{"id":68521,"date":"2025-10-29T22:02:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T21:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=68521"},"modified":"2025-10-29T22:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T21:02:10","slug":"between-anthroposophy-and-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/between-anthroposophy-and-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Between Anthroposophy and Church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In his new book, Wolfgang G\u00e4deke shines a light on the origins of the Christian Community. He deconstructs myths, organizes sources, and shows Rudolf Steiner\u2019s formative role beyond mere consultation. At the same time, he traces Steiner\u2019s path from free thinker to religious thinker.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In September 1922, the Christian Community was founded by 45 theologians, pastors, and students. Rudolf Steiner provided advice and support without being a co-founder himself. Still, his involvement was especially meaningful for him, as he later publicly acknowledged: \u201cI myself must count among the highlights of my life what I experienced with these theologians in September 1922 in the small hall of the south wing [of the Goetheanum] (where the fire was later first discovered).\u201d<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A detailed history of this founding event is now available. In over 1,200 pages, Wolfgang G\u00e4deke describes the \u201cdrama of destiny\u201d surrounding the emergence of the Christian Community. This level of detail is needed because of the complexity of the events, but also to clarify misunderstandings and refute the defamation against the Movement for Religious Renewal that arose from a \u201clack of need for the path of knowledge\u201d for those \u201cwho are not yet strong enough to work with spiritual science\u201d (Marie Steiner, 1923 and 1928). In the decades that followed, up to the present, Marie Steiner\u2019s account led to the \u201cunfortunate doctrine of the two paths to the spiritual world.\u201d The founding priest Johannes Werner Klein even accused Marie Steiner of falsifying history because of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Crucial Question<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Christian Community priest Wolfgang G\u00e4deke takes a more sober approach: in a meticulous, source-critical investigation, he presents all the documents and individual stages of the history leading up to a petition to Rudolf Steiner on May 22, 1921. Students Johannes Werner Klein, Gertrud Sp\u00f6rri, Ludwig K\u00f6hler, and Gottfried Husemann had formulated a question about religious life and church institutions that is now considered the founding document of the Christian Community. G\u00e4deke repeatedly revisits the history of this \u201cfounding question\u201d to point out, between 1916 and 1921, which of the early participants\u2014when and where\u2014had repeatedly failed to ask Rudolf Steiner this \u201cdecisive question.\u201d As if one merely had to ask and \u201cthe Doctor\u201d would have instantly produced the desired information like some automated answer machine. As if Steiner would not have taken any action on his own initiative. Let\u2019s not forget, he\u2019d already described the Catholic funeral ritual as \u201cfar too feeble\u201d to the Old Catholic Hugo Schuster in 1918 and had subsequently spoke of the need to renew religious life, and formulated and handed down new rituals. G\u00e4deke attributes these facts to the beginnings of the Christian Community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rudolf Steiner\u2019s Path to Christianity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the first chapter, in one hundred fascinating pages, the author takes a step back and describes Steiner\u2019s path to Christianity and religion, sincerely and without embellishment. For example, he courageously emphasizes and documents the incompatibility of Steiner\u2019s early free-thinking positions of the 1880s and \u201890s with his later esoteric views. It is a journey through Steiner\u2019s entire written and spoken work from the perspective of the development of his religious understanding\u2014a journey that reads almost like an introduction to Steiner\u2019s spiritual development in general. In doing so, G\u00e4deke acts as an advocate for religious life and defends it against the purely intellectual approach of spiritual scientific meditation. For him, religious life is \u201cunderexposed\u201d in the anthroposophical movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The further background also includes biographical sketches of the founding figures (Friedrich Rittelmeyer, Christian Geyer, Emil Bock, Rudolf Meyer, Johannes Werner Klein, Gertrud Sp\u00f6rri, and Hermann Heisler), which the author vividly presents in historical miniatures. The sometimes-naive enthusiasm of this founding generation is striking. Those of us born later, who have experienced the ups and downs of the anthroposophical movement, may be surprised by the terminological certainty and ideological conviction with which they approached the movement at that time. For example, certain participants in the first theology course were referred to in a list compiled for Steiner as \u201canthroposophists\u201d (meaning members of the Anthroposophical Society), and concerns about possible social tensions and ideological differences were simply dismissed with reference to the Philosophy of Freedom<\/em> and \u201cfree spiritual life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generational Conflict<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Among the founders, a simmering conflict existed between the young, who were eager to take action, and the older, more cautious members. The first theological course (June 1921) was launched by eighteen students who insisted that the upper age limit should be thirty. This could not be held to in the long run since the participation of renowned Protestant pastors Rittelmeyer (49) and Geyer (59) was wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the second theological course (autumn 1921), 107 people participated, including 28 pastors (almost all Protestant, one Catholic, and one Old Catholic) and 32 theology students. It also included six women, which Steiner considered egalitarian and a matter of course from the outset. (Bock was less relaxed about this throughout his life.) On the registration form, the participants declared that they felt the drive \u201cto collaborate in the revival of new religious life in order to overcome the forces of decline in the present day and to achieve this goal in a new synthesis of cultus and Christian teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christian Geyer\u2019s Rejection<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

