You will have seen from the lecture given here on the more
complicated questions of reincarnation that, with further progress in
the development of the spiritual scientific view of the world,
what in the beginning could be given as elementary truths becomes
modified. Thus, we gradually rise to ever higher truths. Still, it
was right to present the general cosmic truths at first in as simple
and elementary a form as possible. It is, however, also necessary
to advance slowly step by step from the simple abc's to the
higher truths. Only through them will what spiritual science is
intended to give gradually be attained; that is, the possibility of
understanding and penetrating the world surrounding us in the
physical, sense perceptible sphere. Now it is true that we have
a long way to go before we shall be able to coordinate the spiritual
lines and forces existing behind the world of the senses, but because
of much that has been said in recent lectures, various phenomena of
our existence will already have become clearer and more
understandable.
Today we shall proceed a little further and speak again about more
complicated questions of reincarnation or re-embodiment. To that end,
we must first realize that differences exist among the beings
who occupy leading places in the earth's human evolution. In
the course of earthly evolution we must distinguish those leading
individualities who have developed along with humanity from the
beginning, but who have made more rapid progress. We might put
it this way. If we go back into the past to the remote Lemurian time,
we find the most varied stages of development among the human
beings then incarnated. All the souls embodied at that time have
since repeatedly experienced reincarnations during the
succeeding Atlantean and post-Atlantean periods. These souls have
developed with varying rapidity. Some have made relatively slow
progress through their incarnations and still have long
distances to travel in the future. But there are also souls who
have developed rapidly, who, one might say, have utilized their
incarnations to better advantage and are therefore at a stage of
soul-spiritual development that will be attained by normal men
only in the far distant future. Nevertheless, we may say that however
advanced these individual souls may be, however far they may tower
above normal men, they have still followed the same path in earthly
evolution as the rest of humanity but have merely advanced more
rapidly.
Besides these leading individualities, who in this sense are like the
rest of humanity but are at a higher stage, there are also other
individualities, other beings, who have by no means gone through
various incarnations as other men have in the course of their
evolution. We can perhaps illustrate what lies at the bottom of
this by saying that there were beings in the time of the Lemurian
evolution who no longer needed to descend so deeply into
physical embodiment as the other men who have just been described.
There were beings who could have accomplished their development
in higher, more spiritual regions and who did not need to descend
into bodies of flesh for their further progress. In order to
intervene in the course of human evolution it is nevertheless
possible for these beings to descend vicariously, so to speak, into
just such bodies as our own. At any time, therefore, a being may
appear of whom, if we make the necessary clairvoyant test, we cannot
say, as we can of other human beings, that we trace the soul back in
time and find it in a previous fleshly incarnation, trace it farther
back and find it again in another incarnation, and so on. Instead, we
must say that if we trace the soul of such a being back through the
course of time, we may perhaps not find it at all in a former fleshly
incarnation. If we do, it is only because the being in question is
able to descend repeatedly to incarnate vicariously in a human body.
A spiritual being who descends thus into a human body in order to
intervene in evolution as a human being, but without gaining anything
from this embodiment for himself or experiencing anything here
in the world of special significance for himself, is called an
avatar. This is the distinction between a leading being who has
sprung from human evolution itself and an avatar. An avatar being
reaps no benefits for himself from his physical embodiments, or
from even one embodiment to which he may subject himself; he enters a
physical body for the blessing and advancement of mankind. Thus,
an avatar being can either enter a human body just once or several
times in succession, and when embodied is entirely different from
other human beings.
The greatest avatar being who has lived on earth, as you can gather
from the spirit of the lectures given here, is the Christ, that Being
Whom we designate as the Christ, Who took possession of the bodies of
Jesus of Nazareth in the thirtieth year of his life. This Being, Who
first came in contact with our earth at the beginning of our era, Who
was incarnated for three years in a body of flesh, and Who since that
time has been connected with the astral sphere, the spiritual sphere
of our super-sensible world this Being is of unique
significance as an avatar being. We should seek the Christ Being
quite in vain in an earlier human embodiment, whereas other, lower
avatar beings can be found to be embodied more than once. They
incarnate repeatedly but obtain no benefit from their earthly
embodiments for themselves. They only give; they take nothing from
the earth. If. you want to understand these things perfectly, you
must distinguish between such a lofty avatar being as the Christ and
lower avatar beings who can have the most varied missions, and so as
not to flounder about in speculation, we shall give a concrete
instance to illustrate such a mission.
