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THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST, THE RESURRECTED
Reflections on the Mystery of Golgotha
by
RUDOLF STEINER
At The Hague,
April 13th, 1922
ODAY
I should like to speak to you about a certain aspect of the Mystery
of Golgotha. I have spoken
about this Mystery on many occasions in our more intimate
Anthroposophical gatherings, yet all that can be said about it
is so extensive and belongs to a sphere of such importance and
richness that, in order to approach it even approximately from
the most varied points of view, we are compelled to elucidate
from ever new aspects this greatest of all secrets in
human earth evolution.
We
shall be able to value this Mystery of Golgotha in the right
way only when we allow our soul perception to contemplate two
evolutionary streams of human earthly existence: namely, first,
that part of the entire evolution of mankind which
preceded the Mystery of Golgotha, and second, that other part
which has already succeeded it or which will succeed it during
the remainder of the earth period.
When we speak of the beginning of earth existence, of the
primeval epochs of the earth evolution of humanity during which
there already existed thinking of a certain kind, although
dreamlike and imaginative in character, it was
nevertheless a certain sort of thinking; and when we
speak of this beginning we must make clear to ourselves that
the human beings of that time possessed faculties which enabled
them to have intercourse — if I may so express it —
with beings of a higher cosmic order. You know from my
Occult Science
and from other descriptions
something of the nature of these beings of the higher
hierarchies.
At
present, with our ordinary consciousness, we do not know much
about these beings of the higher hierarchies. Our intercourse
with them has been cut off, so to say. This was not the case in
the most ancient periods of human evolution. It would, of
course, be wrong to imagine that the meeting with such a being
of the higher hierarchies was of a similar nature to the
meeting of two modern men incarnated in physical bodies. It
certainly was quite a different sort of relationship. What
these beings communicated to the human entity by means of the
primeval earth language could only be comprehended by spiritual
organs. And these beings communicated the mighty secrets of
existence to the human being of that time. Secrets of existence
were poured out into the human mind of that time and they
called forth in man the consciousness that in the region above
us, where today we see only clouds and stars, the earthly life
had intercourse with divine worlds. These dwellers in divine
regions descended in a spiritual manner to the human earth
beings and revealed themselves in such a way that the earth man
received, through the communications of these super-earthly
beings, what may be called primeval wisdom. Within these
manifestations of divine wisdom, originating in these
beings, an infinite amount of knowledge was contained which
human beings, during their earth life, would not have been able
to fathom by themselves. In the beginning of earth existence
— in the sense in which I have described it here —
human beings were of themselves able to know but very
little. Everything that was kindled in them as perception, as
perceptive knowledge, they received from their divine teachers.
Their divine teachings contained much, but they did not contain
one thing of special importance which, as a matter of fact, was
unnecessary for humanity of that time but which does contain
most essential facts of knowledge for modern mankind. The
divine teachers spoke to men of the most varied aspects of
truth and knowledge, yet they never spoke to them of birth and
death.
Naturally, I cannot today during this short hour speak of all
the things said by these divine teachers to the human race in
those ancient times. Much of this, however, you know already;
but I should like to emphasize the fact very strongly that in
all these teachings there was nothing about birth and death.
The reason for this is due to the fact that in the course of
human evolution there was no need for the human beings of those
ancient times — also for a long time after for those who
followed — to have any knowledge of the wisdom of birth
and death. The entire consciousness of mankind has changed in
the course of earth evolution. And although we should not
compare the animal consciousness of today, even the higher
animal consciousness, with the human consciousness in ancient,
primitive times, nevertheless we may consider important
facts of present-day animal life. This life lies below the
level of the human. In the beginning, the life of primitive man
lay, in a certain sense, even above the level of the
present-day human being, in spite of the fact that, when
compared with modern man, he had a kind of animal shape. If we
view the animal of today with unbiased perception, we shall
agree that this animal is not interested in birth and death,
because it is in the middle evolutionary stage of existence. If
we disregard birth — although even there the matter in
question is quite obvious — we need only to think of the
carelessness and lack of interest with which the animal
approaches death. It simply submits to death, accepting this
transformation of its existence without experiencing such a
deep break in life as is the case with the human being.
