Lecture V
Thoughts on Life and Death
Berlin, 16th May, 1918
In the public
lecture given yesterday, “The Human Kingdom and the
Animal Kingdom,” I alluded among many other things to
an idea which one may have concerning the life of the soul
and which of course is in no sense hypothetical, but one
which directly corresponds to the reality of the soul-life. I
call your attention to the fact that what forms the beginning
and end of life in the animal world, and in a sense only
comprises two moments — the entrance into physical life
and the leaving it, conception and death — stands in
such a relation to the animal life that one might say: animal
life might be represented as a ladder, at the beginning of
which there is conception, and at the end, death. I called
your attention to the fact that these two experiences really
run through the whole soul-life of the human being; at every
moment the soul-life of man gathers into a whole that which
is experienced in the animal kingdom, whilst the Group-Soul
— which really never quite descends onto the
physical plane — is establishing a reciprocal relation
with the physical being through conception. And something
like a touch of Ego-consciousness appears in the animal at
the single moment of death. I called your attention yesterday
to the fact that one who is able to observe the death of
animals can gain an idea of how in reality the
Ego-consciousness, which runs through the whole life of man,
is only present in the animal at the moment of passing out of
life. But the important thing is this: that the two moments,
which in animal life are really only “two
moments,” are gathered together into one, in a
synthesis as it were, and go through human life in such a way
that the human head, the peculiar kind of organization which I
have described, can develop a continuous becoming-pregnant
and dying, gently reminding one of the fact that this human
soul-life continuously proceeds from the interweaving of
conception and death. Such is the life of the human soul, and
this gives rise to the justifiable thought of human
immortality.
In addition I
said: Every time that we have a thought, the thought
is born of the will; and every time we will, the
thought fades into the will. I said that Schopenhauer
represented this in a very one-sided manner, for he
represented the will alone as something real. He did not see
that “will” is only one side of the matter, that
in a certain sense it is simply dying thought, whereas the
thought is the will being brought to birth. To describe as
Schopenhauer does is like describing a human life only from
the thirthy-fifth year to the end, whereas every man who
reaches the age of 35 must have attained some other age
before this, for the time from birth up to the 35th year must
also be taken into account. Schopenhauer only depicts the
will, he considers thought or the idea as an illusion. That
however is only the other side of the question: the thought
of the will which strives to be born; whereas the thought is
the expiring will. And through the fact that in our soul-life
we have a continual interweaving of thought and will, we thus
have birth, which refers back to conception (for perception
is conception) — and death.
This idea is
one for which nothing further is necessary — even if we
wish to establish it anatomically and physiologically —
but present-day science and the will, the good-will, really
to observe the phenomenon of the soul. Anyone who does not
take the experiences made with the human brain in the manner
of official science today, but really tests free from
prejudice, what physiology and biology have to say of it will
find what I have just said borne out scientifically. If
instead of all the hocus-pocus carried on today at the
universities for the purpose of investigating all sorts of
things in the psychological-physiological laboratories (for
anatomists have no thoughts but, instead of thinking, sit
down before their instruments in order to maltreat the soul
life of the person to be studied and then to
“investigate”), if people would not put up with
this, a real observation of the soul-life would be possible
and it would be possible also to gain an idea of the
continuous coming to birth and dying which goes on in the
human soul-life itself, that metamorphosis which is only an
intensification of Goethe's theory of metamorphosis. But
the science of today has not yet even come to the point of
understanding Goethe's metamorphosis after the lapse of a hundred
years, let alone really carrying such a thought, once given
to mankind, further.
Such thoughts
as I try to sketch for you in the last lecture are nothing
more nor less than Goethe's teaching on metamorphosis carried
further. These things can all be established without any sort
of clairvoyant consciousness. Real science and
psycho-observation are alone necessary. If a number of
students were brought to understand such things, instead of
the many absurdities to which official science leads, the
time would not then be far off when Spiritual Science would
be impressed on the culture of mankind. For it is just such
thoughts, which could be scientifically established today,
and which need nothing else to make them fertile for the
soul-life but the good-will to observe and to think —
such ideas, such concepts might form the bridge from the
outer materialistic science to Spiritual Science; which is
not kept from spreading lest it would not be understood by
those who have no clairvoyance, but because such a thing as
this, which comes fresh into existence, cannot spread at all
on account of the aggressiveness of the present-day
scientific mind. It is my firm conviction that it will do no
harm if these things are sometimes really called by their
true names and described as they really are. We may say that
the effect of a thought on the human soul-life is more
important than the spreading of it abroad as a thought. It is
much less important what sort of thoughts we have, than which
forces we must use in order to grasp this or some other
thought. The constitution of the human soul must be quite
different, according to whether one grasps some entirely dead
thought of the so-called science of to-day, or a living
thought of Spiritual Science. In the case of the latter the
whole inner nature of man is brought into play; he is
inwardly quick and placed in the Cosmos; on the other hand
through what present-day science produces, especially when
carried beyond its own narrowest limits, he is pushed out
spiritually from any connection with the Cosmos.
