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The Karma of Materialism
GA 176

18 September 1917, Berlin

8. Luther II

As a continuation of the last lecture I should like to draw your attention to certain matters which will throw light on Luther's place in history. From the outset I must make it clear that today's considerations of Luther will be from the point of view of spiritual science rather than that of religion.

What strikes one immediately when considering Luther in the light of spiritual science is the enormous importance the epoch itself had for his prominence and whole activity. The significance of the epoch is much greater in Luther's case than in the case of most other personalities in history. When we study Luther it is very important to be conscious of the epoch in which he appeared; i.e., the 16th century; which according to the spiritual-scientific view of history is very early in the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. This epoch, as we know, began in the 15th century and the preceding Graeco-Latin epoch began some eight centuries before the Mystery of Golgotha. Thus Luther appeared in history soon after the thoughts and feelings, characteristic of the Graeco-Latin epoch, were fading in civilized humanity. To the unprejudiced observer Luther appears at first sight to have a dual personality, but one comes—as we shall see—to recognize that the two aspects meet in a higher unity. It must be realized that there is much more to the history between the 14th and 16th centuries than modern historians are inclined to admit. Great transformation took place, particularly in the human soul; this is something taken far too little into account. The people of the 13th and 14th centuries still had a direct relationship with the spiritual world through the very constitution and disposition of their soul. This is now forgotten but cannot be emphasized enough. When, at that time, man turned his gaze to external nature, to the sky, to cloud formations and so on, he would generally speaking still perceive elemental spirituality. It was also possible for him to commune with the dead with whom he had karmic links to a far greater extent than is believed today. In this period there was still, inherited from an earlier different consciousness, an immediate recognition that the world seen through the senses is not the only world. The transition in consciousness to later times was far more abrupt than imagined. Natural science, in itself fully justified, was then in its dawn, it drew a veil as it were over the spiritual world behind the physical world. I can well imagine that a modern student of history, who is in the habit of accepting what is taught as absolute truth, will not believe such abrupt transition possible. He would find it neither historical nor substantiated by records. However, spiritual science reveals that at this time the human soul came completely within the confines of the physical world by virtue of changes in man's inner being.

We saw last time that woven into Luther's soul was the after-effect of what he had absorbed, in a former incarnation, in the pre-Christian Mysteries that prepared the way for Christianity. Nevertheless he was in the fullest sense a true man of his time inasmuch as in this, the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, man's former connection with the spiritual world has grown dim. This is so even when the experiences had been as vivid as those of former initiates in the Mysteries. It must not be supposed however, that what has become dim, and therefore fails to become conscious knowledge, is not present and active. It has its effect when, as in Luther's case, the person concerned through his inner karma is sensitive and receptive to what wells up from the depths of his being without reaching full consciousness.

It is not difficult to recognize in Luther the effects of what I have indicated. They reveal themselves in the agonizing torments he went through. These inner torments, while being expressions of his own soul, assumed in his words and ideas the character of his time. They were in fact caused essentially by a kind of realization that man in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, the epoch of materialism, would be deprived of contact with the spiritual world. All the deprivation a materialistic age would inflict upon the deeper strata of the human soul weighed heavily upon Luther. Today one has to use different words from those he employed to describe what he felt so strongly. It is therefore not Luther's own words that I use in characterizing his inner experiences. But what he felt may be expressed in these words: What is to become of man when his vision is cut off from the spiritual world, as he is bound to forget what he formerly received from that world? If you imagine this feeling intensified to its limit you have the keynote of Luther's inner suffering. But why was it Luther who in particular felt this so intensely?

The reason is to be found in what I mentioned as the duality of his nature. Luther was on the one hand very much a man of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. But because he was also inwardly very much a man of the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch he felt with great intensity the deprivation which the people of the fifth epoch were already experiencing in his time, albeit not consciously. The duality in his nature was caused by the fact that—while being in complete accord with his own time, the fifth epoch—the teachings in the pre-Christian Mysteries had taken such deep roots in his soul that he inwardly felt as a man of the fourth epoch. He felt as related to the fourth epoch as an ancient Greek or Roman had felt. Odd as it may seem this had the effect that he could not understand the Copernican system of astronomy; i.e., a system based purely on physical calculations. This system, however, is in complete harmony with the outlook of the fifth cultural epoch but would have seemed meaningless in the fourth. This fact will seem strange to modern man whose view is that the apex of knowledge has been reached and that the Copernican system cannot be superseded. This is a shortsighted view as I have often pointed out. Just as today the Ptolemaic system is put to scorn, so will the Copernican be looked down upon in the future when it is replaced by another. However, in the fifth cultural epoch the very soul constitution of man enables him to have ready understanding for a system of movement of the heavenly bodies based entirely upon physical calculations.

Luther had no such understanding; to him the Copernican view seemed so much folly. He was little interested in the materialistic, purely spatial conceptions of the phenomena of the universe which occupied the human mind at the dawn of the fifth cultural epoch. Whereas the way man felt and experienced his place within that universe interested him greatly. However the relation to the world, which man perforce had to have, in the fifth cultural epoch was experienced by Luther with all the inner soul impulses of a man of the fourth-, the Graeco-Latin epoch.

Thus we see Luther on the one hand looking back at the way man was related to the spirituality of the Cosmos in the fourth cultural epoch. And on the other we see him looking ahead, being aware of the kind of experiences, feelings and conceptions to which man would be exposed by virtue of a relation to the cosmos which separates him from its spiritual reality. Thus Luther felt and experienced the fifth cultural epoch as a soul belonging to the fourth cultural epoch. The experiences man had to undergo in the fifth cultural epoch weighed heavily on his soul.

In order to have a clearer picture let us for a moment compare a modern man of average education with a man of the comparatively ancient time of the fourth epoch. The former's thoughts and feelings, his whole relation to the world is determined by the natural-scientific view of the world, whereas the latter's thoughts and feelings were determined by the fact that he was still aware of his connection with spiritual reality. What we designate as Imagination and Inspiration were particularly vivid for man at that time. It was a common experience that colors are not seen only through eyes, or sound heard only through ears. Man was aware that by inner effort he received pictorial and audible revelations from the spiritual world. Everyone was aware that a divine spiritual-world lived in his soul. Man felt inwardly connected with his God.

In the fifth post-Atlantean epoch man is subjected to a test and his communion with the spiritual world has to cease. In this epoch he has developed, through special methods and a special kind of knowledge, the possibility to observe the external phenomena of nature and their relation to his own being with great exactitude. But he no longer has vision of the spiritual world; no longer is there a path leading from the soul to the spiritual world.

Let us visualize these two types of human beings side by side. As we saw in the last lecture, Luther's knowledge and religious feelings concerning the spiritual world were not abstract; the spiritual world was not closed to him. He had a living communion with the spiritual world, more especially with evil spirits of that world. But that in itself is not an evil trait. Thus he knew of the spiritual world through direct experience, but he also knew that for mankind of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch this experience of the spiritual world was fading away and would gradually disappear altogether. It became a great riddle for Luther how the human beings of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch would cope with the deprivation of not beholding the spiritual world. As he contemplated the man of the fifth epoch his heart was overflowing with impulses brought over from his incarnation in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. These living forces constituted a powerful link with the spiritual world which caused Luther to sense its reality with great intensity. It made him feel that it was essential to awaken in man a consciousness of that reality. At the same time he was under no illusion that human beings incarnating during the coming epoch would lose all consciousness of the spiritual world. They would have nothing but their physical senses to rely on, whereas in earlier times knowledge of the divine-spiritual-world had been attained through direct vision and experience. All Luther could do was to tell mankind: If in the future you look towards the spiritual world you will find nothing, for the ability to behold it will have vanished. If you nonetheless wish to retain awareness of its existence then you must turn to the Bible, the most reliable record in existence, a record that still contains direct knowledge of the spiritual world which you can otherwise no longer reach. In earlier times one would have said: besides the Gospel there is also the possibility to look directly into the spiritual world. This possibility has vanished for mankind of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch; only the Gospel remains.

So you see that Luther spoke from the heart and in the spirit of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, but as someone who also belonged to the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. By means, still remaining from the fourth epoch, he wanted to draw attention to that which, because of his evolution, man in the fifth epoch could no longer reach. Luther may not have been conscious of these things exactly the way I describe them. However as things stood it is understandable that he, at the start of an epoch in which direct insight into the spiritual world would cease, pointed to the Gospel as the sole authority concerning the spiritual world. He wanted to emphasize that the Gospel was a special source of strength for mankind in the coming epoch.

Let us now turn our attention to something different. At the moment I am occupied with certain aspects of Christian Rosenkreutz and the “Chymical Wedding” by Johann Valentin Andreae and this brings certain things connected with the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries vividly before my soul. When one looks at those who during those centuries were engaged in science, one comes to realize that at that time knowledge of nature was alchemy in the best sense of the word. The natural scientist of today would have been an alchemist then. But to understand the spiritual aspect of alchemy it must not be thought of as connected with superstition or fraud. What were the alchemists attempting? They were convinced that there are other forces at work in nature besides those which can be discovered by external observation and experiment. They wanted to prove that while nature is indeed "natural" supersensible forces are at work in her.

To the alchemist it was obvious that, however firmly welded together the composition of a metal appeared to be, that composition could still be transformed into another. However they saw the transition as the result of a spiritual process, an effect of the spirit in nature. This is something that will be known again in future epochs, but in our time it is a deeply hidden knowledge. The alchemists were able to bring about alchemical processes which, if they could be demonstrated today, would greatly amaze modern scientists. In that earlier age it was part of man's knowledge that spiritual forces are at work in nature. The alchemical processes were brought about by manipulating those forces.

This knowledge inevitably had to be lost in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. A reflection still exists in religious conceptions of the universe. In the earlier centuries, right up to the 13th and 14th, what was taught concerning the Sacraments was different from what could be taught in the following centuries, though for Luther it was still vivid inner experience even if not a fully conscious one. But the experience, that spiritual forces were directly active in consecrated substance, was lost to the faithful. Today the teaching of the Catholic sacrament is something quite different than it was, for example the doctrine concerning the sacrament at the altar, when bread and wine are to be transformed through a mysterious process into real flesh and blood. When one discusses this issue with Catholic theologians the usual answer to modern man's objection is: If you do not understand that you have no understanding whatever of Aristotle's teaching on substances. Be that as it may, one has to say that in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch no real meaning can be connected with an actual transubstantiation; i.e., with real alchemy. Today this process takes place above material existence. Today when man receives the bread and wine these are not transmuted. The divine-spiritual reality of the Christ Being passes into man as he receives the bread and the wine.

This metamorphosis of the concept of the sacrament is also connected with the transition in man's evolution from the fourth to the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. Luther, because of his very nature, had to speak out of the spirit of both epochs. He wanted to convey to man's soul the strength it had formerly gained from religious teaching. As the dawning natural science would never be able to acknowledge anything spiritual in matter, Luther sought to keep religious teaching aloof from the weakening effect of science. From the outset he kept spiritual issues strictly apart from physical processes. He thought of the latter, if not exactly as symbols, then at least as being merely physical.—It is not so easy to understand these things today but spiritual science must draw attention to them just the same.

We must envisage Luther turning his gaze, even if not fully consciously, towards the coming epoch spanning more than two thousand years, during which man would be able to experience something of the spiritual world only in exceptional cases and through special training. Historical personalities such as Luther must be seen in a wider perspective; their thoughts and actions must be seen as expressing the epoch in which they live. Luther as it were represented the human beings of his time, human beings to whom something was lost. What they had lost was caused by the fact that in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch human knowledge had assumed a form that made it impossible to strengthen the human soul, by means of the power inherent in knowledge itself, so that it could look into the spiritual world and have its own spiritual cognition. It is not normal for people of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch to have spiritual cognition through their own initiative. In his ordinary life in the fifth epoch man cannot be conscious of freedom in the real sense, of real freedom of will which is the ability to act directly out of that deepest region of the human soul where it is united with the divine. Today both freedom and knowledge are theoretical. As the fifth post-Atlantean epoch progressed the theory that there are limits to human knowledge has frequently been proclaimed. To speak of limits of knowledge in the sense of Kant32Immanuel Kant 1724–1804 German Philosopher or Dubois-Reymond33Emil Du Bois-Reymond 1818–1896 German Physiologist would have seemed meaningless in ancient times, even by the sceptics.

