The Waking of the Human Soul and the Forming of Destiny
GA 224
29 April 1923, Prague
II. The Need for Understanding The Christ
The constitution, the entire life, of the human soul we conceive much too simply as we human beings of the present time, of the nineteenth, twentieth century experience this. What we learn from external history is in great measure only outside occurrence, far less the history of the human soul itself. The changes which occur with the soul life of the human being are considered very little. Now, it must be borne in mind that earlier periods did not have the same occasion for giving attention to this history of the human soul life as does the present time. For the present time, which, when we consider it as a long historical epoch, began in the first third of the fifteenth century,—this present epoch presents man with very special responsibilities, such as he can discharge only by means of his consciousness, whereas earlier responsibilities could be discharged by means of certain instinct, even though an instinct humanly formed. We have heard in various ways and perhaps read in cycles, how in ancient times man possessed a kind of instinctive clairvoyance, but how the evolution of humanity has consisted in the loss of this instinctive clairvoyance, and that in its place has appeared the contemporary constitution of soul, which is intellectual in character and has developed primarily the human understanding. I do not say that for this reason the capacities of feeling and volition have not been active in the human being, but what constitutes the greatest thing in our contemporary civilization, what we experience at the present time more than anything else, this calls upon the understanding, upon the capacity for conception. But the present day human being has good reason for asking the question what significance an intellectual civilization possesses for the human soul. This question can be completely answered only if one gives a little attention to that reference to the pre-earthly human life to which attention was directed yesterday in a different connection.
As human beings of the present time, we experience concepts as something very abstract, as something that we do not experience in the same degree as that in which concepts were experienced in the time of the ancient instinctive clairvoyance by human beings. And if, from these abstract, intellectualistic concepts, we look at pre-earthly human existence, we find that something entirely different existed in place of what is today abstract thinking. Moreover, since we possessed no body, no organism, in the pre-earthly life, as we still possessed only the soul-spiritual nature, thoughts were something entirely different. Thoughts then still possessed a soul life. We then experienced a thought in such a way that we knew that thoughts are spread everywhere in the entire world, and we draw these out of the world into our own life of soul.
Today the view of the human being is that thoughts are something which he creates with his brain. This is just as clever as if a person taking a glass of water to himself should believe that the water comes out of his tongue, is not taken in from without. In reality, thoughts are something active, living, the working forces in the whole world, and we simply draw them out of the world. Our organic system is only the vessel into which we draw the thoughts by means of our ego. But the erroneous idea that we of ourselves create the thoughts, to this error one can surrender oneself only during the earthly life between birth and death. As long as we live in the pre-earthly existence, it is clear that the realm of thought completely fills everything in our surroundings just as air does during our existence between birth and death. We know that, so to speak, we breathe in thoughts and again breathe them out, that they are something active, productive. It is of the utmost importance that we become aware that the forces of thought are something quite different in the pre-earthly life and in the earthly existence. When we come upon a corpse somewhere in the world, we do not say to ourselves that this corpse could have been brought into its present form by any kind of forces which we call forces of nature. We know it is the residue of a living human being. The living human being must necessarily have been in existence there; a force of nature can never give to a corpse the form in which it exists. The corpse can be nothing else than the residue of a living human being.
What we are able to observe in regard to the life of thinking in the human being as we possess this in the earthly existence gives us a basis upon which to understand that the forces of thought we develop during the earthly life do not come into existence of themselves in our physical organism, but that they are the residue of living forces we possessed in the pre-earthly existence. With the same certainty with which one says that the corpse is the dead residue of a living person he can say also that abstract thinking such as we have at the present time is the dead residue of what we possessed during the pre-earthly existence in living thought.
The living thought dies as we are born—or as we are conceived—and what becomes effective in us as forces of thinking is the corpse of that living thinking which we possessed during the pre-earthly existence. We do not quite rightly understand the earthly thinking until we look upon it as the residue of the pre-earthly thinking, just as we look upon the corpse as the residue of a living person. This awareness of human thinking, which is the residue of a living thinking, must gradually more and more permeate humanity; only then will one look upon oneself in the right way as a human being; then will one look back in the right way to the pre-earthly existence as one looks back from the corpse, in which only the forces of nature are existent, to the living human being, in whom loftier forces are alive. But one considers this entire thing in the right light only when one knows that this thinking, as we possess it at the present time, tending only toward abstraction, we developed first since the fifteenth century. Naturally, it evolved in various ways in the various individual races and groups of human beings, but in general the situation has been such for civilized humanity that humanity has evolved to this dead thinking in the first third of the fifteenth century; that this thinking became ever more and more completely dead until a certain culmination of this condition of deadness came about exactly in the last third of the nineteenth century.
Indeed, if we look further back in the course of evolution, we find that in these ancient times the human souls, as they passed through conception and birth, brought over into the earthly existence something out of the pre-earthly life. The living nature of ancient myths, ancient popular legends, the ancient formative forces of the soul which are by no means the same as our present activity in phantasy, could not have developed if something had not streamed in from the living pre-earthly existence, if earthly thinking had already become entirely abstract. Indeed, it can be said in a certain sense that even at present there remains a final residue of pre-earthly thinking in the period of childhood, although this is lost in the course of life. But those human beings of a more ancient time were entirely different from contemporary human beings in their entire life of soul. Just imagine quite truly that we could experience at the present time this living thinking, could experience still such clairvoyance as the human soul possessed in ancient times, that you experienced imaginations, that these imaginations could affect you so powerfully that they would appear to you as revelations of divine-spiritual forces. You would never arrive at a consciousness of freedom. The true feeling of freedom developed for the first time in civilized humanity. The fact that man has been able to become free he owes to the circumstance that living thinking is not active at least in his waking state, but a dead thinking into which he injects whatever he wishes out of his free will. Man does not think as he thought at an earlier time; he himself begins to think. But beginning oneself to think means to inject human will into this thinking, and when man finds a dead thinking he can pour his free will into this thinking. Thus man had to advance to dead thinking in order to become a free being in the course of earthly evolution.
You see that, if we consider in the same way the evolution of the human soul life, it becomes clear to us that there is meaning in the formation of the whole human evolution on earth.
But we will now once more return to somewhat earlier times. That which occurred as a deadening, an abstracting, an intellectualizing of thinking in the first third of the fifteenth century had been in the course of preparation for a long time very gradually beforehand. Such things do not occur all at once but pass through a preparation, pass through a certain beginning finally to reach the highest point. Now it is clearly to be seen that the first beginning toward this abstract thinking occurred in the fourth Christian century. I mean that in the fourth Post-Christian century there began the first trace becoming dominant in human consciousness that man believed he creates his thoughts. This could not have been thought by a Greek. The Greek was altogether conscious still of a certain living quality of this thinking and was conscious that thoughts exist everywhere within things; that he simply draws them himself out of things. The opinion that man creates his thoughts came about through the fact that thoughts became ever more and more lifeless. And these lifeless thoughts, with which one can, so to speak, do whatever one will, made their appearance for the first time in the fourth Christian century. This proceeded gradually still further until, in the fifteenth century, the consciousness (which we still possess today) clearly took on its form.
But what resulted from this in the evolution of humanity? In the fourth Post-Christian century occurred the beginning of an intellectual, abstract thinking. This means, however, nothing else than that the Mystery of Golgotha, the appearance of Christ upon the earth, occurred during a time when the human soul was still filled with living thoughts. In this respect much has been lost to humanity in the matter of its consciousness. It is true that humanity has in this way achieved freedom, but very much, nevertheless, has been lost. When Christ appeared upon the earth he was received by a certain number of human beings who still possessed an inwardly living, active thinking, who still possessed in their thinking a residue of the pre-earthly existence. And these persons related themselves to the Mystery of Golgotha in a manner entirely different from that of the human beings of a later time. Just think for a moment, that till this period, human beings said to themselves—they did not clearly express this; everything was then enveloped in pictures, but the consciousness was there—I am now upon the earth; I have as an earthly human being my thinking; but this directs me backward through birth and conception into the pre-earthly existence, into a different world; it is out of this that I have descended. Man felt himself here as a projection of what he was in the pre-earthly existence. Human beings of that time knew quite clearly that with the earthly existence they were continuing an earlier, pre-earthly existence, even though in that time human beings saw into the pre-earthly existence as if through a glass, darkly. This consciousness, that man is a being descended from the heavens to the earth, disappeared in its essence during the fourth Post-Christian century.
From this point of view also was conceived the event of Golgotha. If mention was made to these persons by initiates—who were at that time still in existence, not possessed of such wisdom as were the initiates of the ancient mysteries, but still having at least a residue of the ancient mystery wisdom,—if mention was made by them of the Christ, their answer was that Jesus Christ had been at home previously in the same world in which we also were present before we descended to the earth; there He was also. That was His world; only He had never previously left that world. It is indeed a characteristic of earthly human beings that they had to descend to the earth since very early times; there they went away from the Christ in order to come down to the earth. If, then, mention was made in the ancient mysteries of the Christ—indeed, mention was constantly made of the Christ in the ancient mysteries, although He was not called by the name “Christ”—then thought had to be directed to the pre-earthly existence; it had to be said to human beings: If you wish to know something of the Christ, you must not hold fast to your earthly consciousness, but must look upward to the pre-earthly existence.
Indeed, we must introduce something from this pre-earthly existence in order to understand what I wish to bring out today. Standing here upon the earth as earthly human beings, we look up to the sun, we form conceptions of the sun, we even develop hypotheses regarding it: that this sun is a ball of gas or something similar. Indeed, from the earthly point of view it is inevitable that one forms such conceptions; but people believe that this could be the same from all possible points of view. Before we descended to the earth, then also we saw the sun, but out of cosmic spaces, from the other side, as it were. The sun was not then a physical object but a gathering of spiritual Beings, and the most significant among these Beings for humanity before the Mystery of Golgotha was the Christ. Thus one may also make the following statement: when in the pre-Christian time people were initiated into what later was transformed into the Mystery of Golgotha, it became clear to them that human beings beheld the sun in the pre-earthly existence and became aware of the Christ; that, when man then descended to the earth, he saw the sun from the other side, but the Christ was concealed from him: only through mystery wisdom could he be guided to the Christ. This was experienced in the first period of Christian evolution as the nature of Christianity: that the great Sun Spirit now no longer remained the Sun Spirit, but had left through the Mystery of Golgotha those regions through which the human being can pass only outside the physical body, and had come into the earthly existence; that He was the only divine-spiritual Being who had ever entered upon earthly existence. We meet—although only by means of spiritual research—with persons even in the first period of Christian evolution who felt very deeply in their inner being that Christ, came out of the sphere of spirits who did not need to pass through birth and death, for whom birth and death are only a metamorphosis, had descended and passed through birth and death. This descent of Christ to the earth was the entire essential feeling experienced during the first period in Christian evolution. This descent was far more important for human beings of that time than what followed after the descent. The fact that Christ wished to be in a community with human beings, that He desired to share in the two most significant experiences—birth and death—this was felt in circles of the initiates as the genuine religious impulse. This was possible only because man still possessed some degree of inner, living thinking; because until the fourth Christian century thinking had not yet been entirely paralysed, had not become entirely abstract, because it still filled the human being as does breathing at the present time in a physical relation. For this reason it was felt that Christ had carried out the human destiny of the descent, which the other spiritual-divine beings had not done for the reason that being born and dying are not characteristic of the gods, but only of human beings. This is the magnificent element in the belief of initiates in the first Christian centuries: that they felt Christ had really become a human being, had really taken upon himself human destiny; that He is the only one of the divine-spiritual beings who had shared this destiny with man.