We must
understand that. It is that which must really be introduced
to mankind, through Spiritual Science. For just in those
things that begin to be important for our immediate life, for
example, education, instruction and everything connected with
that, it is of immeasurable importance that the living ideas,
which really leads straight into life, should penetrate human
souls. It will become clear to the soul when it tries to view
things in this manner, what are the tasks and what the
essential point in the understanding of Spiritual Science for
the whole spiritual culture of our time. That ought really to
be grasped in its full significance. Then only would people
see how unnecessary it is to look with unprejudiced eyes
upon the almost entirely disjointed thinking which sometimes
lies at the bottom of the present-day practice of life. The
symptoms of this disjointed thinking are by no means so easy
to grasp.
I drew your
attention to one thing yesterday. In our manner of life it is
necessary that nothing of what we might call sluggishness or
idleness of thought should be developed. For just imagine if
an inactivity of thought were to be developed amongst us! I
have recently sung the praises everywhere of Oskar Hertwig's
book “The Growth of Organisms.” I have called it
the “best book of recent times” as regards his
scientific achievements. I spoke without restraint, for a man
who stands at the height of the scientific methods of his
time has undertaken to disentangle the theories of Darwin and
relegate them to their own boundaries! One could agree with
him from beginning to end. Now comes his latest book,
“In Defense of the Technical, Social and Political
Darwinism.” As I have already said, one might really
speak scathingly against the limitations of this book. For
once, the natural-scientific investigator forsakes his narrow
sphere — and talks real nonsense! I gave an example and
mentioned that the good man says the following about the
methods of natural science: “In the last resort all
natural science should be constructed on the pattern of
astronomy.” Of course this is not even original! Du
Bois Reymond already said this in the year 1876, in speaking
of the structure of the atomic world. We are to observe the
realities round about us; then the astronomical theory, which
is as far removed as possible from man, is set up as a
pattern! Logically this is of no more value than if one were
to explain the inner life to a family living in poverty
somewhere in the country, by telling them: You need not
consider how your own father and mother, son and daughter
behave, but study the family life of a count's household;
from that you can deduce how family rules and regulations
should be constituted! Today such things are taken very
superficially, and not even noticed; with us not only should
there be no belief in authority but also no bed of idleness.
We must understand that because an opinion is once formed
about a person, one cannot thereafter rely on everything
which might come from the same person. Herein is the
question, and that must really be carried out practically,
even down to the details of our conduct. Therefore no one
should wonder if the one activity in Oskar Hertwig is praised
to the skies and another found fault with; that must happen;
we must accustom ourselves to look at life without prejudice.
