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N I N E Waldorf Education and New Age Religious Consciousness For the true nature of man rests on the fact that through him new forces are continually coming into existence. It is certainly true that, under the conditions in which we are living in the world, man is the only being in whom new forces and even — as we shall hear later — new matter is being formed. — Rudolf Steiner, Study of Man In new age consciousness, the religious impulse continues to evolve. Like the sun, it shines across all divisions. And like the sun, it works deep in the processes of earth itself. To become undivisive in our science, our emotions, our creativity —to live in the paradox of separateness and connection, differentiation and mutuality — is an imaginative frontier. An avant-garde! In this chapter I want to engage directly Steiner's approach to Christianity and the flavor it gives to the Steiner schools. It is difficult nowadays to use the language of Christianity to say a new thing. It is so karma-laden, so ritualized, that we tend to react to the words and not to hear their deeper meaning. How is one to speak of the Christ impulse (a recurring phrase in Steiner's speech) and feel free of stereotype ? How transform what has been the most sectarian faith into a nonsectarian perception which heals divisions? Rudolf Steiner tried to, as demonstrated in the following passage from The Younger Generation: Educational and Spiritual Impulses for Life in the Twentieth Century: We are standing inevitably before a new experience of the Christ Event. In its first form it was experienced with the remains of old inherited qualities of soul; they have van156 ished since the fifteenth century, and the experiences have been carried on simply by tradition. For the first time, in the last third of the nineteenth century it became evident that the darkness was now complete. There was no heritage any longer. Out of the darkness in the human soul, a light must be found once again. The spiritual world must be experienced in a new way. By no means superficially but in a deeper sense, it is clear that for the first time in the historical evolution of mankind there must be an experience which comes wholly out of the human being himself. As long as this is not realized it is impossible to speak of education . The fundamental question is: How can original, firsthand experience, spiritual experience, be generated in the soul? Original spiritual experience in man's soul is something that is standing before the awakening of human beings in the new century as the all-embracing, unexpressed riddle of man and of the world. The real question is: How to awaken the deepest nature within him, how can he awaken himself? This lies at the root of a striving in many different forms during the last twenty or thirty years and is still shining with a positive light into the souls of the young. It expresses itself in the striving for community among young people. People are looking for something. I said yesterday: Man has lost man, and is seeking him again. . . . In short, human beings, in community life, must mean something to one another. It is this that from the beginning radiated through Waldorf School Education, which does not aim at being a system of principles but an impulse to awaken. It aims at being life, not science, not cleverness but art, vital action, awakening deed. . . . Yes, my dear friends, if an awakening is to take place, the Mystery of Golgotha must become a living experience again, (pp. 22—27) We cannot suppose that we already know what Steiner means by the "Mysteryof Golgotha" and therefore not bother to inform ourselves. It is not so much a case of "what he means by it" as what he experienced, because of his unusual openness and freedom from preconception. He was able to become a "listening ear" to a remarkable degree. This is a capacity we may all develop. To listen. Steiner was perceiving, not in dogmatic forms, but in the inner spiritual landscape of our modern epoch. He knew that it is not a religion in the old sense of belief that is resurrecting in our hearts, but a perception of the physical universe throughout as spiritually alive and moral. Moral, that is, through the spiritual agency of mankind, in whom Christ works as Wonder, Conscience, and Compassion . He saw the Being...

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