Now, however, it is necessary that the truth become clear to the human soul that this soul of man, in the degree that it belongs to the world of pre-earthly existence, cannot really die. For this reason has come about what we associate with the resurrection of Christ: the victory of Christ over death, symbolizing the victory of every human soul over death. And the ancient idea, I should like to say, of the state of being unborn has blended with the new idea of resurrection which had previously existed but not with the same intensity. Since the Event of Golgotha has come about, this became in a way the expression for what is most important of all in the earthly evolution of man.
While thinking was still living, man felt not the least fear of death; this was not for him an extraordinary occurrence. This is something of the utmost importance in the history of human evolution, that death was viewed by man as something entirely different, something obvious, whereas, as man suffered the loss more and more of the consciousness of a pre-earthly existence, abstract thinking, with the physical body as its instrumentality, brought about more and more fear of death and the belief that death is something final. Ancient humanity had little need for the idea of resurrection, but rather that of the descent to the earth in common with the Christ. As, however, human beings have advanced further and further into abstract thinking, they needed more and more a view out of the earthly existence, a view in the direction of immortality. This outlook is bestowed upon humanity through viewing in the right way the fact of Christ's resurrection. This fact I have set forth in books, lectures, and cycles of lectures many times over. Both facts—the descent of Christ to birth and death and the fact of His resurrection, the fact of victory over death—until the fourth Christian century, this could be clear to humanity in its feeling nature, since living thinking was then still in existence. After the fourth Post-Christian century, as abstract thinking developed further and further, humanity became less and less capable of connecting thoughts with the content of the Mystery of Golgotha. It has actually been the destiny of humanity in its evolution that, during the period in which man achieved through abstract thinking his own freedom, the understanding of Christ Jesus, which had existed during the earliest Christian centuries, had to disappear. That is, because of the fact that those writings designated as the Gnostic, a term which has become almost contemptuous, have been almost utterly eliminated except for a few residues with which very little can be accomplished. What had been thought by those persons in the first centuries who still possessed some knowledge of living thinking was destroyed. This we know only through writings of their opponents. Just imagine what the situation would be if, through some kind of accident, all anthroposophical books and other writings should disappear, and that the nature of anthroposophy would have to be adjudged only on the basis of writings by its opponents. Just so much is known today by people who depend upon external documents regarding Gnosis. That most extraordinary understanding of Christ by Gnosis, enclosed within itself, was lost to humanity. Most of all did that awareness completely disappear that the Christ had something to do with the sun, and that He had descended to the earth and passed on Golgotha through a destiny common with that of humanity. All of these relationships, especially the feelings associated with such things, were lost to humanity. More and more there came about the abstract interpretations, the abstract thoughts.
One of those who struggled out of the character of that period toward an understanding of Christianity is to be seen in Augustine. In this Augustine we see a spirit who could no longer understand the ancient form of the conception of nature. You know that Augustine is said to have been a Manichean. Augustine narrates this himself. But all that lies back of these things can no longer be rightly seen through by means of external thinking. What Augustine called Manicheanism, what is called at present the teaching of Mani, is only the degenerate outcome of an ancient teaching which conceived the Spirit only as creative and knew no difference between matter and spirit. No spirit was existent that did not create and what it created was seen by the human being as matter. Just as little conception did these ancient times have of mere matter; on the contrary, spirit existed in everything. This was something that Augustine could not understand. What Gnosis understood, and what was no longer understood later; what our own period does not at all understand,—this is true: no matter exists of itself; this was known by the Manicheans and they beheld the descent of Christ in the light of this view. Augustine could no longer make anything out of this; the time had passed, the possibility of making anything out of it, because the documents had been destroyed and the ancient clairvoyance had been blotted out. Thus Augustine, after long intense superhuman struggle arrived at the decision that he could not of himself attain to truth, but must adjust himself to what the Catholic church prescribed as truth: to submit himself to the authority of the Catholic church. And this mood—consider it at first as a mood—remained, contained alive especially for the reason that thinking became ever more abstract. In reality it was only slowly and gradually that thinking was disabled.
And the Scholastics in their greatness—they really are great—still lived within a trace of knowledge that thinking on the earth was derived from a super-earthly thinking, that man lived within a heavenly thinking. Within this evolution however the possibility was gradually more and more completely lost to conceive the Event of Golgotha as something alive. It is actually true that the advanced theology of the nineteenth century, because it desired to be scientific in the modern sense, lost the Christ; that theology was happy to have at last instead “the simple man of Nazareth”. Christ was now “the loftiest human being on earth.” Of the Christ indwelling within Jesus no conception could any longer be formed.
Thus the evolution since the fourth Post-Christian century has consisted of a gradual loss of the connection of man with the Christ in that living form as it was conceived by many persons during the first centuries of Christianity. Thus it came about, moreover, that the content of the gospels was less and less understood. You see, the human beings who lived during the first centuries of Christianity would have considered it utterly astonishing to speak of contradictions in the gospels. It is as if some one was familiar with the picture of a human being taken from the front and that a photograph was brought to him taken in profile, and if he should say: “This cannot be a picture of the same person”—thus would it have appeared to persons of the first Christian centuries if one had spoken to them of contradictions in the Gospels. They knew very well that the four Gospels simply present a picture taken from four different points of view. The human being of the present time would say that these are exceptional presentations, that they are from all different sides. In the spiritual world everything is far richer; in the spiritual world photographs would have to be taken from various sides as one has four Gospels. More and more arrived the time in which nothing was known any longer in the ancient sense of the Event of Golgotha. But this Event of Golgotha is of such a nature as can be conceived only from a spiritual point of view. It is indeed interesting that the historians generally slip around the Event of Golgotha. We have now the historian Ranke, considered a distinguished writer of history, who declares actually that one does not mention this, just omits it. If one omits from history the most important thing of all, no history can come into existence. Even if a person has no connection with the spiritual world and thus cannot understand the Mystery of Golgotha, he would still have to admit its tremendous influence. But history is written at the present time without mention of the enormous influence of the Mystery of Golgotha. The capacity has ever more and more disappeared to view the Mystery of Golgotha in the right manner.
We can view the matter, however, from entirely different points of view; we can say to ourselves: in the course of evolution humanity arrived at the necessity of having Christ in its midst. Gradually more and more human beings lost the consciousness of their belonging to the pre-earthly existence. This was no longer in their view; finally human beings knew only that they existed after their birth on the earth. Then the Christ came to them, in order to make manifest to them through His descent that there is a pre-earthly existence; in order to bestow upon them an understanding of what no longer lived within their own consciousness. Since human beings no longer possessed this relation in their own consciousness they were to achieve a new connection through their relation to Christ, who had passed through the Event of Golgotha. The Christ had, in a sense, bestowed Himself upon humanity in that period during which the epoch was gradually to arise for humanity to ascend to freedom. As thinking now became more and more abstract there was no longer any possibility to view in thinking the Mystery of Golgotha. But the content of the New Testament history was so enrapturing, so appealing to the human heart, that even by reason of the purely external traditions that which could no longer be grasped by thought still continued to exist for a certain time.
If we survey the first period during which Christianity was spreading out, we see that traditions existed which, in the final analysis, were derived from the Gospels, that the child-like heart took possession more and more of the picture of the Palestine events; but we see at the same time how a cognitional experience of the Mystery of Golgotha was being lost. In the same degree in which dead thinking came about, there was overshadowed also the child-like memory of the Palestine time; human beings lost their connection with Christ Jesus and people were happy when the connection with the human being Jesus could still be maintained. And now we are within our own present time; here, in reality—although it is not yet observed—the consciousness of the connection with Christ Jesus has already disappeared. In tradition human beings still hold fast to the doctrines and have no living inner connection with Christ Jesus. One need only observe how external the festivals of the year have become. How external the Easter festival has become for human beings of the present time, whereas this Easter festival was such for human beings of an earlier time that men experienced in deepest inwardness what can be called memory of the Mystery of Golgotha. Christ had given Himself to human beings in a time when humanity had to develop its consciousness of freedom. This had in a certain sense been developed. But this would become merely external if the relation with the Christ could not be found again. This cannot be found unless we begin to seek for a spiritual knowledge. Spiritual knowledge, as this is sought by anthroposophy, will find again the relation with the Christ. This relation can be found only spiritually. What occurred on Golgotha is not merely an event that has laid hold upon the physical, earthly history of humanity, but also a spiritual event. No one can understand the Event of Golgotha who does not understand it in the spirit. Anthroposophical spiritual science, therefore, is at the same time preparation for a new understanding of the Christ and of the Mystery of Golgotha. Indeed, when we consider this fact, we are reminded of the deeply significant Gospel statement: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world”. And there certainly shines out from this expression that He was not there only when the Event of Golgotha occurred; that he remains with human beings as a spiritual being, who can be found in the spirit. We need not consider as spiritual, therefore, only what radiates out of the Gospels, but we know that Christ is with us, that when at present, provided with spiritual knowledge, we listen to what is manifest concerning Him out of the spiritual world, this is a manifestation of Christ. This is the manifestation of Christ just as much as what we gain when we look into the Gospels.
“I have many things still to say unto you but you could not bear them now”,—this is a reference to the time when Christ is again to be seen. And now this time approaches; it is already here. Humanity would lose the Christ if it were not possible again in a new way, in spiritual knowledge, to gain the Christ. In this way must much more become understandable to us which in an earlier time was connected with the Mystery of Golgotha, but has been lost because the spiritual understanding of it has been lost. How people struggle with the present intellectualism with the statement said to have been spoken by Christ that the Kingdom of God had come down to the earth, that an entirely new life was to begin. It is so immensely clever to say at the present time that everything on the earth has remained, after all, such as it was before. This is obviously clever, but the other question must be put in the spirit of this statement of Christ: is one really speaking in a truly Christian, spiritual understanding in supposing that any kind of external spiritual kingdom was to be set up? An external spiritual kingdom would be, of course, physical. This contradiction, you see, is not observed. But it is extremely conspicuous that people have become extraordinarily clever at the present time and still this cleverness cannot be justified even in its own realm.
I should like to call your attention to something very interesting, even though this really separates us from our actual theme. The Vienna geologist, Eduard Suess, a distinguished research scientist, says in his book The Countenance of the Earth that this countenance of the earth must have been entirely different, stones much more living than at present, that man is walking at the present time really upon a dead earth. The clods over which we walk belong to a dying world. Geology assumes that the earth was once far more living and has gradually passed over into the dead state. Suess says in regard to an entirely different area what Christ said concerning the spiritual life of the earth. If only this were true, that the earth will fall to pieces in a far distant future time when it will be reduced to dust in the cosmos, if what occurs to the human being did not occur to the earth—that the body becomes dust, but the spirit lives further—then all of us would be included in this turning into dust. With this earth we are beholding what leads over into the Jupiter existence; we look already toward a new earth.
With regard to the physical, this view of the turning of the earth into dust is true; with regard to the spirit-soul something different is valid. For the ancient initiates of the time of the Mystery of Golgotha it was quite clear that with the ancient civilization, the ancient mysteries, things had come to an end. The manner in which the ancient human beings had lived with their gods had come to an end; the manner in which they had lived with manifestations of nature had come to an end. But the gods bestow upon human beings the possibility of approaching a future in the spirit. What was acquired in ancient times as knowledge out of the earth belongs to the path; a new time must arrive in which the human being must bring about a kingdom by means of his own will, in which man shall give life again to a dead thinking by means of his own forces. This was a prophecy at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. This kingdom came about also in an external way, it is to be understood, to be accepted, only by human beings of the present time. At the present time we must feel that the Kingdom of Heaven of which Christ speaks must by seen by us upon the earth as the Christ works upon the earth. This must be the fulfilment upon the earth, and the fulfilment of this Kingdom of Heaven must be earnestly conceived precisely in our present time. We experience in all areas that the human being is beginning to confront the peril of being cut off from the spiritual world and from his own being if he does not find access to the spiritual world.