For he who does not practice this does not practice this does
not notice on the one hand the direct realities of life,
and on the other hand where he may find the entrance to the
spiritual world. I should like to give a little example of
this. I do not know how many people have noticed this, that
is, have noticed it so as to draw forth the practical
application of it to life
Some time ago
there appeared in the “Berliner Tageblatt” an
article by Fritz Mauthner in which he indulged in the most
incredibly trivial, really dreadfully trivial strictures on a
man who had written a book referring among other things to
Goethe's horoscope. The critical language, Fritz Mauthner,
wrote long columns in an uncommonly complacent manner, and
tried to show what wrong the author is committing against the
present age by writing about Goethe's horoscope and things
like that, especially in a book which appeared in such a
popular collection as “From Nature and the World of
Spirit.” As regards this article of Fritz Mauthner's,
one felt that really there was a little too much frivolity in
it; but apart from that, the compiler of this book in the
“From Nature and the World of Spirit” collection,
is really a fairly average scholar of the present-day, and it
did not seem that there was anything about which one was
compelled to feel especially excited. Really one did not see
why Fritz Mauthner should excite himself. One could
understand it even less, considering that the compiler of
this little book laughs at all those taken things treated
therein seriously, and Fritz Mauthner only abuses this man because
he speaks of the “horoscope.” Now he who compiled
this little book justified himself and explained in the
“Berliner Tageblatt” that it had not in the least
that his intention to speak in favor of astrology. Thus the
author really fulfilled all the conditions that even Fritz
Mauthner, in his position, could demand. The two are
thoroughly at one; but Fritz Mauthner attacked the man
because he considered it extremely dangerous socially but a
book of this kind should appear in such a collection. And the
“Berliner Tageblatt” the remark that he could
not but think that Fritz Mauthner had not understood the
matter, for it was quite in agreement with what Mauthner himself had
written. This is a particularly striking example of that
degree of spiritual feeble-mindedness which really lies at
the bottom of all these things. If on the other hand we bear
in mind how greatly life is stimulated by what is expressed
by such inferior mental activity, we are struck by the
thoughts characteristic of the present-based spiritual
culture. And we must really take note of these thoughts. That
is a necessity, if we wish to gain understanding of the tasks
which may really fall to Spiritual Science. What we must
above all be aware of is that such things as deceit, lies are
real powers, and we cannot imagine a worse deceit
than when such a thing as this happens: one man writes a book
on astrology, and another assails him because he does not
wish anyone at all to write about such subjects. The first
man then justifies itself by saying: “Come, I was only
joking.” If he had said before hand, “I am only
joking when I am talking about Goethe's horoscope,”
Mauthner would have been satisfied.
These things
are absolutely serious and are connected with the most
serious tendencies of the present day, above all with that
which we must also perceive, that Spiritual Science must of
necessity find it difficult in our present time to work its
way through and to attain something of what it is really
incumbent on it to attain. It really demands strong and
courageous thinking. The field for this has been in many ways
prepared, and to understand how this has been done leads us
to see that not alone were earthly, human beings active in
this work, but that for centuries the great Ahrimanic forces
of mankind have been at work. Besides all the things
undertaken by the Ahrimanic beings in order to bring mankind
into such confusion, out of which the way has again to be
found, must be added the fact that men have been rendered
incapable of perceiving that everything material is rooted in
the spiritual and that everything spiritual desires to reveal
itself materially. The world has been torn in pieces, its
continuity destroyed. Above all, if we look at the outer
history of the continuous Christian impulse — not of
Christianity — we find Ahrimanic powers working through
humanity, and particularly in the Christian development. One
thing among others should be specially observed: the tearing
asunder of what on the one hand is Sun and Sun-force, from
what on the other is Christ and Christ-force. If the
connection between these forces is not again recognized, the
world will not easily be linked to the spiritual. One of the
principal tasks of Spiritual Science is that we must
rediscover, in another way — in a way which entails the
spiritualization of mankind through the Christ-Mystery
— the great Sun-mystery, which throughout the ages
before the Mystery of Golgotha was not then the
Christ-Mystery but which afterwards became the
Christ-Mystery. Julian, the recreant, the apostate, only knew
the Sun-Mystery in the old form; he did not yet understand
that it was the Christ-Mystery. That was his tragic fate; he
was overtaken by the world-historic delusion of seeking to
communicate to humanity the secret of the spiritual power of
the Sun. This led to his being murdered on his march through
Persia.
In the 19th
century we have to record another spiritual undertaking which
was directed by Ahrimanic powers to prevent mankind from
knowing that of which I am now speaking: the Sun-Mystery in
its connection with the other Mysteries. We must look at
these things thoroughly in the face. What I am about to say
would, if I were to mention it in any scientific society or
the like, instead of to persons prepared for it, of course
be counted as madness. But we need not consider that. The
point is that the truth must be spoken; for the decision as
to whether we or others are deluded must not come into the
question. In the 19th century a concept was first
fundamentally established which now dominates the whole of
science and which, if it still continues to do so to an
increasing extent, will never allow healthy concepts about
the spiritual life to find a place. To the ideas disseminated
concerning the basic principles of physics and chemistry
belongs the fundamental concept of the “conservation of
force,” of the “conservation of energy,” as
accepted today. Wherever you investigate today you will hear
it said that forces are simply converted. (The examples
quoted are of course justified in every respect.) When I
stretch out my hand over the table I use pressure, but force
expended is not consumed thereby; it is transmuted into
warmth. Thus are all forces transmuted. A transmutation of
force, of energy, takes place. “Conservation of
substance and force” is indeed a favorite expression,
used more particularly by all scientific thoughts today. It
is considered an axiom that nothing originates nor passes
away as regards matter, energy, and force. If this is kept
within its proper limits nothing can be said against it; but
the science does not keep it within its limits but reduced it
to a dogma, a scientific dogma.
