Golgatha dasjenige, welches bezeugt, wie in der Entwickelung der Menschheit eine Phase sich trennt von der anderen Phase. Das Ereignis von Golgatha ist hingestellt an das Ende jener Entwickelung, in der die Menschen, indem sie die Sinneswelt anschauten, auch eine Anschauung des Geistigen hatten. So wenig das dem heutigen Menschen liegt, so wenig das dem heutigen Menschen plausibel erscheint, es ist so, daß in der vorchristlichen Zeit die Menschen in der Regel mit dem Sinnlichen zugleich ein Geistiges sahen. Sie sahen nicht bloß Bäume, nicht bloß Pflanzen, sie sahen mit den Bäumen ein Geistiges, mit den Pflanzen ein Geistiges. Aber die Kultur für diese Anschauung war abgelaufen, als das Ereignis von Golgatha herannahte. Ein neues Element sollte in die Menschheitsentwickelung eingreifen. Wenn der Mensch in seiner Umgebung das Geistige in den physisch-sinnlichen Dingen schaut, so kann sein Bewußtsein nicht ein solches werden, daß in ihm der Freiheitsimpuls entsteht. Mit der Entstehung dieses Freiheitsimpulses muß verbunden sein gewissermaßen ein Verlassensein des Menschen vom Göttlich-Geistigen, wenn er bloß in die äußere Welt hinaussieht. Es muß verbunden sein mit diesem Freiheitsimpuls die Notwendigkeit, aus der tiefsten Kraft der Seele heraufzuholen die Anschauung des Geistigen.
Das ist etwas von dem, was gerade Paulus der Menschheit offenbaren wollte, daß in den Zeiten, in denen die Menschen nur waren das Geschlecht Adams, daß in diesen alten Zeiten die Menschen nicht nötig hatten, aus ihrem Inneren ein aktives Erlebnis hervorzuholen, um das Göttlich-Geistige zu sehen, weil ihnen mit alledem, was in der Luft und auf der Erde lebte, dieses Göttlich-Geistige als Dämonisches entgegentrat. Aber überwunden sollte für die Menschheit sein — oder wenigstens nach und nach es werden — dieses Zusammenleben durch den Sinnenschein mit dem Göttlich-Geistigen. Und es sollte die Zeit heranrücken, wo der Mensch nötig hat, durch aktives, innerliches SichErkraften erst zu dem Göttlich-Geistigen sich zu erheben. Verstehen lernen sollte die Menschheit das Wort: «Mein Reich ist nicht von dieser Welt.» Nicht haftenbleiben sollte die Menschheit an einem Göttlich-Geistigen, das aus dem Sinnenschein hervorgehen will. Finden sollte die Menschheit den Weg zu einem göttlich-geistigen Reiche, das innerlich erkämpft, durch Entwickelung des Inneren erreicht werden soll.
Man versteht ja heute Paulus so trivial, weil man immer wieder und wiederum den Hang entwickelt, das, was er gesagt hat, sich in seine eigene Sprache, in die Sprache der materialistischen Gegenwart zu übersetzen. Man versteht ihn so trivial, daß man den einen Schwärmer nennen wird, der das Folgende, das aber durchaus wahr ist, über den Inhalt der Sprache des Paulus zu sagen hat. Paulus empfand es als eine große Weltenkrisis, daß gewissermaßen in der Dämmerung verschwand das alte, sinnlich-geistige Anschauen, und daß aufkommen sollte, wie in einem neuen Lichtreiche, das durch innere Initiative zu erringende Anschauen des Geistigen, das nicht zu gleicher Zeit da ist mit dem sinnlichen Anschauen. Paulus wußte aus seinem übersinnlichen Initiatenerlebnis, daß der Christus Jesus mit der Erdenentwickelung der Menschheit fortan seit der Auferstehung verbunden ist. Aber er wußte auch, daß, obzwar der Christus Jesus auf der Erde wandelt, er nur zu finden ist durch das Aufraffen der inneren Sehekraft, nicht durch das bloße sinnliche Anschauen. Derjenige, der ihn erreichen will durch das bloße sinnliche Anschauen, der muß sich über ihn täuschen, der muß irgendeinen Dämon für den Christus halten.
Das war dasjenige, was Paulus ganz gewiß den dazu Fähigen aus seiner Gemeinde immer wieder beibrachte, daß man nicht mit dem alten Dämonenschauen sich nähern solle dem Christus, daß man da ganz bestimmt ein falsches Wesen für den Christus halten werde. Daher war Paulus bemüht, die Menschen abzubringen von dem Hinblicken auf die Dämonen der Luft und der Erde, die ihnen ganz geläufig sein mußten in älteren Zeiten, weil für deren Anschauen noch atavistische, nunmehr unberechtigte Fähigkeiten zurückgeblieben waren. Dagegen ward Paulus nicht müde, immer wieder und wieder die Menschen zu ermahnen, diejenige Kraft des Inneren zu entwickeln, durch deren Entfaltung ein Verständnis dafür gewonnen werden konnte, daß in die Erdenentwickelung ein ganz neuer Impuls, eine ganz neue Wesenheit hereingezogen sei: Der Christus wird euch wiederkommen, wenn ihr nur den Weg heraus findet aus der bloßen sinnlich-physischen Anschauung der Erde. Der Christus wird euch wiederkommen, denn er ist da. Nur für euch muß er wiederkommen. Da ist er durch das Ereignis von Golgatha; ihr müßt ihn nur finden.
Das ist, was Paulus in seiner Sprache kündete, in einer Sprache, die dazumal ganz anders geistig klang als das, was im Nachklange die Menschen heute übersetzen in dasjenige, was bei ihnen heute beliebt ist, was ganz anders damals klang, als es heute klingt aus den Schriften des Paulus. Das ist, was Paulus immer wieder und wiederum als Überzeugung in den Menschen erwecken wollte. Erwecken wollte er die Überzeugung: Man braucht eine andere Art des Anschauens als diejenige, die genügend ist für die sinnliche Welt, wenn man den Christus verstehen will.