Anthroposophie Der Weg Zu Einem Vertieften Verständnis Des Ostermysteriums
Die Seelenverfassung, das ganze Leben der menschlichen Seele nehmen wir als Menschen zu sehr bloß in derjenigen Art, wie wir das als Menschen der Gegenwart, des 19., 20. Jahrhunderts erleben. Und was wir aus der Geschichte wissen, sind zum großen Teile die äußeren Ereignisse, weniger die Geschichte der menschlichen Seele selbst. Die Veränderungen, die mit dem Seelenleben der Menschheit vor sich gehen, die werden wenig berücksichtigt. Nun muß man sagen, daß frühere Zeiten nicht in derselben Art Veranlassung gehabt haben, sich mit dieser Geschichte des menschlichen Seelenlebens zu befassen wie die heutige Zeit. Denn die heutige Zeit, die, wenn wir sie als großen, historischen Zeitpunkt ins Auge fassen, schon mit der Mitte oder eigentlich schon mit dem ersten Drittel des 15. Jahrhunderts beginnt, diese heutige Zeit stellt dem Menschen ganz besondere Aufgaben, die er nur mit seinem Bewußtsein lösen kann, während er seine früheren Aufgaben aus einem gewissen Instinkt heraus, wenn auch aus einem menschlich geformten Instinkt, lösen konnte. Sie haben verschiedentlich gehört und vielleicht in Zyklen gelesen, wie in alten Zeiten eine Art von instinktivem Hellsehen der Menschheit eigen war, wie die Entwickelung der Menschheit darin besteht, daß dieses instinktive Hellsehen verlorengegangen ist, und wie an die Stelle jenes instinktiven Hellsehens die heutige Seelenverfassung getreten ist, die eine intellektuelle ist, die vorzugsweise den Verstand des Menschen ausbildet. Ich will nicht sagen, daß deshalb in der Menschheit der heutigen Zeit die Gefühls- und Willenskräfte nicht tätig wären. Aber dasjenige, was die Größe unserer gegenwärtigen Zivilisation ausmacht, was wir vor allem auch in der heutigen Zeit erleben, das appelliert an den Verstand, an die Begriffskräfte. Der heutige Mensch hat aber gar sehr Veranlassung, über die Frage nachzudenken: Welche Bedeutung hat eine Verstandeszivilisation für die menschliche Seele? - Erschöpfend beantworten kann man diese Frage nur, wenn man ein wenig den Hinweis auf das vorirdische menschliche Dasein berücksichtigt, auf das gestern in einem andern Zusammenhange hingewiesen wurde.
Wir empfinden heute als Menschen der Gegenwart die Vorstellungen als etwas sehr Abstraktes, als etwas, was wir nicht in demselben Grade innerlich erleben wie die Vorstellungen, die während der Zeit des alten, instinktiven Hellsehens im Menschen gelebt haben. Und wenn wir von diesen abstrakten, intellektualistischen Vorstellungen aus hinsehen auf das vorirdische Menschendasein, dann finden wir, daß in diesem das, was heute abstrakte Gedanken sind, etwas ganz anderes war. Als wir noch im vorirdischen Dasein keinen Leib, keinen Körper hatten, als wir noch seelisch-geistige Wesenheit hatten, waren die Gedanken etwas ganz anderes. Damals hatten die Gedanken noch ein seelisches Leben, da erlebten wir einen Gedanken so, daß wir wußten: Diese Gedanken sind in der ganzen Welt verbreitet, und wir schöpfen sie aus der Welt in unser eigenes Seelensein herein.
Heute ist der Mensch der Ansicht, daß die Gedanken etwas sind, was er mit seinem Gehirn erzeugt. Das ist ungefähr geradeso gescheit, als wenn ein Mensch, der ein Glas Wasser zu sich nimmt, glauben würde, daß das Wasser aus seiner Zunge herauskommt, nicht von außen hereingenommen würde. In Wahrheit sind die Gedanken etwas Regsames, Lebendiges, die wirkenden Kräfte in aller Welt, und wir schöpfen sie nur aus der Welt. Unser organisches System ist nur das Gefäß, in das wir mit unserem Ich hineinschöpfen die Gedanken. Aber dem Irrtum, daß wir selbst die Gedanken erzeugten, daß wir sie nicht aus der Welt schöpften, diesem Irrtum kann man sich nur hingeben innerhalb des Erdenlebens zwischen Geburt und Tod. Solange man im vorirdischen Dasein ist, weiß man, daß die Gedankenwelt alles erfüllt, was im Umkreis ist, wie die Luft im Dasein zwischen Geburt und Tod. Wir wissen, daß wir die Gedankenkräfte gewissermaßen einatmen und wieder ausatmen, daß sie etwas Regsames, Wirkendes sind.
Das ist von außerordentlicher Wichtigkeit, daß wir uns bewußt werden, wie die Gedankenkräfte im vorirdischen Leben etwas ganz anderes sind als im irdischen Dasein. Wenn wir in der Welt einem Leichnam begegnen, dann sagen wir uns nicht, dieser Leichnam könne durch irgendwelche Kräfte, die wir Naturkräfte nennen, in die Form gebracht worden sein, die er als Leichnam hat. Wir wissen, er ist der Überrest eines lebenden Menschen. Der lebendige Mensch muß notwendig dagewesen sein, eine Naturkraft kann niemals einem Leichnam seine Form geben, die er hat. Der Leichnam kann nur der Überrest eines lebendigen Menschen sein. Was wir beobachten können über das Gedankenleben des Menschen, wie wir es haben im irdischen Dasein, gibt uns ebenso Anhaltspunkte dazu, zu erkennen, daß die Gedankenkräfte, die wir entwickeln während des irdischen Daseins, nicht für sich in unserem physischen Organismus entstehen können, sondern daß sie die Überreste sind lebendiger Kräfte, die wir im vorirdischen Dasein hatten. Mit derselben Sicherheit, mit der man sagt, daß der Leichnam der tote Überrest eines lebendigen Menschen ist, kann man auch sagen: Das abstrakte Denken, das wir heute haben, ist der tote Überrest dessen, was wir im vorirdischen Dasein im lebendigen Denken hatten. Das lebendige Denken stirbt, indem wir geboren beziehungsweise empfangen werden, und was in uns als Denkkräfte sich geltend macht, ist der Leichnam jenes lebendigen Denkens, das wir im vorirdischen Dasein hatten. Wir verstehen das irdische Denken nur dann ganz recht, wenn wir es ansehen als Überrest des vorirdischen Denkens, ebenso wie wir den Leichnam ansehen als Überrest des lebendigen Menschen.
Dieses Bewußtsein, daß das menschliche Denken der Überrest eines lebendigen Denkens ist, muß die Menschheit allmählich immer mehr und mehr durchdringen. Dann erst sieht man sich in der rechten Weise als Menschen an, dann sieht man in der richtigen Weise zurück auf das vorirdische Dasein, wie man zurücksieht von dem Leichnam, in dem nur noch die Naturkräfte leben, zum lebendigen Menschen, in dem höhere Kräfte leben. Aber man betrachtet diese ganze Tatsache erst im richtigen Lichte, wenn man weiß: So, wie dieses Denken, das zur Abstraktheit hinneigt, heute bei uns ist, haben wir es erst seit dem 15. Jahrhundert entwickelt. Natürlich entwickelte es sich bei den einzelnen Rassen und Volksstämmen in verschiedener Weise, aber im Durchschnitt ist es für die zivilisierte Menschheit so gewesen, daß sie sich zu diesem toten Denken im ersten Drittel des 15. Jahrhunderts entwickelt hat, daß dieses Denken immer mehr tot wurde und dann einen gewissen Kulminationspunkt dieses Totseins gerade im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts erreichte.
Ja, wenn wir weiter zurückschauen in. der Entwickelung, dann finden wir, daß in alter Zeit die Menschenseelen, indem sie durchgegangen waren durch Empfängnis und Geburt, noch etwas aus dem votirdischen Dasein in das Erdendasein hinübergetragen haben. Die Lebendigkeit der alten Mythen, der alten Volkslegenden, der alten bildenden Kräfte der Seelen, die nicht eins sind mit unserer heutigen Phantasietätigkeit, hätte sich nicht entwickeln können, wenn nicht etwas hereingestrahlt hätte von dem lebendigen vorirdischen Denken, wenn das irdische Denken schon ganz abstrakt geworden wäre. Man kann in gewissem Sinne sagen, daß auch heute noch im kindlichen Lebensalter ein letzter Rest vorirdischen Denkens vorhanden ist, der sich aber im Laufe des Lebens verliert. Aber jene Menschen einer älteren Zeit waren auch in ihrem ganzen Seelenleben ganz anders als die heutigen Menschen. Stellen Sie sich nur einmal richtig vor, Sie würden auch heute in diesem lebendigen Denken sein, Sie würden ein solches Hellsehen, wie es eben in älteren Zeiten die Menschenseele hatte, erleben können; Sie würden Imaginationen erleben können, aber diese Imaginationen würden so stark auf Sie wirken, daß Sie sich nur vorkommen würden als Umhüllung göttlich-geistiger Kräfte: Sie würden niemals zum Bewußtsein der Freiheit kommen. Das richtige Freiheitsgefühl hat sich erst in der zivilisierten Menschheit entwickelt. Daß der Mensch frei werden konnte, verdankt er dem Umstande, daß das lebendige Denken wenigstens nicht in seinem erwachten Zustande wirkt, sondern ein totes Denken, in das er hineingießen kann, was er selbst aus seinem freien Willen hineingießen will. Nicht wie früher denken im Menschen Geister, er fängt selbst zu denken an. Selbst anfangen zu denken heißt aber, den menschlichen Willen hineinzusenden in das Denken, und wenn er ein totes Denken findet, kann er den freien Willen in das Denken hineingießen. So daß der Mensch zum toten Denken vorrücken mußte, um im Laufe der Erdenentwickelung ein freies Wesen werden zu können. Sie sehen, wenn wir in dieser Weise die Entwickelung des menschlichen Seelenlebens betrachten, geht uns auf, daß sinnvoll gestaltet ist die ganze Menschenentwickelung auf Erden.
Nun wollen wir aber einmal noch in etwas ältere Zeiten zurückgehen. Dasjenige, was sich vollzogen hat als Ertötung, als Verabstrahierung, als Intellektualisierung des Denkens im ersten Drittel des 15. Jahrhunderts, das bereitet sich langsam und allmählich vor. Solche Dinge geschehen nicht auf einmal, sie bereiten sich vor, nehmen eine Art Anlauf, um dann zu einem Höhepunkt zu kommen. Nun ist deutlich erkennbar, daß der erste Anlauf zu diesem abstrakten Denken im 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert gekommen ist. Ich meine, im 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert beginnt die erste Spur im menschlichen Bewußtsein sich geltend zu machen, daß der Mensch glaubte, er bringe die Gedanken hervor. Das hätte ein Grieche in Wirklichkeit nicht geglaubt. Der Grieche war sich durchaus noch bewußt einer gewissen Lebendigkeit des Denkens und war sich bewußt, daß die Gedanken überall in den Dingen sind, daß er selbst sie bloß aus den Dingen schöpft. Die Meinung, daß der Mensch die Gedanken erzeugt, entstand dadurch, daß die Gedanken immer mehr und mehr unlebendig wurden. Und diese unlebendigen Gedanken, mit denen man sozusagen machen kann, was man will, stellten sich erst ein seit dem 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert. Das ging so allmählich weiter, bis dann im 15. Jahrhundert das Bewußtsein, das wir heute noch haben, deutlich ausgeprägt war.