Just in the
19th century a remarkable Ahrimanic practice of coarsening
the concepts has come about. A wonderful and extremely
brilliant essay on the “Conservation of energy”
has appeared by Julius Robert Mayer. This essay, which
appeared in the year 1844, was rejected at that time by most
of the cultured thinkers in Germany; it was considered
amateurish. Julius Robert Mayer was indeed later confined in
an asylum. Today we know that he made a fundamental
scientific discovery. But it had no effect, and we can easily
prove that those who mention him in connection with this
scientific law have not themselves read his work. There is a
History of Philosophy by Überweg, in which Mayer is also
mentioned; he is spoken of in a few lines only. But he who
reads those few lines is at once aware that this classical
writer of the History of Philosophy, which all students must
plow through, has entirely misunderstood him. The subject has
not entered men's souls in the fine intellectual manner in
which it was treated by Mayer, but in a much coarser manner.
That principally comes about because, not the thoughts of
Julius Robert Mayer himself, but those of the English brewer
Joule and of the physicist Helmholtz, ignoring completely the
thoughts of Julius Robert Mayer, have permeated science. It
is not always considered necessary nowadays to look these
things in the face. These relationships ought, however, to be
pointed out in our higher teaching institutions. People
really ought to learn why Darwinism found such quick
circulation. For, believe me, if Darwin's book “The
Origin of Species and Natural Selection” had simply
appeared as a book given to the public, it would not have
gained popularity in all circles, and these opinions would
have vanished in the clouds. No, the thought which is at the
base of Darwinism was already prepared beforehand. In 1844, a
long time before Darwin, a book of gleanings was compiled,
which mentions in the most trivial manner all the things
which Lemarck and others have said. It was a purely
book-selling speculative enterprise inaugurated by Robert
Chambers in Edinburgh, knowing that the instincts of the 19th
century could be relied upon to push such a thing through.
Into this pregnant atmosphere, Darwin threw his ideas. All he
did was to connect and combine the theory of selection with
the ideas of Lamarck, for these things have been known to
English practitioners for a long time. A book had previously
appeared, “Ship-building and Tree-culture” by
Patrick Matthew, in which the theory of selection is openly
pronounced. The ways along which these things penetrated the
culture of the 19th century had to be disclosed some time.
History, as it is presented, is a myth; and in most spheres
is a great deception. We must really look at what actually
happened. For it makes a difference whether a young man learns
that he has to deal with a scientific reality, or merely with
the thoughts of an English brewer, Joule; whether something
was really established by the scientific observations of the
19th century, or whether he had to deal with an enterprise of
the Edinburgh publisher and bookseller, Robert Chambers. The
truth is then discovered aright. Mankind must above all take
its stand on truth.
This concept of
the absolute — not relative — imperishability of
matter and force prevents men — and what I am saying
might be established physiologically today, it is only the
dogma of the “Conservation of Energy” which keeps
men back from seeing it — this concept prevents them
from recognizing where substance really does disappear into
nothingness and new substance begins. And this unique place
in the world — there are many such — is the human
body. Substance is not merely passed through the human body,
but during the process experienced in the soul in the
synthesis of conception and dying, it happens physically that
a certain substance which is taken by us in fact disappears,
that forces pass away and are generated anew. The things
which come into consideration in this connection are really
older than one thinks; but no value is placed on these
observations. If we carefully study the circulation of the
blood inside the eye with the instruments which are perfect
enough today to enable us to see such things externally, we
shall be able to corroborate what I have just said,
externally and physically. For it will be proved that the
blood goes to the periphery of an organ, disappears into it,
and is again generated out of it, in order to flow back
again; so that we are not concerned with a “circulation
of the blood,” but with an arising and passing away.
These things exist, but the dogmatic concepts of present-day
science prevents one from recognizing the cause underlying
them, and the men of today are thus prevented from observing
in their true reality certain processes and happenings which
are absolutely real.
What does it
mean to present-day science when men die, purely as physical
beings? No notice is taken of this by science. On the other
hand sciences is constantly studying the dead because it cannot
get at the living, but it takes no notice of the fact of
dying. An example of this was given to me only yesterday. In
the year 1889 Hammerling was temporarily entombed in Graz.