As
we have already noted, the primeval earth man, in spite of his
animal-like shape, stood above the animal; he possessed an
instinctive clairvoyance, and by means of this instinctive
clairvoyance he was able to have intercourse with his divine
teachers. But like the present-day animal he was not concerned
about the approach of death. Perhaps we might say that he did
not contemplate death at all.
We
may ask: Why should he? As a result of his instinctive
clairvoyance he still had a memory of a clear experience of
what had remained within his inner being after he had descended
from the spirit world through birth into the physical world. He
knew the essential nature of what had entered his physical
body; and because he knew this, because he was sure — if
I may say so — that an immortal being lived within him,
he was therefore not interested in the transition which
takes place at death. He must have had feelings somewhat
similar to those of the serpent when, after slipping off its
old skin, it is compelled to replace it by a new one. The
impression of birth and death was something more self-evident
and not so desperately important in human life as it is today,
for the human being still possessed a vital perception of the
soul nature.
Today we have no perception of the soul nature. Today, in
dreaming, there is scarcely any perceptible transition between
sleeping and waking, and the dream with its pictures belongs at
present absolutely to the realm of the sleeping state, it is
still half-sleep. On the other hand the dreamlike pictures of
primeval man coincided with the waking state; it was a waking
state not yet fully developed. The human being knew that
what he received in these dream pictures was real. Thus he felt
and experienced his soul nature. And it was impossible for him
to raise questions about birth and death with the same vigor as
is necessary for our time.
In
the primeval periods of human earth evolution this state was
especially vital; but it decreased continually. Perhaps I may
express it in the following way: Human beings became gradually
more and more aware that death means a big break in human life,
likewise in the soul life, and, therefore, they had to turn
their attention also to the fact of birth. Earth life, in
regard to this distinction, assumed a character which
became ever increasingly significant for the earthly man; for
at the same time the living experience of soul existence grew
paler and paler, and he felt himself more and more lifted out
of a psycho-spiritual existence during his sojourn on earth.
This increased more and more, especially for those who lived
near the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. With the Greeks, this
feeling had already become so vital that they felt the life
outside the physical body as a mere human shadow-life and
they looked on death with tragic feelings. But what they had
received as teachings from their ancient divine
preceptors did not deal with the facts of birth and death.
Thus, before the Mystery of Golgotha, men ran the risk that
experiences might occur in their earth-life, that the
apprehension, the perception of these experiences might enter
their earth consciousness — Birth and Death — which
they did not understand and which were something absolutely
unknown to them.
Now
let us imagine that at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha
these ancient, divine teachers of mankind had descended. Had
they really done so, they would perhaps have been able to
reveal themselves to a few pupils or teachers of mankind who
had been prepared through the mysteries; they would have been
able to communicate, to prepared priests for the mysteries, the
content and extent of ancient divine wisdom which actually had
been poured out into primeval wisdom. But within the whole of
these teachings nothing would have been found about birth and
death. The riddle of death would not have been imparted to
mankind through this revealed divine wisdom, not even in the
mysteries; and outside in earthly life human beings would have
observed something — the facts of birth and death —
which would have been of great and fundamental interest to
them. But the Gods would not have told them anything
about it. What was the reason?
You
should consider this matter without bias and you should put
aside many of the concepts which today have simply become
traditional religion. You should understand that the beings of
the higher hierarchies who were the teachers of primeval men
had never experienced birth and death in their own worlds. For
birth and death in the form we experience them on earth, are
only experienced on earth, and on earth are experienced only by
human beings. Death in animal and plant is something quite
different from death in a human being. And in the divine worlds
in which the first great teachers of human evolution lived
there is no birth, no death; there is only transformation,
metamorphosis from one state of existence to another.
Therefore an inward understanding of death and birth
— we must characterize it in this way — did not
exist in these divine teachers. This host of divine teachers
includes all the beings who were connected with the
Jahve-being, with the Bodhisattva-beings, with all the ancient
creators of human world conceptions.