Demgegenüber ist die heutige Menschheit so weit gekommen, zwar noch zu reden von dem Gegensatz einer äußeren sinnenfälligen Wissenschaft und dem Glauben. Der äußeren sinnenfälligen Wissenschaft gestattet die neuere Theologie, kompliziert zu sein, sachlich zu sein, angewiesen darauf zu sein, etwas zu lernen; dem Glauben gestattet sie das nicht. Der soll — wie immer wieder und wieder betont wird an das Kindlichste im Menschen appellieren, an das, wozu man gar nichts zu lernen braucht.
Damit hat eben jene Anschauung ihren Charakter bekommen, die selbst das Ereignis von Damaskus noch ableugnet als ein solches, das einer Wirklichkeit entspricht, und die das Ereignis von Damaskus nur nehmen will wie etwas, was eine Art Halluzination des Paulus war. Wenn aber das Ereignis von Damaskus eine bloße Halluzination war oder ich kann auch sagen, wenn das Ereignis von Damaskus das war, was bei einer großen Anzahl der modernen 'Theologen das Ereignis von Damaskus sein soll —, dann müßte man auch den Mut haben, zu sagen: So schnell wie möglich weg mit dem Christentum —, denn dann ist der größte Unsinn mit dem Christentum in die Menschheit hereingezogen.
Das ist, was eigentlich gegenüber den neueren theologischen Lehren nötig wäre, wenn die Menschen diese neueren theologischen Lehren noch erstens ernst und zweitens mutig genug nehmen würden; aber sie nehmen sie weder ernst noch mutig. Sie weichen zurück vor der bloßen äußeren sinnlichen Wissenschaft, leugnen den inneren realen Impuls des Ereignisses von Damaskus, halten aber dennoch an dem Christentum fest. Gerade in solchen Dingen drücken sich die inneren, die seelisch-geistigen Schäden unserer Zeit am allerdeutlichsten aus, denn in solchen Dingen zeigt sich die tiefe innere Unwahrheit unserer Zeit. Die Wahrheit müßte sich gestehen: Entweder war das Ereignis von Damaskus eine Realität, etwas, was sich auf eine Realität bezieht, dann hat das Christentum Sinn — oder das Ereignis von Damaskus war dasjenige, was die moderne Theologie sagt, die sich der neueren Wissenschaft fügen will, dann hat das Christentum keinen Sinn. Das ist so wichtig, daß sich die Menschen solche Dinge vor die Seele rückten in dieser unserer Zeit, die eigentlich eine Zeit schwerer Prüfung ist. Denn indem die Menschen innerlich vor sich selber unwahrhaftig geworden sind in bezug auf ihre heiligsten Angelegenheiten, indem sie unwahrhaftig geworden sind in dem Sinne, daß sie das nicht mehr Christentum nennen dürften, was sie so nennen, hat die Neigung, die oftmals unbewußte, aber darum nicht minder verderbliche Neigung zur Unwahrheit die Menschheit eben ergriffen. Und deshalb ist diese Neigung zur Unwahrheit da. Deshalb ist diese Neigung zur Unwahrheit so innerlich verknüpft mit den Ereignissen, die nunmehr zur völligen Dekadenz des europäischen Kulturlebens führen müssen, wenn nicht für dieses europäische Kulturleben noch zur rechten Zeit die Besinnung auftritt, zu einer geistigen Erkenntnis sich hinzuwenden.
Sich hinzuwenden zu einer geistigen Erkenntnis, dazu genügt nun wahrhaftig nicht, in dieser Zeit der schweren Prüfungen im Kleinen stehenzubleiben, sondern dazu genügt nur, wirklich die Dinge in ihren Tiefen zu nehmen und an die Notwendigkeit großer Umwandelungen gerade in unserer Zeit zu denken. Immer wieder und wiederum muß betont werden: Was ist denn im Grunde genommen heute ein solches Fest wie das Osterfest für einen großen Teil der Menschheit? Wenn dieses Osterfest für einen großen Teil der Menschheit heranrückt, dann besteht für die Gedanken, die man sich bei diesem Osterfeste im Kreise derjenigen macht, mit denen man es noch zusammen feiern will, dieses, daß man alte Denkgewohnheiten festhält, daß man auch ziemlich in den alten Worten redet, mehr oder weniger automatisch fortredet, daß man dieselben Formeln hersagt, die man herzusagen gewöhnt war durch lange Zeiten. Aber haben wir heute ein Recht, diese alten Formeln herzusagen, da wir in unserem Umkreis überall den Unwillen bemerken, teilzunehmen an der großen, notwendigen Umgestaltung der Zeit? Können wir uns denn mit Recht auf das Paulinische Wort berufen: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir», wenn wir so wenig geneigt sind, hinzuschauen auf das, was die Menschheit in großes Unglück gebracht hat im Laufe der neuesten Zeit? Muß es nicht zusammenhängen gerade mit dem Osterfeste, sich klarzuwerden über das, was die Menschheit getroffen hat, und über das, was einzig und allein aus der Katastrophe herausführen kann: die übersinnliche Erkenntnis? Wenn das Osterfest, das ja in seiner Bedeutung ruht auf der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis — denn nimmermehr kann dasjenige, was das Osterfest bedeutet, die Auferstehung des Christus Jesus, bloß eine sinnliche Erkenntnis bedeuten -, müßte nicht, wenn dieses Österfest ernst genommen würde, die Menschheit darauf bedacht sein, daß Übersinnliches wiederum in die Erkenntnisse des Menschen einziehen muß? Sollte nicht heute der Gedanke auftauchen: Die Verlogenheit der neueren Kultur, sie ist davon gekommen, daß wir selbst über solche Dinge nicht mehr ernst sein konnten, wie dasjenige, was wir als unsere heiligen Feste anerkennen?