Aber was folgt denn daraus für die Entwickelung der Menschheit? Im 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert entstand der Anlauf zu einem intellektuellen, abstrakten Denken. Das heißt aber nichts anderes, als: das Mysterium von Golgatha, das Erscheinen des Christus auf der Erde fiel in eine Zeit, wo die menschliche Seele noch von lebendigen Gedanken erfüllt war. In dieser Beziehung ist in der Tat der Menschheit in bezug auf ihr Bewußtsein viel verlorengegangen. Zwar hat die Menschheit dadurch sich die Freiheit erobert, aber ihr ist dennoch viel verlorengegangen. Als der Christus auf der Erde erschien, da wurde er noch empfangen von einer gewissen Zahl von Menschen, die noch ein innerlich lebendiges reges Denken hatten, die in dem Denken noch Reste von dem vorirdischen Dasein hatten. Und diese Menschen stellten sich in einer ganz andern Weise als die Menschen der späteren Zeit zum Mysterium von Golgatha. Bedenken Sie nur einmal recht: Bis in diese Zeit sagten sich die Menschen - sie sprachen es nicht deutlich aus, es war damals alles mehr in Bilder getaucht, aber es war ein Bewußtsein davon da.-, ich bin jetzt auf der Erde, ich habe auf ihr als Erdenmensch mein Denken, aber das weist mich zurück durch Geburt und Empfängnis in ein vorirdisches Dasein, in eine andere Welt, aus der ich heruntergestiegen bin. - Man empfand sich hier als Fortsetzung dessen, was man im vorirdischen Dasein war. Sie waren sich darüber klar, die damaligen Menschen, daß sie mit dem Erdendasein ein früheres, vorirdisches Dasein fortsetzten, wenn auch in dieser Zeit die Menschen wie durch ein trübes Glas hineinschauten in eine Welt des vorirdischen Daseins. Dieses Bewußtsein, daß der Mensch ein von den Himmeln zur Erde heruntergestiegenes Wesen ist, ging im wesentlichen im 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert verloren.
Von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus betrachteten die Menschen aber auch das Ereignis von Golgatha. Wenn zu diesen Menschen von den Eingeweihten, die es damals noch gab, die nicht so weise waren wie die Eingeweihten der alten Mysterien, die aber immerhin noch Reste der alten Mysterienweisheit hatten, gesprochen wurde von dem Christus, war für sie die Frage diese: Jesus Christus war in derjenigen Welt früher heimisch, in der wir auch darinnengewesen sind, bevor wir zur Erde herabstiegen. Das war seine Welt, nur hat er diese Welt früher niemals verlassen. Es ist ja das Eigentümliche der Erdenmenschen, daß sie heruntersteigen mußten schon seit sehr alten Zeiten. Da sind sie von dem Christus fortgegangen, um auf die Erde herabzusteigen. Wenn in den alten Mysterien die Rede vom Christus war es war von diesem Christus in den alten Mysterien immer die Rede, wenn er auch nicht mit dem Namen «Christus» genannt wurde -, so mußten die Gedanken hinaufgelenkt werden zum vorirdischen Dasein und den Menschen gesagt werden: Wollt ihr von dem Christus etwas wissen, so dürft ihr euch nicht an euer Erdenbewußtsein halten, sondern müßt hinaufschauen zum vorirdischen Dasein.
Wir müssen schon einiges anführen von diesem vorirdischen Dasein, um zu verstehen, was ich heute ausführen möchte. Wir stehen hier auf der Erde als Erdenmenschen, wir schauen hinauf zur Sonne, wir machen uns Vorstellungen von dieser Sonne, bilden uns sogar Hypothesen über sie aus, wie diese Sonne ein Gasball ist oder so etwas ähnliches. Es ist vom irdischen Gesichtspunkte aus auch selbstverständlich, daß man sich solche Vorstellungen ausbildet, aber man glaubt, daß das von allen Gesichtspunkten aus so wäre. Bevor wir zur Erde herabgestiegen waren, haben wir die Sonne auch gesehen, aber von den Weiten des Kosmos, gewissermaßen von der andern Seite. Da war sie nicht ein physisches Gebilde, sondern der Inbegriff geistiger Wesenheiten, und die bedeutsamste von diesen Wesenheiten für die Menschen vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha war der Christus. So daß man auch das Folgende sagen kann. Wenn in der vorchristlichen Zeit die Mysterienschüler eingeweiht wurden in dasjenige, was sich später in das Mysterium von Golgatha gewandelt hat, wurde ihnen klar: Der Mensch im vorirdischen Dasein sah die Sonne und nahm den Christus wahr, und wenn er herunterstieg auf die Erde, sah er die Sonne von der andern Seite, aber der Christus verbarg sich ihm, er konnte nur durch Mysterienwissen zu dem Christus hinaufgeleitet werden. - Das empfand man in der ersten Zeit der christlichen Entwickelung als das Wesen des Christentums, daß der große Sonnengeist nun nicht Sonnengeist geblieben war, sondern durch das Mysterium von Golgatha jene Regionen verlassen hat, die von den Menschen nur durchgemacht werden außerhalb des physischen Leibes, und in das Erdendasein hereingekommen ist; daß er die einzige der göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten war, welche das Erdendasein selber betreten hat. Und wir treffen, allerdings mit den Mitteln der geistigen Forschung, auf Menschen auch in der ersten Zeit der christlichen Entwickelung, die ganz tief in ihrem Gemüt empfanden: Der Christus ist aus der Sphäre der Geister, die nicht durch Geburt und Tod hindurchzugehen brauchen, für die Geburt und Tod nur eine Verwandlung ist, heruntergestiegen und durch Geburt und Tod gegangen.
Dieses Heruntersteigen des Christus auf die Erde war die ganz wesentliche Empfindung, die man zunächst in der ersten Zeit der christlichen Entwickelung hatte. Das war den damaligen Menschen viel wichtiger, dieses Heruntersteigen, als was auf dieses Heruntersteigen folgte. Daß der Christus Gemeinschaft machen wollte mit den Menschen, daß er die zwei bedeutsamsten Erlebnisse, Geburt und Tod, mitmachen wollte, empfand man in Eingeweihtenkreisen als den eigentlichen religiösen Impuls. Man konnte das nur, weil eben der Mensch noch etwas von einem inneren, lebendigen Denken hatte, weil bis in das 4. nachchristliche Jahrhundert das Denken noch nicht ganz abgelähmt, ganz abstrakt geworden war, weil es den Menschen noch so ausfüllte wie der Atem heute in physischer Beziehung. Deshalb empfand man, daß er auch das menschliche Schicksal des Herabsteigens vollzogen hatte, was die andern göttlich-geistigen Wesen nicht vollzogen hatten, weil Geborenwerden und Sterben den Göttern nicht eigen ist, sondern nur den Menschen. Das ist das Grandiose im Eingeweihtenglauben der ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte, daß empfunden wurde: Der Christus ist wirklich Mensch geworden, das heißt, er hat wirklich menschliches Geschick auf sich geladen, er ist die einzige der göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten, die mit dem Menschen dieses Schicksal geteilt hat.
Nun ist aber notwendig, daß auch ersichtlich vor die Menschenseele hintritt, daß diese Menschenseele, insofern sie der Welt des vorirdischen Daseins angehört, nicht eigentlich sterben kann. Daher ist auch das eingetreten, was wir mit der Auferstehung des Christus verbinden: der Sieg des Christus über den Tod, vorbildlich für den Sieg jeder Menschenseele über den Tod. Und indem, ich möchte sagen, die alte Idee von dem Ungeborensein sich gefügt hat an die neue Idee von dem Auferstehen, die ja auch vorhanden war, aber nicht in derselben Intensität, indem das Ereignis von Golgatha eingetreten war, da war es gewissermaßen der Ausdruck für ein Allerwichtigstes in der menschlichen Erdenentwickelung.
Als das Denken noch lebendig war, fürchtete der Mensch sich nicht im allergeringsten vor dem Tode. Der Tod war ja für ihn kein außergewöhnliches Ereignis. Das ist etwas außerordentlich Wichtiges in der Geschichte der Menschheitsentwickelung, daß die Menschen den Tod ganz anders genommen haben, als etwas ganz Selbstverständliches, während, als die Menschen das Bewußtsein von dem vorirdischen Dasein immer mehr und mehr verloren haben, das abstrakte Denken, das den physischen Leib zum Werkzeug hat, immer mehr die Furcht vor dem Tode brachte und den Glauben, daß der Tod etwas Abschließendes sei. Die alte Menschheit brauchte wenig die Auferstehungsidee, sondern die des gemeinsamen Herabsteigens mit dem Christus. Aber indem die Menschen immer mehr und mehr vorrückten zum abstrakten Denken, brauchten sie immer mehr einen Ausblick aus dem irdischen Dasein, einen Ausblick nach der Seite der Unsterblichkeit hin. Und dieser Ausblick ergibt sich der Menschheit aus dem richtigen Hinschauen auf die Auferstehungstatsache des Christus. Diese Tatsache habe ich in Büchern, Vorträgen und Zyklen mannigfaltig dargelegt. Beide Tatsachen, das Herabsteigen des Christus zu Geburt und Tod und die Auferstehungstatsache, die des Sieges über den Tod, konnte der Menschheit bis in das 4. nachchristliche Jahrhundert hinein empfindungsgemäß klar sein, weil das lebendige Denken noch vorhanden war. Von dem 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert ab, indem immer mehr das abstrakte Denken heraufrückte, wurde die Menschheit immer unfähiger, Gedanken mit dem Inhalt des Mysteriums von Golgatha zu verbinden. Und es ist schon das Schicksal der Menschheitsentwickelung, daß in dem Zeitalter, in dem die Menschheit sich durch das abstrakte Denken ihre Freiheit errang, durch das im Verhältnis zur geistigen Welt tote Denken das Verständnis für den Christus Jesus, das ja in den ersten nachchristlichen Jahrhunderten vorhanden war, verlorengehen mußte. Es ist verlorengegangen, namentlich aus dem Grunde, weil jene Schriften, die mit dem heute schon fast zum Schimpfwort gewordenen Worte gnostische Schriften bezeichnet werden, bis auf einige Reste, mit denen aber literarisch nicht viel zu unternehmen ist, mit Stumpf und Stiel ausgerottet worden sind. Dasjenige, was in den ersten Jahrhunderten gedacht worden ist von denen, die noch etwas gewußt haben vom lebendigen Denken, wurde vernichtet; das kennen wir nur aus den Schriften der Gegner. Stellen Sie sich vor, wie es wäre, wenn durch irgendeinen Zufall alle anthroposophischen Bücher und Schriften verschwänden, und dasjenige, was Anthroposophie ist, auch nur aus den Schriften der Gegner beurteilt werden müßte! Soviel wissen die Leute, die sich nur auf die äußeren Dokumente verlassen, heute von der Gnosis. Jenes ganz ungeheuere Christus-Verständnis der Gnosis, das sie in sich schlossen, ging der Menschheit ganz verloren. Vor allen Dingen ging ganz das Bewußtsein verloren, daß der Christus mit der Sonne etwas zu tun habe und daß der Christus herabgestiegen ist und ein mit der Menschheit gemeinsames Schicksal auf Golgatha durchgemacht hat. Alle diese Zusammenhänge, namentlich die Gefühle, die mit diesen Dingen verbunden sind, gingen der Menschheit verloren. Immer mehr kamen die abstrakten Auslegungen, die abstrakten Gedanken heraus.