As mentioned already one should take what is said by a historical personality such as Luther as expressing the spirit of his epoch, not as having validity for all time. What Luther recognized as the outstanding characteristic of mankind in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch he interpreted in the light of Christianity. He understood it in the Christian, or better said Biblical sense, as a direct effect of original sin. The fact that man, out of his own forces, cannot attain either freedom, or knowledge of the divine, in the fifth epoch Luther saw as a direct outcome of original sin. Thus when he said that man was so corrupted by original sin that by himself he could not overcome it, Luther spoke a truth that holds good for the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. The force in man most closely bound up with his nature is the force that expresses itself in his will, in his actions. What a man does springs from the very center of his being. What he knows or believes is much more dependent on his environment, the time in which he lives and so on. In the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, the epoch of natural science and materialism, man is not able to perform actions that spring directly from the spirit. That in fact is the essential characteristic of this epoch. In the sixth post-Atlantean epoch it will again be different. But that man in the fifth epoch, in his ordinary consciousness, had lost the link connecting him with the spiritual world was also Luther's conviction.

Yet Luther was also aware that it is essential for man not to be torn out of that connection altogether. He saw that as an inhabitant of the external physical world man, through what he wills and does, has no connection with the Divine. He can only attain it if he regards this connection as something separate and apart from his external physical existence. From this thought originated the doctrine of salvation purely through faith. A typical man of the fourth epoch would have regarded salvation through faith alone as nonsensical. An ancient Greek or Roman would have found it meaningless if told that what he does, what he accomplishes in the world is not what gives him value in the eyes of the Highest Powers, but solely his soul's acknowledgement of the spiritual world. However, it is not meaningless to the man of the fifth epoch, for if his worth were dependent solely on what he accomplished in the physical world he would be in fact just a creature of that world. He would be more and more convinced that he merely represented the highest peak of the animal kingdom. Man had therefore to forge a link with the spiritual world by means of something that in no way linked him with the physical world. That something is faith.

What Luther thus impressed on his own and the following time could naturally not remain the only cultural influence in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. One may ask who at the present time is a Lutheran? The answer is that, inasmuch as he is a man of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, everyone is a Lutheran. Those with a sense for the subtle conceptual differences in world views will notice the enormous discrepancy between the views of a Catholic theologian in the 13th or 14th Centuries and those of his counterparts today. The reason is that the Catholic theologian of today is in reality a Lutheran, his outlook and impulses are those of a Lutheran. These are matters that go unnoticed because there is so little feeling for the inner truth of things, the attention is focused only on the external label applied to a person. It is after all merely an external matter that someone, because of family or some other connection, is entered in the Church register as Catholic or Protestant. What characterizes him inwardly is something quite different. The man of today who is truly of his time, who is stirred and influenced by what takes place, is inwardly a Lutheran. Like Luther he articulates the essence of the fifth epoch. Luther was especially suited to do so because of the characteristic duality of his nature. This made him question the fate of future mankind, but it also stirred in him an overwhelming impulse to speak to the people of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch with all the vigorous forces that he wanted preserved as they were in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. That he was able to speak in this way was due to the higher unity of his dual nature. He spoke out of the very souls of the people exposed to the conditions of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. He formulated and voiced the very concepts and ideas that stirred in them. But he also spoke so that everything he said was permeated with his impulse to preserve what had existed in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. That was the higher unity. However, the sixth post-Atlantean epoch could not be prepared within the fifth had the latter not been influenced by other cultural streams.

Thus we see that Lutheranism, in the way indicated, is more particularly an impulse of the fifth epoch, but other cultural streams make themselves felt. The most important for us is the one that came to expression in the German classical period: from Lessing to Herder, Schiller, Goethe and others. A remarkable phenomenon is the fact that we have in the same period a thoroughly Lutheran philosopher in Kant, whose concepts represent the very essence of Lutheranism. Schiller had at one time an inclination to follow Kant but found that he could not; and indeed no philosophic work better illustrates the striving to get beyond mere Lutheranism than Schiller's Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man. These letters—which are too little appreciated today—and also Goethe's Faust constitute as it were the apex of that other cultural stream. Both works stress that man must turn, not only to the Bible, but to the world and life itself in order to strengthen the human soul so that it can find, through its own forces, the path to the spiritual world. The concluding scenes of Faust represent the complete contrast to Lutheranism. Only a contrived interpretation could possibly bring Schiller's aesthetic letters, Goethe's Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily and the last scenes of Faust in line with Lutheranism. We see in these works the human soul attaining strength through an inner opposition to the natural-scientific interpretation of the world. And in this way it finds, through its own forces, the connection with the spiritual world.

Ideas concerned with the legend of “Dr. Faustus” emerged already in the 16th Century in opposition to Luther's strong proclamations, but these ideas could not yet gain ground… Luther's attention was focused on the man of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch who, though possessed by ahrimanic demons, yet refuses to acknowledge the, to Luther well known, devil. It is not really surprising that Ricarda Huch, after occupying herself so intensely with Luther, comes to place such great importance on his direct knowledge of the diabolical realm of the spiritual world. Bearing in mind the story of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, it is indeed interesting that in our time it is a woman who has this yearning that man should again recognize the devil who—especially when his view of life is purely naturalistic—has him by the collar. In her book about Luther this longing comes to expression: that if only man could experience the devil it would awaken him to a consciousness of God.

This cry for the devil, expressed by Ricarda Huch lives in man's subconscious. It is a cry she wants mankind to hear. To understand Ricarda Huch is easy for someone who knows that in every laboratory, in every machine, in short in all the most important spheres of modern civilization, the actual devil is present and active. I say this in plain words for it would be much better for people to be aware of the devil rather than, unknown to them, he should have them by the collar.

Luther's consciousness of the devil was for him a living reality mainly because he still experienced the spiritual world as would a man in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. His vivid experience came to expression in his words, for he strove to make the man of the fifth epoch conscious of the devil by whom he was possessed without knowing it. Luther could not do otherwise than call up in the man of his time an awareness of the devil which differed from the way Faust experienced the devil. Faust deliberately sold himself in order to gain knowledge and power through the devil. Such a relationship to the devil was at first rejected in the 16th century. At that time only a negative submission to the devil could be envisaged. Goethe, and in fact already Lessing protested vigorously against that idea. One must ask why they had a different view of man's relation to the devil. It must be said that neither Lessing nor Goethe had the nerve openly to state their view of Faust's relation to the devil. Today it is much easier to speak openly of these things than it was at the time of Lessing and Goethe. An initiate may have wanted to tell his fellow men something different but if he had they would have torn him to pieces.

Let us attempt to understand Goethe's inner attitude to Faust. Goethe too had insight into the nature of man of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. He knew of man's close relationship to the devil in this epoch. He knew that whenever man's consciousness is restricted to the material alone the devil; i.e., ahrimanic powers are always present. This state of consciousness constitutes for these powers a door through which they gain entry. Ahriman has easy access to man whenever his consciousness is limited to the purely material aspect of things or dimmed down below normal, as can happen through organic causes, agitation, rage or other uncontrolled behaviour. Goethe's insight made it impossible for him to adopt the materialistic view generally held. While he knew that ahrimanic powers are universally present he could not in all honesty represent them as something to be avoided or rejected. On the contrary what he wanted Faust to attain he had to achieve through direct contest with the devil. In other words the devil must be made to surrender his power, he must be conquered. That is the real meaning behind Faust's struggle with the devil, the evil Ahriman or Mephistopheles.

Now let us turn to Schiller who tries to adopt Kant's philosophy but comes to recognize the futility of doing so. In his Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man he distinguishes between mere instinctive craving—which according to Luther arises from man's physical nature—and the spirit which reveals itself within his physical nature. A true Lutheran would say that man is addicted to his cravings and he cannot, through his own power, rise above them. Only faith can enable him to do so. He will then have been purified and redeemed through an externally existing Christ. Schiller said: No, something else is present in man: in the craving for freedom lives the power of the spirit which can ennoble the bodily cravings of man's physical nature. Schiller distinguishes physical nature, ennobled through the spirit, from the spirit becoming manifest through it. He shows that man is indeed separated from spiritual existence through matter, but that he nevertheless, out of himself, strives to reach the spirit by transforming matter; that is, physical existence, through inner alchemy.

One recognizes the spiritual greatness that could have enriched Western culture in works such as Schiller's aesthetic letters and also Goethe's Faust which presents in dramatic form the overcoming of ahrimanic powers in external life. What could have been achieved through the strong impulse towards the spirit contained in these works has not come about. And it fills one with pain and despair to see one's contemporaries turn instead, for their spiritual education, to such trash as the American “In Tune with the Infinite.”

I cannot refrain from repeating what happened to Deinhardt34Heinrich Mariannus Deinhardt 1821–1879 of Vienna who wrote a very beautiful essay on Schiller's aesthetic letters in which he discusses the marvelous perspective their content opens up. I do not think anyone knows about Deinhardt today. He had the misfortune to fall and break his leg; when the doctor came he was told that he could not be healed because he was too undernourished. And so he died. But this small book by Deinhardt of Vienna is concerned with one of the deepest spiritual impulses that have sprung from Western culture. If only people would recognize and investigate what has actually germinated in Western culture we would cease to hear the empty phrase, “the best man in the best place,” and then people proceed, through lack of judgement, to select a nephew or a cousin as the best man in the best place. Continuously one hears it said that the right person for this or that position simply does not exist. That is not the case; what is lacking is rather people with judgement who know where to look. But that ability can only be attained through inner strength, developed by absorbing the spiritual impulses flowing through spiritual life. There is nothing abstract about what can be gained from great literary works. Rather they fill the human soul with spiritual impulses which further its development along the path that Goethe strode with such vigour, and whose goal he depicted with dramatic artistry in the last scene of his Faust. It has no meaning in our time to preserve the old just because it is old; but we must find those treasures of the past which contain seeds for the future. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the classic works of Goethe, Schiller and Lessing.

I wanted to show where Lessing, Goethe and Schiller belong in recent cultural development because it enables us to understand better their predecessor Luther. To understand a personality such as Luther it is necessary to understand what stirred in the depth of his soul and caused him to speak the way he did. I believe that if in the light of these thoughts you approach what, especially in our time, comes to meet us with such force in Luther, you will discover many things about him which I cannot go into now. I am convinced that it has a special significance to immerse oneself in Luther in the present difficult time. There is perhaps no one better suited to convey the many aspects of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch than Luther. He spoke so completely out of the spirit of the fifth epoch even though his words had their origin in the fourth epoch.

When faced with the way events are depicted in history we should sense how necessary it is to rethink them. We ought to sense that the present difficult time which has brought such misery upon humanity is the karmic effect of distorted, superficial thinking. We should sense that the painful experiences we go through are in many respects the karma of materialism. We must have the will to rethink history. I have often pointed out that history as taught today in elementary and secondary schools as well as in universities, perhaps particularly in the latter, is a mere fable, and is all the more pernicious for being unaware that it is but a fable that aims to present only external physical events. Should the events of the 19th century be presented just once as they truly were—merely those of the 19th century!—it would be an immense blessing for mankind. Referring to history Herman Grimm once said that he foresaw a time when those, now regarded as great figures of the 19th century, would no longer appear all that great, whereas quite other figures would emerge as the great ones from the grey mist of that century.

Because of the way history has come to be presented in the course of time the human soul must undergo a fundamental change in order to understand it properly. I have often said this but it cannot be stressed enough. Man's concepts nowadays lack the vigour and power required to cope with social needs, because they are based on such superficial views. This war is in reality waged because of shortsighted, obtuse and foggy ideas, and the men fighting it are in many respects mere puppets of those ideas. Today there is an incessant clamour for people's freedom, for international courts of arbitration and the like, all of which remains so many empty words because it makes no difference what is established as long as there is no deeper understanding of the real issues. Yet all these things could be achieved if, as is so greatly to be desired, spiritual science were able to rouse people to recognize the deeper impulses beneath the surface of ordinary life. But these things people today do not want to see. It is quite immaterial what is arranged whether in relation to war or to peace or whatever. What is needed is that our ideas, our understanding of the issues, cease to remain on the surface. One could wish that, just at this time, what Luther so forcefully proclaimed would be heard and understood. People would then come to recognize that in Luther spoke more than the man. In him the character of the epoch which began in the 8th century B.C. and ended in the 15th century A.D. united with the character of the epoch that followed; i.e., our own, which will endure for 2100 years.

In the true sense a historic personality is someone in whom there speaks a being from the Hierarchy of the Archai, a Time Spirit. Through such a personality the voice of the Spirit of the Time is heard. This must be recognized if one is to approach Luther with understanding.

Achter Vortrag

In Fortsetzung der Betrachtungen vom letzten Dienstag möchte ich heute einige Gesichtspunkte zur Beurteilung der geschichtlichen Stellung Luthers vor Ihre Seele stellen. Ich bemerke von vornherein: Die Betrachtungen, die wir heute anstellen, sollen Luther eben vom geisteswissenschaftlichen Standpunkte aus betrachten und nicht vom religiösen.