You all know from the story of Noah that in the ancient Hebrew
narrative a great part of post-Noah humanity is derived from his
sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. Today we shall not go into what Noah and
these three tribal ancestors are intended to represent in another
respect, but shall simply realize clearly that the Hebrew
literature that speaks of Noah's son, Shem, traces the whole
tribe of the Semites back to him as its ancestor. A genuinely occult
view of such a matter is always based upon deeper truths. Those who
are able to carry on occult research into such things know the
following facts concerning Shem, the ancestor of the Semites.
In the case of such a personality who is destined to be the forebear
of an entire tribe, care must be taken from the time of his birth to
make it possible for him to become this ancestor. Now in what way
will care be taken that a personality like Shem, for example, can be
the ancestor of a whole people, or of a tribal community? In the case
of Shem it was brought about through his receiving a quite
specially prepared etheric body. We know that when a human being is
born into this world he fashions about his individuality his
etheric or life body, along with the other members of his being. For
such a tribal ancestor a special etheric body must be prepared
that will be the model etheric body for all the descendants in the
succeeding generations. So we have in such a tribal progenitor a
typical model etheric body that, through blood relationship
passes through the generations. In this wise, the etheric bodies
of all the descendants who belong to the same tribe are copies in a
certain sense of the etheric body of the ancestor. Thus, into all the
etheric bodies of the Semitic people there was woven something like a
copy of Shem's etheric body. Now by what means is such a
circumstance brought about in the course of human evolution?
If we observe this man Shem a little more closely, we find that his
etheric body received its archetypal form because an avatar had woven
himself into it. Although he was not so exalted as certain other
avatar beings, still, it was a lofty individuality who descended into
his etheric body. This being was not united with Shem's astral
body nor with his ego, but was woven into his etheric body alone. In
this very example we are able to study the exact significance of the
participation of an avatar being in the constitution and composition
of a human being. What does it mean, then, that a man like Shem, who
has the mission to be the ancestor of a whole people, should have an
avatar being woven into his body? It means that whenever an avatar
being is woven into a fleshly human body, some one member, or even
several members, of the super-sensible constitution of this human
being are capable of being multiplied and split into many parts.
It was really because an avatar being was interwoven with Shem's
etheric body that it became possible for numberless copies of the
original to be formed, and these many copies could be woven into all
the descendants of this tribal ancestor in subsequent generations.
Thus, the descent to earth of an avatar being is significant, among
other things, in that it contributes to the multiplication of one or
several members of the person in question who is animated by the
avatar. There existed in Shem, as you can see from this, an
especially precious etheric body, an archetypal etheric body,
prepared by an exalted avatar. It was woven into Shem so that it
could then descend in many copies to all those who were ordained to
be related by blood to him.
Now we have already said in the lecture mentioned at the beginning
that there is also a spiritual economy consisting in the fact
that anything of especial value is preserved and carried over
into the future. We have heard that not only is the ego re-embodied,
but that also the astral body and the etheric body can be
re-embodied. Aside from the fact that numberless copies of Shem's
etheric body were formed, his own etheric body was also preserved in
the spiritual world because it could later be useful in the mission
of the Hebrew people. In this etheric body all the peculiarities of
the Hebrews had originally come to expression, and if at any time
something of especial importance was to occur for them, if a
special task or mission was to be assigned to some one of them, it
could best be accomplished by one who bore the etheric body of the
ancestor. At a later time, a man who played an important role in the
history of the Hebrews actually did bear the etheric body of the
tribal ancestor, Shem. In fact, we have here one of those wonderful
complications in human evolution that can explain a great deal to us.