Let
us realize for instance how in the Old Testament — there
we can actually grasp it — the secret of death confronts
us more and more with a tragic mood. And the teachings that are
handed down in the Old Testament give the human being no
satisfactory and no inward information about death. If at the
time of the Mystery of Golgotha nothing had happened that was
different from what did happen before the Mystery of Golgotha
in the sphere of the earth and the super-worlds connected with
it, if the Mystery of Golgotha had not taken place, then human
beings would have found themselves in a terrible plight in
their earth evolution; they would have experienced on earth the
transitions of birth and death which then no longer were mere
metamorphoses, which then indicated an abrupt transition
in the whole of human life, and they would not have been able
to learn anything about the significance of death and birth in
human earth-life. In order to permit the teachings of birth and
death to enter gradually into the understanding of mankind, the
being whom we call the Christ had to descend by degrees into
earth-life. The Christ belongs to the worlds from which the
ancient great teachers came; but through the decision of these
divine worlds He chose a different destiny from the other
beings of the divine hierarchies who are related to the
earth. He submitted Himself, so to say, to the divine decision
of higher worlds that He incarnate in an earthly body and pass
with His own divine soul through earthly birth and earthly
death.
You
see, therefore, that what has happened through the Mystery of
Golgotha is not merely an inner-human or inner-earthly affair,
but it is at the same time an affair of the Gods. Only through
the events on Golgotha did the Gods learn to know inwardly of
death and the secret of birth on earth, for they had not
participated in it previously. Thus we have here the
significant fact that a divine being resolved to go through
human existence in this region, in order to have the same earth
experiences, the same destiny as the human being.
Much of the Mystery of Golgotha has become known to human
beings. There is tradition, there are the Gospels, there is the
entire New Testament, and people of today prefer to approach
the Mystery of Golgotha by reading the New Testament and by
means of the explanation of the latter as it is possible at
present. But from the explanation of the New Testament as it is
made in our time we acquire but little real insight into the
Mystery of Golgotha. It is necessary for people of the present
to acquire this knowledge in an outward manner. However, it is
mere outward knowledge. Today we do not know at all how
differently human beings looked back upon the Mystery of
Golgotha during the first centuries A.D., how differently those
who were initiated into this Mystery looked back upon it in
comparison with those who came later. Although all that I have
described had happened, nevertheless at the time of the Mystery
of Golgotha individual human beings still possessed remnants of
an old instinctive clairvoyance. And up to the 4th century A.D.
these remnants enabled them to look back to the Mystery of
Golgotha quite differently from later periods. And it is not
without meaning that the teachers who then appeared
— we can verify this, although quite insufficiently in
the historical traditions of the oldest, so-called church
fathers and Christian teachers — that the teachers who
then appeared put the greatest emphasis not on written
traditions but on the fact that they have received knowledge of
the life of Christ Jesus from teachers who have seen Him face
to face, or from teachers who had been pupils of the pupils of
the Apostles themselves in the oldest times, or the pupils of
the pupils of the Apostles' pupils, etc. This continued on up
to the 4th century A.D., and the teachers of that century
referred to this living connection. As already stated, the
historical documents are for the most part destroyed, and only
attentive study can discover, by external means, how much
emphasis was laid on the following: “I have had a
teacher, he has had a teacher,” etc., and at the end of
the row there stands one of the Apostles who had seen the Lord
Himself face to face.
A
great deal of this has been lost. But even more has been lost
of actual esoteric wisdom which still existed in the
first four centuries A.D., thanks to the remnants of old
clairvoyant perception. All knowledge of that time about the
resurrected Christ has been lost for external tradition. This
knowledge is that of the Christ who went through the Mystery of
Golgotha, and then in a spirit body, like the ancient teachers
of primeval humanity, taught some of His chosen pupils after
His resurrection. The Gospels give mere indications, in a very
scanty way, of the significance of the teachings which the
resurrected Christ gave to His disciples when He met with them.
