The Rudolf Steiner Archive

2. The Right Relationship of Society to Anthroposophy

[ 1 ] Anthroposophy should be there for people who are searching in their souls for ways to spiritual experience. And if the Anthroposophical Society wants to fulfill its task, then it must be able to serve these searching souls. As a society, it must itself find the right relationship to Anthroposophy.

[ 2 ] Anthroposophy can only flourish as something living. For the fundamental characteristic of its essence is life. It is life flowing from the spirit. That is why it wants to be nurtured by the living soul, by the warm heart.

[ 3 ] The original form in which it can appear among human beings is the idea; and the first gateway through which it addresses human beings is insight. If this were not so, it would have no content. It would be mere emotional enthusiasm. But the true spirit does not enthuse; it speaks a clear language rich in content.

[ 4 ] But this language is one that captivates not only the intellect, but the whole human being. Those who take in anthroposophy with their intellect alone kill it in the process. They may then find it to be “cold science.” But they do not notice that it has lost its warm life precisely because of the reception they have prepared for it in their souls.

[ 5 ] If anthroposophy is to have a presence in our time, it must make use of the means of contemporary civilization. It must find its way to people in books and lectures. But by its very nature, it is not a subject for libraries. It must be recreated each time the human heart turns to the book to learn about it. This will only be possible if the book is written in such a way that the author has looked into the hearts of his fellow human beings while writing, in order to know what he has to say to them. But this will only be possible if the writer is touched by the life of the spirit while writing, and if this enables him to entrust to the dead written word what the reader's soul, seeking the spiritual, can experience as a resurrection of the spirit from the word. Only books that can come alive in the reader are anthroposophical books.

[ 6 ] Even less than the dead book itself, anthroposophy cannot tolerate the book that has become a semblance of life in human speech. In many areas of our present-day civilization, reading a book or essay and listening to a person appear to be similar activities. By listening to a person, one does not get to know the person, but rather what they have thought, which could just as well be written down.

[ 7 ] Anthroposophy cannot tolerate being completely absorbed by this kind of approach. Anyone who hears about anthroposophy from another person wants to see that person in all their original essence, not a spoken essay.

[ 8 ] That is why anthroposophy, even though it must necessarily live as literature, can be reborn each time it seeks its way to the souls of a group of people in words. But it will only be reborn there if the person speaks to the person, not the recorded thought.

[ 9 ] Anthroposophy cannot therefore find its way through ordinary agitation, even if this is done with good intentions. Agitation kills true anthroposophy. It must appear because it is led by the spirit to appear. It must prove its life, because all life can only reveal itself in existence. But it must not oppress anyone with its existence. It must wait to see if someone comes who wants to receive it. It must not know coercion, even through persuasion, toward human beings.

[ 10 ] I would like to present this attitude to the members as something particularly necessary that must emerge from the Christmas conference. We have encountered a great deal of resistance because such an attitude has not always lived purely in our hearts. Often, even when we endeavored to adopt such an attitude, we were unable to capture it in our words. And already in our words there must be a tone that does not seek to persuade in an inflammatory manner, but which seeks only to give expression to the spirit.

[ 11 ] Anthroposophy based on this attitude will be more than what has often been lived in our groups up to now. The Goetheanum wants to work solely from this attitude. It has built the building that was taken from us in such artistic forms that already reveal this attitude in themselves. If a word that sounded inflammatory found its way into the lost Goetheanum, there was a jarring dissonance between it and the architectural forms. When the Goetheanum is rebuilt, it will only be a truth if the Anthroposophical Society is willing to be a living witness to its truth everywhere.

[ 12 ] Especially on the basis of anthroposophy, one must not believe that only that which is artificially imprinted with effectiveness can be effective. That which lives out of the essence of its own spirit can wait until the world is ready to accept its effectiveness.

[ 13 ] If this attitude lives in every group of the Anthroposophical Society, then the spirit of anthroposophy will also have an effect beyond our own circles, where it is our duty to carry anthroposophy out into the world. We must not surround ourselves with the glitter of secrecy. The present does not tolerate such glitter. It wants to work in full public view. The “secret” lies not in secrecy, but in the inner seriousness with which anthroposophy must be experienced anew in every heart. It cannot be transmitted in an external way. It can only be grasped by the soul through inner experience. This makes it a “mystery” that must be unsealed anew in understanding each time. If one understands this kind of “mystery,” one will also carry the right “esoteric” attitude in one's soul.