We have to do with an exalted individuality who was compelled to
condescend, in somewhat the way a spiritually advanced person would
have to speak to a lowly tribe, to speak to the Hebrew people in a
manner appropriate to giving them strength for a special
mission. He would, of course, be compelled to learn the language of
this tribe, but it should not be maintained because of this that the
language was something that would be used to advance him personally;
he needed only take the trouble to learn the language. In this same
way a lofty individuality had to make the effort to use Shem's
etheric body to be able to give a definite impulse to the ancient
Hebrew people. This personality is the one you find in Biblical
history named Melchizedek. He took upon himself the etheric body of
Shem so that later he could give Abraham the impulse you find so
beautifully described in the Bible. So, aside from the fact that what
was contained in the individuality of Shem was multiplied because an
avatar being was embodied in it, which then became woven into all the
other etheric bodies of the Hebrews, Shem's own etheric body
was preserved in the spiritual world so that it could be borne at a
later time by Melchizedek, who was to give the Hebrews an important
impulse through Abraham.
Thus delicately interwoven are the facts existing behind the
physical world that alone make explicable to us what occurs in it. We
come to understand history only when we are able to point to such
facts of a spiritual nature lying behind the physical ones. History
can never be explained by considering physical facts alone.
What we have been discussing becomes especially significant.
Through the descent of an avatar being the essential soul-spiritual
members of the individual who is the bearer of this avatar being are
multiplied and transmitted as copies to other human beings. This
fact assumes special significance through the appearance of
Christ on earth. Because the Avatar Being of Christ lived in the body
of Jesus of Nazareth, it became possible for his etheric body to be
multiplied innumerable times. This was true as well of the astral
body and even the ego; that is, the ego as an impulse, as it was
kindled in the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth when Christ entered
his threefold sheath. First, however, we will take into account
the fact that through the Avatar Being the etheric and astral bodies
of Jesus could be multiplied.
Now, through the appearance of the Christ principle in earthly
evolution one of the most significant phenomena in humanity
occurred. What I have told you about Shem is fundamentally typical
and characteristic of the pre-Christian times. When an etheric or an
astral body is multiplied in this way, the copies are transmitted as
a rule to those people who are related by blood to the one who had
the original. Hence, the copies of Shem's etheric body were
transmitted to the members of the Hebrew tribe. This was changed when
the Christ Avatar Being appeared. The etheric and astral bodies of
Jesus of Nazareth were multiplied and the copies preserved until
they could be used in the course of human development. They were not,
however, limited to any one nationality nor to any particular people.
But when in the course of time a human being appeared who,
irrespective of nationality, was ripe to have interwoven with his
etheric or astral body an etheric or astral copy of the etheric or
astral body of Jesus of Nazareth, they could be woven into his being.
Thus, we see how it became possible in the course of time for all
sorts of people to have woven into them copies of the astral or
etheric bodies of Jesus of Nazareth.
The intimate history of Christian development is connected with
this fact. What is ordinarily described as the history of Christian
development is a sum of entirely external occurrences.
Therefore, far too little consideration is given to the distinction
of actual periods in Christian development. Anyone who can look more
deeply into the evolutionary progress of Christianity will easily
perceive that, in the early centuries of the Christian era, the
manner in which Christianity was spread was entirely different
from that of later centuries. In the first Christian centuries
the spread of Christianity was connected with everything that could
be procured from the physical plane. We need only look at the early
teachers of Christianity to see how physical recollections,
relationships, and relics were emphasized. Just consider the
importance that Irenaeus, who contributed so much to the spread of
Christian teaching in various lands in the first century, gave to the
fact that his recollections extended back to those who had listened
to the pupils of the Apostles. Great value was set upon being able to
prove by means of such memories of physical life that Christ Himself
had taught in Palestine. It was especially emphasized, for example,
that Papias himself had sat at the feet of the Apostles
pupils. Even the places where those personalities had sat who were
still eye witnesses of the fact that Christ had lived in Palestine
were pointed out and described. The continuing remembrance of
physical happenings and places is what was especially emphasized in
the early Christian centuries.
