IV
The Relation of the Movement for Religious Renewal
to the Anthroposophical Movement.
Dornach, December 30, 1922
I HAVE often said in this place that in more ancient
times in the evolution of humanity, science, art, and religion
formed a harmonious unity. Anyone who is able in one way or
another to gain knowledge of the nature of the ancient
Mysteries knows that within these Mysteries, knowledge was
sought as a revelation of the Spiritual in picture form, in the
way that was possible in those times. That way can no longer be
ours, although in this age we must again advance to a knowledge
of the spiritual nature of the world. A pictorial knowledge of
the Spiritual lay at the foundation of all ancient conceptions
of the world. This knowledge came to direct expression, not
merely by being communicated in words, but through forms which
have gradually become those of our arts — bodily, plastic
presentation in the plastic arts and presentation by means of
tone and word in the arts of music and speech. But this second
stage was followed by the third stage, that of the revelation
of the nature of the world in religious cult or ritual, a
revelation through which the whole man felt himself
uplifted to the divine-spiritual ground of the world, not
merely in thought, nor merely in feeling as happens through
art, but in such a way that thoughts, feelings and also the
inmost impulses of the will surrendered themselves in reverent
devotion to this divine-spiritual principle. And the sacred
acts and rites were the means whereby the external actions of
man's will were to be filled with spirit. Men felt the living
unity in science (as it was then conceived), art, and religion.
The ideal of the spiritual life of the present day must be,
once more to gain knowledge that can bring to realization what
Goethe already divined: a knowledge that raises itself
to art, not symbolical or allegorical art, but true art
— which means creative, formative activity in tones and
in words — an art which also deepens into direct
religious experience.
Only when anthroposophical Spiritual Science is seen to contain
this impulse within it, is its true being understood. Obviously
humanity will have to take many steps in spiritual development
before such an ideal can be realized. But it is just the
patient devotion to the taking of these steps which must bring
blessing to the Anthroposophical Movement.
Now
I should like, in the series of lectures now being given, to
speak from one particular aspect on this impulse in the
Anthroposophical Movement to which reference has just been
made. Perhaps, my dear friends, at the close of what I have to
say, you will understand what is really the deeper cause of my
words. Let me say in the first place that already for a long
time now the Anthroposophical Movement has not coincided with
the Anthroposophical Society, but that the Anthroposophical
Society, if it would fulfill its task, must really carry the
whole impulse of the Anthroposophical Movement. The
Anthroposophical Movement has laid hold of wider circles than
merely the Anthroposophical Society. Hence it has come about
that in more recent years the way of working had necessarily to
be different for the Anthroposophical Movement from what it was
when the Anthroposophical Movement was essentially contained
within the Anthroposophical Society. But the Anthroposophical
Society can only fulfill its real nature when it feels itself
as the kernel of the Anthroposophical Movement.
Now
in order not to speak merely theoretically but to make what I
have just said really intelligible, I must tell you a little
about something that has recently taken place in connection
with a Movement that is distinct from the Anthroposophical
Movement, because, if I did not do this, misunderstanding might
easily arise.
I
will therefore narrate briefly the manner in which a certain
Movement having a religious, cultic character has arisen, a
Movement which indeed has much to do with the Anthroposophical
Movement, but should not be confused with it: it is the
religious movement which calls itself ‘The Movement for
Religious Renewal,’
[This Movement was the beginning of The
Christian Community as it has since been called.]
for the renewal of Christianity. The position of this Movement
with respect to the Anthroposophical Movement will become clear
if we take our start from the forms in which this Movement for
Religious Renewal has developed.
Some time ago a few enthusiastic young theological students
came to me. They were about to conclude their theological
studies and enter upon the practical duties of ministers of
religion. What they said to me was to the following effect:
When at the present time a student receives with a really
devoted Christian heart the theology offered to him at the
universities, he feels at last as if he had no firm ground
under his feet for the practical work of a minister that is
before him. The theology and religion of our time has gradually
assumed forms that do not really enable it to instil into its
ministers for their practical work and their care of souls the
impulse that must proceed as a living power from the Mystery of
Golgotha, from the consciousness that the Christ Being Who
formerly lived in spiritual worlds, has since united Himself
with human life on earth and now works on further in that life.
