The Fifth Gospel E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

From his clairvoyant reading of the supersensible Akashic Record - the cosmic memory of all events, actions and thoughts - Rudolf Steiner was able to speak of aspects of the life of Jesus Christ which are not contained in the four biblical Gospels. Such research, in that it is not based on historical records or extant documents, can be spoken of as a 'Fifth Gospel'.Steiner speaks, for example, of Jesus' life in the community of the Essenes, the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, and of a significant conversation between Jesus and Mary.

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.

THE FIFTH GOSPEL

From the Akashic Record

Thirteen lectures given in Oslo, Berlin and Cologne between 1 October 1913 and 10 February 1914

RUDOLF STEINER

Translated by A. R. Meuss

RUDOLF STEINER PRESS

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

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2012

Originally published in German (with 18 lectures) under the title Aus der Akasha-Forschung. Das Fünfte Evangelium (volume 148 in the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe or Collected Works) by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach. This authorised translation published by kind permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach

This translation © Rudolf Steiner Press 1995 Translation of the Oslo and Cologne lectures is partly based on the previous translation by D. Osmond and C. Davy

Where appropriate, the moral rights of the author and translator have been asserted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

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 311 0

Cover painting by K. Martin-Kuri Cover by Andrew Morgan Typeset by Imprint Publicity Service, Crawley Down, Sussex

CONTENTS

Main contents of lectures

Introduction

LECTURE 1Oslo 1 October 1913

LECTURE 2Oslo 2 October 1913

LECTURE 3Oslo 3 October 1913

LECTURE 4Oslo 5 October 1913

LECTURE 5Oslo 6 October 1913

LECTURE 6Berlin 21 October 1913

LECTURE 7Berlin 4 November 1913

LECTURE 8Berlin 18 November 1913

LECTURE 9Berlin 6 January 1914

LECTURE 10Berlin 13 January 1914

LECTURE 11Berlin 10 February 1914

LECTURE 12Cologne 17 December 1913

LECTURE 13Cologne 18 December 1913

Translator’s note

Notes

Publisher’s Note

MAIN CONTENTS OF LECTURES

Lecture 1, Oslo, 1 October 1913

Graeco-Roman life of the intellect highly developed at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. But Christ impulse spread through simple people who loved Christ and entered into the whole of our civilization. Thus Copernicus and Giordano Bruno though persecuted by the Church were still members of the Church. Haeckel’s and Darwin’s thoughts were wholly Christian, and their thinking can be understood by grasping the Christian idea behind it. The Christ is like the soul of the Earth, entering into human souls irrespective of what they think. Time has now come when he must be understood. Why was it necessary for the Christ impulse to spread through centuries when people had no understanding of it?

Lecture 2, Oslo, 2 October 1913

First Pentecost: Quickened by all-prevailing cosmic love the Apostles woke from a dream-filled state of consciousness and were now able to understand what had happened on Golgotha. Access to events on and around Golgotha may be gained by entering into the mind and heart of one of the Apostles. Peter’s denial due to being in altered state of consciousness. Darkening of the Earth and earthquake as occult signs the seer is able to read. Intellectual thinking of the time represented by Moon darkening the Sun. Body of lesus taken up into the Earth. What appeared like a death on Golgotha had in fact been the birth, to the whole Earth, of that cosmic love. Apostles recognized Christ as the great spiritual teacher they had known between Golgotha and Ascension when images from after Golgotha merged with images from before Golgotha. Difficult for Rudolf Steiner to speak of these things, but occult obligation. From a free-thinking and scientific background, he found his way to the Christ spirit through spiritual science, and his revelations from the Fifth Gospel may therefore be seen as more objective.

Lecture 3, Oslo, 3 October 1913

Baptism by John in the Jordan like conception, and Mystery of Golgotha the birth, to the Earth, of the Christ, to be followed by his actual life on Earth when he was with the Apostles in their unusual state of consciousness. Ascension and Pentecost with pouring out of cosmic love equivalent to our entering the world of the spirit on death, but in opposite direction. Persian or Mithraic mysteries with their seven stages of initiation. Initiates bearing the name of their nation would enter the realm of the Archangels to receive guidance. Sun Heroes went to dwell in the Sun sphere with the Archai who preserved a nation’s achievements on behalf of humanity. They met the Christ spirit in the Sun who then came to Earth at Golgotha. Three years of pain and suffering in the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Christ spirit initially able to be elsewhere than the body of Jesus but gradually uniting more closely with body. Road from fullness of divine powers to utter powerlessness. Out of this was born the all-prevailing cosmic love, the Christ impulse that came to humanity.

