Since anthroposophy is neither a system nor a doctrine but a special kind of science, the question of how it is taught is particularly interesting. Louis Defèche asked Constanza Kaliks and Andrea De La Cruz, who are responsible for anthroposophy studies at the Goetheanum, about this.
Louis Defèche: This topic is so broad—let’s begin with this: What skills and competencies do you want to help students develop when teaching anthroposophy in the Goetheanum Studium?
Constanza Kaliks: One main goal is to learn how to learn—also in anthroposophy. For adults, it’s about embracing learning as an ongoing process. With anthroposophy, it’s a wide experience because it’s not just about gaining information from texts. Of course, every time you read, you gain insights. But, as Rudolf Steiner proposes in the first of the Leading Thoughts that he wrote at the end of his life, anthroposophy is a path of knowledge that guides the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the world.1 A path of knowledge—that means constantly striving to connect different spheres of reality. When we say it guides the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the world, we come back to the question of what knowledge is: always connecting, always willingly engaging in processes of relation. If anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, then it is a relational activity—it’s about learning to bring things together: your experiences, what you are, and what anthroposophy can bring. The nine months of studying anthroposophy here at the Goetheanum are not a complete process. Together, we try to deepen this opening of spheres, learning to learn on this path.
Andrea De La Cruz: From my perspective as the coordinator, rather than a teacher, I think we’re facilitating study processes. I see teachers opening windows to Steiner’s work, especially in the text study part of the program. The competency we try to foster is enlivened thinking. Can we give students opportunities to engage with these texts, to contemplate and move their thoughts in line with what the author presents? It’s almost like uncovering the text or making it raw in front of them so they can approach it as closely as possible. Can I then relate inwardly and actively to the themes encountered in the texts, and to what the author is actually saying? Can we build a bridge between the two and come to something new for ourselves? It’s about fostering spiritual experiences in the study process.
How has the Goetheanum Studium evolved? What new impulses have you brought to make it relevant today?
Constanza: For very practical reasons, for many years, studying anthroposophy at the Goetheanum was done in German. Then, through Virginia Sease, it became possible to study in English—not just for a few weeks, like the English weeks in the beginning, but the entire program was held in parallel, in English and German. In 2013, we added the option for students to split up in the morning to study Rudolf Steiner’s texts together in different languages—Spanish, Portuguese, German, or English. For the rest of the program, all the students were together, and everything was in English.
However, in recent years, we’ve received so many students from Asia and elsewhere that we decided to hold the morning text study in one common language. So, because we now have students from so many countries and languages, the entire program is in English—it’s easier, even though it’s not everyone’s first language. It’s challenging for some, but the effort to work together with diverse languages and cultural experiences is very enriching. In the morning text work, students can follow along using the text in their own languages, but the discussions are in English. So they experience translation as part of studying. Traducere means to go from one side to the other, and ducere, in Latin, means guiding. This trajectory of moving from one side to another, while being guided by the text and conversations, fosters an awareness in all of us—teachers and students—that we’re approaching the context through language. The value of languages and living thinking, as Andrea mentioned, becomes very present and not theoretical.
Andrea: I think what’s special is that we try to shape the programs based on the longings and needs of the students, and that means always trying something new. We don’t just decide on a program that we think works and copy and paste it over and over again. Instead, the faculty and team develop a sense of what is needed or wanted from the students and the broader anthroposophical movement—the global present. I find it interesting that even students from German-speaking regions who could study in German opt to join the English program because they seek an international encounter. The students want this, and as teachers and facilitators, we ask: What’s behind that? How can we make this longing a part of the learning process? The wish to encounter a cosmopolitan group and different languages not being a barrier are reflections of what anthroposophy is ultimately about: the understanding of the human being. If language limits the understanding of a human being in all its multifaceted possibilities, then language can be translated or overcome.
I think anthroposophy is a path that bridges these gaps in understanding. Right now, English is the ideal language for deepening the possibility of encountering one another through anthroposophy. In the future, as the General Anthroposophical Section continues to develop its work in bilingual editions of Rudolf Steiner’s written works, we will develop even better tools for study, so that a bridge is also built to the original language for non-German-speaking students. For example, the new edition of the Leading Thoughts is beautifully designed with German and English side by side. This enhances the experience, allowing an international community to use English as the conversational language while engaging with the original German text. That’s an exciting future step.
