Books by Adrian Anderson

These seven powerful images, seen by Rudolf Steiner in the spiritual world, are sign-posts revealing the dynamics underlying the evolutionary journey of the human soul, from a primordial past into wonderful future Ages. Rudolf Steiner's explanations are given in two lectures.

A comprehensive study of the Beatitudes from Rudolf Steiner's Complete Works and the ancient Greek of St. Matthew's Gospel.Rudolf Steiner revealed a new aspect to the Gospels, profoundly deepening the way we understand Christianity; he demonstrates that it has a cosmic dimension, and that this hidden side is pointed to in the Gospels themselves.Dr. Anderson's scholarship in ancient Greek has enabled him to pioneer a new modality in New Testament studies: the Initiatory Critical Analysis approach. His academic studies found evidence in the original Greek texts of a hidden layer of meaning, which confirms that the Gospels have an esoteric, cosmic understanding of the Christ. Rudolf Steiner's teachings are explored on the basis of this new, spiritually-informed mode of assessing the Greek text of the Beatitudes. All of Rudolf Steiner's teachings in published lectures and archive documents on the Beatitudes are presented here, together with a valuable commentary on these lectures by Dr. Anderson.Steiner's earliest lecture on this theme is included, with a commentary, and alternative versions of some key sentences, to those in the official publication.Texts relevant to the Beatitudes from old Gnostic-spiritual sources are included. Rare commentary from the esoteric theologian, Origenes, preserved in old codices, not included in his official writings, have been especially translated for this book.

"Dramatic Anthroposophy" is the first academic assessment, world-wide, of Rudolf Steiner's spiritual-esoteric worldview. This thesis is also the first doctorate to critique a Steiner literary work, one of his 'mystery daramas', The Portal of Initiation, which is itself a dramatization of an esoteric fairy tale by Johann W. von Goethe, Das Märchen. Academic involvement with Rudolf Steiner's worldview is rare, in recent years there have been some academic papers on the practical application of Steiner's teachings such as education or social therapies.The identification and contextualizing of the primary elements of Steiner's 'anthroposophy' has not been previously attempted academically; this is in part because Steiner's works were viewed as mystical, and also because they comprise some 360 volumes in German.Steiner's drama presents the experiences which befall a student seeking spiritual development, and as such incorporates all of his 'anthroposophical' teachings. In his assessment of this drama, Anderson also sheds new light on Goethe, as well as on Steiner's earlier, pre-anthroposophical epistemological theories.