And St. Paul's experience of Damascus is understood by Paul
himself as a teaching which the resurrected Christ gave
him, through which Saul became Paul. In those past times
people were conscious of the fact that the resurrected Christ
Jesus had to impart mysteries of a very special kind to
men. The human beings themselves were the cause of not being
able to receive these communications at later periods. They had
to develop those soul forces which led to the use of human
freedom and human intellect. This has appeared with especial
force since the 15th century, but it was already in preparation
from the 4th century A.D. on.
The
question must now arise: What was the content of the teachings
which the resurrected Christ was able to give His chosen
disciples? For He appeared to them in the same manner in which
the divine teachers had appeared to primitive mankind.
Perhaps I may express it in the following manner: He was now
able to tell them in divine language that He had experienced
what His heavenly companions had not experienced. He was able
to tell them, from His divine point of view, something about
the secret of birth and death. He was able to impart to them
the knowledge that in the future the earthly human being would
possess a day-waking consciousness by means of which he would
not be able to perceive the immortal soul in human life and
which would be extinguished in sleep, preventing, during
sleep, this immortal soul from appearing to the soul's
gaze; but He was able to call attention to the fact that it is
possible to include the Mystery of Golgotha in human
perception. I should like to express in the following words
what He explained to them. I can express it merely in weak,
stammering words, for our languages do not offer greater
possibilities of expression, but I shall try to put it in the
following weak, stammering words: The human body has
gradually become so dense, the death forces in it have become
so strong that, although the human being is now able to develop
his intellect and his freedom, he can do this only in a life
which distinctly passes through death, a life in which
death signifies an incisive break, and in which, during the
waking consciousness, the perception of the immortal soul is
extinguished. But ye can receive into your soul a certain
wisdom, ye can receive the wisdom that through the Mystery of
Golgotha — the Christ spoke thus to His initiated pupils
— something has occurred in My own being with which ye
can imbue your own selves, provided ye are willing to gain the
knowledge that the Christ has descended to the earth from
extra-earthly spheres; provided ye are willing to acquire
the concept that on earth something exists which cannot be
beheld by earthly means, which can only be perceived by means
higher than the earthly; provided ye can behold the Mystery of
Golgotha as a divine event placed in the midst of earth-life;
provided ye are able to perceive that a God has passed through
the Mystery of Golgotha.
Through everything else that occurs on earth ye can acquire
earthly wisdom; but this would be of no use in gaining an
understanding of death in a human way. It would only be of use
to you if, like ancient humanity, ye were not intensely
interested in death. But since ye are compelled to be
interested in it, your insight must receive an impulse
much stronger than all other earthly perceptive impulses. It is
so strong that ye will be able to say to yourself: With
the occurrence of the Mystery of Golgotha something has
happened that has broken all earthly natural laws. If ye are
able to absorb into your faith only earthly natural law, ye
will never grasp death in its significance for human life, even
though ye may be able to behold it. But if ye can bring about
in yourselves the understanding that the earth has acquired
meaning only through the fact that in the middle of earth
evolution, through the Mystery of Golgotha, something
Divine has occurred which cannot be grasped by mere earthly
comprehension, then will ye prepare in yourselves a special
force of wisdom, and this force of wisdom is the same as the
force of faith; ye will prepare a special force of
pneumasophia, a force of faith and wisdom. For it is a
strong force of the soul which says: “I
believe, I know through faith what I shall never be able to
believe and know through earthly means!” It is
a far stronger force than the one which only ascribes to itself
the ability to know what can be fathomed by earthly means. Even
were the human being to gain all the wisdom of the earth, he
would still be weak if he only knew how to sustain his wisdom
by earthly means. If he is willing to acknowledge the fact that
the super-earthly lives in the earthly, he must develop a much
greater inner activity.
