The Rudolf Steiner Archive

First Lecture

[ 1 ] The topic I intend to discuss in the coming days strikes me as particularly important in light of the present time and current circumstances. I would like to emphasize from the outset that this topic— The Fifth Gospel. For I hope to be able to show that, in a certain sense—and indeed in a sense that must be of particular importance to us in the present—we can indeed speak of such a Fifth Gospel, and that no other name is in fact better suited to what is meant by it than the name “The Fifth Gospel.” This Fifth Gospel, as you will hear, does not yet exist in written form today. But it will certainly exist in a very specific written form in the days to come for humanity. In a certain sense, however, one could say that this Fifth Gospel is as old as the other four Gospels.

[ 2 ] However, in order for me to speak about this Fifth Gospel, it is necessary that we first agree on a few important points—in a sort of introduction—that are essential for a complete understanding of what we shall henceforth call the Fifth Gospel. Specifically, I would like to start from the premise that the time is certainly not far off when, even in the lowest schools, even in the most basic instruction, the discipline commonly called history will sound somewhat different than it has until now. For it is quite certain—and the coming days will, so to speak, prove this to us—that the concept of Christ, the idea of Christ, will play a very different, more important role in the historical perspective of the future, even in the most elementary historical perspective, than it has played up to now. I know that in saying this I am actually expressing something tremendously paradoxical. Let us consider, after all, that we can look back to times not so long ago when countless hearts, among both the simplest and the most educated inhabitants of the Western countries of Europe, directed their feelings and emotions toward Christ in a far more intense way than is the case today. This was the case to a far greater extent in earlier times. Anyone who surveys contemporary literature, who reflects on what primarily interests people today, what they hold dear, will have the impression that enthusiasm and deep emotional response to the idea of Christ are on the wane, particularly where people claim a certain level of education derived from the times. It therefore seems paradoxical that, as I have just emphasized, our time is working toward a future—not too distant—in which the concept of Christ will play a far more significant role in the contemplation of human history than has been the case thus far. Does this not appear to be a complete contradiction?

[ 3 ] Now let us approach this idea from a different angle. I have often had the opportunity to speak here in this city about the significance and content of the concept of Christ. And in the books and lecture series available here, you will find manifold explanations, drawn from the depths of spiritual science, regarding the mysteries of the Christ Being and the concept of Christ. Anyone who takes in what has been said in lectures, cycles, and in our writings in general, that a strong, comprehensive foundation is required for a complete understanding of the Christ Being, and that one must draw upon the deepest concepts, ideas, and notions if one wishes to rise to a full comprehension of what Christ is and what the impulse is that has passed through the centuries as the Christ Impulse. One might even, if nothing else spoke against it, come to the conclusion that one must first know the whole of Theosophy or Anthroposophy in order to rise to a true conception of the Christ. But if we set that aside and look at the spiritual development of past centuries, we see, from century to century, the wealth of detailed, profound scholarship that was intended to grasp Christ and his appearance. Throughout the centuries, people have devoted their highest and most significant ideas to understanding Christ. Here, too, it might now seem as if only the most insignificant of human intellectual activities would suffice to understand Christ. Is this indeed the case? A very simple consideration can provide us with proof that it is not so.

[ 4 ] Let us, as it were, place on one side of an intellectual scale everything that has contributed so far—in terms of scholarship, science, and even the anthroposophical understanding of the concept of Christ—to our comprehension of Christ. Let us place all of this on one pan of a spiritual scale, and let us place on the other pan, in our thoughts, all the deep feelings, all the intimacy in the souls of human beings that have been directed over the centuries toward what is called Christ, and we will find that all the science, all scholarship, even all the anthroposophy we can muster to explain Christ, surprisingly springs up in that pan, while all the deep feelings and emotions that have drawn people to the Christ-being, to the appearance of Christ, press the other pan deep, deep down. It is no exaggeration to say that an immense effect has gone out from the Christ, and that knowledge of the Christ has contributed the very least to this effect. Christianity would truly have been in a very poor state indeed if, in order to cling to Christ, people had needed all the scholarly debates of the Middle Ages, Scholasticism, and the Church Fathers, or if people had been dependent solely on everything we can bring to bear today through anthroposophy to grasp the idea of Christ. What one could achieve with that would truly be very little. I do not believe that anyone who objectively observes the course of Christianity through the centuries could raise any serious objection to these thoughts. But we can approach this idea more closely from another angle.