Lecture 4, Oslo, 5 October 1913

Much was expected of Jesus of Nazareth after the wisdom shown in the Temple. But he grew increasingly silent. Pain of realizing that ancient Hebrew revelation could no longer reach people, that pagan rites had been invaded by demons, with the Bath Kol revealing the macrocosmic Our Father. Realization that Essene practices were exclusive, driving Lucifer and Ahriman away. Question: ‘Where do Lucifer and Ahriman go when they take flight?’

Lecture 5, Oslo, 6 October 1913

Talk Jesus of Nazareth had with his stepmother in which he spoke to her of his experiences and the pain he felt. Story of Hillel. Zarathustra spirit left Jesus. His own dead mother’s soul entered into the stepmother’s soul. The physical, ether and astral bodies of Jesus went to receive the Christ spirit at the baptism. First temptation by Lucifer and second by Lucifer and Ahriman was repulsed, third by Ahriman alone could not be repulsed entirely, because the Christ had no experience of material world. Christ Jesus saw that people were caught up in material world and reversed the macrocosmic Our Father in the Lord’s Prayer. Christ might speak through any of the disciples and could not be told apart from them. Judas therefore had to betray him, under the influence of Ahriman. Need to speak of the spirit in the right way and approach the Fifth Gospel with reverence.

Lecture 6, Berlin, 21 October 1913

Laying of foundation stone in Dornach and need for Anthroposophy. Human beings progressively less spiritual in different civilizations until wholly related to physical plane at time of Golgotha. Crusaders looked for the Christ on physical plane where he was no longer to be found. Need arose to ‘prove’ existence of God. Foolishness and inner untruthfulness of intelligent people—Eucken, Harnack, Renan. Until now Christ impulse not dependent on our understanding but now understanding must be sought.

Lecture 7, Berlin, 4 November 1913

Two Jesus children. Between his twelfth year and the baptism in the Jordan, Jesus of Nazareth learned that the ancient revelations of Hebrew and pagan religion could no longer reach people and that the Essenes’ search for higher development was exclusive of others and drove Lucifer and Ahriman away. Vision of Buddha. Pain suffered in mind and spirit (unlike Maeterlinck’s idea). Need to treat Fifth Gospel revelations with reverence.

Lecture 8, Berlin, 18 November 1913

The macrocosmic Our Father. Jesus of Nazareth talks to his mother about his experiences. Story of Hillel. Inner changes in Jesus and his mother and baptism by John in the Jordan. Temptation as presented in the Fifth Gospel. Consequences of Ahriman’s challenge not being fully answered. Christ spirit entering gradually into bodies of Jesus of Nazareth but also able to go apart and to speak through disciples.

Lecture 9, Berlin, 6 January 1914

Three encounters Jesus of Nazareth had on his way to the Jordan. Temptation. Need to ask question—Parsifal and young man of Sais. New Isis Mystery.

Lecture 10, Berlin, 13 January 1914

Hebrews saw Yahveh as Earth god; their religion distinct from astral religions. John’s ‘offspring of vipers’ refers to this. Paul’s mission. Higher faculties bound to heredity in the past, now have to be developed individually. Kepler on the Earth as an animal organism and the Earth’s soul, and his poetry. We gain living connection with the Christ if we acknowledge that our gifts come from him.

Lecture 11, Berlin, 10 February 1914

Three cosmic events preceding Golgotha, when the Christ spirit united with the soul that would later be the Nathan child. These prevented chaos of the senses, chaos of the seven vital organs and chaos of thinking, feeling and will. Contrast between Pythia/Apollo and sybils. Mystery of Golgotha to prevent chaos in evolution of I. Fate of physical body and ether body after death. Earth evolution terminating in heat death. Blood of Christ gave new germinal life that will take us to Jupiter. Body of Christ makes this visible for us after death. Because of the Christ impulse we are able to progress on Earth.