The
impulse to develop such an inner activity lies in our
consideration of the Mystery of Golgotha. The resurrected
Christ proclaimed again and again to His original disciples the
teaching that a God had experienced human destiny —
for the Gods of previous epochs had not had this experience in
their own spheres — and that this God had united Himself
with the destiny of the earth through human destinies. And this
had a tremendous effect in the world. Just strive for a moment
to realize how powerful the effect of this could be; try to
realize it in considering present-day conditions. Less is
demanded of a human being who in his thinking is able to grasp
all that he has gathered from earthly conditions, from
traditional religious concepts which, in general, are accepted,
than of a human being who we expect will raise his
understanding to the point where it can grasp the fact that
certain categories of divine beings did not possess a knowledge
of death and birth before the Mystery of Golgotha but had to
acquire it, at that significant moment of history, for the
salvation of mankind. It requires a certain strength in order
to “mingle” with divine wisdom, if we may be
permitted to use this expression. Certainly no special strength
is needed in order to read from any catechism that God is
“all-knowing,”
“all-mighty,”
“all-divine,” etc. You need merely to place
the little word “all” before
everything, and the definition of the Divine is
ready-made, but it is the most nebulous definition
possible. Today human beings do not dare — if I may say
so — to “mingle with divine wisdom.” But this
“mingling” must take place. And a part of divine
wisdom is what the Gods themselves have acquired through the
fact that One of their number passed through human birth and
human death. And it was of enormous importance that this secret
was entrusted to the first disciples. And the further great and
important fact, taught these disciples, was that it is true
that the force once lived in the human being which gives him an
insight into the eternal in his own soul.
This actual perception of the eternal in the human soul can
never be acquired through brain knowledge, that is, through
knowledge acquired through the intellect which uses the brain
as an instrument. It can never be acquired in reality in the
way it was possessed by ancient humanity, unless nature lends
her aid through a knowledge which is gained through a special
training of the human rhythmical system.
When the last instinctive seers practiced Yoga they achieved
much, as long as it was assisted by an ancient instinctive
clairvoyance. The present Oriental, the modern Indian, to whom
many Westerners turn their attention in such a fantastic
manner, does not, when performing his exercises, attain what
can be called a real perception of the immortal nature of the
human soul. He lives for the most part in illusions by having a
temporary experience, although it is something elementary for
earth-life, and, in addition, by interpreting this
experience by what he finds in his holy books. Real
knowledge, fundamental knowledge of the divine human soul can
be gained only in a twofold way: Either it can be attained in
the way of ancient humanity, or it can be attained in an
infinitely more spiritual way through intuitive knowledge, that
is, through a knowledge based on imaginative and inspirative
wisdom which then rises to intuitive wisdom. Why is this
so?
During earth-life the thinking part of the soul has streamed
into the human nervous system. Thinking no longer exists for
itself, it has molded this plastic structure. And it exists
only partially in the rhythmic system. This offers at best some
important points from which we might draw further conclusions.
Only in the metabolic system, this most materialistic part of
earth-life, do we find hidden the actual, immortal part of the
human soul. The metabolic system is regarded as the most
material on earth, and outwardly this is true; but
because it is the most material, the spiritual remains
separate from it. The other material parts of the body —
the brain and the rhythmic system — absorb the spiritual;
it is not present. It is present in the crude-material
substances of the body. But the human being must be able to
see, to perceive by means of this crude-material substance.
This was the case with primeval humanity, and in our present
age it may be found in abnormal cases, although this is not
desirable. Very few people know, for instance, that the
secret of the style of the Zarathustra of Nietzsche
rests upon the fact that he took certain poisonous
substances into his system which called forth in him the
particular rhythm, the particular style of Zarathustra.
In Nietzsche a quite definite substance lived as thought. This,
of course, is something abnormal, a diseased condition, though
it is in a certain sense something magnificent. We cannot
permit ourselves to live in illusions about these things if we
wish to understand them, any more than we can wish to live in
illusions about the opposite pole, about intuition, etc. We
must realize what it means that Nietzsche partook of certain
poisons, but we must not imitate him. Thus by causing the human
organism to take on an etheric mode of existence these poisons
irradiate the thought system, thus calling forth what we see in
Nietzsche's Zarathustra. By means of intuition we
perceive the psycho-spiritual nature as such, quite separate
from matter.
In
the sphere of intuition nothing material is active. This is
described in
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment
and in
Occult Science.