Vor allen Dingen tritt bei der geisteswissenschaftlichen Betrachtung Luthers in ganz besonderem Maße — man könnte sagen, noch mehr als bei vielen anderen geschichtlichen Erscheinungen — die Bedeutung des Zeitalters für die Art, das Auftreten und die Wirksamkeit dieser Persönlichkeit uns entgegen. Machen wir uns einmal klar, in welche Zeit, unseren Anschauungen gemäß, das Auftreten Luthers fällt: das sechzehnte Jahrhundert in weltgeschichtlicher Betrachtung geisteswissenschaftlich angesehen, kurze Zeit nach dem Aufgange des fünften nachatlantischen Kulturzeitraumes. Wir wissen, daß dieser fünfte nachatlantische Kulturzeitraum etwa im fünfzehnten Jahrhundert begonnen hat. Bis dahin haben wir ja dasjenige zu rechnen, was wir das griechisch-lateinische Zeitalter nennen, das seinen Anfang genommen hat etwa im achten Jahrhundert vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Also kurze Zeit nachdem im Denken und Fühlen der Kulturmenschheit dasjenige herabgeglommen ist, was doch in einer gewissen Weise mit dem griechisch-lateinischen Vorstellen und Fühlen zusammenhing, in dem Sinne, wie wir dies betrachten, trat Luther auf. Seine Persönlichkeit erscheint dem unbefangenen Betrachter zunächst wie eine zwiespältige, aber so, daß sich die beiden Glieder des Zwiespaltes doch in einer höheren Einheit, wie wir sehen werden, begegnen. Wir müssen uns nur ganz klarmachen, daß in der Zeit zwischen dem vierzehnten und dem sechzehnten Jahrhundert viel mehr vorgegangen ist, als die heutige Geschichtsschreibung anzunehmen geneigt ist, vor allen Dingen in bezug auf die Umwandelung der menschlichen Seelen. Das berücksichtigt man nur in der heutigen Geschichtsschreibung viel zu wenig. Die Menschen des dreizehnten, des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts hatten noch durch das ganze Gefüge, durch die ganze Verfassung ihrer Seelen, durchaus eine unmittelbare Beziehung zur geistigen Welt. Man hat das nur heute vergessen, doch man kann nicht oft genug darauf aufmerksam machen. Der Mensch des dreizehnten, vierzehnten Jahrhunderts, natürlich im Durchschnitt betrachtet, sah noch, wenn er seinen Blick zu den Wesen der Natur, zu den Vorgängen des Wolkenhimmels und so weiter wendete, elementarische Geistigkeit. Viel mehr als man heute glaubt, hatte der Mensch dieses Zeitalters auch noch die Möglichkeit, zwischen sich, wenn er hier auf dem physischen Plan geblieben war, und den dahingegangenen Toten, mit denen er karmisch verbunden war, den Verkehr aufrechtzuerhalten. Ein unmittelbares Wissen, daß diese Welt, welche die Sinne wahrnehmen, nicht die einzige ist, war doch als ein Überbleibsel eines älteren Bewußtseins in dieser Zeit noch vorhanden. Viel schroffer als man heute glaubt, ist der Übergang zur späteren Zeit. Die heraufkommende Naturwissenschaft, die als solche ihre volle Berechtigung hat, hat gewissermaßen den Schleier über die geistige Welt, die hinter der sinnlichen steht, zugezogen. Ich kann mir wohl vorstellen, daß der heutige Geschichtsbetrachter, der gewohnt ist das als unmittelbare Wahrheit zu nehmen, was ihm eben anerzogen wird, an diese Schroffheit des Überganges gar nicht glauben wird, weil sie ihm unhistorisch, durch geschichtliche Denkmäler unbelegt vorkommt. Aber die Geisteswissenschaft gibt das für dieses Zeitalter, das da heraufrückt, doch so, daß in ihm die menschliche Seele ganz nur in die sinnliche Welt hineingestellt ist vermöge der menschlichen Organisation, die in diesem Zeitalter aufgetreten ist.

Nun haben wir schon das letzte Mal gesehen, was in Luthers Seele verwoben war: es lebten in ihr die Nachwirkungen dessen - so stellte ich es dar -, was er in den Mysterien der vorchristlichen Zeit aufgenommen hatte, in denen er in seiner vorchristlichen Inkarnation anwesend war, in jenen Mysterien aber, welche auf das Christentum hinarbeiteten. Insofern war er im vollsten Sinne ein Kind seiner Zeit, das heißt, des fünften nachatlantischen Kulturzeitraumes, als in diesem Zeitraume bei den Menschen die Empfindung des ehemaligen Zusammenhanges mit der geistigen Welt herabgedämmert ist, auch wenn diese Empfindung einmal so lebendig war wie bei den ehemaligen Eingeweihten der Mysterien. Aber man soll nur nicht glauben, daß dieses, was da herabgedämmert ist, was also nicht in dem Bereich des Wissens der Seele auftritt, nicht da ist, daß es nicht wirksam ist. Wirksam ist es schon dann, wenn der Betreffende durch sein inneres Karma gleichzeitig empfänglich ist, wenn er aufnahmefähig ist durch das, was doch aus den Tiefen der Seele heraufkraftet und nur nicht ins Bewußtsein treten kann. Ein solcher Empfänglicher war Luther.

Man kann sich überzeugen, daß die Wirkungen desjenigen, wovon ich eben die Ursachen angedeutet habe, bei ihm vorhanden waren. Sie waren vorhanden in den ungeheueren Seelenqualen, die er durchzumachen hatte, Seelenqualen, die gewissermaßen, indem sie sich zum Ausdruck für die eigene Seele formten, in seinen Worten und Vorstellungen den Charakter seines Zeitalters annahmen, die aber doch im wesentlichen die Qualen waren über das, was dem Menschen nun im fünften nachatlantischen Zeitalter, im materialistischen Zeitalter; an Eindrücken aus der geistigen Welt entzogen sein soll. Alle die Entbehrungen, welche die tieferen Wesensgründe der Seelen im materialistischen Zeitalter durchmachen, lagerten sich in ganz besonderem Maße in Luthers Seele ab. Gewiß, man muß sich heute mit anderen Worten klarmachen, was er empfand, als er es selbst ausgesprochen hat. Es sind nicht seine Worte, die ich gebrauche, um das zu charakterisieren, was er empfand: Was soll es mit der Menschheit werden, wenn sie nun abgeschlossen sein wird von der Betrachtung der geistigen Welt, wenn sie die Eindrücke nach und nach vergessen wird, die sie einmal von der geistigen Welt gehabt hat? — Denken Sie sich dies als Empfindung so verdichtet wie möglich, dann haben Sie den Grundton der Seelenqualen, die in Luthers Seele lebten. Warum lebten sie gerade in ihm so besonders stark?

Um diese Frage zu beantworten, kommen wir eben auf das erwähnte Zwiespältige seiner Natur. Auf der einen Seite war Luther gewissermaßen ein Sohn des fünften nachatlantischen Kulturzeitraumes. Er empfand mit den Menschen dieses Zeitraumes insofern, als er die Entbehrungen unendlich gesteigert empfand, welche diese Menschen des fünften Kulturzeitraumes schon erleben, nur nicht sich zum Bewußtsein bringen. Warum empfand er in solcher Intensität diese Entbehrungen?

Er empfand sie aus dem Grunde, weil er nun auf der anderen Seite wieder innerlichst ganz ein Sohn des vierten nachatlantischen Kulturzeitraumes war. Das war das Zwiespältige in seiner Natur. Die Eindrücke aus den Mysterien, von denen ich gesprochen habe, hatten doch so tief Wurzel gefaßt in seiner Seele, daß er innerlichst fühlte wie ein Mensch des vierten Kulturzeitalters - und doch wieder ganz an seine Zeit, an das fünfte Kulturzeitalter, hingegeben war. Weil er so innerlich in gewisser Beziehung mit dem vierten Kulturzeitalter fühlte wie ein alter Römer, wie ein alter Grieche — so könnte man sogar sagen, so unwahrscheinlich das heute klingt —, deshalb konnte er auch demjenigen kein Verständnis entgegenbringen, was nun so recht aus dem Herzen - so sonderbar das wieder klingt — der Menschen des fünften Kulturzeitraumes hervortrat, nämlich ein Verständnis für ein solches Weltbild, wie &s das Kopernikanische ist, für die Auffassung der Welt rein nach den Berechnungen der Sinne. Für ein solches Weltsystem hätte das vierte Kulturzeitalter doch kein Verständnis gehabt. Das klingt für unsere Gegenwart sonderbar, weil unsere Zeit in vieler Beziehung wirklich meint, das Ende aller Weisheit wäre nun erreicht, und der Kopernikanismus sei das Letztgültige. Ich habe schon öfter darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß dies eine große Torheit ist. Gerade so wie die Menschen der Gegenwart vom Standpunkte des Kopernikanismus aus auf das ptolemäische Weltsystem heute herabschauen, so wird das kopernikanische Weltsystem ebenfalls einmal durch ein anderes ersetzt werden, das sich wieder zu ihm so verhält wie das kopernikanische zu dem ptolemäischen. Aber nach der Seelenverfassung der Menschen des fünften Kulturzeitalters gibt es für sie ein Verständnis für eine solche rein sinnesgemäße, errechnete Systematik der Bewegungen der Himmelskörper.

Luther hatte dafür kein Verständnis. Der Kopernikanismus kam ihm wie eine Art Narrheit vor. Für das, was in den Vorstellungen lebte, die den Menschen des fünften Kulturzeitraumes naturwissenschaftlich-materialistisch, rein räumlich beschäftigten, insofern diese Vorstellungen die Erscheinungen der Welt ausdrückten, dafür war Luther wenig interessiert. Aber für die Gefühlsweise, für die Stellung des Menschen in der Welt im fünften Kulturzeitalter, war er um so mehr interessiert. Aber die Stellung gegenüber der Welt, welche dem Menschen des fünften Kulturzeitraumes aufgedrängt war, fühlte er mit dem innersten Seelenimpulse eines Menschen des vierten Kulturzeitalters, dem griechisch-lateinischen Zeitalter.

So blickt Luther, indem wir ihn betrachten, auf der einen Seite zurück auf die Art, wie sich im vierten Kulturzeitalter der Mensch zum Kosmos und zum geistigen Inhalt des Kosmos gestellt hat; auf der anderen Seite blickt er vorwärts zu all dem Empfinden, Fühlen und Vorstellen, dem der Mensch des fünften Kulturzeitalters ausgesetzt sein wird wegen seiner besonderen Stellung zum Kosmos, die ihn gewissermaßen von dem geistigen Inhalte des Kosmos trennt. Man möchte sagen: mit einer Seele aus dem vierten Kulturzeitalter fühlt Luther mit die Erlebnisse des Menschen im fünften Kulturzeitalter. Und diese besonderen Erlebnisse des Menschen im fünften Kulturzeitalter lagerten sich nun auf Luthers eigene Seele ab.

Vergleichen wir nur einmal, und zwar um den Vergleich signifikanter zu machen, einen durchschnittlich gebildeten Menschen der heutigen Zeit, der im Sinne der naturwissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung denkt und fühlt, mit einem Menschen in ziemlich alten Zeiten des vierten Zeitraumes, der noch fühlt in Gemäßheit jener Stellung des Menschen zur Welt, da der Mensch von seiner Beziehung zum geistigen Inhalte dieser Welt wußte. Vor allen Dingen waren Begriffe, die wir heute durch die Worte Imagination und Inspiration ausdrücken, in diesen älteren Zeiten bei den Menschen noch ganz lebendig. Daß der Mensch nicht nur durch seine Augen die Farben wahrnimmt, durch seine Ohren die Töne hört, sondern durch besondere Erkraftung seiner Seele in Bildern die geistige Welt geoffenbart erhält, Einsprechungen von der geistigen Welt erhält, war in älteren Zeiten etwas ganz Geläufiges. Daß das Göttlich-Geistige in der Menschenseele auflebt, war in jenen Zeiten eben eine geläufige Vorstellung; der Mensch fühlte sich in Verbindung mit seinem Gotte. |

Das sollte, damit die Menschheit eine Prüfung durchmacht, im fünften nachatlantischen Kulturzeitraume aufhören. In diesem fünften Zeitraume fühlte der Mensch, durch besondere Methoden, durch eine besondere Wissenschaft ausgebildet, die Möglichkeit, genau auf die äußeren Naturerscheinungen hinzusehen und auf die Art, wie die äußeren Naturerscheinungen in seine eigene Wesenheit hereinspielen. Allein, verschlossen ist ihm der Aufblick zur geistigen Welt, der Weg von der Seele zu den Geisteswelten ist nicht da.

