Academic literature on the topic 'Anthroposophy/Rudolf Steiner'

The Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875, was, at the turn of the Twentieth Century, a global phenomenon with 100,000 members. New Age philosopher Dr Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was appointed as the first Secretary General of the German Section of the Theosophical Society on 19 October 1902. The Theosophical Society offered Rudolf Steiner a platform, a ready-made audience, infrastructure, and the insider experience of the world’s leading New Age spiritual society. The success of the Theosophical Society demonstrated that there was a public appetite to hear about reincarnation, karma, maya, kamaloca, and other Eastern and alternative spiritual ideas. The Theosophical Society provided Rudolf Steiner a capable, multilingual, and determined personal assistant, Marie von Sivers (1867-1948). For Rudolf Steiner the Theosophical Society offered the perfect training ground for what would be, a decade later, his life’s work, the Anthroposophical Society. Rudolf Steiner grew the membership of the German Section of the Theosophical Society from 377 in 1905 to 3,702 in 1913. He earned cash from ticketing of his lectures and his Mystery plays, and from book sales of his personal publishing house, ‘Philosophisch-Theosophischer Verlag’. Another enterprise, the ‘Johannes-Bau-Verein’ (Johannes Building Association) was founded in 1911, independent of the Theosophical Society, to build a theatre in Munich to present Rudolf Steiner's plays. The building application was rejected by the Munich municipal authorities in 1912. The resistance to a build in Munich, provided impetus for the move to build in Dornach, Switzerland. The Anthroposophical Society was founded 28 December 1912 in Cologne, Germany. Most of the members of the German Section of the Theosophical Society members followed Rudolf Steiner into the Anthroposophical Society. The Theosophical Society expelled Rudolf Steiner from the Theosophical Society on 7 March 1913. The foundation stone for the Goetheanum (then still called the ‘Johannesbau’) was laid 20 September 1913. The Theosophical Society had served as the ideal prototype and springboard for founding and growing the Anthroposophical Society.

The New Age philosopher, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), was the most prolific and arguably the most influential philosopher of his era. He assembled a substantial library, of approximately 9,000 items, which has been preserved intact since his death. Most of Rudolf Steiner’s books are in German, his native language however there are books in other languages, including English, French, Italian, Swedish, Sanskrit and Latin. His library hosts more books in English than in any other foreign language. Steiner esteemed English as “a universal world language”. The present paper identifies 327 books in English in Rudolf Steiner’s personal library. Fifty percent of the English-language books identified are categorized as Theosophy (n=164). Rudolf Steiner was the General Secretary of the German branch of the Theosophy Society from 1902, and he hived off his own Anthroposophy Society in 1912. The present study reveals that Steiner maintained his interest in theosophy throughout his life as he stayed up to date with the proliferating portfolio of Theosophy publications. The publication dates of Steiner’s Theosophy collection range from 1877 to 1923. The leading exponents of Theosophy in his day are well represented in Steiner’s collection, including Annie Besant (n=61), Charles Lead beater (n=13), William Westcott (n=13) and Helena Blavatsky (n=10). Of the other 50% of the Anglo-books identified, 20% are in the category of Religion (n=67), 10% are Social Science (n=33), 6% are Philosophy (n=21), 4% are Science (n=13), and 3% each are Anthroposophy (n=11), History (n=9) and Arts (n=9). The publication dates of Steiner’s Anglo-books span the period 1659 to 1925. This demonstrates that Steiner was acquiring Anglo-books right to the end of his life. Steiner’s library throws light on the development of the thoughts of this remarkable individual and the present paper reveals Steiner’s engagement throughout his life with the world of Anglo-publishing and thought.

Waldorf schools base their pedagogical practice on the ideas of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), namely on the esoteric philosophy of anthroposophy he founded in 1913. This paper discusses how Waldorf school teachers are trained. The paper starts by analyzing the first training course Steiner taught for the teachers at the Freie Waldorfschule, the first Waldorf School, founded in Stuttgart in 1919. It then goes on to examine the structure and theoretical underpinnings of Waldorf teacher training today. Finally, it looks at the specific case of the “Training Course in Waldorf Pedagogy and Humanistic-Artistic Education” given to Waldorf teachers in Spain. The main conclusion reached is that the structure of teacher training for Waldorf schools consists of giving an initial theoretical approach to anthroposophy, which lays the groundwork on which to base pedagogical practice. This involves having teachers integrate the categories of anthroposophy into their training process before acquiring the knowledge and skills required for carrying out their teaching endeavors.http://dx.doi.org/10.15572/ENCO2015.9

Can anthroposophists be considered environmentalists? Based on the author’s recent ethnographic research, this article seeks to delineate the profile of the anthroposophical environmentalist, a figure belonging to a particular form of environmentalism. In the last two centuries, anthroposophy (founded by Rudolf Steiner, 1861-1925) has elaborated a universalistic narrative named “spiritual science.” Today, through a “salvific approach” and a “karstic life,” anthroposophy informs different, blended, environmental practices intertwined with ecological and social issues that include spirituality, anti-modernism, human-nonhuman relationships and alternative sciences. Consequently, the ecological movements inspired by anthroposophy have a wide and increasing diffusion globally and this, in turn, stimulates anthropology to produce appropriate ethnographic knowledge of this form of environmentalism.

The article is an attempt to grasp the concept of anthroposophical aesthetics. The ideas of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy, repeatedly touched the area of human creative activity. The anthroposophical activity (including lectures and publications) of Karol Homolacs, professor of the State Higher School of Artistic Industry and the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, seems to be an excellent example of the application of these ideas in theory and practice.

Foodways are an excellent site for tracking the interaction between Anthroposophy, the spiritual science founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), and other emerging spiritual traditions. Participants in practical initiatives inspired by Anthroposophy—including Waldorf schools, biodynamic farms, and Camphill intentional communities—follow various eating practices. Some choose vegetarian diets featuring whole grains and abundant vegetables, like their counterparts in the Gaian wing of the New Age movement. Others prefer the “Nourishing Traditions” approach of Sally Fallon, which rejects processed foods and celebrates traditional cuisines that use large amounts of animal fat. This diversity of foodways, paradoxically, confirms Wouter Hanegraaff’s characterization of Anthroposophy as too “clearly demarcated” to be considered a full part of the New Age movement. What demarcates the Anthroposophical approach to food is not any specific dietary choice but the persistent reminder that individual freedom is the most important requirement in a spiritual approach to food.

This paper explores the work of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), founder of Anthroposophy (a human-centred path of spiritual knowledge), and its relevance to Transpersonal Psychology.Steiner’s holistic Weltanschauung is based on the insight that the cosmos lives, in nuce, in the individual, and that the individual has the potential to discover the spiritual dimension of life. This unifying principle – which animates the plurality of ‘practical’ applications of Steiner’s philosophy in the material world, such as in education, art and drama, architecture, medicine and agriculture – also points towards some areas of convergence between Steiner’s thought and Maslow’s later conceptualisation of human nature and spiritual growth.