12 lectures, Hamburg, May 5-31, 1908 (CW 103) During Pentecost 1908--seven years after he had given the world his book Christianity As Mystical Fact and the first intimation of the consequences of his Christ experience--Rudolf Steiner began his great work of renewing humanity's understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha and its meaning for human and earthly evolution. Accordingly, he turned to the deepest, most spiritual of the Gospels--that of the initiate St. John. In this lecture course, readers will find that the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Divine Word, or Logos, reveals the mission of the Earth: Love. We learn of the mysteries behind Lazarus' resurrection, the "I AM" sayings, and the seven degrees of initiation. We come to understand that the Gospel of St. John is a continuing spiritual presence--to be recalled, meditated, and permeated with one's own life. In doing so, we realized that our purpose--and that of all humankind--is to become the Virgin Sophia, a receptical for the Holy Spirit. All of Steiner's work, as Marie Steiner writes in her introduction, was "to pave the way to Christ." Indeed, at the conclusion of these lectures, Rudolf Steiner said: It will come to be understood that Christianity is only beginning its influence and will fulfill its real mission only when it is understood in its true, spiritual form.... The more these lectures are understood in this sense, the better they will be understood as they were intended. This volume is essential if one is to truly understand Rudolf Steiner's understanding of esoteric Christianity and its place in the world today and in the future. This volume is a translation of Das Johannes-Evangelium (GA 103).

Collected here in this 5-in-1 omnibus edition are five of Rudolf Steiner's most important works including Theosophy, an Introduction, An Esoteric Cosmology, Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path, An Introduction to Waldorf Education and Other Essays, and how to Know Higher Worlds. Rudolf Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, literary scholar, educator, artist, playwright, social thinker, and esotericist.

Rudolf Steiner is one of the most controversially judged educational reformers of the twentieth century. Although he received little recognition within his field, his educational thought has had a sustained and profound influence, not only in the development of the Waldorf Schools, but also in healing, socially therapeutic work, psychosomatic medicine, biological-dynamic agriculture, corporate organisation, fine arts, and architecture. Heiner Ullrich paints a concise and well-grounded portrait of the creator of the anthroposophic doctrine and Waldorf pedagogy. The text describes a wide arc from the intellectual biography of Rudolf Steiner, across his basic ideas on human development and education, to include discussion of the organisation, curriculum, methods and success of the Waldorf Schools.

Underlying Sergei O. Prokofieff’s life’s work was a fundamental research-theme to which he returned to repeatedly: the individuality of Rudolf Steiner as manifested through his past incarnations on Earth. Beginning in 1982, inspired by a visit to an exhibition on The Epic of Gilgamesh, Prokofieff planned a full-scale spiritual biography with the intention of finding an answer to the question: Who is Rudolf Steiner? In a sequence of five past incarnations – as indicated by Steiner himself – and culminating in the life of Rudolf Steiner, Prokofieff searched for the inner thread between the six stages of this great, all-encompassing life. His intention was to find not only the outer connections in this sequence but also the deeper, more esoteric stream that offers the key to the unique significance of this individuality. In 1984, Prokofieff began to write the first chapter about Rudolf Steiner’s incarnation as Enkidu in Sumer. Sadly, many obstacles in his path were to prevent him finalising the project. However, the author returned to the book in his final months, preparing a Preface that outlines its conception together with a summary chapter on Rudolf Steiner’s evolutionary journey. This precious ‘fragment’ of a biography features valuable additional material, including: a full introduction to the relationship of the anthroposophical movement to other occult streams of esoteric Christianity and their Masters; a detailed spiritual-scientific interpretation of the Epic of Gilgamesh that establishes Rudolf Steiner’s connection with the being of Jesus of Nazareth, and an exploration of Steiner’s relationship to the Nathan soul, the Luke Jesus child. Serious students of anthroposophy will welcome these final writings from the pen of one of Rudolf Steiner’s most faithful and insightful disciples.