Wir feiern das Osterfest, das Auferstehungsfest, und haben längst aufgehört, aus der materialistischen Gesinnung heraus, im Ernste die Auferstehung begreifen zu wollen. Wir machen volle Feindschaft mit der Wahrheit, und wir suchen uns alle möglichen Auswege, um statt der Wahrheit den Weltenspaß hereinzubekommen, den Weltenspaß, denn ein solcher wäre es zu nennen, oder ist es zu nennen — wenn die Menschen das Fest der Auferstehung feiern und der neueren Wissenschaft glauben, die selbstverständlich an eine solche Auferstehung niemals appellieren kann. Materialismus und Osterfest-Feiern, das sind zwei Dinge, die unmöglich zueinander gehören, die unmöglich nebeneinander bestehen sollten. Auch der Materialismus der neueren Theologen verträgt sich nicht mit dem Osterfest heute. Wir leben in der Zeit, in der von einem der angesehensten Theologen Mitteleuropas ein «Wesen des Christentums» geschrieben worden ist, und in der es möglich geworden ist, dieses «Wesen des Christentums» als etwas besonders Hervorragendes zu preisen. Und in diesem «Wesen des Christentums» finden wir durchaus das Bestreben, die wirkliche Auferstehung des Christus Jesus nicht ernst zu nehmen; das gehört zu den Signaturen unserer Zeit. Das aber ist etwas, von dem eine tiefe Empfindung einziehen sollte in die Herzen, in die Gemüter der gegenwärtigen Menschheit. Aber wir kommen aus der Misere nicht heraus, wenn nicht über die Feindschaft, welche die neuere Menschheit gegenüber der Wahrheit einhält, ein richtiges Gefühl entsteht, wenn nicht die Dinge, die schon einmal im Leben eine so große Bedeutung haben, auch wirklich durchschaut werden.
Es ist notwendig, daß diejenige Tendenz, welche in der fünften nachatlantischen Zeit heraufgekommen ist, die Tendenz nach einer begreifbaren, dem menschlichen Urteilsvermögen angemessenen wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnis, auch einziehe in die Erkenntnis der übersinnlichen Welt. Denn zu den Ereignissen, die durchaus in der übersinnlichen Welt liegen, gehört das Ereignis von Golgatha. Zu den Ereignissen, die nur verstanden werden können durch übersinnliche Vorstellungen, gehört das Ereignis von Damaskus, wie es Paulus erlebt hat. Von dem Verständnis dieser Ereignisse hängt es ab, ob man in Wahrheit von dem Christus-Impuls etwas fühlen kann, oder ob man von dem Christus-Impuls nichts fühlen kann. Geradezu eine Probe sollte sich der Mensch der Gegenwart auferlegen, indem er sich frägt: Wie stehe ich in derjenigen Zeit, die man auf das «Osterfest» getauft hat, wie stehe ich zu dem, was übersinnliche Erkenntnisse sind? — Denn das Osterfest soll schon seiner Zeitfestsetzung nach erinnern an das Aufblicken des Menschen vom Irdischen zu dem Außerirdischen. In bezug auf den Ausblick in das Außerirdische hat ja der Mensch der Gegenwart nichts anderes sich reserviert als höchstens die Mathematik, die Mechanik, oder in der neueren Zeit noch die Spektralanalyse. Das sind die Grundlagen, durch die er sich Erkenntnisse über das Außerirdische verschaffen will. Er hat keine Empfindung mehr dafür, daß er verbunden ist mit diesem Außerirdischen, und daß aus diesem Außerirdischen der Christus hergekommen ist und eingezogen ist in die Persönlichkeit des Jesus.
Nehmen Sie die hier einschlägigen Gedanken nur geradezu ernst. Ich habe Sie öfter aufmerksam gemacht, wie feingeistige Naturen, wie Herman Grimm, die zwar heute variierte, aber doch im wesentlichen noch immer herrschend gebliebene Kant-Laplacesche Theorie nennen. Aus einem Urnebel hervorgegangen dieses Sonnensystem; im Laufe der Umwandelungen des Urnebels und seiner Verdichtungen Pflanzen, Tiere und auch der Mensch entstanden! Und weitergehend: die Erde einmal, nachdem alles auf ihr das Grab gefunden hat und nichts mehr tönt in das Weltenall heraus von dem, was die Leute sich phantasiert haben an Idealen, an Kulturgebilden, die Erde hineinfallend wie eine Schlacke in die Sonne, dann auch in einer noch späteren Zeit die Sonne versprühend im All, nicht nur begrabend, sondern vernichtend all das, was von den Menschen getan wird - es ist eine Anschauung von der Weltenordnung, wie sie nicht anders hat entstehen können in einer Zeit, in der man bloß mit den mathematischen, mechanischen Erkenntnissen das Außerirdische begreifen will. Aus einer Welt, in die man nur hinein rechnet, oder in der man die Eigenschaften der Sonne mit dem Spektroskop untersucht, in einer solchen Welt ist allerdings der Ort nicht zu suchen, aus dem der Christus heruntergekommen sein sollte, um sich mit dem Erdenleben zu verbinden! Ein gewisser Teil der Menschheit zieht es ja heute vor, weil er nicht zurechtkommt mit seinen Gedanken, lieber sich gar nicht damit zu beschäftigen, sondern fortzureden mit denjenigen Worten, die man gelernt hat aus den Evangelien, aus den Paulusbriefen, nachzuplappern, was man da gelernt hat, nicht nachzudenken, ob sich das verträgt mit dem, was man sonst als Anschauung gewinnt über die Entwickelung der Erde und der Menschheit. Aber eben darin besteht die tiefe innere Unwahrheit unserer Zeit, daß man sich herumdrückt um das wirklich nebeneinander zu Denkende, notwendig nebeneinander zu Denkende. Einen Nebel will man sich vormachen, damit man das Zusammengehörige nicht zusammen zu denken braucht. Einen Nebel macht man sich deshalb schon auch vor, wenn man Feste feiert, wenn man vom Osterfeste spricht, vom Feste der Auferstehung, und eigentlich weit davon entfernt ist, sich einen Begriff von dieser Auferstehung zu machen, der ja heute nur mit geistig-übersinnlicher Erkenntnis gemacht werden kann.