[ 5 ] Let us cast our gaze back to the times when Christianity did not yet exist. I need only recall what is surely vividly present in the minds of most of you here. I need only recall how, in ancient Greece, Greek tragedy—especially in its earlier forms—when it depicted the struggling god or the human being in whose soul the struggling god was at work, made the divine working and weaving immediately vivid, as it were, right from the stage. I need only point out how Homer interwove the workings of the spiritual throughout his significant poetry; I need only point to the great figures of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. With these names, a spiritual life of the highest order in a certain realm appears before our souls. If we set aside everything else and look only at the figure of Aristotle, who was active centuries before the founding of Christianity, we encounter something that, in a certain sense, has undergone no enhancement or further development up to our time. Aristotle’s thinking and his development of human logic are so immensely perfect even today that one can say the highest level of human thought was attained, such that no further advancement has occurred to this day.

[ 6 ] And now let us for a moment propose a curious hypothesis that is necessary for the coming days. Let us imagine for a moment that there were no Gospels at all from which we could learn anything about the figure of Christ. Let us assume for a moment that the earliest documents, which people today hold in their hands as the New Testament, did not exist at all; let us imagine that there were no Gospels at all. Let us deliberately set aside what is said about the founding of Christianity; let us simply regard the course of Christianity as a historical fact; let us see what happened among people throughout the post-Christian centuries; that is, without the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of Paul, and so on, let us simply consider what actually happened. This is, of course, only a hypothesis, but it will help us achieve what we aim for. What, then, has happened in the times that have passed before and since the founding of Christianity?

[ 7 ] If we first turn our attention to southern Europe, we find, at a certain point in time, the highest level of human intellectual development—as we have just evoked in the mind through its representative, Aristotle—a highly developed intellectual life that underwent further refinement in the centuries that followed. Indeed, at the time when Christianity began to make its way through the world, there were numerous people in southern Europe who had been educated in the Greek tradition—people who had absorbed Greek intellectual life. If one traces the development of Christianity up to that remarkable man, Caesar, who was such a fierce opponent of Christianity, and even further into later times, one finds in southern Europe—on the Greek and Italian peninsulas—well into the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, people of the highest intellectual cultivation, numerous people who had assimilated the lofty ideas found in Plato, whose acumen truly appears as a continuation of Aristotle’s acumen—refined and powerful minds with a Greek education, Romans with a Greek education, who added the aggressive, personal character of Roman culture to the refinement of Greek culture.

[ 8 ] It is into this world that the Christian impulse enters. At that time, the Christian impulse manifested itself in such a way that we can say the representatives of this Christian impulse truly appeared to be uneducated people in terms of intellectuality and knowledge of the world, compared to what many educated Roman-Greek people possessed within themselves. People without education were pushing their way into a world of the most mature intellectuality. And now we witness a strange spectacle: these simple, primitive souls, who are the bearers of early Christianity, are spreading this Christianity with relatively great speed throughout southern Europe. And when we approach these simple, primitive souls—who once spread Christianity—with what we can understand today about the essence of Christianity, say through anthroposophy, we may say to ourselves: These primitive souls understood the essence of Christ—we need not even think of the great cosmic Christ-idea that is to dawn today through anthroposophy; we can think of much simpler Christ-ideas—the bearers of the Christian impulse at that time, who were thrust into the highly developed Greek culture, understood none of that. They had nothing to offer the marketplace of Greco-Roman life but their personal inner life, which they had developed as their personal relationship to the beloved Christ; for they loved this very relationship as a member of a beloved family. Those who brought Christianity—which has continued to develop right up to our time—into the Greek and Roman worlds of that era were not educated theologians or theosophists; they were not educated people. The educated theosophers of that time, the Gnostics, did indeed rise to lofty ideas about Christ, but they could only offer what we must place on the ascending scale. Had it depended on the Gnostics, Christianity would certainly not have made its triumphant march through the world. It was not a particularly educated intelligentsia that pushed in from the East and brought ancient Greece and Rome to ruin with relative speed. That is the matter viewed from one side.

