Books by Rudolf Steiner

An Author's Summary, 1888Four Essays Written between 1890 and 1898Eight Lectures between 1909 and 1921 (CW 271)"The challenge of saying something about art was personal for Rudolf Steiner. He experienced it as deeply connected with his biography. It is not for nothing that, in the last lecture of this volume, he points to his repeated attempts to develop a new approach and new forms of expression for speaking about art. We find at least three forms of this attempted approach in this book." --Zvi Szir (from the introduction)The subject, practice, and vital importance of art was a thread that ran through Rudolf Steiner's life, from his early work as a scholar of Goethe, through his time as an editor of a literary and arts journal in Berlin in the 1890s, and to his two and a half decades as a spiritual researcher and teacher. Understanding and articulating the significance of art was a perennial challenge for Rudolf Steiner.This volume of Steiner's Collected Works is unique in that it showcases a survey of both early written works and later lectures to anthroposophic audiences, and in doing so presents a picture of a lifetime of intensive effort to convey something essential about the arts. Beginning with his early philosophical work and literary criticism at the end of the nineteenth century and on into his later lectures, this volume follows Steiner's endeavor to reveal in words the mystery obscured by the vague concept of what "art" is.Viewed as a whole, this volume forms one of the most provocative collections of the twentieth century on the subject of art. It offers a unique analysis of the origin, foundation, and method of the creative process.This book is a translation of Kunst und Kunsterkenntnis: Grundlagen einer neuen Ästhetik, 3rd edition, published by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland, 2010 (GA 271).

5 public lectures and an evening discussion, various cities, June 17, 1920 - May 11, 1922 (CW 75)This previously untranslated volume in The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner showcases Rudolf Steiner presenting the key concepts and methods of spiritual science to more or less skeptical academic audiences in the early 1920s. Step by step, he presented to his listeners the fundamentals of the anthroposophic path of knowledge. Steiner was less concerned with presenting results from his spiritual-scientific research than with leading his academic audience to an objective understanding of spiritual science in a propaedeutic, conceptually transparent way. The central questions of his approach were: What are the tools and instruments required to orient oneself in the world of the soul and the spirit? How can we know that the spiritual world is an objective world and not merely a psychic projection? What authorizes the spiritual researcher to acknowledge what he has experienced "on the other side" as a reality that is independent of him?Rudolf Steiner addresses these and other questions in such a structured and readily comprehensible way that the volume as a whole is well suited, both as an introductory text and as a means for anyone to deepen their understanding of how anthroposophy relates to and builds upon the natural sciences.At the time these presentations were given, serious voices had been raised denying Steiner's scientific credibility and denouncing his methods as unsound. Partly in response to such criticisms, Steiner here describes a means by which human beings can gain, through methodical and rigorous training, a direct experience of the spiritual dimension of life. He lays out the methodology of spiritual science, which is rooted in the scientific approach, outlining the three stages of higher knowledge--imagination, inspiration, and intuition--and describing the inner processes that lead from intellectual thinking to these higher modes of cognition. Ultimately, what Steiner proposes is not a deviation from the natural sciences but their expansion and development beyond unnecessary boundaries--that is, the establishment of anthroposophical spiritual science as a recognized method and practice of scientific research. This book is a translation from German of Das Verhältnis der Anthroposophie zur Naturwissenschaft, 1st edition (GA 75, Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland, 2010).

In a concise study, Rudolf Steiner presents an inspirational sketch of the evolution of the Mysteries - from ancient Persia through Egypt and Greece, to the Christian era and the present day.

Previously untranslated, this collection of twelve lectures represents a middle point in Rudolf Steiner's unique exposition of the Christian gospels - his momentous courses on St John and St Luke had already been delivered, whilst his lectures on the Matthew and Mark gospels were yet to follow.

In an absorbing series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner discloses factors in a person's life on Earth that will influence their experiences in the spiritual world after their death - and conversely, factors in the spiritual world that will affect their next life on Earth. Steiner focuses on the period in the afterlife when the individual has been through kamaloka - the purgatorial place where the soul is purified. Once the soul has been cleansed of its astral sheath, it becomes open to cosmic influences, expanding into the planetary sphere. Now it can begin preparation for reincarnation - for a new human life on Earth. Steiner addresses the vital relationship of the living to the dead - in particular, how those on Earth can influence the souls of the dead. He also speaks on themes of 'Sleep and death', 'The seven-year life cycles of man', and offers a 'Christmas gift' in the form of a lecture on Christian Rosenkreutz and Gautama Buddha. He ends with a mighty picture of the Mystery of Golgotha: Jesus Christ's death on the cross was only seemingly a death; in reality it enabled the momentous birth of the Earth-Soul.Long out-of-print, the freshly-revised text of the ten lectures in this new edition is complemented with an introduction, notes and appendices by Professor Frederick Amrine, and also features an index.