Es ist schon einzig und allein möglich für den Menschen der Gegenwart, noch eine Empfindung mit dem Osterfest zu verbinden, wenn er daran denkt, wie auch in unserer Zeit in der Tat eine Weltenkatastrophe gekommen ist, womit ich nicht nur die Weltenkatastrophe meine, die sich ereignet hat in den letzten Kriegsjahren, sondern worunter ich verstehe jene Weltenkatastrophe, die darin besteht, daß die Menschen verloren haben Vorstellungen über den Zusammenhang des Irdischen mit dem Außerirdischen. Es ist schon notwendig, daß die Menschen der Gegenwart sich eine Klarheit darüber, ein Bewußtsein davon verschaffen, daß auferstehen muß aus diesem Grabe des materialistischen Anschauens die übersinnliche Erkenntnis. Denn mit der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis wird die Erkenntnis des Christus Jesus aus diesem Grabe auferstehen. Im Grunde genommen hat man heute kein anderes Symbolum, das treffend ist für das Osterfest, als dieses: Des Menschen ganzes Seelenschicksal ist gekreuzigt in der materialistischen Weltanschauung. Aber der Mensch selber, die Menschheit muß etwas tun, damit aus dem Grabe des Materialismus auferstehe dasjenige, was aus der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis kommen kann.
Dieses Streben nach der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis ist selbst etwas Österliches; es ist etwas, was, wenn es empfunden wird, den Menschen wiederum ein Recht gibt, so etwas zu feiern, wie es das Osterfest ist. Wenn Sie hinschauen auf den Vollmond und ahnen, wie dieser Vollmond in seinen Erscheinungen mit dem Menschen zusammenhängt wie der Widerglanz des Sonnenhaften mit dem Mondhaften selber, so denken Sie daran, daß gesucht werden soll von dieser neueren Menschheit eine Menschheitserkenntnis, eine Menschheitsselbsterkenntnis, durch die der Mensch als ein wirklicher Abglanz des Übersinnlichen erscheint. Erkennt sich der Mensch als ein Abglanz des Übersinnlichen, erkennt sich der Mensch in dem, was er ist, als konstituiert aus dem Übersinnlichen heraus, dann findet er auch den Weg zu dem Übersinnlichen. Es ist im Grunde genommen menschlicher Hochmut, der in der materialistischen Weltanschauung zum Ausdrucke kommt, der sich nur in einer ganz merkwürdigen Weise äußert; menschlicher Hochmut, durch den der Mensch nicht sein will ein Abglanz des GöttlichGeistigen, sondern durch den er sein will bloß das höchste der tierischen Wesen. Da ist er das Höchste. Es handelt sich nur darum, unter was er das Höchste ist! Dieser Hochmut, der führt den Menschen dazu, nun überhaupt nichts mehr anzuerkennen als sich selbst. Es wäre schon, wenn wenigstens die naturwissenschaftliche Weltanschauung bei der Wahrheit bleiben würde, ihre Aufgabe, dem Menschen immer wieder und wiederum einzuprägen: Du bist das höchste derjenigen Wesen, von denen du dir eine Vorstellung machen kannst. — Die Konsequenzen derjenigen Anschauung, die heute richtig «wissenschaftlich» sein will, die sind eigentlich so, daß sie den Menschen erblassen machen müßten; daß sie ihm zeigen würden, aus welchen moralischen Unterlagen sie eigentlich hervorgehen, wenn auch diese moralischen Unterlagen zum großen Teile unbewußt bleiben. Aber wahrhaftig, es ist in unserer Zeit schon die Epoche da, in der in einer besonderen Art der Christus Jesus gekreuzigt, zu Tode gebracht worden ist gerade auf dem Felde der Erkenntnis. Und ehe nicht die Menschen dazu kommen, die gegenwärtige, rein am Sinnlichen klebende Art von Erkenntnis als das Erkenntnisgrab anzusehen, aus dem eine Auferstehung kommen muß, eher wird die Menschheit nicht dazu kommen, sich zu solchen Gefühlen und Empfindungen zu erheben, die österliche sein werden.
Daher sollten wir heute vor allen Dingen uns vor die Seele führen den Gedanken: Überlieferungen von einem Osterfeste, das am ersten Sonntag nach dem Frühjahrsvollmond stattfinden soll, sind da. Ein Recht, ein solches Osterfest zu feiern, haben wir heute, wenn wir Menschen der Gegenwartskultur sind, nicht. Wie gewinnen wir wiederum ein Recht? Man verbinde den Gedanken an den im Grabe liegenden Christus Jesus, an den Christus Jesus, der zur österlichen Zeit überwindet den Grabstein, der auf sein Grab gewälzt ist, man verbinde diesen Gedanken mit dem anderen, daß die menschliche Seele fühlen soll den Grabstein der bloßen äußeren mechanistischen Erkenntnis auf sich, und daß sie streben muß, zu überwinden den Druck dieser Erkenntnis, auf daß ihr werde die Möglichkeit, nicht bloß als ein wahres Glaubensbekenntnis dieses zu haben: Nicht ich, sondern das vollentwickelte Tier in mir —, auf daß sie wieder ein Recht habe, zu sagen: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir.»