The great prominence that was given to everything of a physical
nature can be seen in the words of the ancient Augustine, who says,
Why do I believe in the truths of Christianity? Because the
authority of the Catholic Church compels me to. The
authority for the existence of something in the physical world
is the important and essential thing to him. Thus, the
determining factor for him is that a corporate body has been
maintained that, linking personality with personality, reaches
back to one, such as Peter, who was a companion of Christ. Here we
can see that in the spread of Christianity during the early
centuries it was the documents and the impressions of the physical
plane to which the greatest importance was attached.
Now, after the time of Augustine, the situation changed. Up to the
tenth, eleventh or twelfth centuries it was no longer possible to
appeal to living memories, nor to draw upon the documents of the
physical plane, which now lay too far in the past. Something entirely
different also came into existence in the whole mood and disposition
of the humanity that was then embracing Christianity. This was
especially the case among Europeans. During that time, there was
actually something like a direct knowledge of the existence of
Christ, of His death on the cross and of His continuing life in the
present. From the fourth or fifth centuries up to the tenth or
twelfth there was a large number of people who would have considered
it the greatest folly had they been told that the events of Palestine
could be doubted because they knew better. They had always been able
to experience inwardly in miniature a kind of Pauline revelation;
that is, the experience through which Saul, on the road to
Damascus, became a Paul.
What made it possible for a number of people in those centuries to be
able to receive revelations, which were in a certain sense
clairvoyant, concerning the events in Palestine? It was possible
because the multiplied copies of the etheric body of Jesus of
Nazareth had been preserved and were woven into a great number of
people. They were able to wear them as garments that were woven into
their etheric bodies. This was not Jesus own etheric body but
copies of the original. In these centuries there were those who could
possess such an etheric copy and who could thereby have a direct
knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth and the Christ.
For this reason, the Christ picture became dissociated from external,
historical, physical existence. A most extreme dissociation is
presented in that wonderful work of the ninth century, the Heliand,
a poem that was written down by an outwardly simple man of Saxony in
the time of Ludwig the Pious, who reigned from 814 40. His
astral body and ego could by no means equal what his etheric body
contained because a copy of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth was
woven into his etheric body. The simple Saxon pastor who wrote this
poem had the certainty through direct clairvoyant vision that
the Christ exists on the astral plane, and that He is the same as He
who was crucified on Golgotha. Because this was a direct certainty
for him, he no longer needed to cling to historical documents,
nor did he need physical assurance that the Christ existed. He
described Him, therefore, detached from the whole Palestinian
setting, as something like a leader of a Middle European or Germanic
tribe, and those who surrounded Him as His followers, the Apostles,
he described as vassals of a Germanic prince. All external scenery
was changed. Only what constitutes the structure of events, and the
actually essential and eternal in the Christ figure remained. Having
such a direct knowledge, which was built upon such an important
foundation as the copy of the etheric body of Jesus of
Nazareth, it was not necessary to hold rigidly to historical
events when he was speaking of the Christ. Thus, he was able to
invest his direct knowledge with a different external setting.
In the case of the writer of the Heliand we have been able to
describe one of the strange personalities who had a copy of the
etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth interwoven with his etheric
body, and we could find other personalities in this period who had
similar copies. We see here how the most important occurrences, with
which we are able to explain history in an intimate way, take place
behind the physical events.
If we follow Christian development further, we come to the period
between the eleventh or twelfth centuries and the fifteenth. Here
there was an entirely different mystery that now carried evolution
forward. First, it was the memory of what had taken place on the
physical plane; then it was the etheric element that was directly
woven into the etheric bodies of the Christians of Middle
Europe. In later centuries, from the twelfth to the fifteenth, it was
especially the numerous copies of the astral body of Jesus of
Nazareth that were woven into the astral bodies of the most important
supporters of Christianity. The egos of such people were capable of
forming false notions of all sorts of things, but immediate
sources of strength and devotion and a direct certainty of
sacred truths existed in their astral bodies. Such people possessed
deep fervor, absolutely direct conviction and also in some
circumstances the ability to prove this conviction. What must
sometimes seem so strange to us is that in their ego development they
by no means equaled what their astral bodies contained because
copies of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth were woven into them.