[ 9 ] Looking at it from the other side, let us consider the intellectually distinguished figures, from Celsus, the enemy of Christianity, who even back then raised every objection that could still be made against it today, to the philosopher on the throne, Marcus Aurelius. Let us look at the highly educated Neoplatonists, who at that time put forward ideas against which philosophy today is child’s play, and which far surpassed our present-day ideas in depth and breadth of vision. And let us look at everything these minds had to say against Christianity, and let us immerse ourselves in what these intellectually superior figures of the Greek and Roman spirit had to say against Christianity from the standpoint of Greek philosophy, and we get the impression: none of them understood the Christ impulse. We see that Christianity spreads through bearers who understand nothing of the essence of Christianity; it is opposed by a high culture that can grasp nothing of what the Christ impulse means. Strangely, Christianity enters the world in such a way that neither its followers nor its opponents understand its true spirit. And yet: people have carried within their souls the power to lead this Christ impulse on its triumphal march through the world.

[ 10 ] And let us consider those who, with a certain grandeur, championed Christianity, such as the famous Church Father Tertullian. We see in him a Roman who, in practice—if we consider his language—is almost a re-creator of the Roman language, who coined new words with such precision that they reveal to us a significant personality. But when we ask ourselves: What about Tertullian’s idea of Christ?—then the matter takes a different turn. There we find that he actually displays very little intellectuality or spiritual depth. Even the defenders of Christianity do not accomplish much. And yet, they are effective—effective as personalities—such spirits as Tertullian, whose arguments the educated Greeks really could not appreciate much. Nevertheless, he has a captivating effect; but through what? That is what matters! Do we feel that a real question is being posed to the soul here! By what means do the bearers of the Christ impulse work, who themselves do not understand much of what the Christ impulse actually is? By what means do the Christian Church Fathers work, even up to Origen, in whom one can see a lack of skill regarding the understanding of the Christ impulse? What is it that even Greco-Roman culture, having risen to such heights, could not understand about the nature of the Christ impulse? What is all this?

[ 11 ] But let us move on. The same phenomenon soon presents itself to us in an even more striking way when we consider historical life. We see how the centuries unfold in which Christianity spreads throughout the European world among peoples who, like the Germanic peoples, come from entirely different religious traditions; peoples who are one—or at least appear to be one—in their religious beliefs, and who nevertheless embraced this Christ impulse with full force, as if it were their very life. And when we consider the most effective messengers of the faith among the Germanic peoples, were they people educated in scholastic theology? Not at all! They were those who moved among the people with a relatively simple spirit and spoke to them in a simple way, using the most immediate, everyday concepts, yet immediately touched their hearts. They knew how to choose their words so that they could strike a chord with those to whom they spoke. Simple people went out into all regions, and it was precisely they who had the most significant impact.

[ 12 ] Thus we see the spread of Christianity throughout the centuries. But then we marvel at how that very same Christianity gives rise to significant scholarship, science, and philosophy. We do not underestimate this philosophy, but today we wish to turn our attention to that peculiar phenomenon whereby Christianity spread among peoples well into the Middle Ages—peoples who, until then, had harbored entirely different ways of thinking in their minds—so that it soon became part of their very soul. And in the not-too-distant future, many other aspects will be emphasized when speaking of the spread of Christianity. When speaking of the effect of the Christian impulse, one can be easily understood if one says that, at a certain time, the fruits of the spread of Christianity manifested themselves in such a way that one can say: enthusiasm arose from this dissemination of the Christ impulse. But as we move into more recent times, what we can regard as the spread of Christianity throughout the Middle Ages seems to be fading.

[ 13 ] Let us consider the time of Copernicus, the era of the burgeoning natural sciences, extending into the 19th century. It might seem as though this natural science—that which has worked its way into Western intellectual life since Copernicus—has worked against Christianity. External facts might support this. The Catholic Church, for example, kept Copernicus on the so-called Index until the 1820s. It regarded Copernicus as its enemy. But these are external matters. That did not prevent Copernicus from being a canon. And even though the Catholic Church burned Giordano Bruno at the stake, that did not prevent him from being a Dominican. Both of them arrived at their ideas precisely from within Christianity. They acted out of Christian impulse. Anyone who wants to stand on the Church’s ground and believe that these were not fruits of Christianity misunderstands the matter. The facts cited only prove that the Church understood the fruits of Christianity very poorly; it took until well into the 19th century for her to realize that Copernicus’s ideas could not be suppressed by the Index. Anyone who looks at things more deeply will have to acknowledge that everything the peoples have done, even in recent centuries, is a result of Christianity; that through Christianity, people’s gaze has turned away from the earth toward the vastness of the heavens, as happened through Copernicus and Giordano Bruno. This was possible only within Christian culture and through the Christian impulse.