— I perceived that in the souls of those who came to me
there was the feeling that if Christianity is to be kept alive,
a renewal of the entire theological impulse and of the entire
religious impulse is necessary; otherwise Christianity cannot
be the really vital force for our whole spiritual life. And it
is indeed clear that the religious impulse only assumes its
true significance and meaning when it lays hold of a man so
deeply that it pervades everything he brings forth out of his
thinking, feeling, and will.
I
remarked first of all to those who came to me in this way for
help in what they were seeking and could only find where
anthroposophical Spiritual Science is making its way into the
world today — I pointed out to them that one cannot work
from the enthusiasm of a few single individuals, but that it is
a question of gathering together, as it were, similar strivings
in wider circles, even though the striving may be more or less
unconscious. I said to these people that theirs was obviously
not an isolated striving; rather was it the case that they were
feeling in their hearts — perhaps more intensely than
others — what countless human beings of the present day
are also feeling; and I showed them that if it is a question of
religious renewal, one must start from a broad basis whereon
can be found a large number of persons out of whose hearts
springs the impulse to strive for that renewal.
After a while the people in question came to me again. They had
fully accepted what I had said to them and now they were able
to tell me that they had been joined by a considerable number
of other young theological students who were in the same
position, that is to say, who were dissatisfied with the
present theological and religious aims at the universities and
yet were about to enter upon the practical duties of ministers
of the church; and there seemed every prospect of the circle
being increased.
I
said: It is quite obvious first of all that it is not only a
question of having a band of preachers and ministers, but into
such a movement for religious renewal should be drawn not only
those who can teach and perform the duties of pastors, but
above all those — and they are very numerous — who
possess more or less dimly in their hearts a strong religious
impulse, a specifically Christian impulse, which, in view of
the way in which theological religion has developed, cannot be
satisfied. I pointed out, therefore, that there are circles of
people in the population who are not within the
Anthroposophical Movement, and who, from the whole tenor of
their mind and heart, do not immediately find their way to the
Anthroposophical Movement.
I
remarked further, that for the Anthroposophical Movement it is
ultimately a case of seeing clearly and distinctly that we are
living in an age when, simply through the world's evolution, a
number of spiritual truths, truths regarding the actual
spiritual content of the world, can be found by men when they
become spiritual researchers. And if men do not become
spiritual researchers but strive after the truth in the way in
which it must disclose itself to man when he is conscious of
his human dignity, then the truths discovered by-spiritual
researchers can be understood by such persons by means of their
ordinary, sound human intellect — provided it is
really sound.
I
went on to say that the Anthroposophical Movement is founded
upon the principle that he who finds his way into it knows that
what is important above all is that the spiritual truths now
accessible to humanity should lay hold of men's hearts and
minds as knowledge. The essential thing is that
knowledge should enter the spiritual life of man. It is
of course not the case that one who is in the Anthroposophical
Movement need be versed in the various sciences. One may be in
the Anthroposophical Movement without possessing any impulse or
any inclination towards natural science, for the truths of
Anthroposophy are perfectly comprehensible to the human
intellect if only it is healthy and unclouded by prejudice. If
already at the present time a sufficiently large number of
persons out of the natural tendencies of their heart and mind
were to find their way to the Anthroposophical Movement, then
all that is necessary for religious aims and religious
ideals would also gradually develop together with
anthroposophical knowledge out of the Anthroposophical
Movement. But there are, as I have already said, a great
number of people who have the above-mentioned urge towards a
renewal of religion, that is to say towards a renewal of
Christian religion, and who, simply through being in certain
circles of the cultural life, cannot find their way into the
Anthroposophical Movement. What is necessary for these people
at the present time is that a path suited to them should be
found, leading to the spiritual life appropriate to the
humanity of the present day.
I
pointed out that it was a matter of forming communities; that
what is to be reached in Anthroposophy can be attained first of
all in the single individual, but that, out of the knowledge
thus gained in an individual way, there must flow by an
absolute inner necessity the ethical and religious
social activity that is requisite for the future of
humanity.
It
is therefore a question of giving something to those people who
are at first unable to set out directly along the path to the
Anthroposophical Movement. The spiritual path for them must be
sought by forming communities in which heart and soul and
spirit work together — a path adapted to human evolution
at its present stage.