These two — the spiritual and material perceptions —
are the two opposite poles.
In
those mysteries into which the resurrected Christ sent His
message there still existed the knowledge that in ancient times
the human being possessed the highest knowledge of matter,
“metabolic knowledge.” The way was sought to
reawaken this ancient knowledge of matter — although not
in the way of primeval mankind, nor in the way of the
“hashish-eaters,” who wished, through the effects
of certain material substances, to gain a knowledge which
cannot be obtained without them. The way to reawaken this
ancient knowledge of matter was striven for, but in a
different manner, namely through clothing the Mystery of
Golgotha in certain mantric forms, chiefly in the structural
forms of the mystery of Revelation, Offering,
Transubstantiation, Communion, by presenting the Holy Supper
through the giving of bread and wine to the worshipper.
Poison was not given, but the Holy Supper was offered him,
wrapped in the mantric formulas of the Holy Mass, in the
fourfold form of the Mass — Gospel, Offering,
Transubstantiation, Communion. For after the Communion,
after the fourth part of the Holy Mass, the actual Communion of
the Faithful occurred, and an endeavor was made to give
them at least an intimation of the fact that a certain wisdom
must be regained which leads to the goal of ancient
“metabolic knowledge.” The human beings of today
can hardly imagine this “metabolic knowledge,”
because they have no idea how much more, for instance, a bird
knows than a man — although not in an intellectual,
abstract sense; or how much more even a donkey knows than a
man, a donkey, which is an animal living entirely in the
metabolic system. It is, however, only a dull knowledge,
dreamlike knowledge. Today there exists a degeneration of what
primeval man once possessed in his metabolic system. It was out
of the first Christian teachings, however, that the Sacrament
of the Altar was conceived in order to lead mankind to regain a
knowledge of the immortal of the human soul.
At
the time when the Christ, who had passed through death, taught
His initiated disciples, men were unable to attain such
knowledge by themselves. He imparted it to them. And during the
first four Christian centuries this knowledge continued
on alive, in a certain way. Then it grew sclerotic within the
Roman Catholic Church, for although the latter retained the
Holy Mass, it had no longer a proper interpretation of it. The
Holy Mass — thought of as a continuation of the Last
Supper as it is described in the Bible — has naturally no
meaning, unless a meaning is first inserted into it. The
establishment of the Holy Mass with its wonderful cult, its
imitation of the four mystery-degrees, is to be traced back to
the fact that the resurrected Christ was the instructor of
those who were able to receive these teachings in a higher
esoteric sense. During the subsequent centuries only a
childlike sort of teaching about the Mystery of Golgotha
could remain. A faculty was developed which for the time being
concealed the knowledge of this Mystery. Human beings had first
to become fully acquainted with all that relates to
death. This marked the first medieval civilization.
Traditions were preserved. In many occult societies of the
present, people gather who, in their writings, possess formulas
which remind those who understand and recognize them of
the teachings of the resurrected Christ to His initiated
disciples. But those who today meet in all sorts of Masonic
lodges and occult societies do not understand what lives in
their formulas; they actually have no idea about all that these
formulas contain. But much could be gained from these formulas,
because in their dead letters much wisdom still lives. Yet it
is not done! But after mankind in its evolution has gone
through a certain period of darkness in regard to the Mystery
of Golgotha, it has come today to the point of time where human
longing for a deeper knowledge of the Mystery of Golgotha
needs satisfaction. And this can occur only through
Anthroposophy. This can occur only through the appearance of
new knowledge, acquired in a purely spiritual way. When
it does occur we shall then again acquire a fully human
understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha. Then we shall again
learn to understand that the most significant teachings have
been given to humanity, not through the Christ who lived in the
physical body until the Mystery of Golgotha occurred, but
through the resurrected Christ after the occurrence of
this Mystery. We shall gain a new understanding of the words of
an initiate like St. Paul: “And if Christ hath not been
raised your faith is vain.” (I Cor. XV, 17). Since the
experience of Damascus he knew that everything depended upon an
understanding of the resurrected Christ, upon the union of the
force of the resurrected Christ with the human soul, which
enabled him to say: “Not I, but the Christ in
me.”
