Researchers encounter each other in a spirit of diversity and open-mindedness. A view on the 100 Years Rudolf Steiner conference, held at Harvard Divinity School in 2025.
I often experience the debate about Rudolf Steiner and anthroposophy in Europe as polarized, black or white. Rarely do I encounter such unbiased views, beyond all categorizations, as I did at the 100 Years Rudolf Steiner Conference. For example, when Ikechukwu Anthony Kanu, professor of African philosophy and religious traditions in Nigeria, spoke about Rudolf Steiner’s Christology. Or when Zohar Maor from the Jewish religious university Bar-Ilan in Ramat, Israel, gave a lecture on “Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy as a Secularized Religiosity.” Or when Aaron French and Henry Holland, who are currently writing a book about Rudolf Steiner, offered completely new and original perspectives on his life in their contribution “Biography in the Mirrors of Biographers, or writing the Life of Rudolf Steiner – empirical facts, polemical insinuations, & imaginative insights.” Or when Indian physicist Gopi Krishna Vijaya enriched the discussion on racism with new aspects with his lecture on “Organic Thinking as a Prerequisite for Discussions on Race with a Special Emphasis on India-Britain.”
I found a refreshing new colorfulness in my view of Rudolf Steiner, which was due, among other things, to the diverse cultural and individual contexts from which his ideas were presented. It gave me a new awareness of Rudolf Steiner’s significance for humanity.
Although I would have liked to, it was impossible to attend all the presentations because they ran in parallel panels. Unfortunately, there often wasn’t time after the panels to engage in in-depth conversation, so the presentations initially remained unconnected, though this had its own merit. It would have taken a lot of time to bring so many different points of view into conversation with each other—this became particularly clear to me in the panel “Constructive Anthroposophical Responses to Racism.” And I did not find every contribution to be equally stimulating or well-founded. Overall, however, it was quite a feat to fit over 70 contributions in two days that truly offered a cross-section of current anthroposophy and Steiner research! And in my opinion, this feat was accomplished successfully. Any more would have been too much.
We can only express our heartfelt thanks to the organizers of this conference—Dan MacKanan, Aaron French, and Henry Holland—for the idea to initiate this event and for undertaking the manifold efforts required to make it a reality.
More 100 Years Rudolf Steiner, Harvard Divinity School Program for the Evolution of Spirituality
Video 100 Years Rudolf Steiner Conference Interview Sessions
Translation Laura Liska
Image Constanza Kaliks from the Goetheanum greets participants after the panel on “Waldorf Education in Global and Decolonial Contexts”. Photo: Garret Harkawik
