Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner (February 27, 1861, Murakirály, Hungary – March 30, 1925) was an Austrian philosopher, literary scholar, architect, playwright, educator, and social thinker, who is best known as the founder of Anthroposophy and its practical applications, including Waldorf School, Biodynamic agriculture, the Camphill Movement, and the Christian Community.

Steiner Criticism

A critical approach to the works of Steiner is not as common as some would like and not always welcomed within Anthroposophic circles, though the emphasis anthroposophists place on individual freedom and on thinking limits the tendency toward group-think and prevents anthroposophy from turning into a cult -- if a cult is something that deprives its members of spiritual and intellectual freedom. And given Steiner's very clear statements about political democracy being the proper kind of State for the humanity of his time and ours, and his equally clear, consistent and emphatic support for liberty and pluralism in education, in religion, in scientific opinion, in the arts, and in the press, not to mention his rejection of the idea that the State should take over economic life -- given all this, one cannot justly link Steiner or his movement with a totalitarian intent. Nevertheless, as with most other social groups, of whatever sort, whether intellectual, political, or religious, only a minority of anthroposophists are really independent thinkers; the rest tend to be followers of one sort or another, some of whom tend to parrot Steiner's words.

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Most articles about Steiner - like this one - have been authored by Steiner followers. Most scientists acquainted with the topics Steiner touched regard him as substandard and unprofessional in his methods, and therefore completely disregard his works. However a number of trained physicists, biologists, medical doctors, architects, philosophers, and other scholars claim to find creative genius in Steiner's comments on detailed aspects of each of their fields. Research centers staffed by trained physicians, physicists and biologists do research along lines suggested or inspired by Steiner's ideas. Some of the better known scientists and scholars who have been deeply influenced by Steiner are listed two paragraphs down.

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Access to Steiner's original manuscripts is controlled by Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung. Most of the some 350 volumes of works by Steiner are based on third-party stenographic reports of his lectures. Often more than one stenographer was present taking down a lecture, so the reliability of these reports and their accuracy is frequently good or excellent, but certainly not perfect.

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There are some scientists and intellectuals who admire Steiner's efforts to transform ordinary thinking gradually into a higher thinking that is at the same time a perceiving of the spiritual world. Examples of books and authors profoundly influenced by Steiner: physicist Henri Bortoft's The Wholeness of Nature, physicist Arthur Zajonc's Catching the Light, physicist Georg Unger's Forming Concepts in Physics, physicist Stephen Edelglass' The Marriage of Sense and Thought, biologist Craig Holdrege's Genetics and the Manipulation of Life, theoretical chemist Jos Verhulst's Developmental Dynamics in Humans and Other Primates, theoretical chemist Georg Khulewind's From Normal to Healthy, biologist Wolfgang Schad's Man and Mammals: Toward a Biology of Form, medical doctor Robert Zieve's Healthy Medicine, medical doctor Victor Bott's Introduction to Anthroposophical Medicine, philosopher Owen Barfield's World's Apart, philosopher Richard Tarnas' Passion of the Western Mind, cultural critic Theodore Roszak's Unfinished Animal. See also computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum's comments on Steiner, or those of Albert Schweitzer. Andrei Belyi, the great Russian symbolist writer, was also profoundly influenced by Steiner and wrote essays about him.

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Franz Kafka gave what, from his own particular literary perspective, was perhaps the highest compliment, in his diaries calling Steiner's mystery plays 'incomprehensible' (or something similar). See also the collection of scientific articles edited by physicist Arthur Zajonc and architect David Seamon, Goethe's Way of Science, A Phenomenology of Nature. Nevertheless, Steiner remains unknown by many and rejected by others.

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The high regard in which Steiner is held within the Anthroposopical movement, which sees his teaching as foundational, has prompted some critics to see Steiner as a founder of a religion, not as a philosopher in the usual sense of the word. The idea, if there is a degree of truth to it, evolves from overzealous students, not from Rudolf Steiner.

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Steiner frequently asked his students to test everything he said, and not to take his statements on authority or faith. He also said that if it had been practicable, he would have changed the name of his teachings every day, to keep people from hanging on to the literal meaning of those teachings, and to stay true to their character as something intended to be alive and metamorphic. Nor was Steiner shy about saying that his works would gradually become obsolete, and that each generation should rewrite them. Individual freedom and spiritual independence are among the values Steiner most emphasized in his books and lectures.

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Steiner's views of Christianity have been criticized as heretical. For example, his view that there were two Jesus children involved in the Incarnation of the Christ (one child descended from Solomon, the other from Nathan— this might seem a bit less strange when one recalls that 'Jesus' was a common name in biblical times.); that the divine "Christ Spirit", the Son-God of the Trinity, incarnated at the moment of the baptism by John; that up until the moment of the baptism by John in the Jordan, Jesus was a very great holy man, but not yet the divine Son of God; that "the Christ Being" is not only the Redeemer of the Fall from Paradise, but also the unique pivot and meaning of earth's evolutionary processes and of human history; that Yahveh (Jehovah) dwelt in the moon, but Elohim in the Sun; and that the second coming of the Christ meant the Christ would, for slowly increasing numbers of people, become manifest in the etheric realm beginning around the year 1933. (Steiner was not referring to the hypothetical ether of 19th century physicists, and on several occasions carefully distinguished his own use of the term from their use of it.)

Related Topics:
Christianity - Yahveh - Jehovah - Elohim

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Occasionally Steiner is criticized for his advice to delay reading until students reach the age 6 or 7. Still, a government commission in Germany conducted a study in the 1990s and found that German Waldorf school (Steiner school) graduates scored significantly higher than German public school graduates on the Abitur, a high school graduate exam widely administered in Germany. The significance of this finding is questionable, because not all Waldorf students are admitted to prepare for the Abitur.

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Some critics say the Waldorf schools' emphasis on imagination and creativity can sometimes lead to child-led class sessions without focus or direction. To the contrary, Waldorf educators report that it is a highly structured, disciplined educational model. The emphasis on arts and creativity complements a challenging curricula.

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