In
contrast to this, it is altogether too characteristic that in
the 19th Century a theology developed which does not wish to
know anything at all about the resurrected Christ. It is a
significant symptom of our time that a teacher of theology in
Basle, Switzerland, a friend of Nietzsche, Overbeck, as a
theologian, wrote a book about the Christian character of
present-day theology. In this he tried to prove that the
theology of today is no longer Christian. Much that is
characteristically Christian may still exist — this is
also the opinion of such a personality as Overbeck, who
comprehends Christianity; but theology, as taught by
“Christian” theologians, is at any rate not
Christian. This, in brief, is the opinion of the Christian
theologian Overbeck. And his opinion is very
intelligently proven in his book.
Mankind has reached a point in regard to the comprehension of
the Mystery of Golgotha where those who are officially
appointed by the church to say something about it know the
least. From this springs the longing, the human longing, to be
able to learn something about what everyone can experience in
his inmost being, namely, the need of Christ.
It
was evident from our recent lectures
[Anthroposophical-scientific Course,
6 lectures. The Hague, Holland, April 7th–12th, 1922.]
that Anthroposophy has much to render in the way of service to the
humanity of our time. A significant service which it can render
will be that of religion. But we do not intend to inaugurate a
new religion!
The
event which has given the earth its meaning is of such a
character that it will never be surpassed. This event consists
in the passing of a God through the human destiny of birth and
death. After the advent of Christianity no new religion can be
founded — this is evident to anyone who knows the
foundation of Christianity. We would misunderstand
Christianity were we to believe that a new religion could be
founded. But since humanity itself advances more and more in
super-sensible knowledge, there will be an ever deeper
comprehension of the Mystery of Golgotha, and with it of
the Christ Being. To this comprehension Anthroposophy
wishes to give, at the present time, what it alone is capable
of contributing; for nowhere else will there be the possibility
of speaking about the estate of the divine teachers of
humanity in primeval times who spoke of everything except birth
and death, because they themselves had not passed through birth
and death. And nowhere else will it be possible to speak of the
Teacher Who had come to His initiated disciples in a form
similar to the one in which the divine primeval teachers of
mankind had once appeared, but Who was able to give the
significant teachings of a God's experience in the human
destiny of birth and death.
Out
of this communication of a God to mankind we shall draw the
force to behold death, in which we must be interested, in such
a way that we can say: Death does exist, but it cannot harm the
soul. The Mystery of Golgotha enabled us to declare this
fact. St. Paul knew that, had it not taken place, had
the Christ not risen, then the soul would have been enmeshed in
the destiny of the body; that is, been enmeshed in the
dissolution of the body into the elements of the earth. Had
Christ not risen, had He not united Himself with the earth
forces, the human soul would unite itself with the human body
between birth and death in such a way that it would also link
itself with all the molecules of the body which unite
themselves with the earth after the body's destruction by fire
or through putrefaction. Then in future ages, at the end of the
earth evolution, it would happen that human souls would
take the same road as the substance of the earth. But the
Christ, by passing through the Mystery of Golgotha, is
able to tear the human soul away from this destiny. The earth
will continue on its path in the cosmos. But just as the human
soul is able to emerge from the individual human body, so the
sum total of human souls will be freed from the earth and will
advance onward to a new cosmic existence.
The
Christ is thus connected with the earth in a very intimate way.
But the manner in which we have approached this secret alone
enables us to understand it.
In
the minds of many the following question might arise: How will
it be, at that time, with those who do not believe in Christ?
In regard to this I should like to say as a consolation that
the Christ has died for us all, even for those who today are
unable to unite themselves with Him. The Mystery of Golgotha is
an objective fact quite apart from human knowledge; but this
human knowledge strengthens the inner forces of the human
soul. And all the means at our command concerning human
knowledge, human feeling, human will, will have to be employed
in the further course of earth evolution in order to
establish, through direct knowledge, the presence of
Christ in the individual human soul.
This, my dear friends, is what I wished to say to you today.
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