Constitution of the School of Spiritual Science E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

'If the intentions of the Christmas Conference are to be carried out, the Anthroposophical Society will in future have to fulfil, as far as possible, the esoteric aspirations of its members. With this end in view, the School, consisting of three Classes, will be established within the General Society.' - Rudolf Steiner, January 1924. A year after the burning of the first Goetheanum building in Dornach, Switzerland, Rudolf Steiner refounded the Anthroposophical Society during the Christmas Conference of 1923/24. At the heart of the Society he created 'the School of Spiritual Science', which has the specific task of presenting 'the esoteric aspect', and leading its members to knowledge and experience of the spirit. The School was to have 'Sections' to represent various fields of human endeavour, such as Medicine and Education, and three 'Classes', with the First Class to be established immediately by Rudolf Steiner. This short book is a collection of articles (from the Society Newsletter) and lectures by Rudolf Steiner from 1924, introducing and explaining the purpose of the School of Spiritual Science to members of the Anthroposophical Society. It forms a companion volume to The Foundation Stone / The Life, Nature and Cultivation of Anthroposophy.

Leseprobe

RUDOLF STEINER (1861–1925) called his spiritual philosophy ‘anthroposophy’, meaning ‘wisdom of the human being’. As a highly developed seer, he based his work on direct knowledge and perception of spiritual dimensions. He initiated a modern and universal ‘science of spirit’, accessible to anyone willing to exercise clear and unprejudiced thinking.

From his spiritual investigations Steiner provided suggestions for the renewal of many activities, including education (both general and special), agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, philosophy, religion and the arts. Today there are thousands of schools, clinics, farms and other organizations involved in practical work based on his principles. His many published works feature his research into the spiritual nature of the human being, the evolution of the world and humanity, and methods of personal development. Steiner wrote some 30 books and delivered over 6000 lectures across Europe. In 1924 he founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world.

CONSTITUTION OF THE SCHOOL OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE

An Introductory Guide

RUDOLF STEINER

RUDOLF STEINER PRESS

Rudolf Steiner Press Hillside House, The Square Forest Row, RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2013

Previously published under the title The Constitution of the School of Spiritual Science, Its Arrangement in Sections in 1964; reprinted 1980

The material contained in this book is sourced from volumes 37 and 260 of the GA (Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe or Collected Works) published by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach. This authorized selection and translation is published by permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach

This translation © Rudolf Steiner Press 1964

Translated by George Adams. Translations of lectures of 18 and 30 January and 3 February revised by Joan and Siegfried Rudel

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978 1 85584 364 6

Cover design by Morgan Creative

CONTENTS

Dates of the lectures are given in each case and also indicate when the articles were printed for the first time in the members’ supplement to the Goetheanum Weekly.

The organic development of the Anthroposophical Society and its future tasks

Lecture given 18 January 1924

The School of Spiritual Science

I. 20 January 1924

II. 27 January 1924

The School of Spiritual Science within the Constitution of the Anthroposophical Society. Its arrangement in Sections

Lecture given 30 January 1924

The School of Spiritual Science

III. 3 February 1924

Conditions for admission into the First Class of the School of Spiritual Science

Address given after the lecture on 3 February 1924

The School of Spiritual Science

IV. 10 February 1924

V. 17 February 1924

VI. 24 February 1924

VII. 2 March 1924

The Youth Section in the School of Spiritual Science

VIII. What I have to say on this matter to the older Members. 9 March 1924

IX. What I have to say on this matter to the younger Members. 16 March 1924

X. What I yet have to say on this matter to the younger Members. 23 March 1924

XI. On the Youth Section in the School of Spiritual Science. 30 March 1924

XII. The ‘human element’ in the School of Spiritual Science. 6 April 1924

Extract from lecture given at Breslau, 7 June 1924

THE ORGANIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANTHROPOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AND ITS FUTURE TASKS

18 January 1924

Lecture given by Dr. Steiner at Dornach

MY DEAR FRIENDS,

In the second number of the Weekly News or News Sheet— as you know, this News Sheet is called ‘What is happening in the Anthroposophical Society’—you will find a communication that I have addressed to the Members; and I would like to lay special stress on the opening sentences of the article.* These sentences must be taken in all earnestness. You will allow me perhaps to read them out:

The foundation of the General Anthroposophical Society at the Christmas gathering cannot have its fulfilment in what was done or witnessed by the members who were at the Goetheanum while it lasted. Its real substance will only come into existence if in the future, everywhere, those who are devoted to Anthroposophy can feel the coming of fresh anthroposophical life as they give effect to its intentions. Otherwise the meeting would not have done what it set out to do.

There can be no doubt of it, my dear friends, the Anthroposophical Society is in need of new life. And what took place here at Christmas must be regarded as something that is not by any means finished and completed. The very least part of all that took place can be counted as complete; rather must it be that new content continually flows into this Christmas Meeting through all that happens further in the Anthroposophical Society. Hitherto one has been accustomed to regard a meeting of this kind as included within the limits set by its beginning and its end, preserving at the most a memory of it as of an experience that is over.

Our Christmas Meeting had however a quite different character. It showed from the very beginning that it could not possibly be so regarded. We cannot look upon it as a thing that takes place and is then past and over. Its content bore a very special quality. If you look back to the Christmas Meeting, you must needs see how something which originated from the spiritual world came into being there. The attempt was made to break with all the ideas one has had hitherto of what a Society should be, and to let the spiritual illuminate and shine through every single event that took place. But as I have often said, the spiritual has its own laws. The spiritual has other laws than those that prevail in the physical world. Let us now consider what was brought into the Christmas Meeting through the fact that it had this spiritual background. Let us place it there before our minds, and then think how all the several actions and undertakings of the Anthroposophical Society relate themselves to it.

If this Christmas Meeting is taken simply in the way one has been only too ready to take earlier gatherings, then it will gradually fade away, it will gradually lose all content; and in that case it would actually have been better if we had not come together at all. For the spiritual has this property, that if it is not held fast, it disappears—not of course in the Cosmos, but for the place where it is not being pursued and fostered. What it does is to seek out other places in the Cosmos. An event such as our Christmas Meeting, my dear friends, is not to be thought of as something that takes place within the earthly realm. And so you must not imagine, if the impulse of the Christmas Meeting fails of fulfilment and is therefore wafted away and disappears, that this impulse is bound to show itself somewhere else on Earth. That is not necessary. It may seek refuge in quite other worlds.

It all comes to this. We must find the way to receive the content of the Christmas Meeting, we must take trouble that it shall really be received. And the News Sheet for the members is to have this as its aim.

The opening number of the News Sheet will give a picture not merely of what went on at the Christmas Meeting, but a picture also of the will that lived in this Christmas Meeting. This is our particular intention in the Letters to the Members. This second number contains the first instalment, and it will be continued in the following numbers. We have had first of all to emphasise how on the one hand we have to look back to what has been in the Anthroposophical Society and then to look forward to what ought to be in the Anthroposophical Society in the future.