Stellen wir uns diese zwei Menschentypen so recht nebeneinander. Schon das letzte Mal haben wir gesehen: für Luther war die geistige Welt offen. Er hatte nicht bloß ein abstraktes Wissen, er hatte nicht nur ein abstraktes religiöses Gefühl von der geistigen Welt, er hatte, was charakterisiert ist, den lebendigen Umgang am meisten mit den bösen Geistern der Geistigkeit der- Welt, was aber nicht zugleich eine böse Eigenschaft ist. Also er wußte aus unmittelbarer Erfahrung von dem Bestande der geistigen Welt; aber er wußte, daß diese Erfahrungen dem Menschen des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitalters hinschwinden, daß sie nicht mehr da sein würden. Und diese Menschen des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitalters, wie empfanden sie, wie entbehrten die Seelen die geistige Wahrnehmung? Das wurde für ihn das große Rätsel. Aber er schaute diese Menschen auch an aus einem Herzen heraus, das durchtränkt war mit den Kräften des vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraumes. Diese Kräfte des vierten Zeitraumes gingen wieder mit aller Lebendigkeit hin nach der geistigen Welt. Sie ist da! So erschien es Luther auf der einen Seite. Sie ist da, man darf nicht unterlassen, im Menschen das Bewußtsein zu erwecken, daß diese geistige Welt vorhanden ist. Aber man darf sich auf der anderen Seite keiner Täuschung darüber hingeben: in der Menschheit, die nun das nächste Zeitalter ausfüllen wird, wird ein unmittelbares Bewußtsein von der geistigen Welt nicht vorhanden sein können, diese Menschheit wird sich nur ihrer Sinne bedienen können. Während die Entscheidungen früherer Zeiten ein Wissen von dem Göttlich-Geistigen in unmittelbarem Aufblick, in an Erfahrung gewonnenem Aufblick zur geistigen Welt gegeben hatten, konnte Luther der nunmehr kommenden Menschheit nichts anderes sagen als: Wenn ihr also werdet aufblicken wollen zur geistigen Welt, so werdet ihr nichts finden, denn diese Fähigkeit ist hingeschwunden; wollt ihr jedoch fest sein im Bewußtsein der geistigen Welt, dann müßt ihr vor allem die sicherste Urkunde nehmen, in der noch das unmittelbare Wissen von der geistigen Welt eingeschlossen ist, das in diesem Zeitalter nicht mehr gegeben werden kann. — Ein älteres Zeitalter konnte immer noch sagen: hier das Evangelium - hier aber die Möglichkeit, unmittelbar in die geistigen Welten aufzusehen. Die letztere Möglichkeit fiel für das fünfte nachatlantische Zeitalter fort. Also blieb nur das Evangelium.

Sie sehen, Luther sprach aus dem Geiste des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitalters heraus, aber er sprach so aus dem Geiste dieses Zeitalters heraus, wie es einem Menschen ums Herz war, der zugleich ein Sohn des vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraumes war, der durch das Mittel, das aus dem vierten Zeitraume geblieben ist, die Menschen hinweisen wollte nach dem, wozu sie in ihrer Entwickelung im fünften Zeitalter nicht mehr kommen konnten. Das ist etwas, was aus der Zeit heraus zu verstehen ist, daß Luther das Evangelium als alleinige Urkunde für die geistige Welt hinstellte am Ausgangspunkte eines Zeitalters, dem die unmittelbare Einsicht in die geistige Welt verschlossen war. Daher wollte er - wenn das auch alles in seinem Bewußtsein, wie ich es jetzt ausspreche, nicht so vorhanden war, aber darauf kommt es nicht an —, zur besonderen Stärkung der Menschheit, die da nun kommen sollte, gerade das Evangelium betonen.

Nun sehen wir auf einem anderen Gebiete in das dreizehnte, vierzehnte, fünfzehnte Jahrhundert zurück. Ich beschäftige mich jetzt gerade wieder —- dadurch traten mir in diesen Tagen diese Dinge besonders vor die Seele — mit einer Charakteristik des Christian Rosenkreutz und der «Chymischen Hochzeit» von Johann Valentin Andreae. Wenn man, veranlaßt durch diese literarische Erscheinung, den Blick auf das dreizehnte, vierzehnte, fünfzehnte Jahrhundert hinlenkt, so sieht man, wenn man auf die Menschen des damaligen Zeitalters blickt, die sich mit Wissenschaft beschäftigen: Wissenschaft von der Natur war im besten Sinne des Wortes Alchimie. Was heute ein Naturforscher ist, war damals ein Alchimist. Man muß nur allen Aberglauben und Schwindel besonders von dem Worte Alchimie freihalten, um zu dem innerlichen, rein geistigen Sinn des Wesens der Alchimie zu kommen. Was wollten diese Forscher? Sie wollten nichts anderes, als daß, ihrer Überzeugung nach, hinter den Naturkräften nicht nur jene Kräfte leben, die man durch die äußere Beobachtung und durch das äußere Experiment findet, sondern daß in der Natur übersinnliche Kräfte walten, daß die Natur zwar «natürlich» ist, daß aber in ihr dennoch übersinnliche Kräfte wirken. Diese Menschen waren sich darüber klar worauf schon ein späteres Zeitalter wieder kommen wird, heute sind diese Dinge nur sehr verborgen -, daß die äußere Erscheinungsform zum Beispiel eines Metalles nicht ein so festes Gefüge ist, als daß sie nicht in ein anderes übergeben könnte. Nur sahen sie den Übergang als geistgetragen an, als Wirkung des Geistes in die Natur hinein. Sie waren imstande, jene alchimistischen Vorgänge zu veranlassen, die einen heutigen Naturforscher in großes Erstaunen versetzen würden, wenn man sie ihm wieder vor Augen führen könnte. Aber diese Vorgänge waren veranlaßt durch das Handhaben geistiger Kräfte. Daß im materiellen Dasein wirklich geistige Kräfte walten, war auch etwas, was mit dem Wissen dieser früheren Zeit zusammenhing.

Das sollte nun ebenfalls dem fünften nachatlantischen Zeitalter verlorengehen und ist ihm auch verlorengegangen. Aber das hat sein Spiegelbild in der religiösen Weltauffassung. Weil das so ist, deshalb konnten das dreizehnte Jahrhundert und die früheren, auch noch das vierzehnte Jahrhundert, eine andere Sakramentenlehre haben als die folgenden Jahrhunderte. Für die folgenden verlor der Glaube allen Sinn, daß in der Materie, wenn sie sakramental behandelt wird, geistige Kräfte unmittelbar wirksam sind. Das stand ganz lebendig, wenn auch nicht im vollen Bewußtsein, vor Luthers Seele. Dadurch wurde die Sakramentenlehre etwas ganz anderes. Die katholische Sakramentenlehre ist ja heute noch etwas anderes, wie zum Beispiel beim Altarsakrament, wo wirklich Brot und Wein in Fleisch und Blut durch einen geheimnisvollen Vorgang verwandelt werden. Wer jemals mit katholischen Theologen über eine solche Frage diskutiert hat, der hat oft, gegenüber dem modernen Einwand, diesen hören können: Wenn ihr das nicht versteht, so versteht ihr überhaupt nichts von der Substanzenlehre des Aristoteles. - Dennoch aber muß man sagen: für das fünfte nachatlantische Zeitalter ist kein rechter Sinn mehr zu verbinden mit einer wirklichen Verwandelung, mit einer wirklichen Alchimie. Daher ist dieser Vorgang herausgehoben aus dem materiellen Dasein. Man empfängt heute Brot und Wein, aber sie verwandeln sich nicht; indem man sie empfängt, geht das Göttlich-Geistige der Christus-Wesenheit in einen über. Diese Metamorphose des Sakramentbegriffes hängt wieder zusammen mit der Fortentwickelung der Menschheit aus dem vierten in den fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraum. Und Luther muß aus beiden heraus reden. Er will der menschlichen Seele noch dieselbe Stärkung geben, die sie erhalten hat unter dem Eindruck der ehemaligen Geistlehre, aber er kann sie ihr nur dadurch geben, daß er diese Geistlehre vor der modernen Wissenschaft bewahrt, daß er gewissermaßen die moderne Wissenschaft gar nicht an diese Geistlehre heranläßt. Denn die moderne Wissenschaft würde nie und nimmermehr in dem Materiellen ein Geistiges erkennen. Daher hebt Luther von vornherein das Geistige weg von den materiellen Vorgängen, läßt den materiellen Vorgang, wenn auch noch nicht Symbol, so aber doch nur materiellen Vorgang sein. Diese Dinge werden heute kaum in richtiger Weise verstanden; es muß aber gerade durch die Geisteswissenschaft wieder von ihnen gesprochen werden.

Nun stellen wir uns vor, daß Luther den Blick hinrichtete - wenn auch nicht im vollen Bewußtsein — auf diese ganze mehr als zwei Jahrtausende währende Zeit, die abgeflossen sein sollte im normalen Leben der Menschen, wenn auch die Menschen im abnormen Leben durch besondere Übungen von der geistigen Welt wieder etwas erfahren konnten. Für dieses Zeitalter hatte er zu sprechen. Die historische Persönlichkeit darf niemals in einem absoluten Sinne genommen werden, sondern sie muß in ihren Aussprüchen, in ihren Lehren genommen werden als ihrem Zeitalter Ausdruck gebend. Für die Menschen seines Zeitalters hatte er zu sprechen. Diese Menschen haben aber wirklich etwas verloren. Was haben sie verloren?

Sie haben die Möglichkeit verloren, aus der eigenen Kraft der menschlichen Erkenntnis, wie sie sich ganz besonders im fünften nachatlantischen Kulturzeitraum ausprägt, die Seele so zu erkraften, daß sie in die geistige Welt hinaussieht, eigene geistige Erkenntnisse hat. Erkennen durch die unmittelbare Initiative ist nichts Normales für die Menschen des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitalters. Freiheit, freier Wille, unmittelbares Herauswirken aus der tiefsten Kraft der Seele von jenem Orte der Seele her, wo diese unmittelbar mit dem Göttlichen verbunden ist: die Menschen des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitalters können sich dieser Freiheit im unmittelbaren normalen Leben, eben im Leben der gewöhnlichen Außenwelt, nicht bewußt werden. Freiheit ist Theorie, Erkenntnis ist Theorie. Im weiteren Verfolg hat dieses fünfte nachatlantische Zeitalter in zahlreichen Fällen die Lehre von den Erkenntnisgrenzen aufgestellt. Aber von den Grenzen der Erkenntnis im Sinne Kants oder Da Bois-Reymonds zu sprechen, wäre selbst für die Skeptiker der alten Zeit ein Unsinn gewesen. Absolute, ewige Bedeutung, sagte ich schon, soll man den Aussprüchen einer solchen historischen Persönlichkeit nicht beilegen. Aber diese Aussprüche sind Ausdruck für die Zeit. Im christlichen Sinne faßt Luther das auf, was ihm an dem Menschen als das vorzüglichste Charakteristikon der Menschheit des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitalters entgegentrat. Es war im christlichen, besser gesagt, im biblischen Sinne aufgefaßt die unmittelbare Wirkung der Erbsünde. Diese unmittelbare Wirkung der Erbsünde besteht darin, das ist das Charakteristische, daß die Menschen dieses Zeitalters durch ihre eigene Natur sich weder zur Erkenntnis des Göttlichen, noch auch zur Freiheit erheben können. Indem Luther also sagte, die Menschen seien durch die Erbsünde so verdorben, daß sie durch ihre eigene Natur sich über die Sünde nicht emporarbeiten können, sprach er eine Wahrheit für das fünfte nachatlantische Zeitalter aus. Und keine Kraft des Menschen hängt so sehr mit der unmittelbaren menschlichen Wesenheit zusammen, als diejenige Kraft, welche im menschlichen Willen sich äußert, in demjenigen sich äußert, was der Mensch tut. Was er tut, entspringt ganz aus dem Zentrum seines Wesens. Was er weiß, woran er glaubt, das hat er viel mehr mit der Umgebung, mit seinem Zeitalter und dergleichen, gemein. Im fünften nachatlantischen, im materialistischen, naturwissenschaftlichen Zeitalter ist es dem Menschen nicht möglich, aus seiner eigenen Wesenheit heraus Handlungen zu vollführen, die geistdurchdrungen sind. Das ist gerade das Wesentliche dieses Zeitalters — im sechsten nachatlantischen Zeitraum wird es wieder anders sein -, daß der Mensch in seiner ganzen Wesenheit herausgestellt ist aus dem Zusammenhange mit dem Geistigen. Auch dies durchdrang Luther. Aber der Mensch durfte nicht wesenhaftig herausgerissen sein. Mit dem, was er nun an sich ist, was er als der: in der Sinneswelt stehende Mensch tut und will, kann er nicht mit dem Göttlichen zusammenhängen. Er kann mit dem Göttlichen nur dann zusammenhängen, wenn er diesen Zusammenhang mit dem Göttlichen mit seinem äußeren Sinnensein in gar keinem Zusammenhang denkt. Dies ist der Ursprung der Lehre von der Heiligung durch den bloßen Glauben. Für einen echten Menschen des vierten nachatlantischen Zeitalters hätte diese Heiligung durch den bloßen Glauben gar keinen Sinn gehabt. Man hätte einen alten Griechen oder einen alten Römer kommen lassen sollen und sagen, daß er seinen Wert vor den höchsten Mächten des Daseins nicht durch das erwirbt, was er tut, was er in der Welt veranlaßt, sondern allein durch die Art und Weise, wie seine Seele sich zur geistigen Welt bekennt; er hätte es für einen völligen Unsinn gehalten. Für einen Menschen des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitalters ist es kein solcher Unsinn, denn er muß, wenn er sich auf das verläßt, was er durch die Welt ist, in der Tat nur ein Weltenmensch sein. Er muß immer mehr und mehr darauf kommen, daß er nur an der höchsten Spitze der Tierreihe steht. Daher muß er etwas, womit er gar nicht zusammenhängt, so wieerin der Welt drinnen steht, zum Bande machen mit der geistigen Welt: nämlich den bloßen Glauben. Es ist nicht möglich, daß dasjenige, was Luther seiner und der Folgezeit Luthers aufgeprägt hat, die alleinige Geistesströmung blieb.