What I then had to say out of the needs of our human evolution
to those persons who came to me may be summed up approximately
in the words: it is necessary for the evolution of humanity at
the present time that the Anthroposophical Movement should grow
more and more, in accordance with the conditions which underlie
it, and which consist especially in this — that the
spiritual truths which want to come to us from the spiritual
world should first of all enter the hearts of men directly, so
that men may be strengthened by these spiritual truths. They
will then find the way, which will be on the one hand an
artistic way, and on the other a religious, ethical, and social
way. The Anthroposophical Movement has gone along this path
since its inception, and for the Anthroposophical Movement
no other path is necessary, if only this path be rightly
understood. The need for another path arises for those who
cannot directly take this one, but who through
community-building and corporate endeavor within the community,
must follow a different path, one which only later will
join the anthroposophical path.
In
this way the prospect was opened for two movements to travel
side by side. There is the Anthroposophical Movement, which
attains its true aims when it adheres with intelligence and
vigor to the meaning and purpose originally contained in it and
is not led astray by any special fields of work that are bound
to open up as time goes on. Even the field of scientific work,
for example, must not encroach upon the impulse of the general
Anthroposophical Movement. We must clearly understand that it
is the anthroposophical impulse which constitutes the
Anthroposophical Movement, and although various fields of
scientific work have recently been started within the
Anthroposophical Movement it is absolutely necessary that the
power and energy of the general anthroposophical impulse should
not be weakened. In particular, the anthroposophical impulse
must not be drawn into the forms of thinking and ideation
prevailing in various fields of science — which ought
actually to be vitalized by it — and be colored by them
to such an extent that Anthroposophy becomes, let us say,
chemical as Chemistry is today, physical as Physics is today,
or biological as Biology is today. That must not happen on any
account; it would strike at the very heart of the
Anthroposophical Movement. What is essential is that the
Anthroposophical Movement shall preserve its spiritual purity,
but also its spiritual energy. To this end it must embody the
essential nature of the anthroposophical spirituality, must
live and move in it and bring forth out of the spiritual
revelations of the present day everything that seeks to
penetrate also into the life of science.
Side by side with this — so I said at that time —
there might be such a movement for religious renewal, which of
course has no significance for those who find the way into
Anthroposophy, but is intended for those who, to begin with,
cannot find this way. And as there are numbers of such people,
a movement such as this is not only justified, but also
necessary.
Taking for granted therefore that the Anthroposophical Movement
will remain what it was and what it ought to be, I gave
something, quite independently of the Anthroposophical
Movement, to a number of persons who, from their own
impulse, not mine, wished to work for the Movement for
Religious Renewal; I gave what I was in a position to give in
respect of what a future theology needs; and I also gave the
contents of the ceremonial and ritual required by this new
community.
What I have been able to give to these people out of the
conditions pertaining to spiritual knowledge at the present
time, I have given as a man to other men. What I have given
them has nothing to do with the Anthroposophical
Movement. I have given it to them as a private individual,
and in such a way that I have emphasized with the necessary
firmness that the Anthroposophical Movement must not have
anything to do with this Movement for Religious Renewal; above
all that I am not the founder of this Movement, and I
rely upon this being made quite clear to the world; to
individuals who wished to found this Movement for Religious
Renewal I have given the necessary counsels — which are
consonant with the practice of an authentic and inwardly vital
cult, filled with spiritual content, to be celebrated in a
right way with the forces out of the spiritual world. When I
gave this advice I never performed a ritualistic act myself; I
only showed, step by step, to those who wished to enact the
ceremonies, how they have to be performed. That was necessary.
And today it is also necessary that within the Anthroposophical
Society this should be correctly understood.
The
Movement for Religious Renewal, therefore, was founded
independently of me, independently of the Anthroposophical
Society. I only gave advice. The one who started it, the one
who performed the very first ceremony in this Movement,
performed it under my guidance, but I had no part whatever in
the founding of this Movement. It is a Movement which
originated of itself but received counsel from me because, when
advice is justifiably asked in any particular sphere of work,
is is a human duty, if one can give the advice, to do so.
Thus it must be understood, in the strictest sense of the word,
that alongside the Anthroposophical Movement another Movement
has started, founded out of itself (not out of the
Anthroposophical Movement), for the reason that outside the
Anthroposophical Society there are numbers of people who cannot
find their way into the Anthroposophical Movement itself, but
who will be able to come to it later on. Therefore strict
distinctions must be made between the Anthroposophical
Movement, the Anthroposophical Society, and the Movement for
Religious Renewal. And it is important that Anthroposophy
should not be looked upon as the founder of this Movement for
Religious Renewal.