Later on he was transferred to another vault. The gentleman
who made the discovery told me only yesterday that during the
transference of the body from the temporary vault, the skull
disappeared. He investigated the matter and found out that in
the University-Museum a plaster cast had been taken of the
skull. The skull, wrapped in newspaper, had been left
somewhere and was only restored to the rest of the body in
its grave because the matter was then discovered. Thus we
concern ourselves with the death, but not with the fact of
death. Yet this fact of death likewise leads to the
perception of important things. I have already pointed to the
fact, in one of my last lectures that this human dust takes
quite a particular course. I pointed out that it really tries
to take an upward path. The dust that comes from human
beings, unlike other dust, would be disbursed into the whole
Cosmos — no matter whether the corpse is cremated or
decays — were it not taken possession of by the power
of the Sun, by the forces which are the Sun. In fact that
force, which shines from the surface of a brilliant stone, or
which we see in the colors of the plants, is only
one of the Sun forces, it is that force which Julian
the Apostate called the ‘visible sun.’ We also
have the ‘invisible Sun’ which lies at the back
of the visible one, as does the soul behind the outer
physical human body. This force, which of course does not
come down with streams of physical ether but only lives again
in it, animates the human dust in quite a special way; quite
distinct from the way it animates anything else, either
mineral, vegetable or animal dust. A continuous interaction
takes place after death between what remains of the purely
external, physical man and the forces which streamed down
from the Sun — they encounter each other. The forces
which streamed down to act upon the human dust are indeed
those forces which the dead man, now become a soul-and-spirit
individuality, himself discovers after death. Whereas we,
when we are incarnated in the physical body, see the physical
Sun, the dead man, when he has passed through the gate of
death, discovers the Sun first as the Cosmic Being Who
animates human dust on the Earth below. This is one discovery
among the many others which the dead man makes after death.
He learns of the interweaving of the Sun-force, the spiritual
Sun-force, and the human dust. When he learns to know this
web composed of human dust and Sun-force, he first really
becomes acquainted with the secret of reincarnation; seen from
the other side, the next incarnation is being prepared and
woven out of the Cosmos. Besides this he learns to know from
the other side certain facts upon which the secret of
reincarnation depends, and of which we will also speak in the
near future.
This enables us
to grasp the concept of how very different the ideas of the
inner life of the human soul are when the soul has passed
through the gate of death, as compared with the experiences
which it has here. After death these are quite different in
the whole configuration of the soul. Just as here on Earth we
alternate between sleeping and waking, so does the dead man
alternate between different states of consciousness. I have
already called your attention to this in these lectures, but
I will once more characterize it briefly from another point
of view.
Among other
things we live here in the inner thoughts of our soul. The
dead man enters a world of reality. This reality consists of
what to us are merely thoughts. Whereas in physical life we
perceive the external, mineral, vegetable and animal worlds,
and have our physical world besides, that of which we only
experience the shadowy reflection in our thoughts is
immediately present to the dead man when he has passed
through the gate of death. The world he then enters really
bears the same relation to the physical world as do objects
to their shadows here. In our thoughts we have only the
shadow of what the dead experience; but they experience it
differently from the way we experience our thoughts. They
learn something more concerning thoughts from what man on
earth does, at least in our present-day epoch. For we usually
dream in respects to our thoughts. But the dead man
experiences that while he thinks, he lives in his thoughts as
in realities; he grows, he expands, he flourishes; but to the
extent to which she ceases to think and no longer lives in
thought, he declines, becomes thinner and sparer. Even coming
into being and passing away are, after death, connected with
living in thought and living outside thought. If it were the
case here that men who did not wish to thank became thinner,
a remarkable world might be seen. But we only experience the
ineffectual shadows of thought, which have no real results.
The dead man experiences thoughts as realities; which neither
nourish nor devour him in his existence as soul and spirit.
The time in which the thoughts either nourish or devour him
is at the same time that in which he develops his
super-sensible life of perception. He sees how thoughts stream
into him and pass out again. It is not such a perception as
we have in our ordinary consciousness, where we have only
finished perceptions; but a passing stream of thought life,
which always connects itself with his own being. No matter
how many things a human being on earth can see, yet, when he
has seen everything, he is still exactly the same as before:
except that afterwards he generally knows something of what
he was before, but at least his organization has not altered
to any considerable extent. With the dead man it is
different; he sees himself in continuous interchange with
that which he perceives. That is one of his conditions; the
perception of the flowing-in and the continuous flowing-out
of a living stream of thought. The other is that this ceases,
and a quiet recollection of what has flowed through him comes
about; an intense and far-reaching memory, not our abstract
memory, but one connected with the whole of the Universe.