Do you focus on Steiner’s books? What role does he play in broader contexts like with Goethe or other thinkers?
Constanza: This is a really important part of the program. We strive to enable an experience that allows Steiner to be in dialogue with the voices of his time, as well as those that came later. In the morning, we work with Steiner’s writings, changing the texts from year to year—it’s not a fixed text. Philosophy of Freedom is important—ethical individualism and social questions are key themes. The idea of the human being as a being in becoming is essential, so we read Theosophy. In the third trimester last year, we chose the Leading Thoughts, and this year, we studied The Threshold of the Spiritual World. These are all questions of our times. The faculty members bring texts from other authors as well, like Goethe, Schiller, Hannah Arendt, and many others, especially as preparation for the class trips. In ethics, as an example, it is essential to bring 20th- and 21st-century authors. Students come to the Goetheanum to meet Steiner as a person who, at the beginning of the 20th century, brought impulses for the future to existential questions of his present and the time to come. The place itself, where he worked, is unique, and students can feel that. Reading Steiner’s texts is also about learning to dialogue with this otherness. Many students today, sometimes even those at universities, have few opportunities for deep text work or a hermeneutic relationship with a text. This is a wonderful experience.
Andrea: Steiner was deeply interested in other authors, and his texts guide us to other thinkers. The first part of Philosophy of Freedom constantly references others, sparking our interest in their thoughts. He’s an example of what it means to make space for diverse thinkers. I’ve seen this with students, for example, when they choose the optional module on Schiller’s Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man. They might not have heard of Schiller before—maybe they came from places where Schiller isn’t known. But after our class trip to Weimar and hearing about Steiner’s active reception of Schiller and Goethe, suddenly they want to join the module, and now they are studying Schiller’s work. Through Steiner, they became interested in others. He shows us how it is always possible to continue learning, developing interest, and making space for more thinkers, as diverse as possible.
So, developing interest is a goal of the Studium?
Andrea: Yes, I would say so. Interest in each other, in Steiner, in other authors, in nature, in art! Learning about other authors through Steiner’s interest in them is really an incredible experience. Like when you read Nietzsche after studying Steiner’s thoughts on him—it’s a new Nietzsche.
Does Anthroposophy make the world interesting?
Constanza: All knowledge opens windows to new knowledge. When you dive into something, it creates possibilities for further learning. Our former students keep studying, and that’s so important.
Andrea: It’s exponential. You start with one content, and everything opens further.
And what role does art play here, in learning anthroposophy?
Andrea: Art connects anyone, not just Goetheanum students, with forces of play, process, movement, and dialogue. If the artistic process is well facilitated, one can enter the magic of potential, of becoming playful, of being creator and creation. For me, that’s what anthroposophy is about—experiencing life as a process and yourself as a participant, an agent of what’s to come in the world. Art offers a living experience of that. Through art, you can also make ideas and concepts visible to the senses, like when working with charcoal or colors, we suddenly make visible the idea of polarities—light and darkness—and how form and color arise from them.
Constanza: We have wonderful art teachers who are artists themselves. They guide the students’ gaze to phenomena—color, landscape, movement—offering a chance to immerse themselves in the inspirations Steiner gave for art, not as a style but as a way of opening the eyes. Painting with Esther Gerster offers a deep experience of color. In painting, in eurythmy with Ioana Farcasanu, or in sculpture with Barbara Schnetzler, they come closer to their own creative potential. Another aspect is experiencing a layer of reality where beauty speaks. It’s a human longing to be in situations where beauty resonates. Beauty can also be experienced in nature, as the students do with Benno Otter.
The Goetheanum is a place of art, and that is the first thing visitors perceive. But anthroposophy is taught online without art or even book studies, sometimes in Zoom meetings with very limited time. How do you handle this?
Constanza: We also have an online program of anthroposophy. We developed it during COVID when students couldn’t travel. Now, we have a program of five weekends of anthroposophy online that includes a study of Steiner’s texts in German, English, Portuguese, and Spanish. This year, we based it on the Leading Thoughts. Students get weekly videos on various topics and have the opportunity for artistic experiences. And they say that they are deeply touched and impacted by this.