What their egos did often seemed grotesque, but the world of
their moods and feelings and fervor was grand and exalted.
Francis of Assisi, for example, was such a personality. This fact
becomes explicable when we, as people of the present, study his life
and are unable to understand his conscious ego, but are nevertheless
compelled to hold the deepest possible reverence for the entire world
of his feelings and for all that he did. He was one of those who had
a copy of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth, and it was this that
made his accomplishments possible. Many of his followers in the Order
of the Franciscans also had such copies interwoven with their astral
bodies.
All the strange and otherwise mysterious phenomena of that time will
become luminous and clear to you, if you bring properly before the
eyes of your soul this mediation in world evolution between that
time and the past. It is also important to know, however, whether
what was woven into these people of the Middle Ages from the astral
body of Jesus of Nazareth was more from what we call the sentient
soul, the intellectual soul or the consciousness soul, since the
astral body must, of course, be considered in a certain sense as
something containing all of this as well as enclosing the ego. All
that was woven into Francis of Assisi was wholly sentient soul
of Jesus of Nazareth. Wholly sentient soul of Jesus of Nazareth was
also contained in that remarkable personality, Elizabeth of
Thüringen, who was born in 1207. Knowing this secret of her life
will enable you to follow her biography with your soul. She, too, was
a personality who had a copy of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth
woven into her sentient soul. The riddle of the human being is solved
for us by means of just such knowledge.
One phenomenon above all will become understandable when you know
that during this time the most diverse personalities had sentient
soul, intellectual soul or consciousness soul woven into them as
copies of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. From this you will be
able to comprehend that little understood science, scholasticism.
What task did the scholastics set for themselves? They set out to
find, on the basis of judgment and intellect, verifications and
proof of that with which there was no historical connecting link, and
which was no longer available with the direct clairvoyant certainty
that existed in previous centuries through the interwoven etheric
body of Jesus of Nazareth. These people set themselves the task
by saying, It has been communicated to us through tradition
that in history that Being appeared Who is known as Christ Jesus, and
also that other spiritual beings of whom the religious documents
bear witness have intervened in human evolution. Then, from
the intellectual soul, that is, from the intellectual element of
the copy of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth, they set themselves
the task of proving with subtle and clearly developed concepts all
that existed in their literature as mystery truths. Thus arose the
strange science in which an attempt was made to achieve what was
perhaps the ultimate in human intellect. One may think of the content
of scholasticism as one wishes, but simply by means of this delicate
discrimination and exact outlining of concepts, the capacity for
human reflection was developed and impressed upon the culture of that
period. This capacity to think with acute and searching logic
through scholasticism was implanted into humanity between the
thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Among those who were more imbued with the copy of what had
constituted the consciousness soul of Jesus of Nazareth, the special
conviction arose, because the ego functions in the consciousness
soul, that the Christ can be found in the ego. Because they had
within them the element of the consciousness soul from the astral
body of Jesus of Nazareth, the inner Christ rose resplendent in their
souls. These are the individuals whom you know as Meister Eckhart,
Johannes Tauler and all the other bearers of medieval mysticism.
Here you see how the diversified phases of the astral body were
multiplied because the exalted Avatar Being of Christ had entered
into the body of Jesus of Nazareth, and they worked on in the
following age to bring about the real development of Christianity.
This was an important transition in other respects also. We have
seen how in the course of its development humanity was dependent upon
having incorporated within it copies of the other bodies of Jesus of
Nazareth. In the early centuries there were people who were entirely
dependent upon the physical plane; then in the following
centuries came those to whom the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth
was accessible to interweave with their etheric bodies. Later,
between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, people tended more
toward the astral body, the bearer of power and judgment, and so the
astral body of Jesus of Nazareth came to be incorporated in them.