Es wird erzählt, daß - in England soll es wohl gewesen sein — ein naturwissenschaftlich gebildeter Gelehrter gesagt hat, ihm sei es lieber, vorzustellen, daß er sich als Mensch nach und nach vom Affenhaften heraufgearbeitet habe durch eigene Kraft zu seiner jetzigen Höhe, als daß er als Mensch sollte so heruntergekommen sein von einer einstmals «göttlichen» Höhe, wie eben heruntergekommen schien sein Gegner, der eben nicht an die bloß naturwissenschaftlichen Vorstellungen glauben konnte. Nun, gerade solche Dinge weisen eben darauf hin, wie sehr es notwendig ist, den Weg zu finden von dem Bekenntnis: Nicht ich, sondern das vollentwickelte Tier in mir -, zu dem anderen: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir.» Dieses Pauluswort zu verstehen, das sollte gesucht werden. Dann erst wird es wiederum möglich sein, daß eine wahrhaftige Osterbotschaft aus den Tiefen unserer Seelen herauf in unser Bewußtsein einzieht.
Fourth Lecture
It is a custom introduced in early Christianity to distinguish between Christmas and Easter in that Christmas is a fixed date, set at approximately a few days after December 21, i.e., the winter solstice, and Easter is set on a day determined by a certain constellation of stars, but a constellation that at the same time connects, as it were, the extraterrestrial with the human earthly. Tomorrow we will be in the sign of the first full moon of spring, and the spring sun, which entered the sign of spring after March 21, will fall on this full moon. So when the people of Earth celebrate the first Sunday again, the day that is meant to remind them of their connection with the forces of the Sun, the Sunday that is the first after the full moon of spring, then Easter should be celebrated according to the Christian view of life. This makes Easter a movable feast. It is, so to speak, necessary to look at the constellations in the sky each year in order to determine the date of Easter.
Such things were established at a time when wisdom traditions still existed from ancient atavistic clairvoyant abilities, traditions that gave people knowledge far beyond what present-day science can offer. In those ancient times, when such knowledge was still available, people sought to express their connection with the extraterrestrial through such things. And in such fixed traditions there is always a reference to what is most significant for the development of humanity.
The fixed date on which Christmas is celebrated indicates how closely this festival should be felt to be connected with the earthly, because it is meant to remind us of the birth of the human being into whom the Christ being then entered. But Easter is meant to remind us of an event that has significance not within the course of earthly development, but within the entire world context in which human beings are placed. That is why the date of Easter should not be determined solely by customary earthly conditions, but should be one that can only be fixed when human beings turn their thoughts to the extraterrestrial. And there is something even deeper in this determination of the movable date of Easter. It lies in the way in which human beings, through the Christ impulse, were to become free from earthly evolution, from the forces of this mere earthly evolution; that they were to become free through a recognition of the extraterrestrial, that lies within it. In a sense, it is a call to rise up to the extraterrestrial, and one might say that it also contains a certain promise of world history to human beings that they can become free from earthly conditions through the Christ impulse.
If we want to understand fully what is expressed in this statement about the date of Easter, we can understand it even more if we look at the first mysteries of the origin of Christianity, mysteries which, more or less, have gradually been veiled for a certain period of time on earth by the materialistic view of the world which has been part of human development since the beginning of the fifth post-Atlantean period and which we now need to overcome. To look at these circumstances properly, we need to see how the figure of Paul intervened in the development of the Christ impulse in the world history of humanity.
We must keep reminding ourselves again and again how this figure of Paul intervened in the development of Christianity. We can say that Paul had ample opportunity to learn about the events in Palestine connected with the personality of Jesus through his own eyes, through his external physical perception. Paul was not convinced by anything that affected him in the physical world, for he still belonged to the opponents of Christianity after these events in Palestine had already reached their physical conclusion. Paul only became the apostle of the Christians when he experienced the event at Damascus, when he experienced the essence of the Christ impulse through extraterrestrial, supersensible means. Paul is precisely the person who could not be convinced of the significance of the Christ impulse by physical-sensory impressions, but who needed supersensible experience for his conviction. And this supersensible experience had a profound impact on Paul's life. It was so profound that Paul became a completely different person. One could even say that it was so profound that Paul became what one might call an initiate, an insider.
Paul was well prepared to experience something like this. He was a man well acquainted with the Jewish religious mysteries, with Jewish knowledge and the Jewish worldview, and this knowledge prepared him well to judge the event that presented itself to him as the experience of Damascus. He was well prepared to be able to say about this event what could give a correct view, a correct idea of this event. However, I would like to say that only a reflection of what Paul actually experienced within himself comes to us from what is known as the writings of Paul. We hear him speak of the event at Damascus as one who, through this event, has gained knowledge of what lies behind the veil of the sensory world in world events. We hear him speak in such a way that we recognize that he is able to judge the completely different world of the supersensible in relation to the sensory world here.
If we compare the outward life of Paul with the outward earthly experience of Christ Jesus, we find something highly remarkable, which only becomes clear when we look at human evolution from a spiritual scientific point of view. In this regard, I have often drawn your attention to how completely different human beings were in terms of their organic and soul development in other times, and how different they have become in the course of their development since the Indian, Persian, Egyptian-Chaldean, and Greek-Latin cultural epochs up to the present day. For if we look back to the ancient times of human development — as we have often discussed — we find that human beings remained capable of organic development into a high age, that they went through similar stages of parallelism between their soul and physical development into a higher age, as they now only go through with the change of teeth, with sexual maturity, with the beginning of the twenties. Humanity has lost this general characteristic of experiencing such developmental transitions at a higher age. Until the fifties in ancient Indian times, until the forties later in Persian and Egyptian times, and until the thirty-fifth year in Greek-Latin times, the people of those ancient times experienced a parallelism between spiritual and physical development.
We experience such a parallelism of general human nature for ordinary consciousness only — as I have often explained — up to the age of twenty-seven, and even then what falls into the last few years is hardly noticeable. At the time when the Christ impulse entered human evolution, it was precisely the case that people, including the people of the Greek-Latin world, still experienced this parallelism until the age of thirty-three. And Christ Jesus lived his physical days on earth just long enough to participate in that life which runs parallel between the physical organization and the spiritual-soul organization. Then he passed through the gate of death for earthly life.