So kann man zum Beispiel fragen: Wer ist heute Lutheraner? Eigentlich sind alle Menschen Lutheraner! Alle Menschen, insofern sie durchdrungen sind von dem Wesen des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitalters. Wer wirklich einen Sinn hat für den Unterschied, der gewissen feineren Begriffen in der Auffassung der Welt zugrunde liegen kann, der merkt, welche gewaltige Differenz besteht zwischen einem heutigen katholischen Theologen und einem solchen des dreizehnten oder des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts. Warum ist das? Weil der heutige katholische Theologe in Wahrheit auch Lutheraner ist. Er hat denselben Impuls in sich. Man hat nur heute oftmals nicht viel Gefühl für die innere Wahrheit einer Sache, man hat viel mehr Gefühl für die Scheinvignette, die man dem Menschen anheftet. Daß jemand durch Familien- oder andere Zusammenhänge als Katholik oder als Protestant in die Kirchenregister eingetragen ist, ist ja nur eine äußere Charakteristik; was den Menschen innerlich charakterisiert, ist doch etwas ganz anderes. In gewisser Beziehung sind die Menschen, die heute mit ihrem Zeitalter mitgehen, die im Sinne ihres Zeitalters sich anregen lassen, durchaus innerlich Lutheraner, weil Luther das Leben seines Zeitalters — von dem Gesichtspunkte aus, den ich berührt habe — ausgesprochen hat. Er konnte es deshalb besonders aussprechen, weil in ihm der genannte charakterisierte Zwiespalt lebte, weil er auf der einen Seite den Eindruck hatte: Was ist diese Menschheit, die da kommt? — Und weiler auf der anderen Seite den Impuls hatte, mit allen in ihm lebenden Kräften zu den Menschen des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitalters zu sprechen, mit all den Kräften, die er erhalten wollte im Sinne des vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraumes.

Das aber war wieder die höhere Einheit, die Synthesis, daß er zu Menschen, welche den Verhältnissen des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraumes ausgesetzt sind, so sprach, daß er gleichsam aus deren Seelen heraus sprach. Er prägte die Worte, er faßte die Vorstellungen, die aus diesen Seelen der Menschen des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraumes sich ergeben, aber er sprach so, daß alles zugleich durchdrungen sein sollte von der Absicht, dasjenige zu erhalten, was im vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraume vorhanden war. Das ist die höhere Einheit. Als einzige Geistesströmung aber konnte das für diesen fünften Zeitraum allerdings nicht bleiben, sonst würde sich der sechste Zeitraum nicht in diesem fünften vorbereiten.

So sehen wir denn, während in der angedeuteten Weise das Luthertum ganz besonders die Impulse dieses fünften Zeitraumes trifft, daß auf der anderen Seite andere Strömungen sich geltend machen. Für uns ist die wichtigste die, welche in der deutschen Klassik heraufkommt: von Lessing zu Herder — den man auch dazuzählen kann -, Schiller, Goethe und anderen. Wir haben dabei die merkwürdige Erscheinung, daß wir in Kant einen ganz lutherischen Philosophen haben; denn bis in die intimste Intimität seiner Begriffe hinein ist Kant lutherisch. Schiller möchte gerne Kantianer sein, kann es aber nicht; denn es gibt philosophisch nichts, was so aus dem bloßen Luthertum herausstrebt wie zum Beispiel Schillers «Briefe über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen». Diese Briefe - sie sind heute nur viel zu wenig gewürdigt — bilden gewissermaßen einen Höhepunkt der anderen Strömung, wie wiederum ein Höhepunkt der anderen Strömung Goethes «Faust» ist, mit einem Protest, der sich darin ausspricht, nicht bloß die Bibel, sondern die Natur zu nehmen und so die Menschenseele durch eigene Erkraftung den Weg in die geistige Welt nehmen zu lassen. Die Schlußszenen des «Faust» stehen daher im vollen Gegensatz zum Luthertum. Nur die künstliche Konstruktion würde Schillers ästhetische Briefe, Goethes «Märchen von der grünen Schlange und der schönen Lilie», oder die Schlußszenen des «Faust» in eine verwandtschaftliche Beziehung zum Luthertum bringen. Das strebt wieder durch innere Opposition gegen das Naturwissenschaftliche, die menschliche Seele so zu erkraften, daß diese durch ihre eigenen Kräfte den Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt finden kann. Daher setzt das sechzehnte Jahrhundert den gewaltigen Vorstellungen, die sich an Luther anknüpfen, die anderen Vorstellungen entgegen, die damals noch nicht aufkommen können, die dann gewissermaßen noch als den Gegensatz des Guten repräsentierend da sind, setzt die Vorstellungen vom «Faust» hin. Luther hat die Menschen des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitalters ins Auge gefaßt: diese Menschheit, die den Teufel nicht anerkennen will, den Luther so gut kannte, aber die ganz besessen ist von der ahrimanischen Dämonie, also von dem, was Luther den Teufel nennt. Luther hat diese Menschheit vor sich, und es ist eigentlich nicht sonderbar, daß jemand, der sich heute wiederum intimer mit Luther befaßt hat, gerade darauf einen so großen Wert legt, daß Luther in so unmittelbarer Weise die geistige Welt mit dem teuflischen Inhalt kannte.

Interessant ist es allerdings, daß die Persönlichkeit, die nun, ich möchte sagen, geradezu danach lechzt, die Menschen sollten nur den Teufel wieder kennenlernen, der sie ja immer am Kragen hat, besonders wenn sie die Welt nur naturalistisch auffassen, aber den sie nicht kennen, interessant ist es, daß nach der Art des Paradieses-Geschehnisses diese Persönlichkeit, welche diese neuere Sehnsucht nach dem Teufel hat, eine Frau ist: Ricarda Huch. Ihr Buch über Luther drückt geradezu die Sehnsucht aus: möchten doch die Menschen wieder eine Erfahrung von dem Teufel haben, denn dadurch würden sie zurückkommen zu dem Gottesbewußtsein. Und in diesem, was sie so durchdringt, empfindet sie sogar diese Sehnsucht nach dem Teufel. Einmal drückt sie diese Sehnsucht nach dem Teufel sogar recht lebhaft aus in ihrem Buche «Luthers Glaube», Insel-Verlag, 1916, Seite 44:

«Ein Werk wie Burckhardts Kultur der Renaissance und eine Erscheinung wie Nietzsche sind der Schrei der Menschheit nach dem Teufel, der ebenso berechtigt ist wie der Schrei nach dem Kinde. Nur lassen weder Kind noch Teufel sich willkürlich hervorbringen, und wenn ich daran denke, wie viele junge Leute sich bengalisch beleuchten, um den Anschein von Hölle zu erzielen, so überläuft mich ein Grauen vor möglichen Mißverständnissen. Es gebärdeten sich ja zu Nietzsches Zeit viele als blonde Bestien, die nicht Tierheit genug zu einem einfältigen Meerschweinchen in sich hatten. Aber Du, Geliebter», das ganze Buch ist in Form von Briefen an einen Freund abgefaßt, «wirst keinen Verein für Sünder gründen, noch für Dich allein Mustersünden im Treibhaus züchten, insofern kann ich mich’ auf Dich verlassen. Luzifer verachtet ja den dummen und den bösen Teufel, seine Vorläufer; ich zürne ihm um so mehr, als er eben, unwillkommenes Licht bringend, am Himmel aufgeht und die Nacht, wo Du mir zuhörst, beendet.»

Es ist der Schrei nach dem Teufel von Ricarda Huch, den man in dem Unterbewußtsein der Menschheit vernimmt, und sie möchte, daß dieser Schrei wirke. Wer da weiß, daß an jedem Laboratoriumstisch, in jeder Maschine, kurz in den wichtigsten Kulturmilieus der neueren Zeit der wirkliche Teufel verborgen ist und mitwirkt — ich sage das unumwunden -, der kann schon Ricarda Huch verstehen; denn weit besser wäre es für die Menschen, wenn sie wüßten, daß der Teufel da ist, während er sie ja doch am Kragen hat, und das Völkchen es nur nicht merkt.

In Luthers Bewußtsein lebte der Teufel noch, und er lebte deshalb gerade so, weil Luther wie ein Mensch des vierten nachatlantischen Zeitalters die geistige Welt noch empfand. Und er lebte in seinen Worten noch deshalb, weil er ihn hinstellen wollte für die Menschen des fünften nachatlantischen Kulturzeitraumes, die wohl von ihm besessen sind, aber nichts von ihm wissen. Eine andere Empfindung mußte Luther gegenüber dem Teufel bei den Menschen erzeugen als Faust sie hatte, der sich ja dem Teufel verschrieb, der gerade seine Erkenntnisse und seine Macht durch den Teufel gewinnen wollte. Das lehnt zunächst das sechzehnte Jahrhundert ab; Faust muß den negativen Mächten der Welt verfallen. Goethe, auch schon Lessing, sie protestieren ganz mächtig dagegen. Warum? Gewiß, Lessing wie auch Goethe haben den eigentlichen Nerv ihres Verhältnisses zum Faust nicht ausgesprochen. Darüber ist es ja schon möglich, heute offener zu sprechen, als zu Lessings und Goethes Zeit gesprochen werden konnte, obwohl gerade der Eingeweihte seinen Mitmenschen andere Dinge mitteilen wollte; allein sie würden ihn zerreißen, wenn er sie ihnen mitteilte.

Sehen wir einmal in die Seele Goethes hinein, wie sie sich zum Faust stellte. Goethe hatte ja auch seine Empfindung von den Menschen des fünften nachatlantischen Kulturzeitraumes. Er wußte von den intimen Beziehungen der Menschen dieses Zeitraumes zum Teufel; denn der Teufel, die ahrimanischen Mächte, sind immer da, wenn man nur das Bewußtsein auf die Materie beschränkt. Das bedeutet für sie das Tor, durch das sie Einlaß finden. Wird das Bewußtsein auf die Materie beschränkt, wird es ganz ins Unternormale hinuntergedrängt, wird ein organisch-dämmerhaftes Bewußtsein erzeugt, oder ein aufgeregtes, wo der Mensch ganz der Materie hingegeben ist, oder ein närrisches Bewußtsein, dann hat Ahriman erst recht den Zugang zu ihm. Goethe aber weiß, daß im allgemeinen die ahrimanischen Mächte da sind. Seiner ganzen Natur nach kann er aber die ahrimanischen Mächte nicht als das hinstellen, was man zu scheuen hätte oder was man abzuweisen hätte. Er kann ihnen gegenüber nicht bloß auf den im äußeren materiellen Dasein lebenden Glauben Rücksicht nehmen. Nein, er muß das, was er für seinen Faust erreichen will, aus dem lebendigen Umgang mit dem Teufel herausholen; das heißt, der Teufel muß seine Kraft hergeben, er muß besiegt werden. Das ist dem Kampf des Faust mit dem Teufel, mit den ahrimanischen bösen Geistern, mit Mephistopheles zugrunde liegend.