The awakening of the astral body can be observed also in another
phenomenon. Before the twelfth century, the depths of mystery
contained in the Holy Communion were especially well-understood. It
was not widely discussed but was rather accepted in a manner
that enabled one to feel all that was contained in the words, This
is My body and this is My blood. Christ here indicated that he
would be united with the earth, becoming its planetary Spirit.
Because grain is the physical earth's most precious produce,
bread became for man the body of Christ; the sap flowing through
plants became something from His blood. Through this knowledge
the value of the Lord's Supper was not diminished but was, on
the contrary, enhanced. Something of these limitless depths was felt
in these early centuries and it continued up to the time when the
power of judgment awakened in the astral body. It was only then that
disputes began about the Lord's Supper. Just consider the
discussions as to what the Lord's Supper is intended to be that
took place among the Hussites, Lutherans and the dissenting
Zwinglians and Calvinists. This could not have been possible earlier
when direct knowledge of the Lord's Supper still existed.
Here we see verified a great historical truth that should be of
special importance to spiritual scientists. As long as people knew
what the Lord's Supper was, they did not discuss it. In
general, when people discuss, you can consider it a sign that they
really have no knowledge of the subject they are discussing. Where
knowledge exists, knowledge is imparted and there is no particular
desire for discussion. Where there is desire for discussion,
however, there is as a rule no knowledge of the truth.
Discussion begins only when there is a lack of knowledge, and it
is always and everywhere the sign of a decline regarding the
seriousness of a subject when it is discussed. Disintegration of a
particular trend is always proclaimed by discussions. It is important
that in spiritual science we come increasingly to understand that the
wish for discussion may really be taken as a sign of ignorance.
On the other hand, the opposite of discussion, the will to learn, the
will gradually to comprehend what is in question, should be
cultivated.
Here we see an important historical fact verified by the development
of Christianity itself. But we can also learn to see how, in these
centuries of Christendom just described, the power of judgment,
this acute intellectual wisdom residing in the astral body, is
developed. Indeed, if we fix our attention on realities rather than
dogmas, we can learn how much Christianity has accomplished since its
inception.
When we consider scholasticism, not as to content, but as a means of
cultivating and disciplining our faculties, what has become of it? It
has become natural science. Modern natural science is entirely
unthinkable without the Christian natural science of the Middle Ages.
It is not only that Copernicus was a canon and Giordano Bruno a
Dominican, but that the thought forms employed in the natural
sciences since the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are nothing
but what was developed and nurtured by the scholastic science of the
Middle Ages. Those people do not live in reality but in abstractions
who look up passages in scholastic books, compare them with the
statements made in recent natural science, and then say that Haeckel
and others maintain something entirely different. Realities are what
matter. The work of Haeckel, Darwin, du Bois-Reymond, Huxley and
others would all have been impossible if the Christian scholastic
science of the Middle Ages had not preceded them. The very fact that
these scientists were able to think as they did, they owe to the
Christianized science of the scholastics of the Middle Ages.
That is the reality, and it is by this means that humanity has
learned to think in the true sense of the word.
Furthermore, read David Friedrich Strauss. Try to observe the
mode of his thinking; try to analyze his thought pictures and how he
insists upon representing the life of Jesus of Nazareth as a myth. Do
you know where the keenness of his thinking originates? He gets it
from the Christian scholasticism of the Middle Ages. Everything used
today to combat Christianity so radically has been learned from the
Christian scholastic science of the Middle Ages. Actually, today
there cannot be an opponent of Christianity of whom it cannot easily
be pointed out that he would be unable to think as he does had he not
learned the thought forms of the scholastic science of the Middle
Ages. This, indeed, would be to observe world history in its reality.