Lecture 12, Cologne, 17 December 1913

Nature of Solomon and Nathan Jesus boys. Consequences of Zarathustra-I passing from the one to the other. Jesus of Nazareth experiencing decline of Hebrew religion (Hillel) and pagan religion (macrocosmic Our Father), and exclusive nature of Essene Order, keeping out Ahriman and Lucifer. Talk with his mother and its consequences. Three encounters on his way to the river Jordan.

Lecture 13, Cologne, 18 December 1913

Method of gaining access to Akashic Record: our thinking a thought of the Angels, offering yourself to the Archangels, becoming food for the Archai. Christ spirit entering three bodies of Jesus of Nazareth. How the hierarchies guide evolution. Need to send Sun spirit to counter Lucifer. Christ spirit limited by capacities of the bodies. Temptation leaving residue of Ahriman’s challenge. Christ spirit speaking through disciples. Judas influenced by Ahriman to betray the Christ. Golgotha event with darkening of Earth and earthquake. Christ spirit entering into Earth’s aura and therefore into human evolution.

INTRODUCTION

The whole of Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy turns on perceiving the central significance the Christ event holds for the whole of human and Earth evolution. His work as a teacher in the science of the spirit began at a time when biblical scientists and those researching the life of Jesus Christ cast increasing doubt on the Gospels as a historical source and on the historical reality of Jesus Christ. In 1902 Steiner published his Christianity as Mystical Fact, laying the foundation for a new justification of true Christianity. He showed that the Gospels cannot be taken as a historical biography of Jesus Christ but in fact present the ‘typical life of the Son of God’, earlier forms of which had existed for a long time in different mystery traditions. In the years that followed he continued and deepened the theme in many lectures. After a time he also began to present the results of his spiritual investigations concerning the actual historical life of Jesus of Nazareth up to the baptism in the Jordan when Christ, the Son of God, entered into the human being Jesus of Nazareth. Rudolf Steiner called these research findings ‘the Fifth Gospel’, or also the ‘Gospel of higher perception’, contributions from the science of the spirit to add to the four Gospels, for, as we read at the conclusion of John’s Gospel, ‘Jesus also did many other things. Indeed if they were all written down I expect that the world itself would not contain the books being written’ (John 21: 25 [Kalmia Bittleston translation]).

The existing records of lectures given in 1913 and 1914 under the title The Fifth Gospel have been collected in this volume [the original German edition also contains one lecture given in Hamburg and two lectures each given in Stuttgart and Munich]. There is some repetition, but as the lectures were given to different groups of people in each place this means a considerable enrichment, as the manner of presentation progressively gains in vigour. The main themes are: scenes from the childhood and youth of Jesus of Nazareth—the profound pain he experienced on realizing that the great wisdom of old was no longer reaching the people— events from his travels as a journeyman—the revelation of the Cosmic Our Father—the connection with the Essenes and John the Baptist—important talks with his stepmother concerning human salvation—events on the way to the baptism in the Jordan.

Rudolf Steiner said that he felt he was deeply obliged to communicate these research findings. On one hand he was convinced that the present age needs renewed understanding of Christ Jesus and a new way of seeing what really happened because of the Mystery of Golgotha, and on the other hand he believed that human souls would gain in health and strength by being mindful of this event, which holds the key to the meaning and purpose of human and Earth history.

LECTURE 1

Oslo, 1 October 1913

The theme I have in mind for these lectures seems of special importance in view of the present-day situation. Let me emphasize from the beginning that there is no element of sensationalism or anything of that kind in the choice of the title The Fifth Gospel. I hope to be able to show that it is possible to speak of such a Fifth Gospel from a point of view that is of particular importance to us in the present age, and that no title could be more suitable for what is intended. As you will hear, the Fifth Gospel has never yet been written down, but it will certainly be put into definite form in future times. In a sense, however, it would be true to say that it is as ancient as the other four Gospels.

In order that I may be able to speak about the Fifth Gospel, we shall first have to consider some important points which are essential to any real understanding of it. Let me say to begin with that the time is certainly not far distant when even in the lowest grade schools and in the most elementary education the branch of knowledge commonly called history will be presented somewhat differently. It is certain—and these lectures should in a way confirm this—that in time to come the concept or idea of Christ will play a completely different and much more important part in even the most elementary study of history than it has done until now. I know such a statement seems controversial, but let us remember that there were times, by no means far distant, when among both the ordinary folk and the most highly educated in Western Europe countless hearts turned to Christ with feelings of immeasurably greater fervour and intensity than is the case today. If you study modern writings and reflect on people’s main interests today the impression is that enthusiasm and warmth of feeling for the Christ idea are on the wane, especially in those who claim an up-to-date education. In spite of this, our present age is moving towards a point where the Christ idea will play a much more important part in the study of human history. Does this not seem to be a complete contradiction?