Einen derjenigen, die aus dem Charakter des Zeitalters heraus nach einem Verständnis des Christentums rangen, sehen wir in Augustinus. In diesem Augustinus sehen wir einen Geist, der nicht mehr verstehen konnte die alte Form der Naturanschauung. Sie wissen, es wird erzählt, daß Augustinus Manichäer war. Augustinus erzählt es selber. Aber dasjenige, was hinter allen diesen Dingen ist, kann heute mit dem äußeren Erkennen nicht mehr richtig durchschaut werden. Was Augustinus Manichäer nennt, was man heute Manichäerlehre nennt, ist ja nur das verkommene Produkt einer uralten Lehre, die sich den Geist nur als schöpferisch vorstellte und keinen Gegensatz zwischen Materie und Geist kannte. Es war kein Geist da, der nicht schuf, und was er schuf, merkte man als Materie. Ebensowenig hatten diese alten Zeiten einen Begriff von der bloßen Materie, sondern in allem war Geist darin. Das war etwas, was Augustinus nicht verstehen konnte, was die Gnosis verstand, was man später nicht mehr verstand und was auch unsere Gegenwart nicht mehr versteht. Es ist so, es gibt keine Materie für sich. Die Gnostiker wußten davon und sahen das ganze Herabsteigen des Christus im Lichte dieser Anschauung. Augustinus konnte damit nichts mehr machen. Das Zeitalter war vorbei, die Möglichkeit, etwas damit zu machen, war nicht mehr, weil man die Dokumente vernichtet hatte, auch war das alte Hellsehen verglommen. So kam Augustinus nach langem, schier übermenschlichem Ringen dazu, sich zu sagen, er könne nicht von sich aus zur Wahrheit kommen, sondern müsse sich fügen dem, was die katholische Kirche als Wahrheit vorschreibt: sich unter die Autorität der katholischen Kirche beugen. Und diese Stimmung - nehmen Sie es zunächst als Stimmung -, die blieb, lebte namentlich dadurch, daß das Denken immer abstrakter und abstrakter wurde. Wirklich langsam und allmählich wurde erst das Denken abgelähmt.
Und die Scholastiker in ihrer Größe - sie sind groß -, sie lebten noch in einer Spur von Wissen, daß das Denken auf Erden abstammt von einem überirdischen Denken, daß der Mensch lebt in einem himmlischen Denken. Aber unter dieser Entwickelung ging die Möglichkeit immer mehr verloren, mit dem Ereignis von Golgatha etwas Lebendiges zu machen. Und es ist doch wirklich eigentlich so, daß der fortschrittlichen Theologie des 19. Jahrhunderts, weil sie im modernen Sinne wissenschaftlich werden wollte, der Christus verlorengegangen ist, und daß die Theologie froh war, zuletzt noch zu haben den «schlichten Mann von Nazareth». Der Christus war nurmehr «der höchste Mensch auf Erden». Von dem Innewohnen des Christus in dem Jesus konnte man sich keine Vorstellung mehr machen.
Und so ist eigentlich die Entwickelung seit dem 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert ein Verlorengehen des Zusammenhanges des Menschen mit dem Christus in jener lebendigen Weise, wie es bei vielen vorhanden war in den ersten Jahrhunderten des Christentums. Und so kam es auch, daß man zuletzt immer weniger und weniger den Inhalt der Evangelien verstand. Den Menschen, die in den ersten Jahrhunderten des Christentums gelebt haben, wäre es ganz sonderbar vorgekommen, von Widersprüchen in den Evangelien zu sprechen. Es ist so, wie wenn jemand nur das Bild eines Menschen en face kennt, und nun brächte ihm jemand eine Photographie, die das Profil aufgenommen hat, und er sagte: Das kann nicht das Bild von demselben Menschen sein. — So wäre es den Menschen der ersten nachchristlichen Jahrhunderte vorgekommen, wenn man ihnen von Widersprüchen der Evangelien gesprochen hätte. Sie wußten sehr gut: Die vier Evangelien stellen nur das Bild von vier verschiedenen Seiten dar. - Der Mensch der heutigen Zeit würde sagen: Das sind ja sonderbare Darstellungen, die sind ja von allen Seiten verschieden. - In der geistigen Welt ist eben alles viel reicher.
Immer mehr kam dann die Zeit, in der man im alten Sinne von dem Ereignis von Golgatha nichts mehr kannte. Nun ist ja das Ereignis von Golgatha ein solches, das nur vom geistigen Gesichtspunkt aus begriffen werden kann. Es ist interessant, daß die Geschichtsschreiber in der Regel sich um das Ereignis von Golgatha herumdrücken. Da haben wir nun den Geschichtsschreiber Ranke, der als ein vorzüglicher Geschichtsschreiber gilt, der erklärt: Darüber redet man nicht, das läßt man aus. - Wenn man das Allerwichtigste aus der Geschichte ausläßt, so kann keine Geschichte entstehen. Selbst wenn man nicht einen Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt hat, also das Mysterium von Golgatha nicht verstehen kann, müßte man doch den ungeheueren Einfluß zugeben. Aber es wird heute Geschichte geschrieben, ohne die ungeheuere Wirkung des Mysteriums von Golgatha zu verzeichnen. Es kam immer mehr die Fähigkeit abhanden, hinzuschauen in richtiger Weise auf das Mysterium von Golgatha.
Wir können aber auch die Sache von ganz andern Seiten betrachten, können uns sagen: Die Menschheit kam im Laufe ihrer Entwickelung vor die Notwendigkeit, den Christus in ihrer Mitte haben zu müssen. Immer mehr und mehr kam den Menschen abhanden das Bewußtsein ihrer Zusammengehörigkeit mit dem vorirdischen Dasein. Auf das schauten sie nicht mehr hin. Die Menschen wußten zuletzt nur, daß sie dastehen seit ihrer irdischen Geburt. Da kam der Christus zu ihnen, um ihnen durch sein Herabsteigen zu zeigen, daß es ein vorirdisches Dasein gibt, um ihnen ein Verständnis zu geben für dasjenige, was in ihrem eigenen Bewußtsein nicht mehr leben konnte. Da die Menschen in ihrem eigenen Bewußtsein nicht mehr den Zusammenhang hatten, sollten sie einen neuen Zusammenhang gewinnen durch ihr Verhältnis zum Christus, der durch das Ereignis von Golgatha gegangen war, Der Christus hatte sich gewissermaßen selbst der Menschheit geschenkt in derjenigen Zeit, in der allmählich heranrücken sollte die Epoche, in welcher die Menschheit zur Freiheit aufsteigen sollte. Nun war, als das Denken immer abstrakter wurde, keine Möglichkeit mehr da, in Gedanken hinzuschauen auf das Mysterium von Golgatha. Aber der Inhalt der neutestamentlichen Geschichte war ein so sehr hinreißender, ein so sehr in das Gemüt herein sprechender, daß eben durch die rein äußeren Traditionen dasjenige einige Zeitlang noch bleiben konnte, was mit den Gedanken nicht mehr aufgefaßt werden konnte.
Gehen wir durch die erste Zeit, insoferne sich das Christentum ausbreitet. Da sehen wir, wie die Traditionen vorhanden sind, die zuletzt doch aus den Evangelien fließen, wie das kindliche Gemüt sich immer mehr des Bildes der palästinensischen Ereignisse bemächtigt. Aber wir sehen zu gleicher Zeit, wie im erkenntnismäßigen Erleben das Mysterium von Golgatha verlorengeht. In demselben Maße, als das tote Denken auftrat, verdunkelte sich auch die kindliche Erinnerung an die palästinensische Zeit, verloren die Menschen ihren Zusammenhang mit dem Christus Jesus, und man war froh, wenn man noch den Zusammenhang mit dem Menschen Jesus erhalten konnte. Nun stehen wir in unserer Gegenwart; da ist eigentlich — die Menschen bemerken es nur noch nicht -— das Bewußtsein des Zusammenhanges mit dem Christus Jesus schon verlorengegangen. Traditionell verbleiben die Menschen bei den Bekenntnissen, und einen lebendigen inneren Zusammenhang mit dem Christus Jesus haben sie nicht. Man braucht sich nur anzusehen, wie äußerlich die Jahrfeste geworden sind! Wie äußerlich ist das Osterfest geworden für den Menschen der Gegenwart, während das Osterfest den Menschen früherer Zeit so war, daß die Menschen in tiefster Innerlichkeit etwas durchmachten, was man als eine Erinnerung an das Mysterium von Golgatha ansprechen kann.
Der Christus hat sich den Menschen gegeben in einer Zeit, wo die Menschheit ausbilden mußte das Freiheitsbewußtsein. Dazu hat sie es in gewissem Sinne gebracht. Sie würde sich aber veräußerlichen, wenn nicht der Zusammenhang mit dem Christus wieder gefunden werden könnte. Der kann nicht anders gefunden werden, als wenn wir anfangen, eine geistige Erkenntnis zu suchen. Geistige Erkenntnis, wie sie Anthroposophie sucht, wird wieder den Zusammenhang mit dem Christus Jesus finden. Dieser Zusammenhang kann nur geistig gefunden werden. Was auf Golgatha geschehen ist, ist nicht nur ein Ereignis, das hereingegriffen hat in die physisch-irdische Menschheitsgeschichte, sondern auch ein geistiges Ereignis. Niemand kann das Ereignis von Golgatha verstehen, der es nicht im Geiste verstehen will. Daher ist anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft zugleich eine Vorbereitung für ein neues Verständnis des Christus und des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Wenn wir diese Tatsache so betrachten, werden wir erinnert an das bedeutungsvolle Evangelienwort: «Ich bin bei euch alle Tage bis an das Ende der Erdenzeiten.» Es strahlt von diesem Worte die Gewißheit aus, daß er nicht bloß da war, als das Ereignis von Golgatha abgelaufen ist, daß er dableibt bei den Menschen als Geistwesen, im Geiste auffindbar. Wir dürfen daher nicht bloß das als christlich ansehen, was aus den Evangelien erstrahlt, sondern wir wissen: Christus ist bei uns, und wenn wir heute, ausgerüstet mit geistiger Erkenntnis, hinhorchen darauf, was uns die geistige Welt über ihn offenbart, so ist das Christus-Offenbarung. Es ist Christus-Offenbarung ebenso wie das, was wir gewinnen, wenn wir auf die Evangelien hinblicken.