What, then, has happened since the sixteenth century? The ego has
come gradually into prominence, and with it human egotism, and with
egotism, materialism. What the ego had previously acquired was
unlearned and forgotten and it became necessary for man to limit
himself to what the ego can observe, to what the physical sensory
system is able to give to ordinary intelligence. That alone could the
ego take into the inner sanctuary. The civilization since the
sixteenth century is one of egotism. What must now enter into this
ego? Christian evolution has passed through a development in the
physical, etheric and astral bodies, and has penetrated as far as the
ego. Now it must take into this ego the mysteries and secrets of
Christianity. Following a time when the ego learned to think through
Christianity and to apply the thoughts to the outer world, it must
now be possible for it to be made into a Christ receptive organ. It
must rediscover the primordial wisdom of the Great Avatar, Christ. By
what means must this come about? By a more profound understanding
of Christianity through spiritual science. Having been carefully
prepared through the three stages of physical; etheric and astral
development, the concern should now be that the organ within man be
opened so that he may henceforth see into his spiritual environment
with the eye that can be opened for him by the Christ.
As the greatest Avatar Being, Christ descended to earth. Let us view
this in the right perspective and try to look at the world as we
shall be able to see it when we shall have received the Christ into
ourselves. We then find the whole process of our world evolution
illuminated and pervaded by the Christ being. That is to say, we
see how man's physical body gradually came into existence
on Saturn, how the etheric body made its appearance on the Sun,
on the Moon the astral body, and then on the earth, the ego. We find
how everything tends toward the goal of becoming ever more
independent and individual in order to incorporate into the evolution
of the earth the wisdom that passes over from the Sun. In other
words, the Christ and Christianity must become the perspective center
of the cosmic view.
So you see how Christianity has gradually prepared itself for what it
is to become. In the early centuries the Christian received
Christianity with his physical capacity for knowledge, later with his
etheric capacity, and throughout the Middle Ages with his astral
capacity. Then for a time Christianity in its true form was
repressed until the ego had been trained by the three bodies in
the course of Christian development. But since this ego has learned
to think and to direct its vision to the objective world, it is now
capable also of seeing in all phenomena spiritual facts that are
intimately connected with the Central Being, the Christ. It is
capable of beholding the Christ everywhere in the most varied
forms as the foundation of the objective world.
Here we stand at the starting point of spiritual scientific
comprehension and knowledge of Christianity. We begin to understand
the task and mission that has been assigned to this movement for
spiritual knowledge, and we come to realize its reality. The
individual human being has physical, etheric and astral bodies,
and ego, and continues to rise to ever more lofty heights; it is the
same in the historical development of Christianity. We might say that
it, too, has physical, etheric and astral bodies, and an ego
an ego that can even deny its origin, as in our time, since it can
become egotistic. But it is still an ego that can receive the true
Christ Being into itself, thereby rising to ever higher stages of
existence. What the human being is in particular, the great
world is in its totality, and that includes its historical
development. When observed in this light, a perspective of the
far-distant future opens before us from the spiritual scientific
viewpoint, and we realize how it can lay hold upon our hearts and
fill them with meaning. We comprehend evermore what we have to
do, knowing that we are not groping in the dark. We have not devised
ideas that we intend arbitrarily to project into the future, but we
intend to harbor and to follow only those ideas that have been slowly
prepared through the centuries. It is true that, after the physical,
etheric and astral bodies had come into existence, the ego appeared
and is now to be developed little by little up to spirit self, life
spirit and spirit man. It is also true that modern man, with his ego
form and present thinking could only be developed from the astral,
etheric and physical forms of Christianity. Christianity has now
become ego. Just as truly as this was the development of the past, so
it is also true that the ego form of humanity can appear only after
the astral and etheric forms of Christianity have been developed.
Christianity will develop on into the future. It will offer humanity
far greater things and the Christian development and standard of life
will arise in new form. The transformed astral body will appear as
the Christian spirit self; the transformed etheric body will appear
as the Christian life spirit. In a radiant perspective of the future
of Christianity, spirit man shines forth before our souls like a star
toward which we strive, illuminated and glowing through and
through with the spirit of Christianity.
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