Rudolf Steiner's inspiring words provide rich and nourishing thoughts and ideas for self-development and spiritual enlightenment. Daily Contemplations offers a separate passage from Steiner's lectures - a special gift upon which to reflect - to accompany each day of the year. Carefully selected by Jean-Claude Lin, the quotations are sourced from lectures and addresses that Steiner gave on the specific day in question. Thus, the ordering is not arbitrary but arises from the historical fact of the lectures themselves. This unique volume gives us a new way of working with Steiner's research on a daily basis. The short passages encourage us to ponder and delve further in order to make our own creative discoveries.'Wisdom is the premise, the foundation of love; love is the fruit of wisdom reborn in the I.' These words from Rudolf Steiner are the founding motifs of his immense lecturing activity - to which this book gives manifold entry points. As Lin notes in his introduction, 'wisdom and love are the alpha and omega of the human being who strives for truth and freedom'.

In this landmark series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner challenges the notion that human consciousness has in essence remained the same throughout history. On the contrary, we can only see the past in its true light when we study the differences in human souls during the various historical eras. Consciousness, he says, evolves constantly and we can only comprehend the present by understanding its origin in the past.Delivered in the evenings during the course of the 'mystery act' of the Christmas Foundation Meeting - when Rudolf Steiner not only re-founded the Anthroposophical Society but for the first time took a formal role within it - these lectures study world history in parallel with the ancient mysteries of initiation, showing how they are intimately linked. Steiner describes consciousness in the ancient East and follows the initiation principle from Babylonia to Greece, up to its influences in present-day spiritual life. He also discusses Gilgamesh and Eabani, the mysteries of Ephesus and Hibernia, and the occult relationship between the destruction by fire of the Temple of Artemis and the burning of the first Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland.Published for the first time with colour plates of Steiner's blackboard drawings, the freshly-revised text is complemented with an introduction, notes and appendices by Professor Frederick Amrine and an index.

In this rich, previously-untranslated collection of lectures, Rudolf Steiner approaches and illumines the figure of Christ from manifold directions and perspectives. Christ, the being of love, is for the body of the Earth what the heart is within our individual organism.

In this remarkable interpretation of Greek mythology, Rudolf Steiner goes beyond Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell in reading mythological figures such as Demeter, Persephone, Eros and Dionysos as primordial archetypes of macrocosmic thinking, feeling and will.

12 lectures, Dornach, November 26 - December 31, 1922 (CW 219)"Think of the earth with the air around it; farther outward is the cosmic ether, gradually passing over into the spiritual sphere. Here on Earth, we inhale and exhale the air. This is the rhythm of breathing. But out yonder, we pour our being into the cosmos, receiving into ourselves the Logos and the cosmic thoughts. There, we let the world, the universe, speak to us. This, too, takes place in rhythm--in a rhythm determined by the world of the stars.... Out in the universe we live in a cosmic rhythm, in that we breathe in, as it were, the moral-ethereal world; we are then within ourselves. And when we breathe it out again, we are united with the beings of the higher hierarchies." -- Rudolf Steiner (Nov. 26, 1922)The actions of spiritual beings in relation to the rhythm of the course of the year are brought to light in these inspiring lectures, showing how we are challenged to consciously integrate these rhythms into our earthly life. Steiner reveals that the concepts of spiritual science serve as our eyes in the spiritual world after death. He shows that we change the world when we communicate with it out of our spiritual nature, which is the true spiritual communion of humanity.This volume is a translation of Das Verhältnis der Sternwelt zum Menschen und des Menschen zur Sternwelt. Die geistige Kommunion der Menschheit (GA 219).

9 lectures, Dornach, December 24, 1922 - January 6, 1923 (CW 326)"Modern science, and the scientism based on it, so far from being the only possible 'reality principle, ' is merely one way of conceiving the nature of reality; a way moreover that has arisen only recently and that there is no reason to suppose will last forever." -- Owen Barfield (from the introduction) These talks outline the subtle changes in our ideas and feelings in relation to the development of natural science. Through this, Steiner shows the significance of scientific research and the mode of thinking that goes with it. As we look at what technology has brought us, we may have a feeling like the pain we feel over the death of a loved one. According to Steiner, this feeling of loss will eventually become our most important stimulation to seek the spirit. This book is a translation from German of Der Entstehungsmoment der Naturwissenschaft in der Weltgeschichte und ihre seitherige Entwicklung (GA 326).

Steiner has been able to clarify the historical reality behind the Rosicrucian story, with all its aura of glamour and fantasy. That effected, he points to the enormity of its vision for the future evolution of ideas...' - Dr Andrew Welburn (from the Introduction)

In these much-valued lectures, Rudolf Steiner begins by positing the question, 'Why investigate the spiritual worlds at all?' He goes on to explore the contemporary need for spiritual knowledge and the authentic paths that can lead to it.

A series of lectures by Rudolf Steiner on his spiritual philosophy, anthroposophy.

Rudolf Steiner's research on memory, recollection and forgetting has many implications for the way we learn, for inner development and spiritual growth. This unique selection of passages from his works offers insights into how consciousness can remain autonomous and creative in a digital environment.

In this highly-original anthology of Steiner's work we are led to a therapeutic, meditative approach that - through working with the imaginative life tableau - can strengthen and heal body, soul and spirit.

"volume 323 in the Collected Works (CW) of Rudolf Steiner."