Anthroposophy

 

The word Anthroposophy comes from the Greek words antropos and sophia, meaning the wisdom of man.

Rudolf Steiner used this word to give name to his insights into the evolution of the cosmos and the human being. In his spiritual science he describes the connection between the spiritual world and the human being, and gives advice on how it is possible to enter spiritual creative forces through the schooling and cultivating of thinking, feeling and willing.

He saw such a cultivation as a necessary step in the history of mankind, where inner attitude will play an increasingly important role in developing and shaping a worthy life – culturally, socially and economically.

One of his main themes was that the human being is not only mirroring cosmic processes, but that it is also a co-creator in evolution. What the human being thinks, feels and does has an impact in the world.

Steiner emphasised that all cultivation of inner qualities through contemplation and meditation should lead to a 'waking up' in the understanding of the needs of the time, the social context one lives in, other people and one’s own self. The founding of Waldorf Schools, biodynamic farms, hospitals, curative homes and banks all have this as a leading thought.

In earlier times, such spiritual knowledge would belong to only a few people, hidden from the world. Steiner worked to ensure that, today, this hidden knowledge is available to everybody, and that it is based on general human qualities.

Steiner characterised anthroposophy as follows:

“Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe … Anthroposophists are those who experience, as an essential need of life, certain questions on the nature of the human being and the universe, just as one experiences hunger and thirst.”