G\u00e4deke also gives a detailed and vivid account of the year between the second theology course and the founding of the Christian Community in the fall of 1922. It was filled with the public commitment of individual participants to the new movement and efforts to establish congregations throughout Germany. This year was notably marked by Christian Geyer\u2019s struggle. Together with Rittelmeyer and Bock, he had been designated by Steiner for the three-person leadership \u201cin harmony with the spiritual worlds.\u201d But the \u201cincorrigible Protestant\u201d\u2014as Rittelmeyer described his friend\u2014was thoroughly dissociated with the cultic rituals and struggled with his decision for or against joining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though he was closely connected to Steiner and anthroposophy and considered it possible that the rituals had been received from the higher world, despite all his inward openness, he did not feel the \u201cbreath of the spirit of Pentecost.\u201d He confessed to Rittelmeyer and later to Steiner: \u201cSomething oppressive stands in the way: you must not do this!\u201d The theological background to his refusal was probably that he could not reconcile his theologia crucis<\/em> and religion of grace with what he considered to be the Catholic theologia gloriae<\/em> and the Christian Community\u2019s claim to sanctification.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> This refusal had an essential impact on the birth and development of the Christian Community. According to G\u00e4deke, Geyer, with his healthy, cheerful character, would have been \u201ca wonderful complement to the serious, infirm mystic Rittelmeyer and the forward-pushing, strong-willed Bock.\u201d Thus, the preparatory meeting in Breitbrunn shortly thereafter and ultimately the founding of the Christian Community in September 1922 in Dornach had to take place without this renowned theologian and preacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rudolf Steiner\u2019s Involvement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

G\u00e4deke describes in detail how Steiner was involved in the birth of the Christian Community through the ordination of priests and the first performance of the Act of Consecration of Man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steiner initially performed only a demonstration of the Act of Consecration of Man in his civilian clothes. Afterwards, he himself officially performed some cultic acts: he blessed the altarpieces, lit the candles, and blessed the priests with gestures and words. At the very first consecration, Steiner placed the stole on Friedrich Rittelmeyer, clothed him in the chasuble, anointed him with oil, and spoke the words of commissioning while laying his hands on him. G\u00e4deke describes this as a \u201cMosaic act,\u201d since Steiner, \u201cas a non-priest, performed on Rittelmeyer what Moses, as a prophet, performed on his brother Aaron.\u201d This took place without reference to \u201capostolic succession,\u201d which asserts the validity of ordination through an unbroken line back to the apostles. Steiner emphasized that the ordination ceremony was \u201creceived directly from the spiritual world\u201d and that external succession was therefore no longer necessary. While Rittelmeyer then performed the first complete human ordination ceremony, Steiner stood next to the altar facing the congregation and also intervened in the proceedings with his hand and words. All this was far more than just an \u201cadvisory\u201d activity, as is commonly attributed to Rudolf Steiner and as Steiner himself described it. Even in personnel matters (priestly consecrations, senior leaders, arch-leaders), Steiner did not merely act in an advisory capacity but played a decisive role.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A Difficult Social Relationship<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A central focus of the book is the relationship between the Christian Community and the Anthroposophical Society, which was unclear from the outset and had led to dramatic situations just a few months after the founding of the Movement for Religious Renewal. Branches under the direction of their leadership took part in the Act of Consecration of Man en masse<\/em>, with many now considering this cultus to be the \u201ccrown\u201d of anthroposophy. There were resignations from the Society and transfers to the Christian Community, so that Steiner felt compelled to bring the anthroposophists back into line with harsh words on December 30, 1922 (the eve of the night of the fire!) This lecture then caused a great deal of confusion (which continues to this day), and Steiner had to mend the rifts in further lectures. He called the Christian Community a daughter movement of the Anthroposophical Movement and emphasized its legitimacy within spiritual life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Wolfgang G\u00e4deke writes as a priest with a naturally benevolent insider\u2019s perspective, he nevertheless presents a consistent, source-critical, and never embellished account. It is rare to find in anthroposophical literature the willingness and ability to carefully distinguish and weigh contemporary sources, goal-oriented language, third-party reports, retrospective interpretations, etc. In an enormous research effort, the author has collected previously unknown material and evaluated it with admirable insight. This work serves as a model for anthroposophical research and journalism in terms of its methodology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Book<\/strong> Wolfgang G\u00e4deke, Die Gr\u00fcndung der Christengemeinschaft: Ein Schicksalsdrama<\/em> [The founding of The Christian Community: A drama of destiny], two vols. (Stuttgart: Urachhaus, 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In his new book, Wolfgang G\u00e4deke shines a light on the origins of the Christian Community. He deconstructs myths, organizes sources, and shows Rudolf Steiner\u2019s formative role beyond mere consultation. At the same time, he traces Steiner\u2019s path from free thinker to religious thinker. In September 1922, the Christian Community was founded by 45 theologians, pastors, and students. Rudolf Steiner provided advice and support without being a co-founder himself. Still, his involvement was especially meaningful for him, as he later […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12356,"featured_media":68129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8846,9201,10376],"tags":[11714,11715,8814],"class_list":["post-68521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-religion-en","category-review-en-2","tag-ausgabe-41-2025-en","tag-english-issue-44-2025","tag-musings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68521","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\/12356"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}