Let us look at this from another side. I have been able to speak about the significance and content of the Christ idea on several occasions, also in this town. Books and lecture courses which are available here contain deep teachings of spiritual science concerning the secrets of the Christ and of the Christ idea. Anyone who assimilates what has been said in lectures, courses and indeed in the whole of our literature will realize that any real understanding of the Christ needs extensive preparation, and that the deepest concepts and thoughts must be summoned to our aid if we desire to reach some comprehension of the Christ and the Christ impulse which has been working through the centuries. It might even be thought that knowledge of the whole of spiritual science or Anthroposophy is necessary before there can be a true conception of the Christ, but there are also reasons that speak against this. If we leave this aside and look at the development of spiritual life in past centuries we find that century after century there has been detailed and profound scholarship aimed at understanding the Christ and his incarnation. For centuries, people have developed sublime and significant ideas in their endeavours to reach an understanding of the Christ. It seems as if only the most highly intellectual achievements would suffice for such understanding. But is this really the case? Quite simple reflection will show that it is not.

Let us, as it were, lay on one scale of a spiritual balance all the contributions which scholarship, science and even anthroposophical conceptions have contributed towards an understanding of the Christ. On the other scale let us lay all the inwardness of human hearts, all the deep feelings which through the centuries have turned to the being called the Christ. We shall find that the scale on which we have laid everything contributed by science, scholarship and even Anthroposophy to explain the Christ will rise with amazing rapidity, whilst the deep feelings and inner responses human beings have had for the Christ will make the other scale go down deep. It is no exaggeration to say that the Christ has had a tremendous influence and that scholarship has contributed least of all to this. Truly it would have boded ill for Christianity if people had needed all the learned dissertations of the Middle Ages, of the Schoolmen and the Church Fathers in order to understand the Christ, or indeed if they had to depend on everything we are now able to offer out of Anthroposophy. This whole body of knowledge would be of very little help. I hardly think that anyone who studies the march of Christianity through the centuries with an unprejudiced mind can raise any serious argument against this line of thought. But the subject can be approached from yet another side.

Let us look back to the times before Christianity came into existence. I need only mention something of which those sitting here are certainly aware. I need only remind you of the ancient Greek dramas, especially in their earlier forms. When portraying a god in combat or a human being whose soul was under the influence of such a god, those plays would literally show on stage how the gods worked and influenced life. Think of Homer1 and how his great epics are all interwoven with the workings of the spirit; think of the great figures of Socrates,2 Plato3 and Aristotle.4 These names bring before our mind’s eye a life of the spirit that in a certain domain was supreme. Leaving all else aside and looking only at the single figure of Aristotle, who lived centuries before the founding of Christianity, we find there an achievement which, in a way, has remained unexcelled to this day. Aristotle’s thinking, the way he developed human logic, reached such a level of perfection that even today we may say that, through him, human thinking reached a height never yet surpassed.

Let us now create a strange hypothesis, just for the moment, which will help us to understand. Let us imagine that there were no Gospels to tell us anything about the figure of Christ, that the earliest records which have come to us in the form of the New Testament were simply not in existence. Leaving on one side all that has been said about the founding of Christianity, let us study its progress as historical fact, observing what has happened through the centuries of the Christian era. In other words, ignoring the existence of the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, St Paul’s Epistles and so on, let us consider only what actually happened. This is pure hypothesis, of course, but what really happened before and after the founding of Christianity?

Turning our attention first of all to southern Europe, we find that at a certain point in time spiritual life and culture had developed to the highest level, represented, as we have seen, in Aristotle. This developed further in the centuries that followed. At the time when Christianity began to make its way in the world, many people in southern Europe had received a Greek education and assimilated the spiritual culture of Greece. If we follow the evolution of Christianity to the time of Celsus5—that strange individual who was such a violent opponent of Christianity—and even beyond his time, we find that up to the second and third centuries after Christ many highly cultured people in Greece and Italy had absorbed the noble ideas of Plato, astute ideas that seem like a continuation of Aristotle’s thinking. Here were minds of refinement and power versed in Greek learning, Romans who had added the aggressive, personal characteristics of Roman civilization to the subtlety of Greek civilization.