[ 14 ] And for those who view spiritual life not on the surface but in its depths, something becomes apparent that, if I were to express it now, would seem quite paradoxical, yet is nonetheless true. For such a deeper contemplation, it seems impossible that a Haeckel could have emerged as he stands in all his opposition to Christ without having emerged from within Christianity. Ernst Haeckel is simply not possible without the foundation of Christian culture. And the entire recent development of natural science, no matter how hard it strives to foster opposition to Christianity, all of this modern natural science is a child of Christianity, a direct continuation of the Christian impulse. Once the teething troubles of modern natural science have been completely overcome, humanity will come to realize what it means that the starting point of modern natural science, when consistently pursued, truly leads into spiritual science—that there is a perfectly logical path from Haeckel into spiritual science. Once this is understood, one will also realize that Haeckel is a thoroughly Christian mind, even if he himself is unaware of it. Christian impulses have not only produced what calls itself and called itself Christian, but also that which presents itself as an opposition to Christianity. One must examine things not only in terms of their concepts but also in terms of their reality; then one will arrive at this insight. As you can see in my short booklet on “Reincarnation and Karma,” a direct path leads from Darwinian evolutionary theory to the doctrine of repeated earthly lives.

[ 15 ] However, in order to have a firm grasp of these matters, one must be able to observe the workings of Christian impulses with an open mind. Anyone who understands Darwinism and Haeckelism, and who is himself somewhat imbued with what Haeckel knew nothing about—though Darwin knew quite a bit—namely that these two movements were only possible as Christian movements; anyone who understands this will quite logically arrive at the idea of reincarnation. And whoever can draw upon a certain clairvoyant power will, in this way, arrive quite logically at the spiritual origin of the human race. It is indeed a detour, but, when clairvoyance is added, a true path from Haeckelism to the spiritual conception of the Earth’s origin. But it is also conceivable that one might take Darwinism as it presents itself today without, however, being imbued with the life principles of Darwinism itself; in other words: if one accepts Darwinism as an impulse and feels nothing within oneself of a deeper understanding of Christianity, which is nevertheless present in Darwinism, then one arrives at something very peculiar. One may end up understanding just as little of Christianity as of Darwinism due to such a spiritual disposition of the soul. One may then be just as estranged from the good spirit of Christianity as from the good spirit of Darwinism. But if one possesses the good spirit of Darwinism, then no matter how materialistic one may be, one will keep going further back in Earth’s history until reaching the point where one recognizes that human beings never evolved from lower animal forms, that they must have a spiritual origin. One returns to the point where one views humanity as a spiritual being, as it were, hovering above the earthly world. Consistent Darwinism will lead to this. But if one is abandoned by its good spirit, then one may believe—if one goes back and is a follower of the idea of reincarnation—that one once lived as a monkey oneself in some incarnation on Earth itself. If one can believe that, then one must have been forsaken by the good spirit of both Darwinism and Christianity; one must understand nothing of either. For it could never occur to a consistent Darwinist to believe such a thing. This means one must apply the idea of reincarnation in a purely external way to this materialistic culture. For one can certainly strip modern Darwinism of its Christian character. If one does not do this, one will find that right up to our own time, Darwinian impulses have been born out of the Christ impulse, that Christian impulses are at work even where they are denied. Thus, we have not only the phenomenon that Christianity spread in the first centuries apart from the learning and knowledge of its followers and adherents, that it spread in the Middle Ages in such a way that the learned Church Fathers and the Scholastics could contribute very little to it, but we have in our time the even more paradoxical phenomenon that Christianity appears, as in its counter-image, within the materialism of our modern natural science, and yet derives all its greatness, all its dynamism, from the Christian impulses. The Christian impulses inherent in it will of themselves lead this science beyond materialism.