This has nothing to do with the fact that the advice which
makes this religious Movement into a real spiritual community
in a form suited to the present stage of human evolution, was
given in all love and also in all devotion to the spiritual
Powers who are able to place such a Movement in the world
today. So that this Movement has only originated in the right
way when it considers what is within the Anthroposophical
Movement as something that gives it a sure ground and
when it puts its trust in the Anthroposophical Movement, and
seeks help and counsel from those who are within the
Anthroposophical Movement, and so on. Taking into account the
fact that the opponents of the Anthroposophical Movement today
consider every method of attack justifiable, points such as
these must be made quite clear, and I must here declare that
everyone who is honest and sincere with respect to the
Anthroposophical Movement would be obliged to deny any
statement to the effect that the Movement for Religious Renewal
was founded at Dornach in the Goetheanum and by the Goetheanum.
For that is not the case, the facts are as I have just
presented them.
Thus in view of the way in which I myself have helped this
Movement for Religious Renewal to find its feet, I have
necessarily had to picture to myself that this Movement —
which puts its trust in the Anthroposophical Movement and
regards the Anthroposophical Movement as its forerunner —
will look for adherents outside the Anthroposophical Society,
and that it would consider it a grave mistake to carry into the
Anthroposophical Society the work and aims which are indeed
necessary outside that Society. For the Anthroposophical
Society is not understood by one who belongs to it unless his
attitude is that he can be a counsellor and helper of this
religious Movement, but cannot directly immerse himself in it.
If he were to do so, he would be working for two ends: firstly,
for the ruin and destruction of the Anthroposophical Society;
secondly, to make fruitless the Movement for Religious Renewal.
All the movements which arise among humanity in a justifiable
way must indeed work together as in one organic whole, but this
working together must take place in the right way. In
the human organism it is quite impossible for the blood system
to become nervous system, or for the nervous system to become
blood system. The several systems have to work in the human
organism distinct and separate from one another; it is
precisely then that they will work together in the right way.
It is therefore necessary that the Anthroposophical Society,
with its content Anthroposophy, shall remain unweakened in any
way by the other Movement; and that one who understands what
the Anthroposophical Movement is, should — not in any
presumptuous, arrogant sense, but as one who reckons with the
tasks of the age — be able to see that those who have
once found their way into the Anthroposophical Society do
not need a religious renewal. For what would the
Anthroposophical Society be if it first needed religious
renewal!
But
religious renewal is needed in the world, and because it
is needed, because it is a profound necessity, a hand was
extended to aid in founding it. Matters will therefore go on in
the right way if the Anthroposophical Society remains as it is,
if those who wish to understand it grasp its essential nature
and do not think that it is necessary for them to belong to
another movement which has taken what it possesses from
Anthroposophy — although it is true in a real sense that
Anthroposophy has not founded this Movement for Religious
Renewal but that it has founded itself.
Anyone therefore who does not clearly distinguish these things
and keep them apart, is actually — by becoming lax as
regards the essential impulse of the Anthroposophical Movement
— working for the destruction of the Anthroposophical
Movement and for the removal of the ground and backbone of the
Movement for Religious Renewal. If anyone who stands on the
ground of the Movement for Religious Renewal thinks he must
extend this Movement to the Anthroposophical Movement, he
removes the ground from under his own feet. For everything of
the nature of cult and ritual is finally bound to dissolve away
when the ‘backbone’ of knowledge is broken.
For
the welfare of both Movements it is essential that they should
be held clearly apart. Therefore in the beginning, since
everything depends on our developing the strength to carry out
what we have set our will to do, it is absolutely necessary in
these early days that the Movement for Religious Renewal should
work in all directions in circles outside the
Anthroposophical Movement; that therefore, neither as regards
the acquisition of material means — in order that the
matter be clearly understood I must also speak about these
things — should it encroach on sources which in any event
only flow with great difficulty for the Anthroposophical
Movement, nor, because it does not at once succeed in finding
adherents among non-Anthroposophists, should it, for example,
make proselytes within the ranks of the Anthroposophists. Were
it to do so, it would be doing something that would inevitably
lead to the destruction of both Movements. It is really not a
matter today of going forward with a certain fanaticism, but of
being conscious that we can do what is necessary for man
only when we work out of the necessity of the thing
itself.