What this passing through the gate of death means can only be understood from a spiritual scientific point of view, if one is able to look into the supersensible worlds. For this is not an event that can be understood through what takes place in the sensory world.
Paul was about the same age as Christ Jesus himself as a physical human being. He spent precisely the same amount of time in the anti-Christian era as Christ Jesus did during his earthly ministry. And during the second half of his life, he experienced what he had gained through supersensible experiences. During the second half of his life, he experienced through supersensible experience what human beings since those days could no longer experience in the second half of their lives through sensory experience, because human beings did not experience a parallelism between soul-spiritual development and physical development until those higher days on earth, until after the age of thirty-five. And the event of Golgotha presented itself to Paul in such a way that, through immediate enlightenment, he gained an understanding that people once had through atavistic means (the original wisdom), which in more recent times can only be attained through a new spiritual science. This was granted to him so that he could become the initiator of a correct understanding of what happened for humanity through the Christ impulse.
Paul continued to walk on earth for about as long as Christ walked on earth, until about the age of sixty-seven or sixty-eight, in order to introduce the teachings of Christianity into earthly development for the same length of time. There is a remarkable parallel between the life of Christ Jesus and the life of Paul. The only difference is that the life of Christ Jesus was filled with the inner existence of Christ, whereas Paul had such a strong initiated afterlife experience of this event that he was able to be the first among mankind to bring forth the corresponding ideas about Christianity—in a period of time that corresponds approximately to the life of Christ Jesus on earth. To consider the connection between what was lived out for the earthly development of humanity through the life of Christ Jesus and what was taught by Paul about the Christ Being, to view this connection in the right way, actually means a great deal for human beings. But this connection must be experienced in such a way that it truly appears as the result of the supersensible influence that was exerted on Paul. And if modern theology has even gone so far as to explain the event at Damascus as a kind of hallucination, a kind of illusion, this only testifies to the fact that modern theology has also ended up in materialism, that even modern theology no longer knows the nature of the supersensible world and the importance of understanding the supersensible world for a correct understanding of the nature of Christianity.
Today, we should admit, quite seriously and honestly, that it is difficult to empathize with the very different ideas—different from those of today—found in the Gospels and in the letters of Paul. But we have become accustomed to no longer even considering such ideas. Basically, it is very, very difficult for people who are completely imbued with the ideas of the present day to think correctly about Paul's words. Even a large number of today's theologians strive to interpret the event at Damascus as materialistically as possible; indeed, a number of theologians, while still pretending to be true Christians, even strive to deny the real resurrection of Christ Jesus! In doing so, these personalities only testify that they are not inclined to apply any knowledge of the supersensible to the essence of Christianity, to the appearance of Christ Jesus within the evolution of the earth. It is as if the figure of Paul, who stands, so to speak, at the forefront of the Christian tradition, and who came with experiences gained through supersensible means to understand Christianity, stands at the forefront of the Christian tradition, inviting people to take refuge in supersensible knowledge. It is, in a sense, a statement that it is impossible to understand Christianity if one does not resort to knowledge gained through supersensible means. It is, in a sense, a statement that it is impossible to understand Christianity without resorting to insights drawn from the sources of the supersensible. It is necessary to understand the figure of Paul as that of someone who was initiated into the supersensible world connections. It is necessary to see what he endeavored to teach humanity in this light.
Let us try to convey to our souls in our present-day language some of what seems to have been of particular importance to Paul, who was an initiate. Paul attached particular importance to pointing out a completely new way of looking at the position of human beings in relation to world evolution, which came about through the impulse of Christ Jesus. It was important to him to say that world evolution, which included the old pagan experiences, had come to an end for human beings. New experiences of human soul life are here; they only need to be seen by human beings. With this, Paul was already pointing to that deepest turning point in human earthly development, to which one should always point again and again if one wants to understand true history. When we look back at pre-Christian development, particularly at those times that were still characteristic in a special way because they still radically possessed the most outstanding qualities of the pre-Christian era, we can say that the entire human view was different then. Certainly, a complete reversal did not occur in a single moment; but nevertheless, the event of Golgotha is the one that testifies to how one phase of human development separates from another. The event of Golgotha is placed at the end of that development in which human beings, by looking at the sensory world, also had a perception of the spiritual. As little as this may appeal to modern man, as little as it may seem plausible to him, it is nevertheless true that in pre-Christian times people generally saw the spiritual at the same time as they saw the sensory. They did not see merely trees, merely plants; they saw something spiritual in the trees and something spiritual in the plants. But the culture for this perception had come to an end as the event of Golgotha approached. A new element was to intervene in human development. If human beings see the spiritual in the physical-sensory things around them, their consciousness cannot become such that the impulse of freedom arises in them. The emergence of this impulse toward freedom must be connected, in a sense, with humanity's abandonment of the divine-spiritual when it looks only outward into the external world. Connected with this impulse toward freedom must be the necessity of drawing the perception of the spiritual up from the deepest power of the soul.
This is something that Paul wanted to reveal to humanity, that in the times when people were only the descendants of Adam, in those ancient times, people did not need to bring forth an active experience from within themselves in order to see the divine-spiritual, because everything that lived in the air and on the earth this divine-spiritual thing came to them as something demonic. But this coexistence with the divine-spiritual through the sense appearance was to be overcome for humanity — or at least gradually become so. And the time was to come when human beings would need to rise to the divine-spiritual through active, inner effort. Humanity should learn to understand the words: “My kingdom is not of this world.” Humanity should not cling to a divine-spiritual that wants to emerge from the sense world. Humanity should find the way to a divine-spiritual kingdom that is to be achieved through inner struggle and the development of the inner life.