Wir haben dann Schiller, der Kantianer sein möchte, und es nicht kann, und der in seinen «Briefen über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen» unterscheidet in dem Menschen zwischen dem bloßen Trieb, der, im Sinne des Luthertums, aus der sinnlichen Natur kommt, und dem sich durch die Sinnlichkeit offenbarenden Geist. Wenn man ehrlich Lutheraner sein soll, würde man sagen: Der Mensch ist diesem Trieb verfallen, er kann sich nicht aus eigener Kraft aus sich erheben. Aus diesem Triebe sich erheben kann er nur durch den Glauben, und dann kann er sich durch den außer ihm befindlichen Christus als gereinigt und erlöst betrachten. — Schiller sagt: Nein, das andere ist noch in dem Menschen, der Trieb der Freiheit, die Kraft der Geistigkeit, die imstande sind, im Menschen den bloßen Trieb der Notdurft, den Trieb der Sinnlichkeit zu veredeln. — Und Schiller unterscheidet daher die durch den Geist veredelte Sinnlichkeit und den durch die Sinnlichkeit offenbar werdenden Geist, indem er den Menschen hinstellt, der zwar durch die Materie abgetrennt ist vom geistigen Dasein, der aber durch die Umwandelung, durch die innere Alchimie der Materie, das heißt des Sinnendaseins, zum Geiste hinstrebt.

Goethe stellt in äußerer dramatischer Form diese Überwindung der im äußeren Sinnessein wirkenden ahrimanischen Mächte dar. Oh, es tut einem in der Seele weh, wenn man das Große sieht, das in der abendländischen Kultur hervorgegangen ist aus Schillers Briefen über die ästhetische Erziehung, was hätte hervorgehen können — wenn es auch bis jetzt nicht so hervorgegangen ist, wie es hätte können - aus den großen Impulsen, die in Goethes «Faust» liegen. Wenn man die Anregungen zur Spiritualität ins Auge faßt, welche darin liegen, wenn man sie voll kennt - und wenn man dann sehen muß, wie unsere Zeitgenossen die Schulung ihrer Spiritualität immer wieder und wieder in den abgeschmacktesten amerikanischen Harmonien mit dem Weltenall und ähnlichem solchem Zeug gesucht haben! Man bekommt solchen Weltschmerz! Ich muß immer wieder die wahre Geschichte erzählen, daß ein Wiener -— Deinhardt hieß er - ein wunderschönes Büchelchen über Schillers ästhetische Briefe geschrieben hat, in welchem er die unendlich schönen Perspektiven auseinanderlegte, die daraus hätten berücksichtigt werden können. Ich glaube nicht, daß irgend jemand ihn heute kennt. Denn er hatte einmal das Unglück, auf der Straße hinzufallen und ein Bein zu brechen, und als der Arzt dann kam und ihn untersuchte, sagte er, daß er nicht wieder aufkommen könnte, weil er zu schlecht ernährt sei. So starb er. Aber in diesem Büchelchen von Deinhardt, dem Wiener, haben wir einen der tiefsten Impulse, die aus der abendländischen Kultur hervorgegangen sind. Man sollte sich nur anschauen, was in der abendländischen Kultur geblüht hat, und man würde nicht als alberne Phrase den Satz hinstellen: Den besten Mann an den besten Platz, — wenn man sich vermöge seiner eigenen Bildung zu der Ansicht erheben kann, daß der Neffe oder der Cousin der beste Mann am besten Platze ist. Immer wieder und wieder hört man heute die Phrase: Die Menschen gibt es nicht, um diesen oder jenen Platz auszufüllen. - Nein, die Menschen gibt es nicht, die zu suchen verstehen! Aber zu suchen ist nur möglich, wenn die Seele sich erkrafter und sich durchtränkt mit dem, was aus dem Großen unseres Geisteslebens fließt. Und dieses Große will nicht nur abstrakte Begriffe liefern, es liefert die Impulse, um die Seele zu spiritualisieren und sie in ihrer Entwickelung dahin zu führen, wo Goethe hineilt — wenn auch in bildhaft-dramatischer Art - in den Schlußszenen seines «Faust». Nicht alte Dinge aufzubewahren, liegt im Sinne unserer Zeit, sondern die Synthesis zu suchen, die am schönsten zutage tritt in der Goethe-Schiller-Lessingschen Klassik.

Auf dies wollte ich auch noch hinweisen, wie Lessing, wie Goethe, wie Schiller in der neueren Kulturentwickelung, von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus gesehen, drinnen stehen, und gerade dadurch versteht man das, was Luther ihnen vorangehend war, um so besser. Eine Persönlichkeit, wie die Luthers war, lernt man dann erst recht erkennen, wenn man einsieht, aus welchen Tiefen heraus sie sprach, und was in den Tiefen ihrer Seele lebte. Das wollte ich gerade in dieser Zeit hinstellen. Ich glaube schon: wenn Sie diese Gedanken nun nehmen und an das herantreten, was Ihnen gerade in dieser unserer Zeit von Luther ausgehend so mächtig entgegentreten kann, Sie werden vieles bei Luther finden, durch sich selbst finden, was ich natürlich hier nicht im einzelnen ausführen kann, was jeder auch bei Luther selber finden muß. Dann, meine ich, kann gerade für unsere so schwere Zeit die Versenkung in Luther wieder den Ausgangspunkt einer Vertiefung durch Luther werden. Denn vielleicht ist keine Kraft so geeignet, auf das mächtige Kolorit des fünften nachatlantischen Kulturzeitraumes hinzuweisen, wie Luther, weil er eben ganz aus dem Geiste dieses fünften Zeitraumes heraus sprach, aber seine Worte fand aus dem Geiste des vierten nachatlantischen Kulturzeitraumes heraus.

Allen Dingen und allen Vorgängen gegenüber, die uns in der Geschichte entgegentreten, sollten wir die Notwendigkeit empfinden, gewissermaßen die Geschichte umzudenken. Wir sollten empfinden, wie unsere heutige schwierige Zeit, die der Menschheit solches Elend gebracht hat, schon karmisch zusammenhängt mit verkehrtem, oberflächlichem Denken, und wie das, was wir heute so grauenhaft erleben, vielfach das Karma des Materialismus ist. Wir sollten den Willen in uns entwickeln, geschichtlich umzudenken. Ich habe es schon oft betont, was uns heute als Geschichte geboten wird, in den untersten Schulen wie auf den Mittelschulen und auf den Universitäten — vielleicht auf den letzteren am allermeisten -, das ist eine Legende, die deshalb so verderblich ist, weil sie keine sein will, weil sie äußere sinnliche Wahrheit geben will. Würde man nur einmal die wahre Gestalt der Vorgänge des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts — nur einmal des neunzehnten! — an die Stelle der legendarischen Geschichten setzen, es würde etwas ungemein Wohltätiges den Menschen angediehen werden. Gerade über die Auffassung der Geschichte sagt einmal Herman Grimm, er sehe eine Zeit voraus, in welcher alle die, welche als Größen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts angesehen werden, nicht mehr als solche Größen angesehen werden, sondern ganz andere, die aus dem Dämmerdunkel der Zeit treten werden. — Gerade die Geschichte ist so hergerichtet, daß so, wie sie im Laufe der Zeit geworden ist, heute zu ihrer Beurteilung eine Umwandlung der Menschenseele nötig ist, eine Umwandlung bis in die tiefsten Wurzeln ihres Wesens herein. Von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus habe ich das immer wieder und wieder betont, aber man kann es nicht oft genug sagen, denn alles, was die Menschen heute an Vorstellungen haben, entsteht durch solche oberflächliche Ansicht, daß diese Vorstellungen gar nicht die Kraft haben, die entfaltet werden muß, wenn der Mensch aus seinem Vorstellen heraus in das eingreifen soll, was im sozialen Zusammenleben der Menschen auftritt. Die kurzsichtigen, die stumpfen, die dämmerhaften Begriffe der Menschen führen heute Krieg. Und die Menschen, welche gegeneinander kämpfen, sind vielfach nur die Puppen für die dämmerhaften, kurzsichtigen, stumpfen Begriffe. Aber man muß sich ein Wahrnehmungsvermögen für das Kurzsichtige aneignen. Das ist nötig. Und wenn die Geisteswissenschaft es vermöchte — und man möchte es gerade wünschen -, daß sie die Menschen aufrüttelt, um hineinzuschauen in die tiefen Impulse, die unter der Oberfläche des gewöhnlichen Lebens liegen, die man aber heute nicht sehen will, dann würde das erreicht werden, was heute in zahlreichen Deklamationen von Völkerfreiheiten, von internationalen Schiedsgerichten wimmelt und Wort bleibt, weil es ganz gleich ist, was man begründet, solange die Dinge so aufgefaßt werden, wie sie die heutige Zeit eben auffaßt. Ganz gleichgültig ist es, was man begründet, ob auf Krieg oder Frieden oder sonst etwas hin. Notwendig ist es, daß unsere Vorstellungen herausgeführt werden aus der Oberflächlichkeit des heutigen Tageslebens in die Tiefen der Dinge hinein. Hören möchte man, wie in dieser Zeit der Luther-Episteln den Menschen dargestellt werden möchte, daß in Luther nicht nur der Mann gesprochen hat, sondern auch der Charakter der Zeit, die mit dem achten Jahrhundert vor Christi anfing und mit dem fünfzehnten Jahrhundert aufhörte, und wie dies in ihm zusammentönte mit dem Charakter des anderen Zeitraumes, der im vierzehnten Jahrhundert beginnt und von da ab etwa 2100 Jahre dauert.

Dadurch ist eine Persönlichkeit eine historische, daß dasjenige, was wir aus der Hierarchie der geistigen Wesenheiten die Archai, die Zeitgeister nennen, aus dieser Persönlichkeit spricht, so daß diese Persönlichkeit hinwegführt zu der Sprache des Zeitgeistes. So etwas einzusehen, ist wahrhaftig nötig bei einer Darstellung, die an die Betrachtung Luthers herankommen will.

Eighth Lecture

Continuing the reflections from last Tuesday, I would like to present a few points of view for assessing Luther's historical position. I would like to note from the outset that The considerations we are making today are intended to examine Luther from a spiritual scientific point of view and not from a religious one.

Above all, when considering Luther from a spiritual scientific point of view, the significance of the age for the nature, appearance, and effectiveness of this personality strikes us in a very special way—one might say even more so than with many other historical phenomena. Let us consider the period in which Luther appeared, according to our understanding: the sixteenth century, viewed from a spiritual scientific perspective of world history, shortly after the dawn of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. We know that this fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch began around the fifteenth century. Until then, we have what we call the Greek-Latin era, which began around the eighth century before the Mystery of Golgotha. So Luther appeared shortly after what was connected in a certain way with Greek-Latin thinking and feeling had faded from the thinking and feeling of cultural humanity, in the sense in which we view it. To the unbiased observer, his personality initially appears ambivalent, but in such a way that the two elements of the ambivalence nevertheless come together in a higher unity, as we shall see. We must simply realize that much more happened between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries than today's historiography is inclined to assume, especially with regard to the transformation of the human soul. This is taken far too little into account in today's historiography. The people of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries still had a direct relationship with the spiritual world through the entire structure and constitution of their souls. This has been forgotten today, but it cannot be emphasized often enough. The people of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, on average of course, still saw elemental spirituality when they turned their gaze to the beings of nature, to the processes of the cloudy sky, and so on. Much more than we believe today, the people of that age still had the ability to maintain contact between themselves, when they remained here on the physical plane, and the departed dead with whom they were karmically connected. An immediate knowledge that this world, which the senses perceive, is not the only one, was still present at that time as a remnant of an older consciousness. The transition to later times is much more abrupt than we believe today. The emerging natural science, which as such has its full justification, has, so to speak, drawn a veil over the spiritual world that lies behind the sensory world. I can well imagine that today's historian, who is accustomed to taking as immediate truth what he has been taught, will not believe in the abruptness of this transition, because it seems unhistorical to him, unsubstantiated by historical monuments. But spiritual science presents it for this age that is now dawning in such a way that in it the human soul is placed entirely in the sensual world by virtue of the human organization that has arisen in this age.

