A religious and philosophical system based on the theosophical ideas of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Born in Hungary and raised a Roman Catholic, Steiner studied science at the University of Vienna, became an accomplished Goethe scholar, and acquired an intense interest in the occult. In 1902, while serving as editor of a literary magazine, he became general secretary of the German Theosophical Society but soon grew disillusioned with its overstress on Eastern religious thought. In 1913 Steiner broke with theosophy and founded the Anthroposophical Society, which joined certain Christian elements to its basically theosophical outlook. In 1922 Steiner and Friedrich Rittlemeyer, a former Protestant pastor, organized the movement into "Christian Fellowships" (Christengemeinschaften) where priests and priestesses performed mystical rites patterned after the Catholic Mass.
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Whereas theosophy views Christ as only one of many avatars, anthroposophy teaches that Christ is the only avatar, an exalted solar being (Sonnenwesen) who entered human history as the full revelation of the spiritual world. Contact with Christ brings deeper penetration into his own knowledge of reality. Thus for anthroposophists celebration of the Eucharist has ultimate significance. Called the "Act of the Consecration of Man." the sacrament mystically joins the celebrant with the spirit and body of Christ, making him truly "man" and capable of realizing his own occultic powers.
Anthroposophy was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church in 1919. Followers today are most numerous in Germany, Britain, and the United States, and generally are drawn from "intellectuals" in search of more "effervescent" religious experience outside established religious channels.
T. P. Weber
Bibliography.
G. A. Kaufmann, Fruits of Anthroposophy; R. Steiner, The
Story of My Life; F. Rittlemeyer, Reincarnation.
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