Today, Paul is understood in such a trivial way because people repeatedly develop the tendency to translate what he said into their own language, into the language of the materialistic present. They understand him so trivially that they call someone a dreamer who says the following, which is nevertheless absolutely true, about the content of Paul's language. Paul felt it was a great world crisis that the old, sensual-spiritual way of seeing was disappearing into twilight, so to speak, and that a new way of seeing the spiritual, which is not present at the same time as the sensual way of seeing, was to arise, as if in a new realm of light, to be attained through inner initiative. Paul knew from his supersensible initiatory experience that Christ Jesus has been connected with the earthly development of humanity since his resurrection. But he also knew that although Christ Jesus walks on earth, he can only be found by summoning up one's inner vision, not by mere sensory perception. Anyone who wants to reach him through mere sensory perception must deceive himself; he must take some demon for Christ.
That was what Paul repeatedly taught those in his community who were capable of understanding it: that one should not approach Christ with the old demon-seeing, because one would certainly mistake a false being for Christ. Therefore, Paul endeavored to dissuade people from looking at the demons of the air and the earth, which must have been quite familiar to them in earlier times, because atavistic, now unjustified abilities had remained for seeing them. On the other hand, Paul never tired of admonishing people again and again to develop the inner power through which they could gain an understanding that a completely new impulse, a completely new being, had been brought into the earth's evolution: Christ will come back to you if you only find your way out of the mere sensory-physical view of the earth. Christ will come back to you, for he is here. He must come back only for you. He is here through the event of Golgotha; you only have to find him.
This is what Paul proclaimed in his language, in a language that at that time sounded very different spiritually from what people today translate into what is popular with them today, which sounded very different then than it sounds today from the writings of Paul. This is what Paul wanted to awaken in people again and again as a conviction. He wanted to awaken the conviction that a different way of seeing is needed than that which is sufficient for the sensory world if one wants to understand Christ.
In contrast, humanity today has come so far that it still talks about the contrast between an external, sensory science and faith. The newer theology allows external, sensory science to be complicated, objective, dependent on learning something; it does not allow this of faith. Faith, it is repeatedly emphasized, must appeal to the most childlike in human beings, to that which requires no learning whatsoever.
This is precisely what gives rise to the view that even the event at Damascus is denied as something that corresponds to reality, and that the event at Damascus is regarded merely as a kind of hallucination on the part of Paul. But if the event at Damascus was merely a hallucination, or I might also say, if the event at Damascus was what a large number of modern 'theologians' believe it to be, then one would also have to have the courage to say: Let us get rid of Christianity as quickly as possible, for then the greatest nonsense has been brought into humanity with Christianity.
This is what would actually be necessary in relation to the newer theological teachings, if people would first take these newer theological teachings seriously and secondly be courageous enough to do so; but they take them neither seriously nor courageously. They shy away from mere external, sensory science, deny the inner, real impulse of the event at Damascus, but nevertheless cling to Christianity. It is precisely in such things that the inner, spiritual damage of our time is most clearly expressed, for it is in such things that the deep inner untruth of our time is revealed. The truth must be admitted: Either the event at Damascus was a reality, something that refers to a reality, in which case Christianity has meaning — or the event at Damascus was what modern theology says it was, which wants to conform to modern science, in which case Christianity has no meaning. This is so important that people should bring such things to the forefront of their minds in our time, which is actually a time of severe testing. For by becoming inwardly untruthful to themselves in relation to their most sacred matters, by becoming untruthful in the sense that they can no longer call what they call Christianity Christianity, the tendency, often unconscious but no less pernicious for that, toward untruth has taken hold of humanity. And that is why this tendency toward untruth exists. That is why this tendency toward untruth is so deeply connected with the events that must now lead to the complete decadence of European cultural life, unless this European cultural life comes to its senses in time and turns toward spiritual knowledge.
Turning toward spiritual insight in this time of severe trials is truly not enough to remain stuck in small things; rather, it is only enough to truly take things to heart and think about the necessity of great transformations, especially in our time. It must be emphasized again and again: What does a festival such as Easter really mean for a large part of humanity today? When Easter approaches for a large part of humanity, the thoughts that arise during this Easter celebration among those with whom one still wants to celebrate it are that one clings to old habits of thinking, that one also speaks quite much in the old words, more or less automatically, that one repeats the same formulas that one has been accustomed to saying for a long time. But do we have the right today to repeat these old formulas, when we see everywhere around us the unwillingness to participate in the great and necessary transformation of the times? Can we rightly invoke the words of St. Paul, “Not I, but Christ in me,” when we are so little inclined to look at what has brought humanity into great misfortune in recent times? Must it not be connected precisely with the Easter festival to become clear about what has befallen humanity and about what alone can lead out of the catastrophe: supersensible knowledge? If Easter, which rests in its meaning on supersensible knowledge — for what Easter signifies, the resurrection of Christ Jesus, can never mean merely a sensory perception — if Easter were taken seriously, should not humanity be concerned that the supersensible must once again enter into human knowledge? Should not the thought arise today: The hypocrisy of modern culture has arisen from the fact that we ourselves could no longer take seriously such things as those we recognize as our holy festivals?
We celebrate Easter, the festival of resurrection, and have long since ceased, out of a materialistic attitude, to want to understand the resurrection seriously. We are completely hostile to the truth, and we seek all possible ways out in order to bring in worldly fun instead of the truth, worldly fun, for that is what it should be called, or must be called, when people celebrate the feast of the resurrection and believe in modern science, which of course can never appeal to such a resurrection. Materialism and Easter celebrations are two things that cannot possibly belong together, that cannot possibly coexist. Even the materialism of modern theologians is incompatible with Easter today. We live in a time when one of the most respected theologians in Central Europe has written a book entitled “The Essence of Christianity,” and when it has become possible to praise this “essence of Christianity” as something particularly outstanding. And in this “essence of Christianity” we find the desire not to take the real resurrection of Christ Jesus seriously; this is one of the hallmarks of our time. But this is something that should deeply touch the hearts and minds of the people of today. We won't get out of this mess unless we develop a proper understanding of the hostility that modern humanity has toward the truth, unless we really see through the things that are so important in life.