«Ich hätte euch noch viel zu sagen, allein ihr könnt es jetzt noch nicht ertragen», das ist der Hinweis auf jene Zeit, wo der Christus neu gesehen werden soll. Und jetzt nahen sich diese Zeiten, sie sind schon da. Die Menschheit würde den Christus verlieren, wenn sie nicht auf neue Weise in geistiger Erkenntnis den Christus gewinnen könnte. Dadurch muß uns sehr viel erst wieder verständlich werden, was in alter Zeit mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha verbunden worden ist, was aber verlorengegangen ist, weil das geistige Verständnis dafür verlorengegangen ist. Wie plagen sich doch mit dem heutigen Intellektualismus die Menschen mit dem Worte, welches der Christus gesprochen haben soll: daß das Gottesreich heruntergekommen ist auf die Erde, daß ein ganz neues Leben anfangen soll. - Es ist so unendlich gescheit, heute zu sagen: Es ist doch auf der Erde alles gerade so geblieben, wie es war! - Das ist selbstverständlich gescheit, aber man muß die andere Frage aufwerfen aus dem Geiste des ChristusWortes heraus: Ist das auch im Sinne eines richtigen christlichen, geistigen Verständnisses gesprochen, zu glauben, daß da irgendein äußeres Geistesreich aufgerichtet werden soll? - Ein äußeres Geistesreich wäre ja physisch! Diesen Widerspruch merkt man nicht! Aber es ist höchst merkwürdig, daß man in der heutigen Zeit eigentlich recht gescheit geworden ist, doch die Gescheitheit auf dem eigenen Gebiete nicht recht würdigen kann.
Ich möchte, wenn uns das auch vom eigentlichen Thema abführt, Sie auf etwas recht Interessantes hinweisen. Der Wiener Geologe Eduard Sueß, ein ausgezeichneter Forscher, spricht in seinem Buche über «Das Antlitz der Erde» davon, daß das Antlitz der Erde ganz anders gewesen sein muß, die Steine viel lebendiger als heute, daß man heute eigentlich schon auf einer toten Erde geht. Die Schollen, auf denen wir gehen, gehören einer absterbenden Welt an. Der Geologe nimmt an, die Erde war einmal lebendiger und ist allmählich in den toten Zustand übergegangen. Da sagt Sueß für ein ganz anderes Gebiet etwas ganz ähnliches, wie der Christus gesagt hat für das geistige Leben der Erde. Wenn nur das da wäre, daß die Erde zerfiele in einer fernen Zukunft, in der die Erde in der Welt zerstäubt, wenn es nicht mit der Erde geradeso wäre wie mit dem Menschen - der Leib zerfällt in Staub, sein Geist aber lebt weiter —, dann würden wir alle in diese Zerstreuung mit hineingehen. Mit dieser Erde schauen wir auf das, was in das Jupiterdasein hinaufführt. Wir schauen da schon eine neue Erde.
Für das Physische ist diese Anschauung vom Zerfall der Erde richtig, für das Geistig-Seelische gilt ein anderes. Für die alten Eingeweihten der Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha war es klar: Mit der alten Zivilisation, mit den alten Mysterien ist es zu Ende. So, wie die alten Menschen mit ihren Göttern gelebt haben, ist es zu Ende. So, wie sie mit den Naturerscheinungen zusammengelebt haben, ist es zu Ende. Aber die Götter schicken den Menschen die Möglichkeit, einer Zukunft entgegenzugehen mit dem Geiste. Was in alter Zeit an Erkenntnis aus der Erde herausgesogen worden ist, das ist Vergangenheit. Eine neue Zeit muß kommen, wo der Mensch durch seinen eigenen Willen ein Reich beginnen muß, wo der Mensch aus eigener Kraft das tote Denken wieder beleben kann. Das war eine Prophetie zur Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Äußerlich kam auch dieses Reich heran. Begriffen werden, aufgenommen werden kann es erst von den Menschen der Gegenwart. Jetzt müssen wir fühlen, daß das Gottesreich, von dem der Christus spricht, von uns gesehen werden muß auf der Erde, indem der Christus auf der Erde wirkt. Das muß Erfüllung werden auf der Erde, und die Erfüllung dieses Gottesreiches muß mit Ernst erfaßt werden gerade in dieser unserer Gegenwart. Wir erleben es auf allen Gebieten, wie der Mensch beginnt, vor der Gefahr zu stehen, abgeschnitten zu werden von den geistigen Welten und von seinem eigentlichen Wesen, wenn er nicht den Zugang findet zur spirituellen Welt. Der Mensch kommt mit der Naturwissenschaft nicht an den Menschen heran.
Nehmen Sie den großen Riß, der heute zwischen Alter und Jugend besteht. Ein Gegensatz bestand schon immer, aber so stark bestand er nicht wie heute. Ganz besonders eines muß man an ihm verstehen. Viele Menschen sagen, die Alten können nicht wirken für die Jugend, weil sie sich die Kindlichkeit nicht bewahrt haben. Das sieht furchtbar schön aus, es ist aber nicht so. Die Jugend verlangt nicht von uns, daß wir uns so jung gebärden sollten, wie die Jugend selber ist, sonst sagt die Jugend instinktiv: Das, was die können, können wir auch. Die brauchen wir ja dann gar nicht, da können wir ja unter uns allein bleiben. - Was wir verstehen müssen, ist, in richtiger Weise alt zu werden, in voller Frische den gealterten Menschenleib zu gebrauchen. Die jungen Leute lieben nicht die altgewordenen Kindsköpfe, sondern die richtig Altgewordenen, die liebt die Jugend. Die Jugend möchte gerade zu alten Leuten aufblicken, weil sie da anderes findet, was sie selbst nicht hat. Aber wir haben in der Menschheit die Fähigkeit verloren, recht lebendig geistig zu sein. Wenn das eigentliche Kindheitsfeuer vorüber ist, dorten wir aus. Der Körper wird nur älter, aber wir hantieren mit dem alten Körper so, wie wir als Kinder mit ihm hantiert haben. Wir müssen die Möglichkeit gewinnen, auch ohne daß uns unser Leib zu Hilfe kommt, unsere Gedanken aus der geistigen Erkenntnis heraus zu spiritualisieren, wiederum als lebendige Gedanken durch unseren eigenen Willen neu zu schaffen, die Auferstehung der Gedanken zu erzeugen in uns. Was in uns an totem Denken ist, muß so ein lebendiges Denken werden. Dann wird dieses lebendige Denken eindringen können in das Mysterium von Golgatha, dann werden wir erst, wie mit einem wahren Opfer des Denkens und Fühlens, lebendig in uns wiederholen: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir.»
Dieses Wort bedeutet auch für unser Zeitalter etwas ganz Gewaltiges. Das Ich-Bewußtsein haben wir uns errungen durch das unlebendige Denken. Mit dem alten, lebendigen Denken hätte dieses nicht errungen werden können. Wir haben es nun, dieses Ich-Bewußtsein, aber es muß innerlich durchglüht und durchgeistigt werden, indem wir diese Worte richtig aussprechen lernen: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir.» Wir müssen in dieses unser innerstes Wesen, das wir uns aneignen müssen durch geistige Erkenntnis, den Christus aufnehmen können. Das ist etwas, das wir als Menschen heute nur erreichen können, wenn wir uns durchdringen können mit dem eigentlichen Willen des anthroposophischen Lebens. Und im Grunde genommen wird Anthroposophie nicht eine neue Religion sein wollen. Die christliche Religion ist ja schon da. Indem der Mensch zum Christus geführt wird, gründet er nicht eine neue Religion, aber er braucht einen neuen Weg zum Christentum. Und ein neuer Weg zum Christentum eröffnet sich durch Anthroposophie. Sie ist es, die den neuen, heute so notwendigen Weg zum Verständnis des Mysteriums von Golgatha eröffnet.
Das ist, was ich anschließen möchte an das hier Gesagte. Denn es ist schon das Rechte, wenn wir von Zeit zu Zeit versuchen, diesen Mittelpunkt der ganzen Menschheitsentwickelung, das Mysterium von Golgatha, beleuchtet von Anthroposophie, richtig vor unsere Seele treten zu lassen. Denn wahrhaftig, der Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung ist ein solcher: Die Erde entwickelt sich bis zum Mysterium von Golgatha hin, dann geht eine gewaltige Befruchtung der Erde aus dem geistigen Kosmos heraus und ein Weiterleben der Erde unter ganz neuen Verhältnissen vor sich. Nur dadurch, daß man diese religiöse Nuance in das anthroposophische Verständnis hereinbringt, heben wir es auf dasjenige Niveau, das es bekommen muß, wenn es den tiefsten Sehnsuchten der Menschen von heute entgegenkommen will.
Indem wir uns so in die wichtigste Angelegenheit der Menschheit bei diesem unserem Zusammensein haben vertiefen dürfen, darf ich Ihnen meine tiefe Befriedigung ausdrücken, daß ich habe wiederum einmal in Ihrer Mitte weilen dürfen. Und ich darf wohl auch die Empfindung so zum Ausdrucke bringen, daß dasjenige, was wir gepflegt haben im räumlichen Zusammensein, fortleben möchte, wenn wir räumlich auseinander sind. Anthroposophie möchte auch für das ganze geistige Dasein des Menschen ein Symbolum sein. Wir müssen es durch Anthroposophie fühlen können, daß das räumliche Beieinandersein als Ausgangspunkt gelten muß für ein unräumliches Beisammensein, in dem sich alle für die Anthroposophie verständnisvollen Seelen, die es in der Welt gibt, zusammenfinden können. Es gibt diese seelisch-geistige Gemeinschaft für solche, die sie heute suchen. Und innerhalb dieser wird auch der Christus am intensivsten wirken können, nachdem er sich mit der Erdenentwickelung vereinigt hat im Mysterium von Golgatha und auf ein Zeitalter wartete, das ihn nicht bloß aus der Tradition heraus, sondern in Gedanken, Gefühl und Wollen verstehen kann. In all dieses dringt ein gerade dasjenige Wollen, das ich das durchchristete Wollen nennen möchte: «Du sollst den Namen Gottes nicht eitel aussprechen!» Hieraus handeln und hieraus denken, mit allen Gleichgesinnten in Gemeinschaft, in geistigen Gedanken, das wird dann auch eine richtige Gemeinschaft in äußeren Dingen werden können.
Anthroposophy: The Path to a Deeper Understanding of the Mystery of Easter
As human beings, we tend to view the soul's condition, the entire life of the human soul, solely in terms of our own experience as people of the present, of the 19th and 20th centuries. And what we know from history is largely external events, rather than the history of the human soul itself. Little attention is paid to the changes taking place in the soul life of humanity. Now, it must be said that earlier times did not have the same reason to concern themselves with the history of the human soul life as we do today. For the present age, which, if we consider it as a great historical moment, already began in the middle or actually in the first third of the 15th century, presents human beings with very special tasks that they can only solve with their consciousness, whereas they were able to solve their earlier tasks out of a certain instinct, albeit a humanly formed instinct. You have heard on various occasions, and perhaps read in cycles, how in ancient times a kind of instinctive clairvoyance was inherent in humanity, how the development of humanity consists in the loss of this instinctive clairvoyance, and how the present state of the soul, which is intellectual and primarily develops the human intellect, has taken the place of this instinctive clairvoyance. I do not mean to say that the forces of feeling and will are not active in humanity today. But what constitutes the greatness of our present civilization, what we experience above all in the present age, appeals to the intellect, to the powers of concept. However, modern man has every reason to ponder the question: What significance does an intellectual civilization have for the human soul? This question can only be answered exhaustively if we take into account the pre-earthly human existence that was mentioned yesterday in another context.
As people of the present, we perceive ideas as something very abstract, something that we do not experience inwardly to the same degree as the ideas that lived in human beings during the time of ancient, instinctive clairvoyance. And when we look at pre-earthly human existence from the perspective of these abstract, intellectual ideas, we find that what are abstract thoughts today were something completely different then. When we still had no body in pre-earthly existence, when we were still soul-spiritual beings, thoughts were something completely different. At that time, thoughts still had a soul life, and we experienced a thought in such a way that we knew: These thoughts are spread throughout the whole world, and we draw them from the world into our own soul being.