What I am now stating as consequences, were also equally the
preliminary conditions for lending my assistance in the
founding of the Movement for Religious Renewal, for only under
these conditions could I assist it. If these preliminary
conditions had not been there, the Movement for Religious
Renewal would never have originated through my advice.
Therefore, I beg you to understand that it is necessary for the
Movement for Religious Renewal to know that it must adhere to
its starting point, that it has promised to look for its
adherents outside the sphere of the Anthroposophical Movements,
for it is there that they can be found in the natural way, and
there they must be sought.
What I have said to you has not been said because of any
anxiety lest something might be dug away from the
Anthroposophical Movement, and it has certainly not been said
out of any personal motive, but solely out of the necessity of
the case itself. And it is also important to understand in
what way alone it is possible to work rightly in each of
these spheres of activity. It is indeed necessary that with
regard to important matters we should state quite clearly how
the case stands, for there is at the present time far too great
a tendency to blur things and not to see them clearly. But
clarity is essential today in every sphere.
If
therefore someone were to exclaim: The very one who himself put
this Movement for Religious Renewal into the world now speaks
like this!! ... well, my dear friends, the whole point is that
if I had at any time spoken differently about these things, I
should not have lent a hand towards founding this Movement for
Religious Renewal, it must remain at its starting point. What I
am now saying, I am of course saying merely in order that these
things may be correctly understood in the Anthroposophical
Society and so that it shall not be said (as is reported to
have happened already): The Anthroposophical Movement did not
get on very well, and so now they have founded the Movement for
Religious Renewal as the right thing.
I
am quite sure that the very excellent and outstanding
individuals who have founded the Movement for Religious Renewal
will oppose any such legend most vigorously, and will also
sternly refuse to make proselytes within the Anthroposophical
Movement. — But, as has been said, the matter must be
rightly understood within the Anthroposophical Movement
itself.
I
know, my dear friends, that there are always some who find it
unpleasant to hear explanations such as these — which are
necessary from time to time, not in order to complain in one
direction or another, nor for the sake of criticism, but solely
in order to present something once and for all in its true
light. I know there are always some who dislike it when clarity
is substituted for nebulous obscurity. But this is absolutely
essential for the welfare and growth of the Anthroposophical
Movement as well as of the Movement for Religious Renewal. The
Movement for Religious Renewal cannot flourish if it in any
way damages the Anthroposophical Movement.
This must be thoroughly understood, especially by
Anthroposophists, so that whenever it is necessary to stand up
for the rights of the matter, they may really be able to do so.
When, therefore, there is any question about an
anthroposophist's attitude towards religious renewal, he must
be clear that his attitude can only be that of an adviser, that
he gives what he can give in the way of spiritual possessions,
and when it is a case of participating in the ceremonies, that
he is conscious of doing so in order to help these ceremonies
on their way. He alone can be a spiritual helper of the
Movement for Religious Renewal who is himself first a good
anthroposophist. But this Movement for Religious Renewal must
be sustained, in every direction, by persons who, because of
the particular configuration and tendencies of their spiritual
life, cannot yet find their way into the Anthroposophical
Society itself.
I
hope that none of you will now go to someone who is doing
active work in the Movement for Religious Renewal and say: This
or that has been said against it in Dornach. — Nothing
has been said against it. In love and in devotion to the
spiritual world the Movement for Religious Renewal has been
given counsel from out of the spiritual world, in order that it
might rightly found itself. But the fact must be known by
Anthroposophists that it has founded itself out of itself, that
it has formed — not, it is true, the content of its
ritual, but the fact of its ritual, out of its own force
and its own initiative, and that the essential core of the
Anthroposophical Movement has nothing to do with the Movement
for Religious Renewal.
Certainly no wish could be stronger than mine that the Movement
for Religious Renewal shall grow and flourish more and more,
but always in adherence to the original intentions.
Anthroposophical Groups must not be changed into communities
for religious renewal, either in a material or in a spiritual
sense.
I
was obliged to say this today, for, as you know, counsel and
advice had to be given for a Cult, a Cult whose growth in our
present time is earnestly desired by me. In order that no
misunderstanding should arise in regard to this Cult
when I speak tomorrow of the conditions of the life of Cult in
the spiritual world, I felt it necessary to insert these words
today as an episode in our course of lectures.
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