It is necessary that the tendency that has arisen in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, the tendency toward a comprehensible scientific knowledge appropriate to human judgment, also find its way into the knowledge of the supersensible world. For the events that belong entirely to the supersensible world include the event of Golgotha. Among the events that can only be understood through supersensible ideas is the event of Damascus as experienced by Paul. Whether one can truly feel something of the Christ impulse or whether one cannot feel anything of the Christ impulse depends on the understanding of these events. People today should set themselves a test by asking themselves: Where do I stand in this time that has been christened “Easter,” and how do I feel about supersensible knowledge? For Easter, by the very date it was set, is meant to remind us of humanity's gaze from the earthly to the extraterrestrial. When it comes to looking at the extraterrestrial, people today have reserved for themselves nothing more than mathematics, mechanics, or, in more recent times, spectral analysis. These are the foundations on which they want to gain knowledge about the extraterrestrial. He no longer has any sense of being connected to the extraterrestrial, and that Christ came from the extraterrestrial and entered into the personality of Jesus.
Take the relevant thoughts here seriously. I have often drawn your attention to how refined minds, such as Herman Grimm, refer to the Kant-Laplace theory, which has varied today but essentially remains dominant. This solar system emerged from a primordial nebula; in the course of the transformations of the primordial nebula and its condensations, plants, animals, and also humans came into being! And further: once everything on it has found its grave and nothing more resounds in the universe from what people have fantasized about in ideals and cultural constructs, the earth will fall into the sun like slag, then, in an even later time, the sun will spray out into space, not only burying but destroying everything that has been done by humans—it is a view of the world order that could not have arisen in any other way at a time when people wanted to understand the extraterrestrial world solely with mathematical and mechanical knowledge. In a world in which one merely calculates, or in which one examines the properties of the sun with a spectroscope, one cannot find the place from which Christ should have come down to connect with earthly life! A certain part of humanity today, because it cannot come to terms with its thoughts, prefers not to concern itself with this at all, but to continue to repeat the words they have learned from the Gospels and the letters of Paul, parroting what they have learned there, without thinking about whether it is compatible with what they otherwise gain as an insight into the development of the earth and humanity. But this is precisely the deep inner untruth of our time, that people avoid thinking about things that really need to be thought about side by side, things that necessarily need to be thought about side by side. People want to create a fog for themselves so that they don't have to think about things that belong together. That is why people create a fog for themselves when they celebrate festivals, when they talk about Easter, the festival of resurrection, and are actually far from having any concept of this resurrection, which today can only be understood through spiritual, supersensible knowledge.
It is only possible for people of the present day to associate a feeling with Easter when they think of how, even in our time, a world catastrophe has indeed come about, by which I do not mean only the world catastrophe that occurred in the last years of the war, but what I understand to be the world catastrophe that consists in that human beings have lost their ideas about the connection between the earthly and the extraterrestrial. It is necessary for people today to gain clarity and awareness that supersensible knowledge must rise from this grave of materialistic thinking. For with supersensible knowledge, the knowledge of Christ Jesus will rise from this grave. Basically, there is no other symbol today that is more apt for Easter than this: the entire destiny of the human soul is crucified in the materialistic worldview. But human beings themselves, humanity itself, must do something so that what can come from supersensible knowledge may rise from the grave of materialism.
This striving for supersensible knowledge is itself something Easter-like; it is something which, when it is felt, gives human beings the right to celebrate something like Easter. When you look at the full moon and sense how its appearance is connected with human beings, like the reflection of the sun on the moon, remember that this new humanity must seek a knowledge of humanity, a self-knowledge of humanity, through which human beings appear as a true reflection of the supersensible. If human beings recognize themselves as a reflection of the supersensible, if they recognize themselves in what they are, as constituted out of the supersensible, then they also find the way to the supersensible. It is basically human arrogance that finds expression in the materialistic worldview, which manifests itself in a very strange way; human arrogance through which man does not want to be a reflection of the divine spirit, but through which he wants to be merely the highest of the animal beings. There he is the highest. It is only a question of what he is the highest among! This pride leads man to recognize nothing at all except himself. It would be enough if at least the scientific worldview would stick to the truth, its task of impressing upon man again and again: You are the highest of those beings of which you can form an idea. The consequences of this view, which today wants to be considered “scientific,” are such that they should make people pale; they should show them the moral foundations from which they actually arise, even if these moral foundations remain largely unconscious. But truly, the time has already come in our age when, in a special way, Christ Jesus has been crucified and put to death precisely in the field of knowledge. And until people come to regard the present kind of knowledge, which clings purely to the senses, as the tomb of knowledge from which a resurrection must come, humanity will not be able to rise to feelings and sensations that will be Easter feelings.
Therefore, today we should above all bring to mind the thought: There are traditions of an Easter festival that is to take place on the first Sunday after the full moon in spring. As people of contemporary culture, we do not have the right to celebrate such an Easter festival today. How do we regain this right? Let us connect the thought of Christ Jesus lying in the tomb, of Christ Jesus who at Easter time overcomes the tombstone rolled over his grave, with the other thought that the human soul must feel the tombstone of mere external, mechanistic knowledge upon itself, and that it must strive to overcome the pressure of this knowledge, so that it may have the possibility of not merely having this as a true profession of faith: Not I, but the fully developed animal in me — so that it may once again have the right to say: “Not I, but Christ in me.”
It is said that — it is supposed to have been in England — a scholar educated in the natural sciences said that he would rather imagine that he, as a human being, had gradually worked his way up from the ape-like state through his own efforts to his present level than that he, as a human being, should have fallen so low from a once “divine” height, just as his opponent, who could not believe in mere scientific ideas, seemed to have fallen. Well, it is precisely such things that point to how necessary it is to find the way from the confession, “Not I, but the fully developed animal in me,” to the other, “Not I, but Christ in me.” We should seek to understand this saying of Paul. Only then will it be possible for a true Easter message to rise from the depths of our souls into our consciousness.