Today, human beings believe that thoughts are something they produce with their brains. This is about as sensible as a person who drinks a glass of water believing that the water comes out of their tongue and is not taken in from outside. In truth, thoughts are something active and alive, the forces at work in the whole world, and we only draw them from the world. Our organic system is merely the vessel into which we draw thoughts with our ego. But the error that we ourselves produce thoughts, that we do not draw them from the world, is an error that one can only succumb to within earthly life between birth and death. As long as we are in pre-earthly existence, we know that the world of thoughts fills everything around us, like the air in our existence between birth and death. We know that we breathe in and breathe out the forces of thought, so to speak, that they are something active and effective.
It is extremely important that we become aware of how the thought forces in pre-earthly life are something completely different from those in earthly existence. When we encounter a corpse in the world, we do not say to ourselves that this corpse could have been given the form it has as a corpse by some forces we call natural forces. We know that it is the remnant of a living human being. A living human being must necessarily have existed; a natural force can never give a corpse the form it has. The corpse can only be the remnant of a living human being. What we can observe about the life of the human mind as we have it in earthly existence also gives us clues to recognize that the thought forces we develop during earthly existence cannot arise in our physical organism on their own, but that they are the remnants of living forces we had in pre-earthly existence. With the same certainty with which one says that the corpse is the dead remnant of a living human being, one can also say: The abstract thinking we have today is the dead remnant of what we had in living thinking in our pre-earthly existence. Living thinking dies when we are born or conceived, and what asserts itself in us as thinking powers is the corpse of that living thinking that we had in our pre-earthly existence. We can only understand earthly thinking completely when we regard it as the remnant of pre-earthly thinking, just as we regard the corpse as the remnant of the living human being.
This awareness that human thinking is the remnant of living thinking must gradually penetrate more and more into humanity. Only then will we see ourselves correctly as human beings, only then will we look back correctly on our pre-earthly existence, just as we look back from the corpse, in which only the forces of nature still live, to the living human being, in whom higher forces live. But one only sees this whole fact in the right light when one knows that the way of thinking that tends toward abstraction, as we have it today, has only been developed since the 15th century. Of course, it developed in different ways among the individual races and tribes, but on average, civilized humanity developed this dead thinking in the first third of the 15th century, and this thinking became increasingly dead, reaching a certain culmination point of its deadness in the last third of the 19th century.
Yes, if we look further back in development, we find that in ancient times, human souls, having passed through conception and birth, still carried something from their pre-earthly existence into their earthly existence. The liveliness of the ancient myths, the ancient folk legends, the ancient formative forces of the souls, which are not one with our present-day activity of imagination, could not have developed if something had not shone in from the living pre-earthly thinking, if earthly thinking had already become completely abstract. In a certain sense, one can say that even today, in childhood, there is still a last remnant of pre-earthly thinking, but it is lost in the course of life. But those people of an earlier time were also completely different from today's people in their entire soul life. Just imagine for a moment that you were still in this living state of thinking today, that you could experience the kind of clairvoyance that the human soul had in earlier times; you would be able to experience imaginations, but these imaginations would have such a strong effect on you that you would feel as if you were merely an envelope for divine spiritual forces: you would never become conscious of freedom. The true sense of freedom has only developed in civilized humanity. The fact that human beings have been able to become free is due to the circumstance that living thinking does not work in its awakened state, but rather as a dead thinking into which human beings can pour whatever they themselves want to pour from their free will. It is not as in former times that spirits think in man; he begins to think himself. But to begin to think oneself means to send the human will into thinking, and when he finds dead thinking, he can pour his free will into it. Thus, man had to advance to dead thinking in order to become a free being in the course of earthly evolution. You see, when we look at the development of human soul life in this way, we realize that the entire development of human beings on earth is meaningfully structured.
But let us now go back to somewhat earlier times. What took place as the killing, the abstraction, the intellectualization of thinking in the first third of the 15th century was slowly and gradually preparing itself. Such things do not happen all at once; they prepare themselves, take a kind of run-up, and then come to a climax. It is now clear that the first attempt at this abstract thinking came in the 4th century AD. I believe that in the 4th century AD, the first traces began to appear in human consciousness that man believed he produced his own thoughts. A Greek would not have believed this in reality. The Greeks were still very much aware of a certain liveliness of thought and knew that thoughts are everywhere in things, that they themselves merely draw them from things. The idea that humans produce thoughts arose because thoughts became more and more lifeless. And these lifeless thoughts, which one can do with as one pleases, so to speak, only came into being in the fourth century after Christ. This continued gradually until, in the fifteenth century, the consciousness we still have today was clearly pronounced.
But what does this mean for the development of humanity? In the 4th century AD, the first steps toward intellectual, abstract thinking were taken. But this means nothing other than that the mystery of Golgotha, the appearance of Christ on earth, occurred at a time when the human soul was still filled with living thoughts. In this respect, humanity has indeed lost a great deal in terms of its consciousness. Although humanity thereby gained freedom, it nevertheless lost much. When Christ appeared on earth, he was still received by a certain number of people who still had a lively, active inner thinking, who still had remnants of their pre-earthly existence in their thinking. And these people approached the mystery of Golgotha in a completely different way than the people of later times. Just think about it: until that time, people said to themselves—they did not express it clearly, everything was more shrouded in images back then, but there was an awareness of it—I am now on Earth, I have my thinking as an Earth human being, but this points me back through birth and conception to a pre-Earth existence, to another world from which I have descended. People felt that they were a continuation of what they had been in their pre-earthly existence. The people of that time were aware that they were continuing a previous, pre-earthly existence with their earthly existence, even though at that time people looked into the world of pre-earthly existence as if through a cloudy glass. This awareness that human beings are beings who have descended from heaven to earth was essentially lost in the 4th century AD.
From this point of view, people also viewed the events at Golgotha. When the initiates who still existed at that time, who were not as wise as the initiates of the ancient mysteries but who still possessed remnants of the ancient mystery wisdom, spoke to these people about Christ, the question for them was this: Jesus Christ was formerly at home in the world in which we also existed before we descended to earth. That was his world, only he never left it. It is the peculiarity of earthly human beings that they had to descend from there in very ancient times. They left Christ in order to descend to earth. When the ancient mysteries spoke of Christ—and they always spoke of this Christ in the ancient mysteries, even if he was not called by the name “Christ”—thoughts had to be directed upward to pre-earthly existence, and people had to be told: If you want to know anything about Christ, you must not cling to your earthly consciousness, but must look up to pre-earthly existence.
We must say something about this pre-earthly existence in order to understand what I want to explain today. We stand here on earth as earth beings, we look up at the sun, we form ideas about this sun, we even form hypotheses about it, such as that the sun is a ball of gas or something similar. From an earthly point of view, it is natural to form such ideas, but we believe that this is the case from all points of view. Before we descended to Earth, we also saw the sun, but from the vastness of the cosmos, from the other side, so to speak. There it was not a physical structure, but the embodiment of spiritual beings, and the most significant of these beings for humans before the mystery of Golgotha was Christ. So one can also say the following. When, in pre-Christian times, the mystery students were initiated into what later became the mystery of Golgotha, it became clear to them: In their pre-earthly existence, human beings saw the sun and perceived Christ, and when they descended to earth, they saw the sun from the other side, but Christ was hidden from them; they could only be led up to Christ through mystery knowledge. In the early days of Christian development, this was felt to be the essence of Christianity: that the great Sun Spirit had not remained the Sun Spirit, but through the mystery of Golgotha had left those regions which human beings can only pass through outside the physical body, and had entered into earthly existence; that he was the only one of the divine-spiritual beings who had entered earthly existence itself. And we encounter, albeit with the means of spiritual research, people even in the early days of Christian development who felt deeply in their hearts that Christ had descended from the sphere of spirits, who do not need to pass through birth and death, for whom birth and death are only a transformation, and had passed through birth and death.
This descent of Christ to earth was the essential feeling that people had in the early days of Christian development. This descent was much more important to the people of that time than what followed it. The fact that Christ wanted to enter into communion with human beings, that he wanted to share the two most significant experiences, birth and death, was felt in initiated circles as the actual religious impulse. This was only possible because human beings still had something of an inner, living thinking, because until the fourth century after Christ, thinking had not yet become completely atrophied and abstract, because it still filled human beings as much as breathing does today in a physical sense. That is why it was felt that he had also fulfilled the human destiny of descending, which the other divine-spiritual beings had not fulfilled, because being born and dying are not characteristic of the gods, but only of human beings. This is the grandiose thing about the initiated belief of the first Christian centuries, that it was felt that Christ really became human, that is, he really took human destiny upon himself, he is the only one of the divine-spiritual beings who shared this destiny with human beings.
Now, however, it is necessary that it also be made clear to the human soul that this human soul, insofar as it belongs to the world of pre-earthly existence, cannot actually die. This is why what we associate with the resurrection of Christ also occurred: the victory of Christ over death, exemplary for the victory of every human soul over death. And in that the old idea of unborn existence has, I would say, conformed to the new idea of resurrection, which did exist but not with the same intensity before the event of Golgotha, it was, in a sense, the expression of something most important in human earthly evolution.
When thinking was still alive, human beings did not fear death in the least. Death was not an extraordinary event for them. It is something extremely important in the history of human development that people viewed death quite differently, as something completely natural, whereas as people lost more and more of their awareness of pre-earthly existence, abstract thinking, which has the physical body as its tool, increasingly brought about fear of death and the belief that death is something final. Ancient humanity had little need for the idea of resurrection, but rather for that of descending together with Christ. But as people advanced more and more toward abstract thinking, they needed more and more a view beyond earthly existence, a view toward immortality. And this view is given to humanity by looking correctly at the fact of Christ's resurrection. I have explained this fact in many books, lectures, and cycles. Both facts, the descent of Christ to birth and death and the fact of the resurrection, the victory over death, could be clearly felt by humanity until the fourth century after Christ, because living thinking was still present. From the fourth century AD onwards, as abstract thinking became increasingly prevalent, humanity became increasingly incapable of connecting thoughts with the content of the mystery of Golgotha. And it is the fate of human evolution that in the age in which humanity gained its freedom through abstract thinking, the understanding of Christ Jesus, which was present in the first centuries after Christ, had to be lost through thinking that was dead in relation to the spiritual world. It was lost, mainly because those writings which are now almost considered a dirty word, the Gnostic writings, were eradicated with root and branch, except for a few remnants which are of little literary value. What was thought in the first centuries by those who still knew something about living thinking was destroyed; we know this only from the writings of their opponents. Imagine what it would be like if, by some chance, all anthroposophical books and writings disappeared, and what anthroposophy is had to be judged solely from the writings of its opponents! That is how much people who rely solely on external documents know about Gnosis today. That completely tremendous understanding of Christ which Gnosis contained was completely lost to humanity. Above all, the awareness that Christ had something to do with the sun and that Christ descended and underwent a fate common to humanity on Golgotha was completely lost. All these connections, especially the feelings associated with these things, were lost to humanity. More and more abstract interpretations and abstract thoughts emerged.