Such was the world into which the Christian impulse made its way. Truly, in respect of intellectuality and knowledge of the world, the early representatives of the Christian impulse seem to be uneducated in comparison with many well-educated Romans and Greeks. A group of uneducated people emerges in the midst of a world of mature intellectuality. And now we witness a strange spectacle: through these simple, unsophisticated people, who were its first bearers, Christianity spread comparatively quickly through southern Europe. Thinking of them today, perhaps having gained some understanding of the nature of Christianity though Anthroposophy, we are able to say: in that world of highly developed Greek thinking, the unsophisticated people who emerged as the bearers of the Christian impulse had no understanding at all of the nature of the Christian impulse. They had nothing to offer in the market-place of Graeco-Roman life save their own inwardness, a personal connection with the Christ whom they loved as though he were a much-loved member of their family. The people who brought into the Graeco-Roman world the Christianity which has continued to develop right to our present time were not well-informed theologians or theosophists, they were uneducated. The Gnostics, who were the learned theosophists of those times had, it is true, risen to sublime ideas concerning the Christ, but even they were only able to contribute knowledge that must be placed in the rising scale of the balance. If everything had depended on the Gnostics, Christianity would certainly not have made its victorious headway through the world. It was no highly developed intellectuality that came over from the East, causing the comparatively rapid decline of the old Greek and Roman culture. This is one side of the picture.

We see the other side when we consider people of intellectual distinction, beginning with Celsus—the opponent of Christianity who brought forward all the arguments that may still be brought today—all the way to Marcus Aurelius,6 the philosopher on the throne. We think of the Neo-Platonists with their subtle scholarship, whose ideas make those of modern philosophy seem like child’s play, so greatly do they surpass them in loftiness and breadth of vision. If we consider all the arguments against Christianity brought by those philosophers, people of high intellectual eminence in Graeco-Roman civilization, we gain the impression that they all failed to understand the Christ impulse. Christianity was spread by people who understood nothing of its real nature; it was opposed by an advanced culture incapable of grasping its significance. Truly, Christianity made a strange entry into a world where adherents and opponents alike understood nothing of its true spirit. And yet there were people who had the power in them to secure for the Christ impulse its victorious march through the world.

Let us now look at people such as the great Church Father Tertullian7 who entered the lists on behalf of Christianity with a certain greatness and power. Tertullian was a Roman who may almost be said to have re-created the Latin tongue, creating new words with a surety and precision that tell us he was a personality of real significance. But if we consider his idea of the Christ, there is a very different story to tell. In this respect he showed little evidence of intellectuality or of being a great mind. The defenders of Christianity also did not achieve much. Yet people like Tertullian—someone whose arguments would not be highly rated by any educated Greek—nevertheless proved potent personalities. He was captivating—but in what way? This is the crux of the matter.

Let us realize that this is a very real question. How were the bearers of the Christ impulse able to have such an influence when in fact they understood little of the true nature of that impulse? How were the Church Fathers, including even Origen,8 able to have such an influence, in spite of their obvious inability to understand the Christ impulse? Why were people who had reached the highest level in Graeco-Roman scholarship unable to understand the essential nature of the Christ impulse? What does all this signify?

But let us go further. The same phenomenon emerges even more clearly if we consider the course of history. As the centuries went by, Christianity spread over Europe, among peoples such as the Germanic peoples who had entirely different ideas of religion and worship and appeared to be completely at home in those ideas, yet nevertheless they accepted the Christ impulse with open hearts, as their true life. When we think of the individuals who were the most influential missionaries among them, were they highly educated theologians? No, indeed! Comparatively speaking they were simple, unsophisticated souls who went among the people, talking to them in the most homely, everyday language, but moving their very hearts. They knew how to frame their words in such a way as to touch the deepest heart strings of those to whom they spoke. Simple people went far and wide, and it was their work that produced the most significant results.