Now we have already seen what was woven into Luther's soul: living in it were the aftereffects of what he had absorbed in the mysteries of pre-Christian times, in which he was present in his pre-Christian incarnation, but in those mysteries which were working toward Christianity. In this sense, he was in the fullest sense a child of his time, that is, of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, when the feeling of the former connection with the spiritual world dawned among human beings, even if this feeling was once as vivid as it was among the former initiates of the mysteries. But one should not believe that what has faded away, what does not appear in the realm of the soul's knowledge, is not there, that it is not effective. It is effective when the person concerned is simultaneously receptive through his inner karma, when he is receptive to what is rising up from the depths of the soul but cannot enter consciousness. Luther was such a receptive person.

One can convince oneself that the effects of what I have just indicated as the causes were present in him. They were present in the tremendous soul torments he had to go through, soul torments which, in a sense, by forming themselves into expressions of his own soul, took on the character of his age in his words and ideas, but which were essentially the torments of what is supposed to be withheld from human beings in the fifth post-Atlantean age, the materialistic age, in terms of impressions from the spiritual world. All the privations that the deeper nature of souls undergo in the materialistic age were deposited in Luther's soul to a very special degree. Certainly, today we must use different words to express what he felt when he spoke. I am not using his words to characterize what he felt: What will become of humanity when it is cut off from the spiritual world, when it gradually forgets the impressions it once had of the spiritual world? — Imagine this feeling as intensified as possible, and you will have the basic tone of the soul torments that lived in Luther's soul. Why did they live so strongly in him in particular?

To answer this question, we come back to the aforementioned ambivalence of his nature. On the one hand, Luther was, in a sense, a son of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. He felt with the people of this epoch insofar as he felt the privations that these people of the fifth cultural epoch were already experiencing, only to an infinitely greater degree, but they were not conscious of them. Why did he feel these privations so intensely?

He felt them because, on the other hand, he was now once again, in his innermost being, entirely a son of the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. That was the ambivalence in his nature. The impressions from the mysteries I have spoken of had taken such deep root in his soul that he felt inwardly like a person of the fourth cultural epoch — and yet he was completely devoted to his own time, to the fifth cultural epoch. Because he felt so deeply connected to the fourth cultural epoch, like an ancient Roman or an ancient Greek — as unlikely as that may sound today — he was unable to understand what was emerging from the hearts of the people of the fifth cultural epoch, strange as that may sound. namely an understanding of a worldview such as the Copernican one, of a conception of the world based purely on the calculations of the senses. The fourth cultural epoch would have had no understanding of such a world system. This sounds strange to us today because in many respects our age really believes that the end of all wisdom has now been reached and that Copernicanism is the final word. I have often pointed out that this is a great folly. Just as people today look down on the Ptolemaic world system from the standpoint of Copernicanism, so the Copernican world system will one day be replaced by another, which will relate to it as the Copernican system relates to the Ptolemaic. But according to the constitution of the souls of the people of the fifth cultural epoch, they have an understanding of such a purely sensory, calculated system of the movements of the heavenly bodies.

Luther had no understanding of this. Copernicanism seemed to him a kind of folly. Luther was not very interested in what lived in the ideas that occupied the people of the fifth cultural epoch in a scientific-materialistic, purely spatial way, insofar as these ideas expressed the phenomena of the world. But he was all the more interested in the emotional attitude, in the position of man in the world in the fifth cultural epoch. However, he felt the position toward the world that was imposed on the people of the fifth cultural epoch with the innermost soul impulses of a person of the fourth cultural epoch, the Greek-Latin epoch.

Thus, when we look at Luther, we see him, on the one hand, looking back at the way in which man in the fourth cultural epoch related to the cosmos and to the spiritual content of the cosmos; on the other hand, he looks forward to all the feelings, emotions, and ideas to which man in the fifth cultural epoch will be exposed because of his special position in relation to the cosmos, which separates them, in a sense, from the spiritual content of the cosmos. One might say that with a soul from the fourth cultural epoch, Luther feels the experiences of human beings in the fifth cultural epoch. And these special experiences of human beings in the fifth cultural epoch were now deposited in Luther's own soul.

To make the comparison more meaningful, let us compare an average educated person of today, who thinks and feels in accordance with the scientific worldview, with a person in the fairly ancient times of the fourth epoch, who still felt in accordance with man's position in relation to the world, since man was aware of his relationship to the spiritual content of this world. Above all, concepts that we express today with the words imagination and inspiration were still very much alive in people in those older times. That human beings perceive colors not only through their eyes and hear sounds through their ears, but also receive the spiritual world in images through a special power of their soul, receiving communications from the spiritual world, was something quite common in earlier times. That the divine-spiritual lives in the human soul was a common idea in those times; people felt connected to their God.

This was to come to an end in the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch so that humanity could undergo a test. In this fifth epoch, human beings, trained by special methods, by a special science, felt the possibility of looking precisely at the external phenomena of nature and at the way in which the external phenomena of nature play into their own being. But the view of the spiritual world is closed to them; the path from the soul to the spiritual worlds is not there.

Let us place these two types of human beings side by side. We saw last time that for Luther, the spiritual world was open. He did not merely have abstract knowledge, he did not merely have an abstract religious feeling about the spiritual world, he had, what is characteristic, a lively interaction with the evil spirits of the spirituality of the world, which is not, however, an evil characteristic. So he knew from direct experience of the existence of the spiritual world; but he knew that these experiences would fade away for people of the fifth post-Atlantean age, that they would no longer be there. And these people of the fifth post-Atlantean age, how did they feel, how did their souls lack spiritual perception? This became the great mystery for him. But he also looked at these people from a heart that was imbued with the forces of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. These forces of the fourth epoch went back to the spiritual world with all their vitality. It is there! That is how it appeared to Luther on the one hand. It is there, and we must not fail to awaken in human beings the awareness that this spiritual world exists. But on the other hand, we must not delude ourselves: in the humanity that will now fill the next epoch, there will be no immediate awareness of the spiritual world; this humanity will only be able to use its senses. While the decisions of earlier times had given knowledge of the divine-spiritual through direct insight, through insight into the spiritual world gained through experience, Luther could say nothing else to the humanity now coming than: If you want to look up to the spiritual world, you will find nothing, for this ability has disappeared; but if you want to be firm in your awareness of the spiritual world, then you must above all take the most reliable document in which the direct knowledge of the spiritual world is still contained, which can no longer be given in this age. An earlier age could still say: here is the Gospel—but here is also the possibility of looking directly into the spiritual worlds. The latter possibility ceased to exist in the fifth post-Atlantean age. So only the Gospel remained.

You see, Luther spoke from the spirit of the fifth post-Atlantean age, but he spoke from the spirit of this age as it was in the heart of a man who was also a son of the fourth post-Atlantean period, who wanted to point people to what they could no longer attain in their development in the fifth age through the means that remained from the fourth age. which they could no longer attain in their development in the fifth epoch. This is something that must be understood from the context of the time, that Luther presented the Gospel as the sole document for the spiritual world at the beginning of an epoch in which direct insight into the spiritual world was closed. Therefore, even if all this was not present in his consciousness as I am now expressing it, but that is not important, he wanted to emphasize the Gospel in order to give special strength to the humanity that was now to come.

Now let us look back to another area in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. I am currently preoccupied again—these things have been particularly on my mind in recent days—with a characterization of Christian Rosenkreutz and the “Chymical Wedding” by Johann Valentin Andreae. If, prompted by this literary phenomenon, we turn our gaze to the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, we see that the people of that age who were engaged in science—the science of nature—were, in the best sense of the word, alchemists. What we now call a natural scientist was then an alchemist. One need only remove all superstition and fraud, especially from the word alchemy, in order to arrive at the inner, purely spiritual meaning of the essence of alchemy. What did these researchers want? They wanted nothing more than what they were convinced of: that behind the forces of nature there are not only those forces that can be found through external observation and external experimentation, but that supernatural forces are at work in nature, that nature is indeed “natural,” but that supernatural forces are nevertheless at work within it. These people were clear about something that a later age would return to, but today these things are only very hidden—that the outer appearance of a metal, for example, is not such a fixed structure that it cannot be transformed into something else. They only saw the transition as spirit-borne, as the effect of the spirit in nature. They were able to bring about those alchemical processes that would greatly astonish a modern natural scientist if they could be demonstrated to him again. But these processes were brought about by the use of spiritual forces. The fact that spiritual forces really do operate in material existence was also something that was connected with the knowledge of those earlier times.

This was also to be lost in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, and indeed it has been lost. But this has its reflection in the religious worldview. Because this is so, the thirteenth century and the earlier centuries, including the fourteenth century, could have a different doctrine of the sacraments than the following centuries. For the following centuries, the belief lost all meaning that spiritual forces are directly effective in matter when it is treated sacramentally. This was very much alive, even if not fully conscious, in Luther's mind. As a result, the doctrine of the sacraments became something completely different. The Catholic doctrine of the sacraments is still something different today, as in the case of the sacrament of the altar, where bread and wine are truly transformed into flesh and blood through a mysterious process. Anyone who has ever discussed such a question with Catholic theologians has often heard the following objection: If you do not understand this, then you understand nothing at all of Aristotle's doctrine of substance. Nevertheless, it must be said that for the fifth post-Atlantean age, no real meaning can be attached to a real transformation, to real alchemy. Therefore, this process is removed from material existence. Today, we receive bread and wine, but they are not transformed; when we receive them, the divine spirit of Christ's being is transferred into them. This metamorphosis of the concept of the sacrament is again connected with the further development of humanity from the fourth to the fifth post-Atlantean period. And Luther must speak from both perspectives. He wants to give the human soul the same strengthening it received under the influence of the former spiritual teaching, but he can only give it by preserving this spiritual teaching from modern science, by not allowing modern science to touch this spiritual teaching at all, so to speak. For modern science would never, ever recognize anything spiritual in the material world. Therefore, Luther removes the spiritual from material processes from the outset, allowing the material process to be, if not yet a symbol, then at least only a material process. These things are hardly understood correctly today, but it is precisely through spiritual science that they must be spoken of again.

Now let us imagine that Luther looked back—even if not in full consciousness—on this entire period of more than two millennia that had passed in the normal life of human beings, even though people in abnormal lives were able to learn something about the spiritual world again through special exercises. He had to speak for this age. The historical personality must never be taken in an absolute sense, but must be taken in his statements, in his teachings, as expressing his age. He had to speak for the people of his age. But these people have really lost something. What have they lost?

They lost the ability to use their own power of human knowledge, as it was particularly developed in the fifth post-Atlantean cultural period, to strengthen their souls in such a way that they could look out into the spiritual world and have their own spiritual insights. Recognition through direct initiative is not normal for people of the fifth post-Atlantean age. Freedom, free will, direct action from the deepest power of the soul, from that place in the soul where it is directly connected to the divine: the people of the fifth post-Atlantean age cannot become aware of this freedom in their immediate normal life, that is, in the life of the ordinary outer world. Freedom is theory, knowledge is theory. In the further course of this fifth post-Atlantean epoch, the doctrine of the limits of knowledge was established in numerous cases. But to speak of the limits of knowledge in the sense of Kant or Da Bois-Reymond would have been nonsense even for the skeptics of old. Absolute, eternal meaning, I have already said, should not be attached to the statements of such a historical personality. But these statements are an expression of the times. In the Christian sense, Luther captures what he saw as the most distinctive characteristic of humanity in the fifth post-Atlantean age. It was understood in the Christian, or rather biblical, sense as the direct effect of original sin. This immediate effect of original sin consists in the characteristic fact that the people of this age, by their very nature, cannot rise to the knowledge of the divine or to freedom. When Luther said that human beings were so corrupted by original sin that they could not rise above sin by their own nature, he was expressing a truth for the fifth post-Atlantean age. And no power of man is so closely connected with immediate human nature as the power that is expressed in the human will, in what man does. What he does springs entirely from the center of his being. What he knows, what he believes, he has much more in common with his environment, with his age, and the like. In the fifth post-Atlantean, materialistic, scientific age, it is not possible for man to perform actions that are imbued with spirit out of his own being. This is precisely the essence of this age—in the sixth post-Atlantean period it will be different again—that man in his entire being is removed from his connection with the spiritual. Luther also understood this. But human beings were not allowed to be torn out of their essence. With what they now are, with what they do and want as beings standing in the sensory world, they cannot be connected with the divine. They can only be connected with the divine if they think of this connection with the divine as having no connection whatsoever with their outer sensory being. This is the origin of the doctrine of sanctification through faith alone. For a genuine human being of the fourth post-Atlantean age, this sanctification through faith alone would have made no sense at all. One should have brought in an ancient Greek or an ancient Roman and told him that he does not acquire his value before the highest powers of existence through what he does, what he causes in the world, but solely through the way in which his soul professes itself to the spiritual world; he would have considered it complete nonsense. For a person of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, it is not such nonsense, because if he relies on what he is through the world, he must indeed be only a world man. He must come to realize more and more that he stands only at the highest point of the animal chain. Therefore, he must make something with which he has no connection, as it stands within the world, into a bond with the spiritual world: namely, mere faith. It is not possible that what Luther imprinted on his own time and on the time that followed him remained the sole spiritual current.