2 lectures by Sergei O. Prokofieff, Bologna, March 31 & April 8, 2011 A special conference took place in Bologna in spring 2011, marking the hundredth anniversary of a unique lecture Steiner delivered to a philosophically trained audience in the same city. In his key exposition, Steiner had given a concise description of the spiritual-scientific theory of knowledge as well as a brief outline of the anthroposophic path of training. In his contribution to the 2011 congress, Prokofieff tackles two principal aspects. On the one hand, he describes how Steiner's Bologna lecture contained the essential foundations for a new "science of the human ego" (the human "I"). On the other hand, Prokofieff states that Steiner was the first person to transform this theory into a practical path of knowledge, following it to its very conclusion. Thus, the words of Steiner's lecture were based entirely on personal experience. Together with a transcript of Steiner's full Bologna lecture, Prokofieff's lecture is reproduced here in an expanded version. In addition, this volume features Steiner's important "summaries of essential points," in which he develops and connects some of his key thoughts with further aspects of Anthroposophy, especially in relation to their Christological foundations.

An introduction to Anthroposophical Methodology and a complete analysis of Rudolf Steiner's 'Philosophy of Freedom (Spiritual Activity)', Gennady Bondarev's 'Organon' demonstrates that the methodology intrinsic to Anthroposophy is fundamental and capable of unifying all modern sciences as it describes the monistic sensible-supersensible reality. Through its anthropocentric and ontological character, the methodology's actualization implies an evolutionary change of both the human subject and the process of cognition itself. Rudolf Steiner's fundamental epistemological work is thereby shown to be the foundation for the development of a new kind of 'beholding' thinking - what Goethe began to experience and called "anschauende Urteilskraft." This is volume 1 of 3. The volumes, taken together, contain a completely new translation of 'Die Philosophie der Freiheit' by Graham B. Rickett.

"Gathering together references to the 'logic of the heart' from throughout Steiner's work, the author encapsulates the great teacher's revelations on the meaning of love, and indicates the supreme importance of the greatest of all deeds of love"--Cover.

Can we take seriously religious experience, spirituality, and mysticism, without reducing them to either cultural-linguistic by-products or simply asserting their validity as a dogmatic fact? The contributors to this volume argue that we can, and they offer a new way: the "participatory turn," which proposes that individuals and communities have an integral and irreducible role in bringing forth ontologically rich religious worlds. They explore the ways this approach weaves together and gives voice to a number of robust trends in contemporary religious scholarship, including the renewed study of lived spirituality, the postmodern emphasis on embodied and gendered subjectivity, the admission of alternate epistemic perspectives, the irreducibility of religious pluralism, and the pragmatist emphasis on transformation—all trends that raise serious challenges to the currently prevalent linguistic paradigm. The first part of the book situates the participatory turn in the context of contemporary Religious Studies; the second part shows how this approach can be applied to various global traditions, ancient and contemporary, from Western esotericism to Jewish mysticism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sufism, and socially engaged Buddhism.

Zanoni, first published in 1842, was inspired by a dream. Sir Edward, a Rosicrucian, wrote this engaging, well-researched, novel about the eternal conflict between head and heart, between wisdom and love, played out by the Rosicrucians before the dramatic background of the French Revolution. He described his book Zanoni as "a truth for those who can comprehend it, and an extravagance for those who cannot." Following his introduction, the novel is divided into seven parts, whose titles indicate the sevenfold path of spiritual development. The fourth section, "The Dweller of the Threshold," is the book's centerpiece, revealing significant esoteric facts and experiences. A novelist, a dramatist, a scholar, an editor, and an active member of Parliament, Sir Edward was an extremely successful author whose writings were widely read throughout England and Europe. He poured into this esoteric work all of the ancient esoteric wisdom that he felt he could reveal to the public during an age buried deeply in materialism. This work remains one of the great, pioneering landmarks of esoteric writing.

An introduction to Anthroposophical Methodology and a complete analysis of Rudolf Steiner's 'Philosophy of Freedom (Spiritual Activity)', Gennady Bondarev's 'Organon' demonstrates that the methodology intrinsic to Anthroposophy is fundamental to and capable of unifying all modern sciences as it describes the monistic sensible-supersensible reality. Through its anthropocentric and ontological character, this methodology's actualization implies an evolutionary change of both the human subject and the process of cognition itself. Rudolf Steiner's fundamental epistemological work is thereby shown to be the foundation for the development of a new kind of 'beholding' thinking - what Goethe began to experience and called "anschauende Urteilskraft." This is volume 2 of 3. The volumes, taken together, contain a completely new translation of 'Die Philosophie der Freiheit' by Graham B. Rickett.