Christianity thus spread through the centuries. But we marvel at the fact that this same Christianity also became the subject of profound scholarship, science and philosophy. Without undervaluing this philosophy, let us focus our attention on the remarkable fact that up to the Middle Ages the peoples among whom Christianity spread, soon becoming part of their very souls, had until then had ideas of a very different kind in their hearts and minds. In the not too far distant future, many other important aspects relating to the spread of Christianity will emerge. Speaking of the influence of the Christian impulse, people will find it easy to agree that there was a time when these Christian teachings were the source of real enthusiasm. Yet in modern times the fervour which in the Middle Ages accompanied the spread of Christianity seems to have died away.

Think of the time of Copernicus,9 when the development of science started that has continued to the nineteenth century. Modern science, which from the time of Copernicus has become an integral part of western culture, might appear to have run counter to Christianity. The known historical facts may seem to confirm this. Thus the writings of Copernicus were put on the index of forbidden books by the Roman Catholic Church until the 1820s. The Church considered Copernicus its enemy. These are superficial aspects, however, and they did not prevent Copernicus from being a canon. The Roman Church may have burnt Giordano Bruno10 at the stake, but he was, for all that, a member of the Dominican Order. The ideas of both these thinkers sprang from the soil of Christianity and they acted out of the Christian impulse. To maintain that their teachings were not the fruits of Christianity would show poor understanding on the part of anyone claiming to hold fast by the Church. All this goes to prove that the Church did not really understand the fruits of Christianity; it needed a long time, right into the nineteenth century, before it realized that Copernicus’s ideas could not be suppressed by the index. Anyone able to see more deeply will have to admit that all the achievements of peoples and nations, including those of more recent centuries, have been the outcome of Christianity and that it was because of Christianity that humanity turned its gaze from the Earth to the wide spaces of the heavens through the work of Copernicus and Giordano Bruno. That work was only possible within Christian culture and through the Christian impulse.

Anyone who considers the depths and not merely the surface of spiritual life will understand something which may seem highly peculiar but is nevertheless correct. Looking beneath the surface it seems impossible that someone like Haeckel,11 that arch-opponent of Christianity, could be the man he is except on the basis of Christianity. Ernst Haeckel is inconceivable without that basis. And the whole development of modern science, where great efforts are made to oppose Christianity, is nevertheless the offspring and a direct development of the Christian impulse. Once it has got over its teething troubles, people will see quite clearly that, taken to its logical conclusion, the point of origin of modern science truly leads to a science of the spirit, and that there is a consistent path from Haeckel to the science of the spirit.12 Once this has been grasped, people will realize that Haeckel is Christian through and through, although he himself has no notion of it. The Christian impulses have given rise not only to elements that called and still call themselves Christian but also to those that on the surface appear to run counter to Christianity. We have to study the underlying reality and not merely the concepts and ideas that are put into words. The Darwinian theory of evolution leads in a straight line to the teaching of repeated earth lives, as you can see from my essay ‘Reincarnation and Karma’.13

To gain the right approach to these things we must be able to observe the influence of the Christian impulses without prejudice. Anyone who understands Darwinism and the teachings of Haeckel and has at least some notion that both could not have been anything but Christian movements (Haeckel has no idea of this, but Darwin14 still had some awareness), will inevitably arrive at the idea of reincarnation. Someone with clairvoyant powers will be able to follow this road consistently and arrive at the spiritual origin of the human race. It is a roundabout way, but with the help of clairvoyance we have a consistent path from Haeckel’s teachings to a spiritual conception of the Earth’s origin. It would also be possible to accept Darwinism as it presents itself today without letting its life principles influence us. In other words, if Darwinism is taken as an impulse and one has no deeper understanding of Christianity, which is part of it, the result is very strange. With that kind of mental attitude people are likely to understand as little of Christianity as they do of Darwinism, and have no sense for either! If we have a feeling for Darwinism we can be as materialistic as we like, but going further back in Earth history we come to a point where we realize that the human being never evolved from lower forms of animal life and must be spiritual in origin. Taking Darwinism to its logical conclusion we come to the point where we see the human being as a spiritual entity hovering above the Earth world. If, however, we have no feeling for the true spirit of Darwinism and believe in reincarnation, we may well believe that we were apes in one of our incarnations on Earth.15 Anyone who believes this must have lost all feeling for both Darwinism and Christianity! Darwinism taken to its logical conclusion would never allow us to think so. For we would have to graft the reincarnation concept on to materialistic culture in a wholly external way. It is, of course, possible to strip modern Darwinism of its Christian aspect. If we do not do so, however, we shall find that even to the present day the impulses of Darwinism have been born out of the Christ impulse and that Christian impulses are at work even where they are denied.