Andrea: This is possible if students and teachers set the right expectations. If you expect to enter a process of research through artistic practice, it’s feasible online with guidance. For example, Esther provides recorded lectures with exercises that students do independently. Then, she hosts meetings where students share experiences, and she guides them further. Students explore exercises in their own time, then share findings in live sessions. It’s a moving process.
Anthroposophy has German cultural roots, but here you meet students from Asia, South America, and beyond. How do you handle the tension between anthroposophy’s specific origins and this global openness?
Constanza: It’s a wonderful experience. Last trimester, we were discussing the threshold of life and death, and a participant from Nepal shared her cultural perspective—she was able to bring her life experience into our dialogue. Like each of us, a spiritual impulse needs a body, a language, and a space to come into Earth. Spiritual and social impulses are rooted in the places in which they came into life. Anthroposophy was born in Central Europe and came to life in the German language. It’s up to us to see and acknowledge these roots without confining the impulse to them, but to use them as opportunities to see specificities and enable exchanges. There’s great openness for this today. Expecting students to already have all the references from the early 20th century, such as Goethe or Schiller, is unrealistic. Many of the students only meet these thinkers here through this experience. Can we learn from Steiner and all thinkers as contemporaries and not just representatives of one place in the world, while still acknowledging our own roots?
In the General Assembly, a young woman from Africa said that her culture can bring something to the Goetheanum. How do you see that?
Andrea: This is a complex question. Multiculturalism is a hot topic in anthroposophy. In my view, the individual brings value to the Goetheanum. Cultural traits enrich this contribution, but it’s primarily about the individual—true diversity, for me, lies in the unique richness of each person. We try to see students first and foremost as individuals, beyond their cultural or linguistic determinations, which are real and important, but secondary. When we encounter each other as “I” beings, the conversation becomes exponential, authentic, and unique, and important contributions come from these encounters. I don’t think we aim for multiculturalism here, but an expression of multiculturalism takes place because we are open to meeting individual human beings who happen to come from everywhere. We also work to make the program accessible financially, with scholarships, affordable accommodation, and visa support for students from countries with specific challenges.
In 15 years, what would you like to see develop at the Goetheanum Studium and the Goetheanum as a whole?
Constanza: We should make it clearer and more explicit that the School for Spiritual Science has various sections working with and from anthroposophy: the sections for education, agriculture, medicine, the visual arts, literature, the fine arts, natural sciences, social sciences, mathematics and astronomy, inclusive social development, the youth, and the section for anthroposophy itself. The General Anthroposophical Section offers this study in anthroposophy because it is dedicated to the development, understanding, and teaching of anthroposophy. If, for example, you want to develop skills in pedagogy, our conferences and seminars are possibilities for ongoing learning. Everything is oriented towards further education. The entire School is meant to be a place for studying, learning, and teaching, and this should be more visible and focused.
What would you say to someone who wants to teach anthroposophy somewhere in the world and asks you for advice?
Constanza: Anthroposophy isn’t a fixed system of thinking. It is a vibrant, living learning about and with phenomena, a learning of the human being, not a rigid system for understanding the world. It needs constant movement and exchange to remain looking and seeing. This applies to learning wherever it takes place: it requires exchange and dialogue. Here, the colleagues leading the sections form a collegium for those teaching and learning in our fields. Communities of learning are forming around the world—in schools, seminars, training courses, and further training. Without exchange, this risks becoming a closed system, and then the connection to reality, to the world, and to people can be lost.
Andrea: I am not sure if anthroposophy can be taught. I think we’re all students of anthroposophy—that’s what anthroposophy means to me: study and research. If someone asked me for advice, I’d say keep studying, keep researching. When you’re truly in this process, you show what anthroposophy is all about. You become an example that might ignite the paths of others. And develop an interest in who you’re with when teaching. The subject matters, but so does the person. Who is this person in the classroom? Develop an interest in them and their questions, rather than abstractly trying to fill them with systems.
Louis: Thank you both very much.
The department of Studies and Further Education is part of the General Anthroposophical Section at the Goetheanum and offers on-campus and online courses based on anthroposophy.
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Title image Final plenum with students at the Goetheanum in 2025. Photo: Xue Li