One might ask, for example: Who is a Lutheran today? Actually, all people are Lutherans! All people, insofar as they are permeated by the essence of the fifth post-Atlantean age. Anyone who truly understands the difference that can underlie certain finer concepts in the perception of the world will notice the enormous difference between a Catholic theologian today and one of the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Why is that? Because today's Catholic theologian is in truth also a Lutheran. They have the same impulse within them. It is just that today people often have little feeling for the inner truth of a matter; they have much more feeling for the superficial label that is attached to people. The fact that someone is registered in the church records as a Catholic or a Protestant because of family or other connections is only an external characteristic; what characterizes a person inwardly is something quite different. In a certain sense, people who go along with their times, who are inspired by their times, are thoroughly Lutherans at heart, because Luther expressed the life of his age — from the point of view I have touched upon. He was able to express it particularly well because he lived with the characteristic conflict I mentioned, because on the one hand he had the impression: What is this humanity that is coming? — And because, on the other hand, he had the impulse to speak to the people of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch with all the forces living within him, with all the forces he wanted to preserve in the spirit of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch.

But this was again the higher unity, the synthesis, that he spoke to people who were exposed to the conditions of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch in such a way that he spoke, as it were, out of their souls. He shaped the words, he grasped the ideas that arose from the souls of the people of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, but he spoke in such a way that everything was permeated by the intention to preserve what had existed in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. This is the higher unity. However, this could not remain the only spiritual current for this fifth period, otherwise the sixth period would not have been prepared in the fifth.

So we see that while Lutheranism in the manner indicated above corresponds particularly well to the impulses of this fifth period, other currents are also making themselves felt. For us, the most important of these is the one that emerged in German classicism: from Lessing to Herder — who can also be included — Schiller, Goethe, and others. We have the curious phenomenon that in Kant we have a thoroughly Lutheran philosopher, for Kant is Lutheran down to the most intimate core of his concepts. Schiller would like to be a Kantian, but he cannot be, for there is nothing in philosophy that strives so much out of pure Lutheranism as, for example, Schiller's “Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man.” These letters—which are far too little appreciated today—constitute, in a sense, a high point of the other current, just as Goethe's Faust is a high point of the other current, with a protest that expresses itself in taking not only the Bible but also nature and thus allowing the human soul to find its way into the spiritual world through its own power. The final scenes of Faust are therefore in complete contrast to Lutheranism. Only an artificial construction would bring Schiller's aesthetic letters, Goethe's “Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily,” or the final scenes of Faust into a relationship of kinship with Lutheranism. This again strives, through inner opposition to natural science, to empower the human soul so that it can find its connection to the spiritual world through its own powers. Therefore, the sixteenth century contrasts the powerful ideas associated with Luther with other ideas that could not yet emerge at that time, which then still represent, in a sense, the opposite of good, namely the ideas of Faust. Luther had his eye on the people of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch: this humanity that did not want to acknowledge the devil, whom Luther knew so well, but which was completely possessed by the Ahrimanic demon, that is, by what Luther called the devil. Luther has this humanity before him, and it is not really surprising that someone who has studied Luther more closely today attaches such great importance to the fact that Luther knew the spiritual world with its devilish content in such a direct way.

It is interesting, however, that the personality who now, I would say, is literally thirsting for people to get to know the devil again, who is always at their throats, especially when they view the world in a naturalistic way but do not know him, it is interesting that, in the manner of the Paradise incident, this personality who has this new longing for the devil, is a woman: Ricarda Huch. Her book about Luther expresses this longing quite clearly: people want to have an experience of the devil again, because this would bring them back to an awareness of God. And in this, which so pervades her, she even feels this longing for the devil. She even expresses this longing for the devil quite vividly in her book “Luther's Faith,” Insel-Verlag, 1916, page 44:

"A work like Burckhardt's Culture of the Renaissance and a phenomenon like Nietzsche are the cry of humanity for the devil, which is just as justified as the cry for the child. But neither children nor the devil can be brought into being arbitrarily, and when I think of how many young people light themselves up with Bengali fire to achieve the appearance of hell, I am overcome with horror at the possibility of misunderstanding. In Nietzsche's time, many behaved like blonde beasts who did not have enough animal nature in them to be simple guinea pigs. But you, beloved,” the entire book is written in the form of letters to a friend, ”will not found a club for sinners, nor will you cultivate model sins in a hothouse for yourself alone; in this respect, I can rely on you. Lucifer despises the stupid and evil devil, his predecessor; I am all the more angry with him because he rises in the sky, bringing unwelcome light and ending the night when you listen to me.”

It is Ricarda Huch's cry for the devil that can be heard in the subconscious of humanity, and she wants this cry to have an effect. Anyone who knows that the real devil is hidden and at work in every laboratory table, in every machine, in short, in the most important cultural milieus of modern times, the real devil is hidden and at work—I say this quite frankly—can already understand Ricarda Huch; for it would be far better for people to know that the devil is there, since he has them by the throat anyway, and the little people just don't realize it.

In Luther's consciousness, the devil still lived, and he lived precisely because Luther, as a man of the fourth post-Atlantean age, still perceived the spiritual world. And he still lived in his words because he wanted to present him to the people of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural period, who are probably possessed by him but know nothing about him. Luther had to create a different feeling toward the devil in people than Faust had, who had committed himself to the devil, who wanted to gain his knowledge and power through the devil. The sixteenth century initially rejected this; Faust had to fall prey to the negative forces of the world. Goethe, and even Lessing before him, protested vehemently against this. Why? Certainly, neither Lessing nor Goethe expressed the true essence of their relationship to Faust. Today, it is possible to speak more openly about this than it was in Lessing's and Goethe's time, although the initiated wanted to communicate other things to their fellow human beings; but they would have torn him apart if he had told them.

Let us look into Goethe's soul and see how he felt about Faust. Goethe also had his own feelings about the people of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. He knew about the intimate relationship between the people of this epoch and the devil, for the devil, the Ahrimanic forces, are always present when consciousness is limited to matter. This is the gateway through which they find their way in. If consciousness is limited to matter, it is pushed down into the subnormal, producing an organic, twilight consciousness, or an agitated consciousness in which the human being is completely devoted to matter, or a foolish consciousness, and then Ahriman has easy access to him. Goethe, however, knows that the Ahrimanic forces are generally present. But by his very nature he cannot portray the Ahrimanic forces as something to be feared or rejected. He cannot simply take into account the beliefs that exist in external material existence. No, he must obtain what he wants for his Faust from his living interaction with the devil; that is, the devil must give up his power, he must be defeated. This is the basis of Faust's struggle with the devil, with the Ahrimanic evil spirits, with Mephistopheles.

Then we have Schiller, who wants to be a Kantian but cannot, and who in his “Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man” distinguishes between the mere instinct in man, which, in the Lutheran sense, comes from sensual nature, and the spirit that reveals itself through sensuality. If one is to be an honest Lutheran, one would say: Man is addicted to this instinct; he cannot rise above himself by his own power. He can only rise above this instinct through faith, and then he can consider himself purified and redeemed through Christ, who is outside of him. Schiller says: No, there is something else in man, the instinct of freedom, the power of spirituality, which is capable of ennobling the mere instinct of necessity, the instinct of sensuality, in man. — And Schiller therefore distinguishes between sensuality ennobled by the spirit and the spirit revealed through sensuality, by presenting man as separated from spiritual existence by matter, but striving toward the spirit through transformation, through the inner alchemy of matter, that is, of sensuous existence.

Goethe depicts this overcoming of the Ahrimanic forces at work in the external senses in an outwardly dramatic form. Oh, it hurts one's soul to see the greatness that has emerged in Western culture from Schiller's letters on aesthetic education, what could have emerged — even if it has not yet emerged as it could have — from the great impulses contained in Goethe's Faust. When one considers the inspiration for spirituality that lies in them, when one is fully aware of it — and then one has to see how our contemporaries have sought to train their spirituality again and again in the most insipid American harmonies with the universe and similar nonsense! It makes you feel so world-weary! I always have to tell the true story of a Viennese man named Deinhardt who wrote a wonderful little book about Schiller's aesthetic letters, in which he explained the infinitely beautiful perspectives that could have been taken into account. I don't think anyone knows him today. For he once had the misfortune of falling down in the street and breaking his leg, and when the doctor came and examined him, he said that he would never walk again because he was so malnourished. And so he died. But in this little book by Deinhardt, the Viennese, we have one of the deepest impulses that has emerged from Western culture. One need only look at what has flourished in Western culture, and one would not utter the phrase “the best man for the best position” as a silly platitude—if one's own education enables one to rise to the view that the nephew or cousin is the best man for the best position. Again and again today we hear the phrase: People do not exist to fill this or that place. No, there are no people who know how to seek! But seeking is only possible when the soul empowers itself and imbues itself with what flows from the greatness of our spiritual life. And this greatness does not only provide abstract concepts, it provides the impulses to spiritualize the soul and lead it in its development to where Goethe rushes — albeit in a pictorially dramatic way — in the final scenes of his “Faust.” It is not in keeping with our times to preserve old things, but to seek the synthesis that comes to light most beautifully in the classic works of Goethe, Schiller, and Lessing.

I would also like to point out how Lessing, Goethe, and Schiller, when viewed from this perspective, fit into the more recent cultural development, and how this helps us to understand even better what Luther was ahead of them. A personality such as Luther's can only be truly recognized when one understands the depths from which he spoke and what lived in the depths of his soul. That is what I wanted to emphasize at this particular time. I believe that if you take these thoughts and apply them to what is so powerfully confronting us in our time, originating from Luther, you will find much in Luther, discover for yourselves what I cannot, of course, explain here in detail, what everyone must find for themselves in Luther. Then, I believe, especially in our difficult times, immersion in Luther can once again become the starting point for a deepening through Luther. For perhaps no one is better suited to point to the powerful character of the fifth post-Atlantic cultural period than Luther, because he spoke entirely from the spirit of this fifth period, but found his words in the spirit of the fourth post-Atlantic cultural period.

We should feel the need to rethink history, so to speak, in relation to all things and all events that confront us in history. We should feel how our present difficult times, which have brought such misery to humanity, are already karmically connected with perverted, superficial thinking, and how what we are experiencing today in such a horrific way is in many ways the karma of materialism. We should develop the will within ourselves to rethink history. I have often emphasized that what is presented to us today as history, in elementary schools as well as in middle schools and universities — perhaps most of all in the latter — is a legend that is so pernicious because it does not want to be one, because it wants to give external, sensory truth. If only once the true form of the events of the nineteenth century — only once of the nineteenth! — in place of the legendary stories, something immensely beneficial would accrue to humanity. It is precisely on the subject of the conception of history that Herman Grimm once said that he foresaw a time when all those who are regarded as the great figures of the nineteenth century will no longer be regarded as such, but rather as quite different figures who will emerge from the twilight of time. — History is so arranged that, as it has become over time, a transformation of the human soul is necessary today in order to judge it, a transformation that reaches down to the deepest roots of its being. I have emphasized this again and again from this point of view, but it cannot be said often enough, for everything that people have in the way of ideas today arises from such superficial views that these ideas do not have the power that must be developed if people are to intervene out of their imagination in what occurs in the social life of human beings. The short-sighted, dull, and vague concepts of people today are waging war. And the people who fight each other are often only puppets for these vague, short-sighted, and dull concepts. But we must acquire the ability to perceive what is short-sighted. This is necessary. And if the spiritual science were able—and one would certainly wish it were—to shake people up so that they would look into the deep impulses that lie beneath the surface of ordinary life, but which people today do not want to see, then what is now swarming in numerous declamations about the freedoms of peoples and international courts of arbitration would be achieved, and it would remain mere words, because it does not matter what one argues for as long as things are understood as they are understood today. It is completely irrelevant what one argues for, whether it be war or peace or anything else. What is necessary is that our ideas be led out of the superficiality of everyday life into the depths of things. One would like to hear how, in this time of Luther's epistles, people are presented with the idea that it was not only Luther the man who spoke, but also the character of the age that began with the eighth century BC and ended with the fifteenth century, and how this resonated in him with the character of the other period that began in the fourteenth century and lasted for about 2100 years.

A personality is historical in that what we call the archai, the spirits of the times, from the hierarchy of spiritual beings speaks through this personality, so that this personality leads to the language of the spirit of the times. It is truly necessary to understand this in a presentation that seeks to approach Luther's thinking.