We see in Augustine one of those who, out of the character of the age, struggled for an understanding of Christianity. In Augustine we see a spirit that could no longer understand the old form of the view of nature. You know, it is said that Augustine was a Manichean. Augustine himself says so. But what lies behind all these things can no longer be properly understood with external knowledge. What Augustine calls Manichaeism, what we today call Manichaean doctrine, is only the degenerate product of an ancient teaching that conceived of the spirit as solely creative and knew no opposition between matter and spirit. There was no spirit that did not create, and what it created was perceived as matter. Nor did these ancient times have any concept of mere matter; rather, spirit was in everything. This was something that Augustine could not understand, something that Gnosticism understood, something that was later no longer understood, and something that our present age no longer understands either. The fact is, there is no matter in itself. The Gnostics knew this and saw the entire descent of Christ in the light of this view. Augustine could no longer do anything with this. The age was over, the possibility of doing anything with it was gone because the documents had been destroyed, and the old clairvoyance had faded away. So, after a long, almost superhuman struggle, Augustine came to the conclusion that he could not arrive at the truth on his own, but had to submit to what the Catholic Church prescribed as truth: to bow to the authority of the Catholic Church. And this mood—take it as a mood for now—remained, lived on, particularly because thinking became more and more abstract. Only very slowly and gradually did thinking become paralyzed.
And the scholastics in their greatness—they are great—still lived in the shadow of the knowledge that thinking on earth originates from a superhuman thinking, that man lives in a heavenly thinking. But under this development, the possibility of making something alive out of the event of Golgotha was increasingly lost. And it is really true that because the progressive theology of the 19th century wanted to become scientific in the modern sense, Christ was lost, and theology was glad to have at least the “simple man from Nazareth.” Christ was now only “the highest human being on earth.” It was no longer possible to imagine Christ dwelling in Jesus.
And so, in fact, the development since the 4th century AD has been a loss of the connection between man and Christ in the living way that existed for many in the first centuries of Christianity. And so it came about that, in the end, people understood less and less of the content of the Gospels. To people who lived in the first centuries of Christianity, it would have seemed very strange to speak of contradictions in the Gospels. It is like someone who only knows the image of a person from the front, and then someone brings him a photograph that shows the profile, and he says: That cannot be the image of the same person. That is how it would have seemed to people in the first centuries after Christ if someone had spoken to them about contradictions in the Gospels. They knew very well that the four Gospels only present the image from four different sides. People today would say, “Those are strange representations; they are different from all sides.” In the spiritual world, everything is much richer.
Then the time came when people no longer knew anything about the event at Golgotha in the old sense. Now, the event at Golgotha is one that can only be understood from a spiritual point of view. It is interesting that historians generally avoid the event of Golgotha. We have the historian Ranke, who is considered an excellent historian, who declares: “We don't talk about that, we leave it out.” If you leave out the most important thing in history, no history can emerge. Even if one has no connection with the spiritual world, and therefore cannot understand the mystery of Golgotha, one must still acknowledge its tremendous influence. But today, history is written without recording the tremendous impact of the mystery of Golgotha. The ability to look at the mystery of Golgotha in the right way has been increasingly lost.
But we can also look at the matter from a completely different angle and say to ourselves: In the course of its development, humanity came to the point where it needed to have Christ in its midst. More and more, people lost the awareness of their connection with pre-earthly existence. They no longer looked at that. In the end, people only knew that they had been standing there since their earthly birth. Then Christ came to them to show them, through his descent, that there is a pre-earthly existence, to give them an understanding of what could no longer live in their own consciousness. Since human beings no longer had the connection in their own consciousness, they were to gain a new connection through their relationship to Christ, who had gone through the event of Golgotha. Christ had, in a sense, given himself to humanity at the time when the epoch in which humanity was to ascend to freedom was gradually approaching. Now, as thinking became more and more abstract, there was no longer any possibility of looking in thought at the mystery of Golgotha. But the content of the New Testament story was so captivating, so appealing to the mind, that for a time what could no longer be grasped by the mind was able to remain through the purely external traditions.
Let us go through the early period in which Christianity spread. We see how traditions exist that ultimately flow from the Gospels, how the childlike mind increasingly takes hold of the image of the events in Palestine. But at the same time, we see how the mystery of Golgotha is lost in cognitive experience. To the same extent that dead thinking arose, the childlike memory of the Palestinian time also darkened, people lost their connection with Christ Jesus, and they were happy if they could still maintain their connection with the man Jesus. Now we stand in our present; there is actually — people just don't notice it yet — a loss of consciousness of the connection with the Christ Jesus. Traditionally, people remain with their confessions, and they have no living inner connection with the Christ Jesus. One need only look at how external the annual festivals have become! How external Easter has become for people today, whereas for people in earlier times Easter was such that they experienced something in their deepest inner being that can be described as a remembrance of the mystery of Golgotha.
Christ gave himself to people at a time when humanity had to develop a sense of freedom. In a certain sense, it has achieved this. But it would lose itself if the connection with Christ could not be found again. This connection cannot be found except by beginning to seek spiritual knowledge. Spiritual knowledge, as sought by anthroposophy, will rediscover the connection with Christ Jesus. This connection can only be found spiritually. What happened on Golgotha is not only an event that intervened in the physical, earthly history of humanity, but also a spiritual event. No one can understand the event of Golgotha who does not want to understand it spiritually. Therefore, anthroposophical spiritual science is at the same time a preparation for a new understanding of Christ and the mystery of Golgotha. When we consider this fact, we are reminded of the meaningful words of the Gospel: “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” These words radiate the certainty that he was not merely present when the event of Golgotha took place, but that he remains with human beings as a spiritual being, to be found in the spirit. We must therefore not regard as Christian only what shines forth from the Gospels, but we know that Christ is with us, and when we listen today, equipped with spiritual knowledge, to what the spiritual world reveals to us about him, this is the revelation of Christ. It is the revelation of Christ just as much as what we gain when we look at the Gospels.
“I have much more to say to you, but you cannot bear it now” is a reference to the time when Christ will be seen anew. And now these times are approaching; they are already here. Humanity would lose Christ if it could not gain him in a new way through spiritual knowledge. This means that we must first regain an understanding of what was connected with the mystery of Golgotha in ancient times but has been lost because the spiritual understanding of it has been lost. How people today, with their intellectualism, struggle with the words that Christ is said to have spoken: that the kingdom of God has come down to earth, that a completely new life is to begin. It is so infinitely clever to say today: Everything on earth has remained just as it was! That is clever, of course, but one must raise the other question from the spirit of Christ's words: Is it also spoken in the sense of a correct Christian, spiritual understanding to believe that some kind of external spiritual kingdom is to be established? - An external spiritual realm would be physical! People do not notice this contradiction! But it is highly remarkable that in this day and age people have become quite intelligent, yet they are unable to appreciate intelligence in their own field.
I would like to point out something quite interesting, even if it leads us away from the actual topic. The Viennese geologist Eduard Sueß, an excellent researcher, writes in his book “The Face of the Earth” that the face of the earth must have been completely different, the stones much more alive than today, that we are actually already walking on a dead earth. The clods on which we walk belong to a dying world. The geologist assumes that the earth was once more alive and has gradually passed into a dead state. Sueß says something very similar about a completely different area, as Christ said about the spiritual life of the earth. If it were only that the earth would disintegrate in a distant future, in which the earth would be scattered throughout the world, if it were not exactly the same with the earth as with human beings—the body decays into dust, but the spirit lives on—then we would all go into this dispersion. With this earth, we look at what leads up to the Jupiter existence. We already see a new Earth there.
This view of the disintegration of the Earth is correct for the physical realm, but something else applies to the spiritual realm. For the ancient initiates of the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, it was clear: the old civilization and the old mysteries had come to an end. The way the ancient people lived with their gods had come to an end. The way they lived together with the phenomena of nature is over. But the gods are sending humanity the opportunity to move toward a future with the spirit. What was extracted from the earth in ancient times as knowledge is now past. A new era must come in which humanity must begin a kingdom through its own will, in which humanity can revive dead thinking through its own power. This was a prophecy at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. Outwardly, this kingdom also came into being. But it can only be understood and accepted by the people of the present. Now we must feel that the kingdom of God of which Christ speaks must be seen by us on earth through the working of Christ on earth. This must be fulfilled on earth, and the fulfillment of this kingdom of God must be taken seriously, especially in our present time. We experience in all areas how human beings are beginning to face the danger of being cut off from the spiritual worlds and from their true nature if they do not find access to the spiritual world. Natural science cannot bring human beings closer to themselves.
Take the great divide that exists today between old age and youth. There has always been a contrast, but it has never been as strong as it is today. One thing in particular must be understood about this. Many people say that old people cannot work for young people because they have not retained their childlike qualities. This sounds terribly beautiful, but it is not true. Young people do not demand that we behave as young as they do, otherwise they instinctively say: What they can do, we can do too. Then we don't need them at all, we can just stay among ourselves. What we need to understand is how to grow old in the right way, how to use the aged human body with complete freshness. Young people do not love old childish people, but those who have grown old properly; that is what youth loves. Youth wants to look up to old people because they find something there that they themselves do not have. But we have lost the ability to be truly alive spiritually. When the actual fire of childhood is over, we die out. The body only grows older, but we treat the old body as we did when we were children. We must gain the ability, even without the help of our bodies, to spiritualize our thoughts out of spiritual knowledge, to recreate them as living thoughts through our own will, to bring about the resurrection of thoughts within us. What is dead thinking in us must become living thinking. Then this living thinking will be able to penetrate the mystery of Golgotha, and only then will we, as if through a true sacrifice of thinking and feeling, repeat alive within ourselves: “Not I, but Christ in me.”
This phrase also has a very powerful meaning for our age. We have gained self-consciousness through lifeless thinking. This could not have been achieved with the old, living thinking. We now have this self-consciousness, but it must be innerly purified and spiritualized by learning to pronounce these words correctly: “Not I, but Christ in me.” We must be able to take Christ into our innermost being, which we must acquire through spiritual knowledge. This is something that we as human beings today can only achieve if we can permeate ourselves with the actual will of the anthroposophical life. And basically, anthroposophy does not want to be a new religion. The Christian religion already exists. By being led to Christ, human beings do not found a new religion, but they need a new path to Christianity. And a new path to Christianity is opened up by anthroposophy. It is anthroposophy that opens up the new path to understanding the mystery of Golgotha, which is so necessary today.
That is what I would like to add to what has been said here. For it is right that we should try from time to time to let this center of the whole development of humanity, the mystery of Golgotha, illuminated by anthroposophy, come properly before our souls. For truly, the course of human evolution is as follows: the earth develops up to the mystery of Golgotha, then a powerful fertilization of the earth emanates from the spiritual cosmos and the earth continues to live under completely new conditions. Only by bringing this religious nuance into the anthroposophical understanding can we raise it to the level it must attain if it is to meet the deepest longings of people today.
Having been allowed to delve so deeply into the most important matter for humanity during our time together, I would like to express my deep satisfaction at having been able to spend time with you once again. And I would also like to express the feeling that what we have cultivated in our physical togetherness will continue to live on when we are physically apart. Anthroposophy also wants to be a symbol for the entire spiritual existence of human beings. Through anthroposophy, we must be able to feel that spatial togetherness must be the starting point for a non-spatial togetherness in which all souls in the world who understand anthroposophy can come together. This spiritual community exists for those who seek it today. And it is within this community that Christ will be able to work most intensively after he has united himself with the evolution of the earth in the Mystery of Golgotha and waited for an age that can understand him not merely out of tradition, but in thought, feeling, and will. All of this is permeated by precisely that will which I would like to call the Christ-filled will: “You shall not take the name of God in vain!” Acting and thinking from this, together with all like-minded people in community, in spiritual thoughts, will then also be able to become a true community in external things.