These two conditions alternate. For that reason the dead are
really only receptive to thoughts such as those brought to
them from Spiritual Science, or from a spiritual point of
view. The thought-organization usually possessed by men of
today does not really reach the dead; and the kind of thought
which does penetrate to the dead is not much appreciated by
the men of today. They like thoughts which they can gather in
some way from the outer world. But thoughts which we can only
have by working upon them inwardly, which inwardly and
spiritually have already a trace of that which thoughts have
after death — this mobility and life is not liked by
men. It is far too difficult for the men of today. Therefore
they are nicely seated in their laboratory, and are able to
have a microscope and to study the cells under the
microscope, they can make the necessary incision with a
knife; they can study the incision and are able to work out
other observations in some way or other. They can then write
remarkable books such as Oskar Hertwig's “Birth of
Organisms.” But the moment they begin to think, they
can write senseless books such as those of the present Oskar
Hertwig. The only difference is that for such a book as his
second one, even “thought corpses” would not have
been necessary. For natural-scientific books, thought corpses are
necessary; but for books like the second one, living thoughts
would have been necessary, and these he has not got! It is
necessary really to love such thoughts and to be able to live
them. The moment a man left behind on Earth wishes to build a
bridge to the friend who has passed through the gate of
death, with whom he is linked by karma, he needs at least a
disposition of mind which inclines towards life of
thought. If we have this disposition of mind our thoughts are
really quite a considerable addition to the life of our dead
friends, and make a great difference to the existence of
those stand between death and rebirth. But if a vague feeling
lives in men's souls about everything which the dead consider
should be different on the Earth from what it is, the living
have but little satisfaction in this thought. Such vague
feelings exist; men fear that the opinion of the dead might
prevail over much that men think, feel and do in physical
life. They are not conscious of this fear; but it holds them
chained to materialism. For the unconscious, though we may
not be aware of it, is still active. With the courage of the
thinker we must not only put soul into the conscious life of
idea, but also into the profoundest depth of the human being.
This must be said again and again, if Spiritual Science is to
be taken in full earnest. The question is not that we should
accept some sentence or other which someone or other finds
interesting or important for himself, but that just as an
organism moulds itself together out of many units, so all the
units should form together in man a whole attitude of soul,
which for our time can only be characterized from the most
varied points of view, as I have attempted to do. It is
absolutely necessary that there should be some people at the
present day who know how to take Spiritual Science seriously
from this point of view, realizing that it gives to our time
and active, living thought-life; so that one person does not
fall out with another when they are both really quite in
agreement; that there is therefore no reason for us to adopt
the tendency of crying out when someone says something about
the horoscope. That is not looking at the matter
properly.
An age in which
such an attitude of soul prevails brings forth much more
besides from its depths. Unfortunately one can only allude to
this briefly; but the possibility had to be created of really
looking that in the face which arises out of the necessities
of our time, and which is expressing itself sufficiently in
such a catastrophic manner. Some people are indeed beginning
today to have serious thoughts. But one sees how difficult it
is for people to free themselves from the unreal situation
towards the world and mankind in which the souls of today are
enmeshed. How frequent the question arises which I have
referred to briefly today and which I will go into further in
the near future, the question: What is the position occupied
by Christianity during the past centuries and thousands of
years, seeing that although it has been working for hundreds
of years, yet the present-day conditions are possible? This
question has been touched upon at different points. It can be
seen that the materials necessary to answer it are not yet to
be found among what mankind calls today the scientific or
religious or any other kind of studies. Spiritual Science
alone will be able to produce these materials. For it is
indeed an earnest question: How is the present-day man to
regard Christianity? — considering that it has indeed
worked for a long time in the past and yet has allowed such
conditions to come about today. Those men are certainly
peculiar who demand that Christianity should go back again to
some of the forms existing before these conditions, who does
have no feeling for the fact that if we go back to the same
thing, the same must again come out of it. These people will
certainly not very easily admit that something new of a
penetrating and intense nature must strike into spiritual
life. More as to this in our next lecture.
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