Thus we have seen Christianity spread in the early centuries, quite independent of its adherents’ level of education and knowledge, and in the Middle Ages, when representatives of the Church and Schoolmen, with all their learning, contributed almost nothing to it. And finally in our materialistic modern science we have the strange paradox of Christianity more or less appearing to be the opposite of what it is. Modern science nevertheless derives all its greatness and tremendous energies from the Christian impulses. And those impulses will inevitably take science out of and beyond materialism.

It is a strange thing with those Christian impulses! It seems that intellectuality, learning and erudition play no role at all in their spread, which has entirely different reasons. We might say that Christianity spreads regardless of whether people are for or against it in their thinking, and actually appears changed into its opposite in modern materialism.

What exactly is it that spreads? It is not the ideas or knowledge of Christianity. We might say that it is the moral feeling that has come with Christianity. But just look at present-day morals and you’ll feel that much of the anger representatives of Christianity feel against real or imagined opponents has its justification. Nor can the morality shown by people with little education in the past impress us greatly, even if taken at its most Christian. What, then, is this mysterious impulse making its victorious way through the world?

Let us turn to the science of the spirit, to clairvoyant consciousness. What lived in the ignorant hordes coming from the East who pushed their way into Graeco-Roman culture? What lived in the people who brought Christianity to the alien world of the Germanic tribes? What lives in materialistic modern science, where the teaching may be said to be veiling its face still? What lived and lives in all those souls, seeing these are neither intellectual nor moral impulses? It is the Christ himself. He goes from heart to heart, from soul to soul, living and working in the world regardless of whether he is understood as evolution progresses through the centuries.

We are compelled to abandon all our established notions and knowledge and point to the reality, showing how Christ himself mysteriously walks through the centuries, in thousands of impulses, taking form in human souls, entering into millions of hearts and bringing fulfilment. Christ himself was in the hearts of the simple people who entered into the world of Greece and Italy. He took hold of more and more human souls in the West and the North. He walked by the side of the teachers who later brought Christianity to the Germanic peoples. Christ himself in all his reality went from place to place, from soul to soul, himself the very Soul of the Earth, entering into those souls regardless of what they thought of Christianity.

Let me use a simple analogy. How many people are there who understand nothing about the composition of foods and yet eat a proper diet? It would certainly mean starvation if we had to know all about our food before we could eat it. Nourishment has nothing whatsoever do to with understanding the nature of foods. In the same way the spread of Christianity over the Earth had nothing to do with how much of it people understood. This is a strange fact. It is a mystery that can only be explained by finding the answer to the question: how does Christ himself live in human hearts and minds? When we consider this question in the science of the spirit, in clairvoyant investigation, we turn first of all to an event that is wholly in accord with everything I have been saying today and the full reality of which can only be discovered by clairvoyant perception. We shall see something that needs to be seen more and more clearly as time goes on: the time when Christ worked in the way I have just described is past and gone, and the time has come when humanity must understand and have real knowledge of Christ.

We must therefore also find the answer to the question as to why our age was preceded by an age when the Christ impulse was able to spread independently of people’s understanding. It was possible because of one particular event. Clairvoyant consciousness tells us that it was the event of Pentecost, the sending of the Holy Spirit. Clairvoyant vision quickened by the true Christ impulse in the anthroposophical sense was first directed to this event. This initially presents itself when our investigation is conducted with a certain question in mind.

What happened on Earth at the moment in world evolution which is presented as the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, an event that is difficult to understand at first? Clairvoyant investigation tells us what it means when it says that simple folk such as the Apostles suddenly started to speak in different tongues, speaking of truths which came to them from the depths of spiritual life, and which no one would have thought them capable of uttering. That was the time when Christianity, Christian impulses, began to spread in a way that was independent of people’s understanding.

From the event of Pentecost the Christ power poured out over the Earth. What, then, was this event? The question has presented itself in the science of the spirit, and with the answer to it begins—the Fifth Gospel.