[ 16 ] It is strange how these Christian impulses work! Intellectuality, knowledge, erudition, and insight do not seem to play any part at all in the spread of these impulses. Something quite different seems to be driving their spread throughout the world. One might say that Christianity is spreading, regardless of what people think for or against it, indeed even to the point that it appears, as if turned into its opposite, in modern materialism. What, then, is spreading there? It is not Christian ideas; it is not Christian science. One might still say that the moral sentiment implanted by Christianity is spreading. But one need only look at the state of morality in these times, and one will find much justification in the list of outbursts of rage from the representatives of Christianity against real or supposed opponents of Christianity. Even the morality that has prevailed in souls that are not highly educated intellectually will not impress us much when we examine it, even where it thinks in the most Christian way. What is spreading there? What is this peculiar thing? What is it that is marching triumphantly through the world? Let us now ask spiritual science, the clairvoyant consciousness, about this! What reigned in the uneducated people who pushed their way from East to West into the highly cultured worlds of the Greeks and Romans? What reigns in the people who carried Christianity into the Germanic, into the foreign world? What reigns in modern materialistic natural science, where the teaching still veils its face, as it were? What is at work in all these souls, if it is not intellectual, not even moral impulses? What is it, then? — It is Christ himself, who moves from heart to heart, from soul to soul, who can move through the world and work, regardless of whether the souls understand him or not through this development over the course of the centuries!

[ 17 ] We are compelled to set aside our concepts and all scientific knowledge and point to reality, to show how mysteriously Christ himself moves through many thousands of impulses, taking shape in souls, immersing himself in many thousands upon thousands, and filling people throughout the centuries. In the simple people, it is Christ himself who strides across the Greek and Italic world, who captures more and more human souls as he moves westward and northward. With the later teachers who bring Christianity to the Germanic peoples, it is Christ himself who walks at their side. It is he, the real, true Christ, who reigns on earth like the soul of the earth itself, who moves from place to place, from soul to soul, and, regardless of what the souls think of Christ, enters into these souls. I would like to use a trivial comparison: How many people are there who understand nothing at all about the composition of food and yet nourish themselves according to all the rules of the art? It would actually be enough to starve if one had to know the food before one could nourish oneself. The ability to nourish oneself has nothing to do with an understanding of food. Thus, the spread of Christianity across the earth had nothing to do with the understanding with which people approached Christianity. That is what is peculiar. There is a mystery at work here that can only be elucidated by answering the question: How does Christ himself work within human minds? And when spiritual science, clairvoyant observation, poses this question, it is first directed toward an event that can truly be revealed only through clairvoyant observation, an event that outwardly is indeed in full harmony with everything I have spoken of today. We shall see one thing that will have to be understood more and more in the future: The time has passed in which Christ worked as I have just described, and the time has come when people must understand Christ, must recognize him.

[ 18 ] That is why it is necessary to answer the question of why our time was preceded by another era in which the Christ impulse was able to spread without the need for understanding, without people being present with their consciousness. It was an event that made this possible! And the event to which clairvoyant consciousness points is the so-called Pentecost event, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That is why the clairvoyant gaze, stimulated by the true Christ impulse in the anthroposophical sense, was first directed toward this Pentecost event, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. From a clairvoyant perspective, it is the Pentecost event that first presents itself for investigation when conducted from a certain point of view.

[ 19 ] What actually happened at that moment in the Earth’s evolution—an event initially presented to us, in a way that is quite incomprehensible, as the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles? If one turns one’s clairvoyant gaze to it and examines what actually happened there, one receives a spiritual-scientific answer to what is meant by the statement: Simple people, as the Apostles indeed were, suddenly began to speak in various tongues, expressing what they had to say from the depths of spiritual life—and what one would not have expected of them. Indeed, at that time Christianity and Christian impulses began to spread in such a way that they became independent of the understanding of the people in whose minds they took root.

[ 20 ] From the Pentecost event, the stream of Christ-power—which has been described—then flows out over the earth. What, then, was the Pentecost event? This question was posed to spiritual science, and with the answer to this question—the spiritual-scientific answer to the question: What was the Pentecost event?—the Fifth Gospel begins, and with that we shall continue our reflections tomorrow.