The Bridge Between Universal Spirituality and the Physical Constitution of Man
GA 202
A study of the nature of the human being, this small book shows that the moral world-order, though denied by the natural sciences, is the source for all world-creative power. Three lectures given by Rudolf Steiner at Dornach in December of 1920, they are from the lecture series entitled, The Bridge between Cosmic Spirituality and the Physical Constitution of Humans, published in German as, Die Bruecke Zwischen der Weltgeistigkeit und dem Physichen des Menschen. Die Suche Nach der Neuen Isis, der Goettlichen Sophia. Der Mensch in seinem Zusammenhang mit dem Kosmos.
Printed in Manuscript for the members of the School of Spiritual Science, Goetheanum, Dornach. No person is held qualified to form a judgment on the contents of these works who has not acquired — through the School itself or in an equivalent manner recognized by the School — the requisite preliminary knowledge. Other opinions will be in so far disregarded as the authors of the works in question are not willing to take them as a basis for discussion.
| I. | Soul-and-Spirit in Man's Physical Constitution | December 17, 1920 |
| The physical organism of man is considered today to consist of more or less solid-fluid substances; but as well as his solid, physical body, man has within him as definite organisms, a fluid body, an air-body and a warmth-body. — The connections of these organisms with the members of man's whole being and with the different Ethers. — Thought and Tone; Ego and circulating Blood. — Man in the sleeping state. — Man's relation to the universal Spirituality. — Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition. — The circumscribed view of the human organism prevailing today is unable to build any bridge between the physical body and the soul-and-spirit. | ||
| II. | Moral as the Source of World-Creative Power | December 18, 1920 |
| Recapitulation of previous lecture. — Connection of the moral world-order with the physical world-order. — The moral world-order has no place in the natural scientific thinking of today. — The positive effect of moral ideals and ideas and the negative effect of theoretical ideas on the four organisms in man. — The materialistic conception of the imperishability of matter and energy. — Matter and energy die away to nullity; but man's moral thinking imbues life into substance and will. — The natural world dies away in man; in the realm of the moral a new natural world comes into being; thus are the moral order and the natural order connected. — Absence of spirituality in the modern picture of the world which is based on the Copernican system. — Kepler and Newton. — We need a spiritual view of the universe. — The sun is not a globe of burning gas but the reflection of a spiritual reality revealed in the physical. — The moral power developed by man rays out and is reflected as the spiritual Sun. — Julian the Apostate. — The connection of the spiritual Sun with the physical sun is the Christ-Secret. | ||
| III. | The Path to Freedom and Love and Their Significance in World-Events | December 19, 1920 |
| Man as a being of Thinking, Action and Feeling. — The connection of the life of thought with the will. — Pure thinking: irradiation of the life of thought by will. — This leads to Freedom. — Irradiation of the life of will by thoughts leads to Love. — The meaning of the ancient expressions: Semblance, Power, Wisdom. — To speak of the imperishability of matter and energy annuls Love. — The significance of Freedom and Love in world-happenings. | ||