{"id":67894,"date":"2025-09-24T08:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T06:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=67894"},"modified":"2025-09-19T14:18:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T12:18:42","slug":"the-longing-of-angels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/the-longing-of-angels\/","title":{"rendered":"The Longing of Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

G\u00fcnther Dellbr\u00fcgger\u2019s book, published in 2024, is a hermeneutic device that manages to touch both the hearts and longings of its readers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOne of the most shocking statements in spiritual science is that the spiritual world had reached a point in its development where it could not continue to progress any further on its own.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. The faculties that the spiritual world needs for its further development must now be cultivated in the sensory world, and this must be done by human beings. It may be helpful to imagine that the gods also have a kind of religion\u2014something they look up to and to which they make sacrifices\u2014and that this is the human being.\u201d G\u00fcnther Dellbr\u00fcgger wrote these lines in 2001 in a short note while sitting at the Goetheanum. The words will surprise anyone who considers the spiritual world to be a reality, not least because, after acknowledging the truth of such statements, we\u2019re faced with the imperative, \u201cYou must change your life!\u201d The religion of the gods isn\u2019t focused on human beings as we are now<\/em>, but only as we are to become<\/em>\u2014the ideal human, who was there at the foundation of the gods\u2019 creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his latest book, Was wir den Engeln geben k\u00f6nnen: Wege zu einem lebendigen Zusammenwirken<\/em> [What we can give to the angels: Ways to a lively cooperation], Dellbr\u00fcgger revisits this topic. He mentions several times how, already in his time, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, \u201cDo you not know that even the destiny of angels will be decided by us?\u201d (1 Corinthians 6:39). Today, we don\u2019t seem to know this. How did such a relationship come about? This is Dellbr\u00fcgger\u2019s second major theme. \u201cThe starting point of this book is: the human being is what they think themselves to be. This will be decisive for the future of humanity and constitutes the radically new aspect of our time. We are at a crossroads. Everything depends on us!\u201d<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I understand Dellbr\u00fcgger to mean that, for him, the possibility of a humane future also depends on a changed relationship between humans and angels. In line with this second major theme of the book, one could reformulate Paul\u2019s statement as, \u201cDo you not know that our relationship with angels will determine the destiny of humankind?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dellbr\u00fcgger\u2019s book is divided into four chapters and an appendix. The first chapter deals with conceptions of humanity that have shaped and continue to shape our self-image. Various modern views of humanity are discussed, for example, those based on evolutionary theory, transhumanism, and international law, all of which are characterized by one-sidedness or naturalistic simplifications. Which conceptions of humanity should guide us in the future? Dellbr\u00fcgger\u2019s conclusion is clear: \u201cWe need a new perspective on humanity, a perspective that understands humans as \u2018citizens of two worlds,\u2019 the earthly-material world and the divine-spiritual world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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While the first chapter asks how we are accustomed to thinking about our humanity, the second chapter deals with how human beings appear \u201cin the eyes of the gods.\u201d Here, Dellbr\u00fcgger first refers to Rudolf Steiner\u2019s statement that Christ\u2019s descent from the angelic world to connect with the Earth and human beings was experienced as a departure for the hierarchies, a painful loss of their center. Since that time, they can no longer find Christ in their own realms but must turn to the human beings for whom he died and with whom he will remain until the end time (Matthew 28:20). Christ could not experience death in heaven, but only upon the Earth. The angelic beings are separated from it, but they want to experience it. Peter taught what is proclaimed to people about Christ\u2019s deeds on the Earth (1 Peter 1:12). But they cannot find Christ in the written word either; they must find him in the hearts of people who have connected themselves with Christ and to whom Paul\u2019s words apply, \u201cNot I, but Christ in me.\u201d If they are filled with Christ and follow him, then they shine for the spiritual beings like lights in the darkness, like stars in the night sky. Dellbr\u00fcgger refers here both to Rudolf Steiner (The Connection between the Living and the Dead<\/em>, CW 168, Oct. 10, 1916) and to Paul, who wrote, \u201cYou should become among men like the bright stars in the cosmos\u201d (Phil 2:15).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul plays a key role in Dellbr\u00fcgger\u2019s book. He was the first to ask how one can think about the resurrection from the dead. To reenact the Resurrection with our thinking requires a different kind of shaping, imaginative thinking. Dellbr\u00fcgger writes that \u201cthe Gospels are silent on this. Following the burial, they immediately describe the women\u2019s journey to the tomb after he has risen. Paul goes one step further. He elevates his thinking to the question that ushers in a new era: How is the Resurrection to be conceived in thought? (1 Cor 15) Paul transforms his thinking into a higher organ of perception. The angels think in him! The different perspectives of the divine beings concerning humankind are revealed to him. He can formulate them conceptually in the divine names, in the \u201cyou are\u201d words.\u201d Paul conveys the words of God, illustrating the perspective of the hierarchies on humankind: \u201cYou are God\u2019s field, God\u2019s building” (1 Cor 3:9); \u201cYou are God\u2019s temple\u201d (1 Cor 3:16); \u201cYou are the body of Christ\u201d (1 Cor 12:27); \u201cYou are a letter of Christ\u201d (2 Cor 3:3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With great hermeneutic artistry, Dellbr\u00fcgger develops the respective intellectual core of these pictorial statements in four chapters. Readers have the special pleasure of benefiting from his decades of work on the subject, as well as his profound theological and anthroposophical knowledge. The thoughts developed in the process cannot be put in a short review; they are meant for meditative reading. The second chapter is followed by a short chapter on rituals as places of encounter between humans and spiritual beings, and a chapter on \u201cThe Risk of Being Human,\u201d which discusses inner conflict using further \u201cyou are\u201d statements from Paul\u2019s letters. The book ends with an appendix where Dellbr\u00fcgger develops his own thoughts on Pauline research and on Paul\u2019s special, \u201cmodern\u201d initiation. Paul appears here once again as a guide for future human development, as the \u201cApostle of Sophia,\u201d whose \u201cyou are\u201d words allow people to glimpse what they can and should become from a divine perspective: \u201cFor the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God\u201d (Rom 8:19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Book<\/strong> G\u00fcnther Dellbr\u00fcgger, Was wir den Engeln geben k\u00f6nnen: Wege zu einem lebendigen Zusammenwirken<\/em> [What we can give to the angels: Ways to a lively cooperation], Stuttgart: Verlag Urachhaus, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translation <\/strong>Joshua Kelberman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

G\u00fcnther Dellbr\u00fcgger\u2019s book, published in 2024, is a hermeneutic device that manages to touch both the hearts and longings of its readers. \u201cOne of the most shocking statements in spiritual science is that the spiritual world had reached a point in its development where it could not continue to progress any further on its own.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. The faculties that the spiritual world needs for its further development must now be cultivated in the sensory world, and this must be done by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15988,"featured_media":67647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8786,10376],"tags":[11700,11701,8814],"class_list":["post-67894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christology","category-review-en-2","tag-ausgabe-37-2025-en","tag-english-issue-39-40-2025","tag-musings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15988"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}